System Analysis and Design

Systems Concepts and the

Information Systems Environment

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 What is System Analysis and Design?
System analysis and design is the application of the
systems approach to problem solving using computers.
The ingredients are systems elements, processes and
technology.
This means to produce a system one has to understand
the systems concept and how organizations operate as a
system, and then design appropriate computer-based
systems that will meet an organizations requirements.
It is actually a customized approach for problem
solving using computers.
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 System Analysis and Design
Is a vehicle for the design of information systems
intended to solve an identified organizational problem.

Although a most of the proposed solutions incorporate

a computer as an essential component ,in many cases, a
good solution attempts to effect change in the
processes involved before applying or incorporating
technology into the equation.

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 System Analysis and Design
SAD implies at least two distinct processes:
System Analysis activities are primarily focused on
determining the nature of domain of the business
problem and the characteristics of an appropriate
solution to solve it.
System design activities include the final design
specification and the construction, development and
implementation of the solution proposed during
analysis and deemed best among any alternatives
available.
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 The Systems Concept
Scholars in various disciplines have tried to find
a unified approach to solve complex problems.
Ludwig Von Bertalanffy developed a general
systems theory that applies to any arrangement
of elements such as cells, people, societies or
even planets.

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 The Systems Concept
Norbert Weiner, a mathematician, observed that
information and communications provide
connecting links for unifying fragments or
elements.
His systems concept of information theory,
which shows the parallel between the
functioning of human beings and electronic
systems, laid the foundation for todays
computer systems.

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 The Systems Concept
Herbert A. Simon, a political scientist, related the
systems concept to the study of organizations by
viewing an ongoing system as a processor of
information for making decisions.
Thus, these approaches developed a skeleton for a
general systems theory.
It is concerned with developing a systematic,
theoretical framework upon which to make decisions.
This theory discourages thinking in a vacuum and
encourages consideration of all the activities of the
organization and its external environment.
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 What is a system?
The word is derived from the Greek word
systema which means an organized relationship
among functioning units or components.
A system is an orderly grouping of
interdependent components according to a plan
to advise a specified task.
Components may be physical parts, managerial
steps or a subsystem in a multilevel structure.
Components may be simple or complex, basic
or advanced.
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 Example of a system
The things one can find in an airport:
The transportation you used to reach the
airport, the parking lot, the terminal, the ticket
counter, the gate attendant, the x-ray machine,
the jet way to the plane.
The emphasis of the system is action, the
relationships among subsystems and their
contribution to achieving/meeting a common
goal.
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 Conditions a system should meet
A system must be designed to achieve a
predetermined objective.
Interrelationships and interdependence must
exist among the components.
The objectives of the organization as a whole
have a higher priority than the objectives of its
subsystems. For example, computerizing
personnel applications must conform to the
organizations policy on privacy, confidentiality
and security.
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 Characteristics of a System
Organization:
An arrangement of components to achieve objectives.
Examples:
In a business, the hierarchical relationships starting
with the president on top and leading downward to the
blue-collar workers represent the organization
structure.
A computer system has an input device, a central
processing unit , an output device, and one or more
storage unit. When linked together, they work as a
whole system for providing information.
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 Characteristics of a System
Interaction:
It refers to the manner in which each component
functions with other components of the system.
Examples:
Purchasing in an organization must interact with
production, advertising with sales, and payroll
with personnel.
CPU in a computer system interacts with input
devices and memory to perform.
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 Characteristics of a System
Interdependence: means that parts of the
organization or computer systems depend on
one another.
These are coordinated and linked together
according to a plan.
One subsystem depends on the input of another
subsystem for proper functioning.
The output of one subsystem is the required
input for another subsystem.
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 Characteristics of a System
Integration is concerned with how a system is
tied together.
It is more than sharing a physical part or location.
It means that parts of the system work together within
the system although each part performs a unique
function.
Successful integration will typically produce a better,
synergistic result as a whole rather than if each
component works independently.

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 Characteristics of a System
Central objective: is the last characteristic of a
system.
Objectives may be real or stated.
Although a stated objective may be the real
objective, it is quite common that organization
may set one objective and operate to achieve
another.
The important points is that users must be
aware about the central objective well in
advance.
Group exercise 15
 Components of an Information System
A system is a set of related components that produces
specific results.
For example, specialized systems route Internet traffic,
manufacture microchips, and control complex entities
like the International Space Station shown in the figure.

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Components of an Information System
Every system requires input data.
For example, your computer receives data when
you press a key or click a menu command.
In an information system, data consists of basic
facts that are the systems raw material.
Information is data that has been transformed
into output that is valuable to users.

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Components of an Information System
Figure on the left shows an
order processing system that
displays an order form.
When a sales representative
enters data (customer
number, product code, and
quantity ordered), the system
creates a customer order with
all the necessary information.

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Components of an Information System
Large businesses with thousands or millions of
sales transactions require company-wide
information systems and powerful servers, such as
those shown here.

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Components of a System

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 Elements of a System

Group exercise 21
 TYPE OF SYSTEM
Model: A model is the abstract conceptualization
of physical situations.
It is a representation of a real or a planned
system.
The use of models makes it easier for the
analyst to visualize relationships in the system
under study.

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 System Models
The analyst begins by creating a model of the
reality (facts, relationships, procedures, etc.) with
which the system is concerned.
Every computer system deals with the real
world, a problem area, or a reality outside of
itself.
The analyst begins by modeling this reality
before considering the functions that system is
supposed to perform.
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 System Models
The major models are:
Schematic Models:
It is a two-dimensional chart depicting system
elements and their linkages.
Flow System Models:
It shows the flow of the material , energy, and
information that hold the system together.
Performance Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT) chart is the example which is used to
abstract a real world system.
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 System Models
Static System Model:
This type of model exhibits one pair of
relationships such as activity-time or cost-
quantity.
Gantt chart gives a static picture of an activity-
time relationship.
Dynamic System Model:
A dynamic model approximates the type of
organization or applications that analyst deal
with. 25
 System Models
Static System Model:
This type of model exhibits one pair of
relationships such as activity-time or cost-
quantity.
Gantt chart gives a static picture of an activity-
time relationship.
Dynamic System Model:
A dynamic model approximates the type of
organization or applications that analyst deal
with. 26
 TYPE OF SYSTEM
PHYSICAL: Systems are tangible entities that may be
static or dynamic.
Example of static - Office desk, Chair
Example of Dynamic - Programmed Computer.
ABSTRACT Systems are conceptual or non physical
entities.
They may be as straight forward as formulas of
relationships among set of variables or models is the
abstract conceptualization of physical system.

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 TYPE OF SYSTEM
OPEN & CLOSED SYSTEM (INFORMATION
SYSTEM)
Open system continuously interact with environment. It
interact inputs from and delivers output to outside.
Closed system is isolated from environment influence. In
reality completely closed systems are rare.

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 TYPE OF SYSTEM
MAN MADE INFORMATION SYSTEM
is a power structure to achieve company goals and
classified as follows.

1. FORMAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

A Formal information system is based on the organization
represented by the organization chart. The chart is a map
of positions and their authority relationships, indicated by
boxes and connected by straight lines. It is concerned with
the pattern of authority, communication and work flow.

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 TYPE OF SYSTEM
2. INFORMAL INFORMATION SYSTEM
An Informal information system is an employee-based
system designed to meet personnel and vocational needs
and to help in the solution of work-related problems. It
also funnels information upward through indirect
channels. In this way, it is considered to be a useful
system because it works within the framework of the
business and its stated policies.

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 TYPE OF SYSTEM

3. COMPUTER BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM

This third category of the information system mainly
depend on the computer for handling business
applications. System analysts develop several different
types of information systems to meet a variety of business
needs. There is a class of systems known collectively as
Computer Based Information System.

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How business uses information systems

Computer based information

systems are of too many
types. They are classified as:
Transaction processing
System (TPS)
Management Information
Systems (MIS)
Decision support system
(DSS)
Office Automation Systems
(OAS)

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Example of a CBIS:Transaction Processing System
A transaction processing system can be defined as a computer
based system that capture, classifies, stores, maintains, updates and
retrieves transaction data for record keeping and for input to other
types of CBIS.
Transaction Processing system are aimed at improving the
routine business activities on which all organizations depend. A
transaction is any event or activity that affects the whole
organization.
The types of transactions that occur vary from organization to
organization. Transaction processing system provide speed and
accuracy and can be programmed to follow routines without any
variance.
EXAMPLE :- Placing orders, billing customers, hiring of
employees and depositing cheques are some of the common
transactions.
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Example of a CBIS:Transaction Processing System

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 Mainstream mindset about computing
A computer industry that sells gadgets with ever
shorter shelf-lives, without regard to
environmental and social impact of their
manufacture, and disposal of the resulting e-
waste.
A tendency towards technological solutionism,
which treats complex societal problems in a
simplistic way, without exploring the broader
environmental consequences.
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 Mainstream mindset about computing
A tendency towards automating and optimizing
existing solutions without rst exploring their
social and environmental impacts, thus reducing
resilience and locking us further into
unsustainable ICT infrastructures.
A preference for moving ever more of the
internet technology stack into proprietary
software ecosystems, which prevents users from
adapting or re-designing their technology tosuit
local needs and local contexts.
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 Lack of the Mainstream Mindset
In computer science curricula, the only kind of
complexity is algorithmic complexity, which
offers little insight into the broader study of
complex adaptive systems.
Algorithmic complexity offers two relatively
ancillary contributions to complexity theory
overall, namely a measure of the effort needed
to solve a mathematical problem, and an
understanding of the limits to storing and
communicating data.
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 Lack of the Mainstream Mindset
Reduction of problems to their computational
components often leads to practices that
undermine sustainability. For example, the
importance attached to process optimization
arises because of the way in which
computational thinkers deal with scaling.
If you solve a problem by reducing it to a set of
basic abstractions, you then have to scale up
your computational solution in the face of two
fundamentally limited resources: memory space
and processor time. 38
 Lack of the Mainstream Mindset

CSE Students are trained to identify computational

solutions that optimize for space and time bounds. This
seduces them to treat optimization as a universally good
idea, and apply it in places where it is inappropriate.
Another belief is Technological Solutionism-complex
societal problems can be re-cast as neatly dened
problems with denite, computable solutions or as
transparent and self-evident processes that can be easily
optimized-if only the right algorithms are in place!

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 Lack of the Mainstream Mindset

The idea of gamication (changing social behaviours by

offering rewards and incentives, to turn it into a game)
is dangerous because it trains us to think in terms of
regulating the individual citizen, rather than regulating
the broader systems in which we live: the industries and
governments that hold real power.
The idea of big data (the belief that we can optimize
societal processes by collecting and analyzing ever
larger sets of data on human behaviour) is dangerous
because it trains us to believe that the solutions to our
problems can be found through automated pattern
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 Lack of the Mainstream Mindset
matching over ever more intrusive measurement of our
behaviour, rather than in improving our understanding
of the forces that shape that behaviour.
The idea of crowd sourcing is dangerous because it
tends to undermine our belief in the value of expertise.
The successes of crowd sourcing, such as the more
popular sections wikipedia, tend to overshadow its
woeful inadequacy in areas where deep expertise is
needed, such as medical advice.
Group Exercise

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 Lack of the Mainstream Mindset
Two other forms of complexity needed for
understanding the behaviour of complex, non-
linear systems:
a. The deterministic complexity of chaos theory
and catastrophe theory;
b. The aggregate complexity that arises with
emergent behaviour of the interaction of many
components within a system.

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