INFORMATION SYSTEM

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

BIM 201
BY
Ms. Diana J. Mjema
[email protected]
Information System Analysis and Design
• Introduction
• System analysis and design theory and concept
• Centralised systems versus distributed systems
Introduction
• Systems Analysis and Design is an active field in which analysts
repetitively learn new approaches and different techniques for
building the system more effectively and efficiently. The primary
objective of systems analysis and design is to improve organizational
systems.
• Course will cover understanding of system characteristics, system
design, and its development processes.
• Expectation of this is course is to understand how a system is
designed in a systematic and phased manner, starting from
requirement analysis to system implementation and maintenance.
Concepts
• Many failed systems were abandoned because analysts tried to build
wonderful systems without understanding the organization.
• The primarily goal is to create value for the organization.
• The systems analyst is a key person analysing the business, identifying
opportunities for improvement, and designing information systems to
implement these ideas.
• It is important to understand and develop through practice the skills
needed to successfully design and implement new information
systems.
Systems analysis theory and concept
Systems development is systematic process which includes phases such as
planning, analysis, design, deployment, and maintenance. Here, in this tutorial, we
will primarily focus on −
•Systems analysis
•Systems design
Systems Analysis
•It is a process of collecting and interpreting facts, identifying the problems, and
decomposition of a system into its components.
•System analysis 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.
•Analysis specifies what the system should do
Cont..
Systems 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. Before
planning, you need to understand the old system throughly and determine how
computers can best be used in order to operate efficiently.
•System Design focuses on how to accomplish the objective of the system.
System Analysis and Design (SAD) mainly focuses on;
•Systems
•Processes
•Technology
Information System
Definition
Information Systems are interrelated components working together to collect, process, store, and
disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and
visualization in an organization.
Properties of a System
A system has the following properties −
•Organization
Organization implies structure and order. It is the arrangement of components that helps to
achieve predetermined objectives.
•Interaction
It is defined by the manner in which the components operate with each other.
For example, in an organization, purchasing department must interact with production department
and payroll with personnel department.
•Interdependence
Interdependence means how the components of a system depend on one another. For proper
functioning, the components are coordinated and linked together according to a specified plan. The
output of one subsystem is the required by other subsystem as input.
Cont..
• Integration
Integration is how a system components are connected together. It
means that the parts of the system work together within the system
even if each part performs a unique function.
• Central Objective
The objective of system must be central. It may be real or stated. It is
not uncommon for an organization to state an objective and operate
to achieve another.
The users must know the main objective of a computer application
early in the analysis for a successful design and conversion.
Elements of a System

• Outputs and Inputs

• Processor
• Control
• Feedback
• Environment
• Boundaries and Interface
Need for System Analysis and Design

• Installing a system without proper planning leads to great user

dissatisfaction and frequently causes the system to fall into disuse
• Offers structure to the analysis and design of information systems
• A series of processes systematically undertaken to improve a business
through the use of computerized information systems
Types of Systems
Man–Made Information Systems
•It is an interconnected set of information resources to manage data for particular
organization, under Direct Management Control (DMC).
•This system includes hardware, software, communication, data, and application
for producing information according to the need of an organization.
Man-made information systems are divided into three types −
•Formal Information System − It is based on the flow of information in the form of
memos, instructions, etc., from top level to lower levels of management.
•Informal Information System − This is employee based system which solves the
day to day work related problems.
•Computer Based System − This system is directly dependent on the computer for
managing business applications. For example, automatic library system, banking
system, etc.
Systems Models

Schematic Models
A schematic model is a 2-D chart that shows system elements and their
linkages.
Different arrows are used to show information flow, material flow, and
information feedback.
Flow System Models
A flow system model shows the orderly flow of the material, energy,
and information that hold the system together.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), for example, is used
to abstract a real world system in model form.
Cont..
Dynamic System Models
•Business organizations are dynamic systems. A dynamic model
approximates the type of organization or application that analysts deal
with. It shows an ongoing, constantly changing status of the system. It
consists of ;
•Inputs that enter the system
•The processor through which transformation takes place
•The program(s) required for processing
•The output(s) that result from processing.
Centralised Systems versus Distributed
Systems
Centralized Systems
•Centralized systems are systems that use client/server architecture where one or
more client nodes are directly connected to a central server. This is the most
commonly used type of system in many organisations where client sends a request
to a company server and receives the response.
Characteristics of Centralized System –
•Presence of a global clock: As the entire system consists of a central node and
many client nodes, all client nodes synchronise up with the global clock(the clock
of the central node).
•One single central unit: One single central unit which serves/coordinates all the
other nodes in the system.
•Dependent failure of components: Central node failure causes entire system to
fail. This makes sense because when the server is down, no other entity is there to
send/receive response/requests.
Cont..
Components of Centralized System;
•Node (Computer, Mobile, etc.).
•Server.
•Communication link (Cables, Wi-Fi, etc.).
Architecture of Centralized System;
•Client-Server architecture. The central node that serves the other nodes in the
system is the server node and all the other nodes are the client nodes.
Limitation of Centralized System;
•Server slow down when there are traffic – as the server can only have a finite
number of open ports to which can listen to connections from client nodes. So,
when high traffic occurs like a shopping sale, the server can essentially suffer a
Denial-of-Service attack or Distributed Denial-of-Service attack.
Advantages of Centralized System
• Easy to physically secure. It is easy to secure and service the server and client nodes by virtue
of their location
• Smooth personal experience – A client has a dedicated system which he uses(for example, a
personal computer) and the company has a similar system which can be modified to suit
custom needs
• Dedicated resources (memory, CPU cores, etc)
• More cost efficient for small systems up to a certain limit – As the central systems take less
funds to set up, they have an edge when small systems have to be built
• Quick updates are possible – Only one machine to update.
• Easy detachment of a node from the system. Just remove the connection of the client node
from the server and voila! Node detached.
• Application development – Very easy to setup a central server and send client requests.
Modern technology these days do come with default test servers which can be launched with
a couple commands. For example, express server, django server.
• Data analysis – Easy to do data analysis when all the data is in one place and available for
analysis
• Personal computing
Disadvantages of Centralized System

• Highly dependent on the network connectivity – System can fail if the

nodes lose connectivity as there is only one central node.
• sudden failure of the entire system.
• Less possibility of data backup. If the server node fails and there is no
backup, you lose the data straight away
• Difficult server maintenance – There is only one server node and due
to availability reasons, it is inefficient and unprofessional to take the
server down for maintenance. So, updates have to be done on-the-
fly(hot updates) which is difficult and the system could break.
Distributed Systems

• In decentralized systems, every node makes its own decision. The

final behaviour of the system is the aggregate of the decisions of the
individual nodes. Note that there is no single entity that receives and
responds to the request.
Example
• Google search system. Each request is worked upon by hundreds of
computers which crawl the web and return the relevant results. To
the user, the Google appears to be one system, but it actually is
multiple computers working together to accomplish one single task
(return the results to the search query)
Cont..
Characteristics of Distributed System
•Concurrency of components: Nodes apply consensus protocols to
agree on same values/transactions/commands/logs.
•Lack of a global clock: All nodes maintain their own clock.
•Independent failure of components: In a distributed system, nodes fail
independently without having a significant effect on the entire system.
If one node fails, the entire system sans the failed node continue to
work.
Cont..
Components of Distributed System
•Components of Distributed System are,
•Node (Computer, Mobile, etc.)
•Communication link (Cables, Wi-Fi, etc.
Architecture of Distributed System
•peer-to-peer – all nodes are peer of each other and work towards a
common goal
•client-server – some nodes are become server nodes for the role of
coordinator, arbiter, etc.
•n-tier architecture – different parts of an application are distributed in
different nodes of the systems and these nodes work together to
function as an application for the user/client
Cont..
Limitations of Distributed System –
•Difficult to design and debug algorithms for the system. These
algorithms are difficult because of the absence of a common clock; so
no temporal ordering of commands/logs can take place. Nodes can
have different expectancies which have to be kept in mind while
designing such algorithms. The complexity increases with increase in
number of nodes.
•No common clock causes difficulty in the temporal ordering of
events/transactions.
•Difficult for a node to get the global view of the system and hence
take informed decisions based on the state of other nodes in the
system.
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Distributed System
Advantages of Distributed System
•Low latency than centralized system – Distributed systems have low
latency because of high geographical spread, hence leading to less time
to get a response
Disadvantages of Distributed System
•Difficult to achieve consensus(Consensus means multiple servers
agreeing on same information, something imperative to design fault-
tolerant distributed systems)
•Straight way of logging events by absolute time they occur is not
possible.
Applications of Distributed System
• Cluster computing – a technique in which many computers are
coupled together to work so that they achieve global goals. The
computer cluster acts as if they were a single computer
• Grid computing – All the resources are pooled together for sharing in
this kind of computing turning the systems into a powerful
supercomputer; essentially.
System Development Life Cycle
Traditional methodology for developing, maintaining, and replacing
information systems
Phases in SDLC:
•Planning
•Analysis
•Design
•Implementation
•Testing
•Maintenance
Class work
1. Who will you become after complete this course and what are your
roles will be?
2. Research on the tools used by analysts to develop information
systems.
Thank You