System Analysis and Design

System Development Life Cycle

Systems Planning and Selection

The first activity of the systems planning and selection phase of the SDLC is project identification and selection.

Organizations vary in their approach to identifying and selecting projects.

In some organizations, project identification and selection is a formal process in which projects are outcomes of a larger overall planning process.

Identifying and Selecting Projects

Three key sources for information systems projects

Project identification and selection consists of three primary activities:- Identifying potential development projects- Classifying and ranking projects- Selecting projects for development

The Process of Identifying and Selecting Information Systems Development Projects

Organizations vary as to how they identify projects. This process can be performed by:- A key member of top management, either the CEO of a small or

medium-size organization or a senior executive in a larger organization

- A steering committee, composed of a cross section of managers with an interest in systems

- User departments, in which either the head of the requesting unit or a committee from the requesting department decides which projects to submit (as a systems analyst, you will help users prepare such requests)

- The development group or a senior IS manager

Identifying potential development projects

Common Characteristics of Alternative Methods for Making

Information Sytems Identification and Selection Decisions

Assessing the merit of potential projects is the second major activity in the project identification and selection phase.

The criteria used to assign the merit of a given project can vary based on the size of the organization.

The relative ratings of projects are used to guide the final activity of this identification process—project selection.

Classifying and ranking IS development projects.

Possible Evaluation Criteria When Classifying and Ranking Projects

The selection of projects is the final activity in the project identification and selection phase.

As business conditions change over time, the relativeimportance of any single project may substantially change.

Thus, the identification and selection of projects is an important and ongoing activity.

Selecting IS development projects.

Numerous Factors must be considered when selecting a

project

The primary deliverable, or end product, from the project identification and selection phase is a schedule of specific IS development projects.

These projects come from both top-down and bottom-up sources, and once selected they move into the second activity within this SDLC phase—project initiation andplanning.

Deliverables and Outcomes

Schedule of Projects

An outcome of this activity is the assurance that people in the organization gave careful consideration to project selection and clearly understood how each projectcould help the organization reach its objectives.

Incremental commitment means that after each subsequent SDLC activity, you, other members of the project team, and organization officials will reassess your project.

Incremental Commitment

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System Analysis

1. Requirements Determination2. Requirements Structuring

Two Parts of Systems Analysis

- At the end of the systems planning and selection phase of the SDLC, management can grant permission to pursue development of a new system.

- A project is initiated and planned (as described in Chapter 4), and you begin determining what the new system should do.

The Process of Determining Requiremments

1. Impertinence. You should question everything.2. Impartiality. Your role is to find the best solution

to a business problem or opportunity.3. Relaxing of Constraints. Assume anything is

possible and eliminate the infeasible.4. Attention to Details. Every fact must fit with

every other fact.5. Reframing. Analysis is, in part, a creative

process.

Characteristics of a System Analyst needed during R.D.

- The primary deliverables from requirements determination are the types of information gathered during the determination process.

- The information can take many forms: transcripts of interviews; notes from observation and analysis of documents; sets of forms and other documents.

Deliverables and Outcomes

Analysis Paralysis - coined to describe a project that has become bogged down in an abundance of analysis work.

Techniques that can be used to structure requirements1. JAD2. Prototyping3. Agile Methodologies

Requirements Structuring

Collection of information is at the core of systems analysis

One of the best ways to get this information is to talk to those directly or indirectly involved in the different parts of the organization affected by the possible system changes.

Traditional Methods in Determining Requirements

Traditional Methods

- Joint Application Design- Prototyping

Modern Methods in Determining Requirements

The primary purpose of using JAD in the analysis phase is to collect systems requirements simultaneously from the key people involved with the system.

Joint Application Design

- JAD Session Leader. - Users. - Managers.- Sponsor- Systems Analyst(s)- Scribes- IS Staff

JAD Participants

JAD Session

Prototyping is most useful for requirements determination when: - User requirements are not clear or well understood, which is often the case for totally new systems or systems that support decision making. - One or a few users and other stakeholders are involved with the system. - Possible designs are complex and require concrete form to evaluate fully.

Prototyping

- Communication problems have existed in the past between users and analysts, and both parties want to be sure that system requirements are as specific as possible. - Tools (such as form and report generators) and data are readily available to rapidly build working systems.

Prototyping...

- A tendency to avoid creating formal documentation of system requirements, which can then make the system more difficult to develop into a fully working system.

- Prototypes can become idiosyncratic to the initial user and difficult to diffuse or adapt to other potential users.

Prototyping Drawbacks

- Prototypes are often built as stand-alone systems, thus ignoring issues f sharing data and interactions with other existing systems. - Checks in the SDLC are bypassed so that some more subtle, but still important, system requirements might be forgotten (e.g., security, some data-entry controls, or standardization of data across systems).

Protyping Drawbacks..

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