Topic 2.1 Systems Development & System Analysis Flashcards
Why update systems?
- user or business changes
- Technology changes
- to improve business process
- create competitive advantage
- Increase productivity gains
- integrate multiple systems
- aging systems need replacement
- develop quality, error free software
What are the 5 phases in the system development life cycle?
- system analysis
- conceptual design
- physical design
- implementation and conversion
- operations and maintenance
What is the system development life cycle do?
It is a continuous life cycle that shows if we need to update the system or if everything is running smoothly
What happens between each phase of the SDLC?
There is a feasibility analysis preformed
What is system analysis?
This is where an organisation already has a system in place and they survey and investigate the current system and find strengths and weaknesses and see if they need to update or get new system
Who is involved in the system analysis?
Once there has been a system analysis report preformed. This is who was involves
- Project Development Team: the surveys and studies are done by them. They prepare reports for steering committee. People from different departments
- Steering committee: have the highest authority and decide if change should be made. Includes CEO or heads of departments etc
Programmers: write and test the software. IT specialists
Users: people who are going to use the software. But don’t have IT background so they explain what they need to the programmers
System analysts: they are the middle man who take what the users need and tell the programmers
Management: get users involved, decide who will be in which group above, align projects
What is the conceptual design?
This is for example the “blueprint”
Develop the design specifications
Deliver conceptual design requirements
Identify and evaluate design alternatives
How things will be done, what resources are required
Once done a feasibility analysis is done by the steering committee, to see if it meets the needs of the user needs
What is the physical design?
Where the idea or conceptual design takes place e.g database is designed or programmers make the program
Where it turns into “physical” form
Then another feasibility study is done and it’s to make sure that what was put in the blue print has been created into “physical” form
What is the implementation and conversion phase?
This is where software is installed into computer and it also involves training the users how to use the new software
What is the operations and management phase
Can be on going maintenance to see if the current system is still meeting the needs of the users
Making sure the software is error free etc
If there are Errors then you start the process again and start with system analysis
What is involved in systems development planning
Two plans need to be done:
Project development plan
- plan specific to a project and authored by the project team. Is a short term plan
Master plan
- long range and authored by steering committee outlining prioritised projects and timetables
This then helps achieve goals and objectives
What are the two types of planning techniques
- Program evaluation and review technique (PERT)
- diagram that depicts all project activities that require time and resources with completion estimates. Determines critical path
- Gantt chart
- bar chart that organises activities on the left hand side and project time scheduled with a bar drawn to show the progress to date for that particular activity
What does a PERT chart do
It shows the flow the order of each task will happen.
Each block (node) contains a task and a time to complete a task. May also indicate who will be responsible for the task
There is always a critical path that is the path that takes the greatest amount of time to complete
What is the GANNT chart
A planning technique
It is a bar chart with project activities on the left hand side and units of time across the top
Kind of like a calendar
Disadvantage of the gannt chart is you can’t see the link between activities
What are the 5 types of feasibility analysis
- economic
- technical
- legal
- scheduling
- operational
