CH1: Systems Analysis and Design

Vocabulary flashcards covering key roles, SDLC phases, development methodologies, Agile practices, and the Unified Process from Chapter 1.

Systems Analyst

A key person who analyzes the business, identifies opportunities for improvement, and designs information systems to implement these ideas.

Business Analyst

A project role responsible for analyzing key business aspects of the system, identifying business value, and designing new business processes and policies.

Systems Analyst (Role)

A role responsible for identifying how technology can improve business processes, designing new business processes and information systems, and ensuring conformity to information systems standards.

Infrastructure Analyst

A role responsible for ensuring that the system conforms to infrastructure standards and identifying required infrastructure changes.

Change Management Analyst

A role responsible for developing and executing a change management plan and a user training plan.

Project Manager

A role responsible for managing the team of specialists, developing and monitoring the project plan, assigning resources, and serving as the primary point of contact for the project.

Technical Skills

The capacity of a systems analyst to understand an organization's existing technical environment, the new system's technology foundation, and how to fit both into an integrated solution.

Business Skills

The ability of a systems analyst to understand how IT can be applied to business processes and ensure that IT delivers real business value.

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

A structured development process organized into four main phases: Planning, Analysis, Design, and Implementation.

Planning Phase

The fundamental SDLC phase that answers why a system should be built, involving feasibility analysis, work plan development, project staffing, and project control.

Identifying business value

Analyze feasibility

Develop work plan

Staff the project

Control and direct project

Analysis Phase

The SDLC phase determining who, what, when, and where the system will be, involving information gathering, process modeling, and data modeling.

Analysis

Information gathering

Process modeling

Data modeling

Design Phase

The SDLC phase deciding how the system will work across physical, architectural, interface, database, file, and program design.

Physical design

Architectural design

Interface design

Database and file design

Program design

Implementation Phase

The final SDLC phase focused on delivering the system through construction and installation, ensuring it meets specified requirements and functions properly in an operational environment.

Construction

Installation

Methodology

A formalized approach or series of steps used to carry out an SDLC or system development project.

Structured Design

A class of methodologies where projects move methodically from one step to another, finishing each step before starting the next.

Waterfall Development

A structured design methodology where project phases proceed sequentially from Planning to Analysis, Design, and Implementation.

Parallel Development

A structured design methodology that performs general analysis and design, then divides the project into subprojects designed and implemented concurrently before integration.

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

A set of methodologies (including Phased Development, Prototyping, and Throwaway Prototyping) designed to speed up development using tools like CASE, JAD sessions, 4GLs, and code generators.

Phased development

Prototyping

Throwawayprototyping

System Prototyping

A RAD methodology that continuously loops through analysis, design, and implementation to create a working system prototype until the final system is completed.

Throwaway Prototyping

A RAD methodology that uses design prototypes solely to explore design options and resolve requirement unclarities, discarding the prototypes before implementing the actual system.

Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design (OOSAD)

A development approach balancing process and data focus that is use-case driven, architecture-centric, and iterative and incremental.

Object-Oriented System Views

The three interconnected perspectives required in OOSAD: Functional view, Structural view, and Behavioral view.

Agile Manifesto Core Values

Four core principles valuing individuals & interactions over processes & tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.

Extreme Programming (XP)

An Agile methodology centered on communication (rapid feedback), simplicity (KISS), feedback (incremental changes), and courage (quality-first mentality).

POPULAR agile technique

Scrum

An Agile framework where end-user feature requests are prioritized into a product backlog by a product owner and built in short iterations called sprints.

AGILE DEV.

POPULAR AGILE TECHNQUE

Product Backlog

A prioritized feature list created and managed by the product owner in Scrum that acts as the development team's to-do list.

Sprint

A short, fixed development cycle within the Scrum framework.

DevOps

A practice integrating operations personnel into the development team to support continuous deployment.

Inclusion of operations personnel with the development team

Continuous deployment.

Unified Process

A systems development methodology organized into four phases (Inception, Elaboration, Construction, Transition) and multiple engineering and supporting workflows.

Inception → Elaboration → Construction → Transition

Starting the idea → Figuring it out more → Building it → Getting it to users

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

A standardized modeling language defined by the Object Management Group, with version 2.5 specifying fifteen diagramming techniques divided into structure and behavior diagrams.

SDLC

Systems Development Life Cycle is the overall process used to understand business needs, design the system, build it, and deliver it to users.

SDLC 4 main phases

Planning → Analysis → Design → Implementation

Planning

WHY? Why should we build this system?

the team identifies business value, checks feasibility, creates the work plan, staffs the project, and controls/directs the project

Analysis

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE?

What does the business need? Who will use it? What should it do?

they gather information and work on process and data modeling

Design

How?

How will the system actually work?

they figure out physical design, architecture, interfaces, databases/files, and program design

Implementation

BUILD + DELIVER

Actually creating and installing the system.

they actually construct and install the system

Systems Analyst Skills

Technical skills

Business skills

Analytical skills

Interpersonal

Management

Ethical

Analysts need strong ________ to

communicate effectively, one-n-one with users and

business managers, with programmers and other

technical specialists, and with people from

outsourcing firms and vendor organizations.

interpersonal skills

Analysts need to _____ people with whom they

work, and they must manage the pressure and risks

associated with unclear situation

manage

Analysts must deal fairly, honestly, and _____with

other project team members, managers, and system

users

ethically

Analysts must have the _____ to understand

the organization’s existing technical environment, the

new system’s technology foundation, and the way in

which both can be fit into an integrated technical

solution

technical skills

______ are required to understand how IT can

be applied to business processes and to ensure that IT

delivers real business value

Business skills

Analysts are continuous problem solvers at both the

project and the organizational level, and they put

their _____ to the test regularly

analytical skills

SDM Categorization

Process centered

Data centered

Object oriented - balanced the above-mentioned methodologies

PROS waterfall method

Identifies systems requirements long before programming begins

CONS waterfall method

-Design must be specified on paper before programming begins

-Long time between system proposal and delivery of new system