System Analysis and Design Syllabus - BCIS (PU)

Course Objectives

This course is designed to impart the students with the theory and practice of designing information systems to meet user needs, including problem investigation and the analysis, design and implementation of system. It will also familiarize students with system analysis and design tools. The objective of the course is to make students familiar with the basic principles of a systems development lifecycle, system modeling techniques, system requirement discovery and project management.

Course Description

This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts, philosophies and trends that provide the context of system analysis and design at the starting. After understanding these basics, students will be better able to apply, with confidence, the practical tools and techniques that will be learned on later sections. Additionally, students are required to do lab works using the various tools like Project and Visio.

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Learn about relationships between the stakeholders in system development.
• Understand an architectural look at information systems and methodology for developing the information system.
• Learn basics of project management.
• Learn specific system analysis skills and techniques for use-case modelling, data modelling, process modelling and object-oriented modelling.
• Learn various fact-finding techniques.
• Learn the process of system design and design strategies.

Course Contents

1. The Context of Systems Analysis and Design 4 hours
   • System development Process: System Initiation, System Analysis, System Design, system Implementation, System Support and Continuous Improvement
   • The Players- System Stakeholders
   • Skills required for a Systems Analyst
   • Business and Technology Drivers for Information System: E-Commerce and Business, TQM, BPR, Mobile and Wireless Technologies, Enterprise Applications
   • Information System Development          4 hours
   • Information Systems Building Blocks: Knowledge Building Blocks, Process Building Blocks, Communication Building Blocks
   • Principles for Systems Development
   • The PIECES framework for Problem Identification
   • FAST methodology, Cross life-cycle Activities, Sequential vs Iterative development, Automated Tools and Technology

2. Project Management          5 hours
   • Introduction to Project Management
   • The Project Management tools and techniques: PERT and Gantt Charts
   • The Project Management Life Cycle
   • Risk Management: Introduction to Risk, Risk Management Process (Risk Identification, Risk Analysis, Risk Planning, Risk Monitoring)

3. Systems Analysis          6 hours
   • System Analysis, Systems Analysis Approaches
   • The Scope Definition phase
   • The Problem Analysis Phase
   • The Requirements Analysis Phase
   • The Logical Design Phase
   • The Decision Analysis Phase

4. Fact- Finding Techniques For Requirements Discovery          6 hours
   • An Introduction to System Requirements and its types
   • The Process of Requirements Discovery
   • Fact-Finding Techniques: Sampling, Questionnaires, Interviews, Discovery Prototyping, Joint Requirements Planning (JRP)
   • Use-Case Modelling: Introduction to Use-cases, Actors, Relationships
   • Process of Use - Case Modelling for Requirements

5. Data Modeling          5 hours
   • An Introduction to Data Modeling: Entities, Attributes, Relationships;
   • The Process of Logical Data Modeling
   • How to Construct Data Models: Entity Discovery, The Context Data Model, The Key-Based Data Model, Generalized Hierarchies, The Fully Attributed Data Model;
   • Mapping Data Requirements to Locations(CRUD Matrix)

6. Process Modeling          6 hours
   • Introduction to Process Modeling
   • System Concepts for Process Modeling
   • The Process of Logical Process Modeling
   • How to Construct Process Models
   • Synchronizing of System models

7. Object-Oriented Analysis and Modeling          5 hours
   • An Introduction to Object Oriented Analysis
   • System Concepts for Object Modeling
   • Modeling the Functional Description of the System
     • Constructing the Analysis Use-Case Model
     • Modeling the Use-Case Activities (Activity Diagram)
     • Drawing System Sequence Diagrams

8. Feasibility Analysis          3 hours
   • Feasibility Analysis
   • Types of feasibility: Operational Feasibility, Technical Feasibility, Schedule Feasibility, Economic Feasibility, Cultural/Political Feasibility, Legal Feasibility;
   • Feasibility Analysis of Candidate Systems

9. Systems Design Methods          4 hours
   • Systems Design Approaches
   • System Design for In-house Development-The "Build" Solution
   • System Design for Integrating Commercial Software- The "Buy" Solution

Laboratory Work

There shall be 10 lab exercises based on Project Scheduling, Object Modelling, Process Modelling and Data Modelling which will be done on MS-Project and MS-Visio

1. Familiarization with tools in MS-Project
2. Creation a Project Schedule and creation of Work-Breakdown Structure(enter Tasks and Create Summary tasks and subtasks)
3. Creation of a Gantt Chart (Estimate Task Durations, Enter milestones, Enter deadlines, Indicate Task Dependencies, Assign People Resources)
4. Familiarization with tools in MS-Visio
5. Creation of Data flow Diagram(DFD)
6. Creation of Entity-Relationship Diagram(ERD)
7. Creation of Use-Case Diagram
8. Creation of conceptual model(Class) Diagram
9. Creation of Activity Diagram
10. Creation of Sequence Diagram

Basic Texts

1. Whitten, Jeffery L., Lonnie, D. & Bently, Kevin (7th Edition), Systems Analysis and Design Methods McGraw Hill Irwin, 2008.
2. Sommerville, Ian. (7^th Edition), Software Engineering – (For Unit 4.4)