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AIS 630/530
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN/ADVANCED ACCOUNTING
INFORMATION SYSTEM
PROBLEM BASED LEARNING 2013

SESSION ONE

As a retail business owner, you have noticed the following symptoms in the existing
inventory system:

Store manager cannot get timely information on how much stock to buy, what stock is
essential and what is non-essential.

Increasing number of back orders.

Increasing number of orders being canceled because customers are not satisfied.

Inventory turnover too low (inventories level rising faster than sales).

Inventory losses caused by internal employee theft and customer theft.

Disorganized record for newly arriving products.

Currently, you are running the businesss inventory system using the old-fashioned method
whereby the system is fully manual, utilizing hand-written notes with manual filing systems
and reminders. You have been convinced by the system analyst that your business
organization needs a new inventory system. However, you often hear that the development of
the new system is expensive, risky and not always successful. Therefore, you have asked
your personal assistant to arrange a meeting with your management team members to plan
out necessary actions for the new inventory system development project. The meeting will be
conducted to discuss about the following:-

1. Five (5) phases of SDLC that the business organization must go through in order to
develop the new system. Provide an illustration to show the Waterfall model of
System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
(12 marks)

2. The team involved in the information system development project and the roles they
play.
(12 marks)

3. Scheduling tool that can be used to monitor the system development activities.
Provide an example to support your explanation.
(4 marks)

4. The project management software available the market that can be used in order to
support the success planning of the new system. Discuss the necessary steps that need
to be considered by your business organization before buying the software from the
retail store.
(10 marks)

5. The Preliminary Investigation Report for the new inventory system development
project. At least you should briefly explain the following:-

a) Introduction. Outline the name of the report, project sponsor and date.
b) Background Information about your Business Organization. Discuss the types of
business, product or services, businesss goal, the size of the target market, pricing
structure and any regulatory restrictions affecting the business. Also, draw an
organizational chart with a picture/graphic to introduce the structure of the
business organization and its management team members by using SmartArt
Graphic in Ms Word 2010 or Ms PowerPoint 2010.
c) System Summary Request. Highlight the weaknesses found in your existing
inventory system that triggers the needs for preliminary investigation.
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d) Fact Finding. Explain the appropriate methods for gathering information to be

used, the participants and duration.
e) Recommendation :

Computer Network Design e.g. hardware, software and network design that
can be equipped to the new inventory system project.

Database Management System (DBMS). e.g. queries, forms and reports that
can be generated from the DBMS.

Data Security Features and Internal Control. Provide the list for data security
features and functionality that can be included in the new inventory system
project.

Time and Cost Estimates i.e. the duration, resources and the accounting
techniques that can be applied to estimate the costs and its anticipated benefits
of the project.

Expected Benefits. Explain about tangible and intangible benefits of the new
inventory system project. Provides example for tangible and intangible
benefits.
(62 marks)
(Total: 100 marks)

AIS 630/530
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN/ADVANCED ACCOUNTING
INFORMATION SYSTEM
PROBLEM BASED LEARNING 2013

SESSION TWO

Below is the information given by the store-keeper about the existing inventory system for
your business:The process begins when the sales department places an order. Then, the clerk in the
warehouse fills up the information (number of items, delivery date and shipment detail)
and she filed a copy of sales order in inventory file. Then, she will have to check for the
item availability. If there is availability, then the item is retrieved and shipment is
scheduled. However, if inventory is not available, the sales department will be informed
through out-of-stock notice.
Twice a month, the clerk will monitor the inventory where again data is retrieved from an
inventory file. This file contains a record of inventory levels, location etc. If enough
inventories are not available, the clerk will prepare the purchase order and sent it to the
supplier. Upon receiving the purchase order, the supplier will do necessary checking
before sending the goods together with the delivery slip to the business. The clerk-incharge accepts the delivery and filed a copy of delivery slip in the inventory file. The
invoice is then prepared and forwarded to the head of Account Department.

Additionally, the accounting clerk has made a documentation of the existing context level
data flow diagram of the inventory system as follows:-

Dataflow Diagram of Inventory System

Sales dept

sent sales order

1. Process
inventory
system

Inventory File
delivery
slip

Clerk

warehouse

The information technology (IT) department within your organization has informed you that
it soon will be developing a new inventory system that will replace an existing system due to
inefficiencies. Because you have been using the existing system for quite some time, you
need valuable input concerning the modification that needs to be done for the existing
system. You are also having a problem with the ready-made software you recently purchased.
The IT department informs you that the software does not seem to be meeting the need of the
business organization. In the next meeting, the business owner insists to discuss about the
following:1. The types of feasibility test typically used by the system analyst to evaluate feasibility
of the project. Provide examples of questions that need to be addressed in each
feasibility tests to determine whether or not to proceed with the new inventory system
project.
(20 marks)
2. The characteristics of quality information system.
(10 marks)
3. The rules for creating process, data store, source/external entity and data flow
symbols in data flow diagram.
(12 marks)
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4. Five (5) weaknesses found in the existing context level Data Flow Diagram and
suggest how the weaknesses should be corrected.
(10 marks)
5. The various components in the inventory system by imply drawn up the context and
intermediate Data Flow Diagrams.
(12 marks)
6. The differences between the Structure and Object Oriented approaches that are
employed during the system analysis?
(6 marks)
7. The types of training required by the employees if the existing information system has
been replaced.
(6 marks)
8. Some other options if the ready-made software fails to meet the needs of your
business organization.
(10 marks)
9. The types of transmission media (wired or wireless) if you plan to connect the system
to the computer network.
(14 marks)