SOOAD

UNIT 1
THE SYSTEM ANALYST
AND INFORMATION
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
The System Analyst and Information Systems

• Introduction
• The System Analyst
• The Software Development Life Cycle & Deliverables
• Project Identification & Initiation
• Feasibility Analysis
• Introduction to Requirements Determination
• Analysis Phase
• Requirements Determination
• Reqirement elicitation techniques

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 Introduction

What is a system?

• A system is “An organized collection of parts (or

subsystems) that are highly integrated to accomplish
an overall goal”.

• The system has various inputs, which go through

certain processes to produce certain outputs, which
together, accomplish the overall desired goal for the
system.

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 Introduction

System Analysis:

• It is a process of collecting and interpreting facts,

identifying the problems, and decomposition of a system
into its components.

• It is conducted for the purpose of studying a system or

its parts in order to identify its objectives.

• It is a problem solving technique that improves the

system and ensures that all the components of the
system work efficiently to accomplish their purpose.

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 Introduction

System Design:


It is a process of planning a new business system or
replacing an existing system by defining its
components or modules to satisfy the specific
requirements.

System Design focuses on how to accomplish the
objective of the system.

System Analysis and Design (SAD) mainly focuses on −

Systems

Processes

Technology
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 Introduction

Information System (IS):


An information system is
defined as the software
that helps organize and
analyze data.


The purpose of an
information system is to
turn raw data into useful
information that can be
used for decision making
in an organization.
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 Introduction

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC):


A process of determining how an Information System
(IS) can support business needs, designing the system,
building it, and delivering it to users.

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 Introduction


The fundamental four-stage systems development life
cycle (planning, analysis, design, and implementation)
is established as the basic framework for the IS
development process.

The first steps in the process are to identify a project
that will deliver value to the business and to create a
system request that provides the basic information
about the proposed system.

Next, the analysts perform a feasibility analysis to
determine the technical, economic, and organizational
feasibility of the system.

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Introduction

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 Introduction


Examples of Project Failures:
– More than 100 flights to and from London’s
Heathrow airport were disrupted on 16th Feb, 2020
due to technical issues affecting departures and
check-in systems.
– In the first week of July 2019, users across the globe
where not able to upoad photos on Facebook,
Instagram or Whatsapp due to technical gliches.
They announced then it was a routine
maintainance.
– On 6th Dec 2018, more than 30 million O2 users in
UK lost access to their data services after a software
issue that happened due to unable to use 3G and
4G services. Dr. Disha Shah 10
 The System Analysts

• Plays key role in Information Systems

development projects.
• Assists and guides the project team
• Must understand how to apply technology to
solve business problems.
• Serves as change agents who identify the
organisational improvements, design systems
to implement those changes, and train and
motivate others to use the systems.

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 The System Analysts

• A systems analyst, also known as business

technology analyst.
• An information technology professional who
specializes in analyzing, designing and
implementing information systems.

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The System Analysts

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 Systems Analyst Skills


New Information systems introduce change to the
organization and its people.

A successful organizational change effort is one of the
most difficult jobs to do.

These skills can be divided into six categories:

Skills

Technical Business Anaytical Interpersonal Management Ethical

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 Systems Analyst Skills

Technical – understand technical environment and the

new system’s technology foundation, and the way in
which both can be fit into an integrated technical
solution.

Business – understand hw IT can be applied to business

situations and to ensure that the IT delivers real business
value.

Analytical – understand the problem solving for

organisational and project levels and they put their
analytical skills to the test regularly.

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 Systems Analyst Skills

Interpersonal – need to communicate effectively, one-

on-one with users and business managers and with
programmers.

Management - manage people with whom they work,

and they must manage the pressure and risks associated
with unclear situations.

Ethical - must be fair, honest and ethical with other

project team members, managers, and system users.
Maintain confidentiality and trust with all people.

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 Various Roles of System Analyst

In large organizations, a project team will incorporate several

analyst with different roles but in small organization, a single
anlayst plays several roles.
– System Analyst
– Business Analyst
– Requirements Analyst
– Infrastructure Analyst
– Change Management Analyst
– Project Manager role

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System Analyst Role


Focuses on the IS issues surrounding the system.

Develops ideas and suggestions for ways that IT can
support and improve business processes helps design
new business processes supported by IT.

Designs the new information system, and ensures that all
IS standards are maintained.

The systems analyst will have significant training and
experience in analysis and design and in programming.

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Business Analyst Role


Focuses on the business issues surrounding the system.

Helps to identify the business value that the system will
create, develops ideas for improving the business
processes, and helps design new business processes and
policies.

The business analyst will have business training and
experience, plus knowledge of analysis and design.

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Requirements Analyst Role


Focuses on eliciting the requirements from the
stakeholders associated with the new system.

Plays most critical role as needs to understand the client
requierements.

The analyst, can understand the business well, are
excellent communicators and are highly skilled with
requirements acquicition techniques

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Infrastrucure Analyst Role


Focuses on technical issues surrounding the ways the system
will interact with the organization's technical infrastructure.

Ensures that new IS conforms to organizational standards
and helps to identify infrastructure changes that will be
needed to support the system..

He has training and experience in
– Networking
– Database Administration
– Hardware and Software products

An experienced infrastructure anlayst may have the role of
software architect.
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Change Management Analyst Role


Focuses on the people and management issues
surrounding the system installation.

Ensures tha adequate documentation and support are
avaiablle to users, provides user training on the new
system.

Develops strategies to overcome resistance to change.

The change management analyst will have the significant
training in organizational behavior and expertise in change
management.

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Project Manager Role


Ensures that the project is completed on time and within
budget and that the system delivers the expected value to
the organization.

A experienced system analyst who has acquired
specialized project management knowledge and skills.

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 System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)


SDLC is the process of determining how an IS can support
business needs, designing the system, building it, and delivering
it to users.

The key person in the SDLC is the systems analyst, who
analyzes the business situation, identifies opportunities for
improvements, and designs an information system to implement
the improvements.

The primary goal is to create value for the organization, which for
most companies means increasing profits.

It is also called as Software Development Process.

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IDEA

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IDEA

PLANNING

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IDEA

PLANNING

ANALYSIS

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IDEA

PLANNING

ANALYSIS

DESIGN

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IDEA

PLANNING

ANALYSIS

DESIGN

IMPLEMENTATION

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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

IDEA

PLANNING

ANALYSIS

DESIGN

IMPLEMENTATION
SYSTEM
SUCCESS
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System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

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 System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)


Building an information system using the SDLC follows a similar
set of four fundamental phases:

Planning

Analysis

Design

Implementation

Each phase is itself composed of a series of steps, which rely on

techniques that produce deliverables (specific documents and files
that explain various elements of the system).

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 System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)


It is important to understand that the SDLC is a process of
gradual refinement.

The deliverables produced in the analysis phase provide a
general idea what the new system will do.

These deliverables are used as input to the design phase, which
then refines them to produce a set of deliverables that describes
in much more detailed terms exactly how the system should be
built.

These deliverables in turn are used in the implementation phase
to guide the creation of the actual system.

Each phase refines and elaborates on the work done previously.

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 SDLC - Planning

• Focus:
– Why build this system?
– How to structure the project?
• Primary Outputs:
– System request with feasibility study
– Project plan
• Fundamental process
– WHY an information system should be built and
determining how the project team will go about
building it.
• Two Steps in Planning:
– Project Initiation
– Project Management
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 SDLC - Planning

Project initiation:
• Systems‘ business value is identified
• Most ideas for new systems come from outside the IS
area in the form of a system request.

System request – presents a brief summary of business

need and it explains how a system that supports the
need will create business value.

The IS department works together with the person or

department generating the request (project sponsor) to
conduct a feasibility analysis.

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 SDLC - Planning

Feasibility analysis – decide whether project should be

undertaken. Key aspects are:

The technical feasibility (Can we build it?)

The economic feasibility (Will it provide business value?)

The organizational feasibility (If we build it, will it be used?)

The system request and feasibility study are presented to an

information systems approval committee (steering
committee) which decides whether the project should be
undertaken or not.

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 SDLC - Planning

Once the project is approved, it enters Step 2:

project management.


During project management, the project manager
creates a work plan, staffs the project, and puts
techniques in place to help the project team control
and direct the project through the entire SDLC.

The deliverable for project management is a project
plan that describes how the project team will go
about developing the system.

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 SDLC - Analysis
Focus:
– WHO will use the system,
– WHAT the system will do
– WHEN it will be used
• Primary Outputs:
– System proposal
• Fundamental process
– Project team investigates current system
– Identifies improvement opportunities
– Develops concept of new system.
• Steps in Analysis:
– Analysis strategy
– Requirements gathering
– Proposal plan
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 SDLC - Analysis

Analysis strategy:
• Is to guide project team efforts
• A study of the current system (called the as-is system) and
its problems, and envisioning ways to design a new system
(called the to-be system).

Requirements Gathering:

Analysis of this information with input from the project
sponsor and many other peopleleads to the development of
a concept for a new system.

System concept through requirement statements is used to
develop a set of business analysis models.

The set typically includes models that represent the data
and processes necessary to support the business process.

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 SDLC - Analysis

System proposal:

Analyses, system concepts, requirements and models are
combined into a document called system proposal.

The project sponsor and other decision makers decide
whether to move the project further or not.

The system proposal is the initial design for the new system.

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 SDLC- Design
• Focus:
– How will this system work?
• Primary Outputs:
– System specification
• Fundamental process
– Design physical system
– Design architecture
– Design interface
– Design problems
– Design database and files
• Steps in Analysis:
– Design strategy
– Architecture design
– Database and file specifications
– Program design Dr. Disha Shah 42
 SDLC- Design

• How the system will operate in terms of the h/w,

s/w and n/w infrastructure, the user interface,
forms, and reports that will be used; and the
specific programs, databases, and files that will
be needed.
• The steps in the design phase determine exactly
how the system will operate. The design phase
has

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 SDLC- Design

Design strategy:

This clarifies whether the system will be developed by
the company’s own programmers or outsourced to
another firm or whether the company will buy an
existing software package.

Architecture design & Interface design:


Architecture design for the system that describes the
hardware, software, and network infrastructure that
will be used.

Interface design specifies how the users will move
through the system.

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 SDLC- Design

Database and file specifications:


These define exactly what data will be stored and
where they will be stored.

Program Design:

The analyst team develops the program design, which
defines the programs that need to be written and
exactly what each program will do.

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 SDLC- Design

System specification is a collection of deliverables

handed to programming team for implementation

At the end of the design phase, the feasibility analysis

and project plan are reexamined and revised, and
another decision is made by the project sponsor and
approval committee about whether to terminate the
project or continue.

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 SDLC- Implementation

• Focus:
– Delivery and support of completed system
• Primary Outputs:
– Installed system
• Fundamental process
– Construct system
– Install system
– Maintain system
– Post-implementation
• Steps in Analysis:
– System construction
– Installation
– Support plan
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 SDLC- Implementation

• Final phase in SDLC

• System is actually built
• Longest and most expensive phase

System construction:

The system is built and tested to ensure that it
performs as designed.

Since the cost of fixing bugs can be immense, testing is
one of the most critical steps in implementation.

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System installation –

Old system is turned off and the new one is turned on.

Most important aspects of conversion is the training
plan.

System Plan:

The analyst team establishes a support plan for the
system.

This plan usually includes a formal or informal post-
implementation review, as well as a systematic way for
identifying major and minor changes needed for the
system.
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PROJECT IDENTIFICATION & INITIATION

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Where do project ideas come from?

• A project is identified when someone in the
organization identifies a business need to build a new
system.
• New business initiatives and strategies may be created
and a system to support them is required, or
• A merger or acquisition may require systems to be
integrated.
• Identified so as to use IT in competitive ways in
business
• Include emerging technology in businesses
• introduce them into the marketplace as a first mover.

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Business process management (BPM)


is a methodology used improve end-to-end business
processes.

BPM helps to achieve several important benefits.

BPM generally follows a continuous cycle of
systematically creating, assessing, and altering
business processes.

Business analysts, with their in-depth business
knowledge, play a particularly important role in
business process management

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Advantages of Business process management:


Enhanced process agility

Improved process alignment with industry “best
practices”

Increased process efficiencies

BPM generally follows a continuous cycle of

systematically creating, assessing, and altering
business processes.

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Role of Business Analyst in BPM:


Defining and mapping the steps in a business
process,

Creating ways to improve on steps in the process that
add value,

Finding ways to eliminate or consolidate steps in the
process that don’t add value,

Creating or adjusting electronic workflows to match
the improved process maps.

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Business Process Automation (BPA):


Foundation of IT systems.

New Technology components are used

Business Process Improvement (BPI):


Business Process Improvement results from studying
the business processes, creating new, redesigned
processes to improve the process workflows, and/or
utilizing new technologies enabling new process
structures

Make moderate changes to the organization’s
operations and can improve efficiency

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Business Process Reengineering (BPR):


Business Process Management may also reveal the
need for the complete revamping of the
organization’s business processes, termed Business
Process Reengineering (BPR).

Changing tehe fundamental way in which
organization operates.

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Project Identification & Initiation

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Project Sponsor:

The project sponsor is that person or group who owns the
project.

Every project has one.

They are the reason for the project.

While they don’t manage the day-to-day operations of a project,
they are above the project manager in terms of project hierarchy.

Most likely, the project sponsor has been involved with the
project from the very beginning.

They were the one who helped conceive it and advocated for it.

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Project Sponsor:

The project sponsor can vary according to the project.

For example, a government project is going to have a state
official as project sponsor who will work with the construction
company’s project manager.

However, in an IT project, the project sponsor might be the chief
information officer.

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Difference between Project Sponsor and Project Manager:

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 Project Identification & Initiation

Business Requirements:

The business needs drives business requirements.

Which describe the reasons for developing the system
and outline the benefits it will provide the organization.

These requirements need to be explained at the
approval committee and, the project team understand
what the business expects from the final product.

Business requirements summarize the features and
capabilities the IS will have to include.

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 Project Identification & Initiation


The project sponsor has the insights needed to
determine the business value that will be gained from
the system, in both tangible and intangible ways.

Tangible value can be quantified and measured easily

An Intangible value results from an intuitive belief that
the system provides important, but hard-to-measure,
benefits to the organization (e.g., improved customer
service, a better competitive position)

Once the project sponsor identifies a project that meets

an important business need and identify the business
requirements and business value of the system, it is
time to formally initiate the project initiation begins by
preparing a system request.

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 System Request

System Request:

A system request is a document that describes the
business reasons for building a system and the
value that the system is expected to provide.

Most system requests include five elements:

project sponsor

business need

business requirements

business value

special issues

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FEASIBILITY STUDY

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 Feasibility analysis


Once the need for the system and its business
requirements have been defined, the approval
committee may authorize the systems analyst to
prepare a more detailed business case to better
understand the proposed information system project.

Feasibility analysis guides the organization in
determining whether to proceed with the project.

Feasibility analysis also identifies the important risks
associated with the project that must be managed if the
project is approved.

As with the system request, each organization has its
own process and format for the feasibility analysis.

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 Feasibility analysis


Three areas of feasibility analysis

Technical feasibility

Economic feasibility

Organizational feasibility

Result of feasibility study deliverable that is

submitted to the approval committee at the
end of project initiation.

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 Technical Feasibility

CAN WE BUILD IT?


Issues for Technical Feasibility:

Familarity with application

Familarity with technology

Project Size

Compatibility

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 Technical Feasibility


The extent to which the system can be successfully
designed, developed, and installed by the IT group.

Technical feasibility analysis is, in essence, a technical
risk analysis that strives to answer the question:
“Can we build it?”

Many risks can endanger the successful completion of
the project.

Familiarity with the application


When analysts are unfamiliar with the business
application area, they have a greater chance of
misunderstanding the users or missing opportunities
for improvement.

The risks increase dramatically when the users
themselves are less familiar with an application.
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 Technical Feasibility

Familiarity with the technology


Risk increases dramatically when the technology itself
is new.

When the technology is not new but the organization
has lack of experience then expertise is available from
outside vendors.
Project size

Whether measured as the number of people on the
development team, the length of time it will take to
complete the project, or the number of distinct features
in the system.

Larger projects present more risk, because they are
more complicated to manage.

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 Technical Feasibility

Compatibility:

Project teams need to consider the compatibility of the
new system with the technology that already exists in
the organization.

New technology and applications need to be able to
integrate with the existing environment for many
reasons.

They may rely on data from existing systems, they may
produce data that feed other applications, and they
may have to use the company’s existing
communications infrastructure.

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 Economic Feasibility


Also called a cost–benefit analysis.

“Should we build the system?”


Economic feasibility is determined by identifying costs
and benefits associated with the system, assigning
values to them, calculating future cash flows, and
measuring the financial worthiness of the project.

As a result of this analysis, the financial opportunities
and risks of the project can be understood.

OSrganizations have limited capital resources and
multiple projects will be competing for funding.

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 Economic Feasibility


The more expensive the project, the more rigorous and
detailed the analysis should be.

The costs and benefits can be broken down into four
categories:
– Development costs
– Operational costs
– Tangible benefits
– Intangible benefits

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 Economic Feasibility

Development Costs

Development costs are those tangible expenses that
are incurred during the creation of the system, such as
salaries for the project team, hardware and software
expenses, consultant fees, training, and office space
and equipment.

Development costs are usually thought of as one-time
costs.

Operational Costs

Operational costs are those tangible costs that are
required to operate the system, such as the salaries for
operations staff, software licensing fees, equipment
upgrades, and communications charges.

Operational costs are usually thought of as ongoing
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 Economic Feasibility

Tangible benefits:

Tangible benefits include revenue that the system
enables the organization to collect, such as increased
sales.

In addition, the system may enable the organization to
avoid certain costs, leading to another type of tangible
benefit: cost savings.

For example, if the system produces a reduction in
needed staff, lower salary costs result.

Similarly, a reduction in required inventory levels due
to the new system produces lower inventory costs. In
these examples, the reduction in costs is a tangible
benefit of the new system.

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 Economic Feasibility

Intangible benefits:

Intangible costs and benefits are more difficult to
incorporate into the economic feasibility analysis
because they are based on intuition and belief rather
than on “hard numbers.”

For example, increased market share of an organization.

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Economic Feasibility

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 Organizational Feasibility

“How well the system ultimately will be accepted by its

users and incorporated into the ongoing operations of
the organization?”

“If we build it, will they come?”


The most difficult feasibility dimension to assess.

How well the goals of the project align with business
objectives.

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 Organizational Feasibility

Two important issues for Organizational feasibility:


Strategic alignment

Stakeholder analysis

Strategic Alignments

The fit between the project and business strategy—the
greater the alignment, the less risky the project will be,
from an organizational feasibility perspective.

Many projects fail if the IT department alone initiates
them and there is little or no alignment with
businessunit or organizational strategies.

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 Organizational Feasibility

Stakeholder analysis

A stakeholder is a person, group, or organization that
can affect a new system.

The most important stakeholders in the introduction of
a new system are

The project champion

System users

Organizational management

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 Organizational Feasibility

The Project Champion


The champion is a high-level executive and is usually,
but not always, the project sponsor who created the
system request.

The champion supports the project by providing time
and resources (e.g., money) and by giving political
support within the organization by communicating the
importance of the system to otherorganizational
decision makers.

More than one champion is preferable because if the
champion leaves the organization, the support could
leave as well.

Champions provide day-to-day support for the system

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 Organizational Feasibility

Organizational Management

Organizational management needs to support the
project.

Gives belief that the system will make a valuable
contribution and that necessary resources will be made
available.

Ideally, management should encourage people in the
organization to use the system and to accept the many
changes that the system will likely create.

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 Organizational Feasibility

System Users

System users who ultimately will use the system once
it has been installed in the organization.

User participation should be promoted throughout the
development process to make sure that the final
system will be accepted and used, by getting users
actively involved in the development of the system

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Organizational Feasibility

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 Organizational Feasibility


The final feasibility study helps organizations make
wiser and important investements regarding IS.

Forces project teams to consider technical,
economical and organizational factors.

Feasibility study may be revised throughout the
project depending upon the requirements.

Dr. Disha Shah 85