Systems Investigation and Analysis

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C H A P T E R
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• SystemsInvestigationand Analysis

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An Overview of Systems Development
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Participants in Systems Development

• Stakeholders
• Individuals who ultimately benefit from the
  systems development project
• Users
• Individuals who interact with the system regularly

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Participants in Systems Development

• Systems analyst
• A professional who specializes in analyzing and
  designing business systems
• Programmer
• The individual responsible for modifying or
  developing programs to satisfy user requirements

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The Systems Analyst
Figure 12.1
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Why Initiate a Systems Development Project?
Figure 12.2
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Information Systems Planning

• Translation of strategic and organizational goals
  into systems development initiatives

• Figure 12.3

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The Steps of IS Planning

• Strategic plan
• Develop objectives
• Identify IS projects
• Set priorities
• Analyze resource requirements
• Set schedules
• Develop planning document

Figure 12.4
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Information Systems Planning

• Developing a competitive advantage requires
  creative and critical analysis.
• Creative analysis
• The investigation of new approaches to existing
  problems
• Critical analysis
• Unbiased and careful questioning of whether
  system elements are effective and efficient and
  whether new relationships should be established

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Establishing Objectives for Systems Development

• The impact a system has on an organizations
  ability to meet its goals determines the true
  value of that system to the organization.
• Mission critical systems
• Systems that play a pivotal role in continued
  operation and goal attainment

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Establishing Objectives for Systems Development

• Performance objectives
• Quality or usefulness of the output
• Quality or usefulness of the format of the output
• Speed at which output is generated
• Cost objectives
• Development costs
• Costs related to the uniqueness of the system
  application
• Fixed investments in hardware and related
  equipment
• Ongoing operating costs of the system

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Systems Development Life Cycles
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The Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle

• Major problem User does not see the solution
  until the system is nearly complete.

Figure 12.6
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Changes to the SDLC
Figure 12.5
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The Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle

• Systems investigation
• Potential problems and opportunities are
  identified and considered in light of the goals
  of the business.
• Systems analysis
• Existing systems and work processes are studied
  and strengths and opportunities for improvement
  are identified.

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The Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle

• Systems design
• Results in a technical design that either
  describes the new system or describes how the
  existing system will be modified.
• Systems implementation
• Various system components are created (or
  acquired), assembled, and placed into operation.
• Systems maintenance and review
• The system is maintained and modified so that it
  continues to meet changing business needs.

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Advantages Disadvantages of Traditional SDLC
Table 12.2
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Prototyping

• An iterative approach to systems development
• Operational prototype
• Accesses real data files, edits input data, makes
  necessary computations and comparisons, and
  produces real output
• Non-operational prototype
• A mockup, or model

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An Iterative Approach to Systems Development
Figure 12.7
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Prototyping
Figure 12.8
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Prototyping
Table 12.3
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Rapid Application Development (RAD)

• A technique that employs tools, techniques, and
  methodologies designed to speed application
  development
• Joint application development
• A process for data collection and requirements
  analysis involving group meetings

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Advantages and Disadvantages of RAD
Table 12.4
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The End-User Systems Development Life Cycle

• End-user systems development
• Any systems development project in which the
  primary effort is undertaken by some combination
  of business managers and users

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Software Capability Maturity Model
Table 12.5
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Factors Affecting Systems Development Success
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Factors Affecting Systems Development Success

• Degree of change
• Quality of project planning
• Use of project management tools
• Use of formal quality assurance processes
• Use of CASE tools

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Degree of Change

• Can greatly affect the probability of a projects
  success

• Figure 12.9

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Problems when Initiating New or Modified Systems

• Fear that employee will lose his/ her job, power,
  or influence within the organization
• Belief that the proposed system will create more
  work than it eliminates
• Reluctance to work with computer people

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Problems when Initiating New or Modified Systems

• Anxiety that proposed system will negatively
  alter organizations structure
• Belief that other problems are more pressing, or
  that the system is being developed by people
  unfamiliar with the way things need to get done
• Unwillingness to learn new procedures or
  approaches

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Quality of Project Planning

• The bigger the project, the more likely that poor
  planning will lead to significant problems.
• Runaways
• Systems development projects which are far over
  budget and past delivery dates

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Use of Project Management Tools

• Project schedule
• Detailed description of what is to be done
• Project milestone
• Critical date for the completion of a major part
  of the project
• Project deadline
• Date that the entire project is to be completed
  and operational

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Use of Project Management Tools

• Critical path
• All activities, that if delayed, would delay the
  entire project
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• A formalized approach that involves creating
  three time estimates for an activity shortest
  possible time, most likely time, and longest
  possible time

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Use of Project Management Tools

• Gantt chart
• A graphical tool used for planning, monitoring,
  and coordinating projects
• Essentially a grid that lists activities and
  deadlines

• Figure 12.10

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Use of Formal Quality Assurance Processes

• The development of information systems requires
  constant trade-offs of schedule and cost versus
  quality.
• Many IS organizations have incorporated ISO 9000,
  total quality management, and statistical process
  control principles into the way they produce
  software.

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Use of CASE Tools

• Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)
• Technology that automates tasks required in a
  systems development effort and enforces adherence
  to the SDLC
• Upper-CASE tools
• Provide automated assistance with systems
  investigations, analysis, and design activities

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Use of CASE Tools

• Lower-CASE tools
• Focus on the later implementation stage of
  systems development
• Can automatically generate structured program
  code
• Integrated-CASE (I-CASE) tools
• Provide links between upper- and lower-CASE
  packages

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Advantages and Disadvantages of CASE Tools
Table 12.9
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Systems Investigation
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Initiating Systems Investigation

• Systems request form
• A document that is filled out by someone who
  wants the IS department to initiate systems
  investigation
• Includes
• Problems in or opportunities for the system
• Objectives of systems investigation
• Overview of the proposed system
• Expected costs and benefits

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Participants in Systems Investigation
Figure 12.11
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Feasibility Analysis

• A step in systems investigation that assesses
  technical, economic, operational and schedule
  feasibility
• Table 12.10

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Feasibility Analysis

• Net present value
• Preferred approach for ranking competing projects
  and determining economic feasibility
• Represents the net amount by which project
  savings exceed project expenses, after allowing
  for the cost of capital and the passage of time

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The Systems Investigation Report

• Summarizes results of the systems investigation
  and feasibility analysis
• Recommends a course of action
• Reviewed by a steering committee senior
  management and users from IS department and other
  functional areas

• Figure 12.12

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Systems Analysis
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General Analysis Considerations

• Assembling the participants for systems analysis
• Collecting appropriate data requirements
• Analyzing the data and requirements
• Preparing a report on the existing system, new
  system requirements, and project priorities

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Participants in Systems Analysis

• Members of the original development team
• Users
• Stakeholders
• IS personnel
• Management

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Data Collection

• Identify sources of data (internal and external)
• Perform data collection
• Structured interviews
• Unstructured interviews
• Direct observation
• Questionnaires
• Statistical sampling

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Data Analysis

• Manipulating the collected data into usable form
• Data modeling
• Uses entity-relationship diagrams (ER)
• Activity modeling
• Uses data-flow diagrams (DFD)
• Application flowcharts
• Charts that show the relationships among
  applications or systems

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Data Analysis

• Grid charts
• A table that shows the relationship among various
  applications
• Figure 12.17

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Data Analysis

• CASE tools
• Many systems development projects use upper-CASE
  tools to complete analysis tasks.
• CASE repository
• A database of system descriptions, parameters and
  objectives

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Requirements Analysis

• A method to determine user, stakeholder, and
  organizational needs
• Asking directly
• Critical success factors
• The IS plan
• Figure 12.18

continued...
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Requirements Analysis

• Screen and report layout
• Screen layout
• Allows designer to quickly and efficiently design
  features, layout, and format of a display screen
• Report layout
• Allows designers to diagram and format printed
  reports
• Requirements analysis tools

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Elements of theSystems Analysis Report

• Strengths and weaknesses of the existing system
  from a stakeholders perspective
• User/stakeholder requirements for the new system
  (also called functional requirements)

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Elements of theSystems Analysis Report

• Organizational requirements for the new system
• A description of what the new information system
  should do to solve the problem

Figure 12.20