System analysis and design deals with software development activities and involves analyzing problems and designing software solutions. There are several key phases in the system development life cycle including preliminary study, feasibility study, detailed analysis, system design, coding, testing, and implementation. The goal is to take a proposed system through these phases to develop a functional software solution that meets user needs.
System analysis and design deals with software development activities and involves analyzing problems and designing software solutions. There are several key phases in the system development life cycle including preliminary study, feasibility study, detailed analysis, system design, coding, testing, and implementation. The goal is to take a proposed system through these phases to develop a functional software solution that meets user needs.
System analysis and design deals with software development activities and involves analyzing problems and designing software solutions. There are several key phases in the system development life cycle including preliminary study, feasibility study, detailed analysis, system design, coding, testing, and implementation. The goal is to take a proposed system through these phases to develop a functional software solution that meets user needs.
System are created to solve Problems. One can think of the systemsapproch as an organised ay of dealing ith a problem. In thi s dynami c orld! the sub"ect system analysis and design! mainly deals ith the softare development activities. #his post include$% &hat is System' &hat are diffrent Phases of System Development (ife )ycle' &hat are the component of system analysis' &hat are the component of system designing' &hat is System' A collection of components that ork together to reali*e some ob"ectives forms a system. +asically there are three ma"or components in every system! namely input! processing and output. In a system the different components are connected ith each other and they are interdependent. ,or e-ample! human body represents a complete natural system. &e are also bound by many national systems such as political system! economic system! educational system and so forth. #he ob"ective of the system demands that some output is produced as a result of processing the suitable inputs. A ell%designed system also includes an additional element referred to as .control/ that provides a feedback to achieve desired ob"ectives of the system. SYSTEM LIFE CYCLE System life cycle is an organi*ational process of developing and maintaining systems. It helps in establishing a system pro"ect plan! because it gives overall list of processes and sub%processes re0uired for developing a system. System development life cycle means combination of various activities. In other ords e can say that various activities put together are referred as system development life cycle. In the System Analysis and Design terminology! the system development life cycle also means softare development life cycle. ,olloing are the different phases of system development life cycle$ Preliminary Study ,easibility study Detailed system study System analysis System design )oding #esting Implementation 1aintenance #he different phases of system development life cycle is shon in this diagram Phases of System Development (ife )ycle P2AS3S O, S4S#31 D353(OP136# (I,3 )4)(3 (et us no describe the different phases and related activities of system development life cycle. (a) Preliminary System Study Preliminary system study is the first stage of system development life cycle. #his is a brief investigation of the system under consideration and gives a clear picture of hat actually the physical system is' In practice! the initial system study involves the preparation of a .System Proposal/ hich lists the Problem Definition! Ob"ectives of the Study! #erms of reference for Study! )onstraints! 3-pected benefits of the ne system! etc. in the light of the user re0uirements. #he system proposal is prepared by the System Analyst (ho studiesthe system) and places it before the user management. #he management may accept the proposal and the cycle proceeds to the ne-t stage. #he management may also re"ect the proposal or re0uest some modifications in the proposal. In summary! e ould say that system study phase passes through the folloing steps$ Problem identification and pro"ect initiation +ackground analysis Inference or findings (system proposal) (b) Feasibility Study In case the system proposal is acceptable to the management! the ne-t phase is to e-amine the feasibility of the system. #he feasibility study is basically the test of the proposed system in the light of its orkability! meeting user/s re0uirements! effective use of resources and of course! the cost effectiveness. #hese are categori*ed as technical! operational! economic and schedule feasibility. #he main goal of feasibility study is not to solve the problem but to achieve the scope. In the process of feasibility study! the cost and benefits are estimated ith greater accuracy to find the 7eturn on Investment (7OI). #his also defines the resources needed to complete the detailed investigation. #he result is a feasibility report submitted to the management. #his may be accepted or accepted ith modifications or re"ected. #he system cycle proceeds only if the management accepts it. (c) Detailed System Study #he detailed investigation of the system is carried out in accordance ith the ob"ectives of the proposed system. #his involves detailed study of various operations performed by a system and their relationships ithin and outside the system. During this process! data are collected on the available files! decision points and transactions handled by the present system. Intervies! on%site observation and 0uestionnaire are the tools used for detailed system study. 8sing the folloing steps it becomes easy to dra the e-act boundary of the ne system under consideration$ 9eeping in vie the problems and ne re0uirements &orkout the pros and cons including ne areas of the system All the data and the findings must be documented in the form of detailed data flo diagrams (D,Ds)! data dictionary! logical data structures and miniature specification. #he main points to be discussed in this stage are$ Specification of hat the ne system is to accomplish based on the user re0uirements. ,unctional hierarchy shoing the functions to be performed by the ne system and their relationship ith each other. ,unctional netork! hich are similar to function hierarchy but they highlight the functions hich are common to more than one procedure. (ist of attributes of the entities : these are the data items hich need to be held about each entity (record) (d) System Analysis Systems analysis is a process of collecting factual data! understand the processes involved! identifying problems and recommending feasible suggestions for improving the system functioning. #his involves studying the business processes! gathering operational data! understand the information flo! finding out bottlenecks and evolving solutions for overcoming the eaknesses of the system so as to achieve the organi*ational goals. System Analysis also includes subdividing of comple- process involving the entire system! identification of data store and manual processes. #he ma"or ob"ectives of systems analysis are to find ansers for each business process$ &hat is being done! 2o is it being done! &ho is doing it! &hen is he doing it! &hy is it being done and 2o can it be improved' It is more of a thinking process and involves the creative skills of the System Analyst. It attempts to give birth to a ne efficient system that satisfies the current needs of the user and has scope for future groth ithin the organi*ational constraints. #he result of this process is a logical system design. Systems analysis is an iterative process that continues until a preferred and acceptable solution emerges. (e) System Design +ased on the user re0uirements and the detailed analysis of the e-isting system! the ne system must be designed. #his is the phase of system designing. It is the most crucial phase in the developments of a system. #he logical system design arrived at as a result of systems analysis is converted into physical system design. 6ormally! the design proceeds in to stages$ Preliminary or General Design$ In the preliminary or general design! the features of the ne system are specified. #he costs of implementing these features and the benefits to be derived are estimated. If the pro"ect is still considered to be feasible! e move to the detailed design stage. Structured or Detailed Design$ In the detailed design stage! computer oriented ork begins in earnest. At this stage! the design of the system becomes more structured. Structure design is a blue print of a computer system solution to a given problem having the same components and inter%relationships among the same components as the original problem. Input! output! databases! forms! codification schemes and processing specifications are dran up in detail. In the design stage! the programming language and the hardare and softare platform in hich the ne system ill run are also decided. #here are several tools and techni0ues used for describing the system design of the system. #hese tools and techni0ues are$ ,lochart Data flo diagram (D,D) Data dictionary Structured 3nglish Decision table Decision tree 3ach of the above tools for designing ill be discussed in detailed in the ne-t lesson. #he system design involves$ i. Defining precisely the re0uired system output ii. Determining the data re0uirement for producing the output iii. Determining the medium and format of files and databases iv. Devising processing methods and use of softare to produce output v. Determine the methods of data capture and data input vi. Designing Input forms vii. Designing )odification Schemes viii. Detailed manual procedures i-. Documenting the Design (f) Coding #he system design needs to be implemented to make it a orkable system. #his demands the coding of design into computer understandable language! i.e.! programming language. #his is also called the programming phase in hich the programmer converts the program specifications into computer instructions! hich e refer to as programs. It is an important stage here the defined procedures are transformed into control specifications by the help of a computer language. #he programs coordinate the data movements and control the entire process in a system. It is generally felt that the programs must be modular in nature. #his helps in fast development! maintenance and future changes! if re0uired. (g) Testing +efore actually implementing the ne system into operation! a test run of the system is done for removing the bugs! if any. It is an important phase of a successful system. After codifying the hole programs of the system! a test plan should be developed and run on a given set of test data. #he output of the test run should match the e-pected results. Sometimes! system testing is considered a part of implementation process. 8sing the test data folloing test run are carried out$ Program test$ &hen the programs have been coded! compiled and brought to orking conditions! they must be individually tested ith the prepared test data. Any undesirable happening must be noted and debugged (error corrections) System #est$ After carrying out the program test for each of the programs of the system and errors removed! then system test is done. At this stage the test is done on actual data. #he complete system is e-ecuted on the actual data. At each stage of the e-ecution! the results or output of the system is analysed. During the result analysis! it may be found that the outputs are not matching the e-pected output of the system. In such case! the errors in the particular programs are identified and are fi-ed and further tested for the e-pected output. &hen it is ensured that the system is running error%free! the users are called ith their on actual data so that the system could be shon running as per their re0uirements. (h) Implementation After having the user acceptance of the ne system developed! the implementation phase begins. Implementation is the stage of a pro"ect during hich theory is turned into practice. #he ma"or steps involved in this phase are$ Ac0uisition and Installation of 2ardare and Softare )onversion 8ser #raining Documentation #he hardare and the relevant softare re0uired for running the system must be made fully operational before implementation. #he conversion is also one of the most critical and e-pensive activities in the system development life cycle. #he data from the old system needs to be converted to operate in the ne format of the ne system. #he database needs to be setup ith security and recovery procedures fully defined. During this phase! all the programs of the system are loaded onto the user/s computer. After loading the system! training of the user starts. 1ain topics of such type of training are$ 2o to e-ecute the package 2o to enter the data 2o to process the data (processing details) 2o to take out the reports After the users are trained about the computeri*ed system! orking has to shift from manual to computeri*ed orking. #he process is called .)hangeover/. #he folloing strategies are folloed for changeover of the system. (i) Direct )hangeover$ #his is the complete replacement of the old system by the ne system. It is a risky approach and re0uires comprehensive system testing and training. (ii) Parallel run$ In parallel run both the systems! i.e.! computeri*ed and manual! are e-ecuted simultaneously for certain defined period. #he same data is processed by both the systems. #his strategy is less risky but more e-pensive because of the folloing$ 1anual results can be compared ith the results of the computeri*ed system. #he operational ork is doubled. ,ailure of the computeri*ed system at the early stage does not affect the orking of the organi*ation! because the manual system continues to ork! as it used to do. (iii) Pilot run$ In this type of run! the ne system is run ith the data from one or more of the previous periods for the hole or part of the system. #he results are compared ith the old system results. It is less e-pensive and risky than parallel run approach. #his strategy builds the confidence and the errors are traced easily ithout affecting the operations. #he documentation of the system is also one of the most important activity in the system development life cycle. #his ensures the continuity of the system. #here are generally to types of documentation prepared for any system. #hese are$ 8ser or Operator Documentation System Documentation #he user documentation is a complete description of the system from the users point of vie detailing ho to use or operate the system. It also includes the ma"or error messages likely to be encountered by the users. #he system documentation contains the details of system design! programs! their coding! system flo! data dictionary! process description! etc. #his helps to understand the system and permit changes to be made in the e-isting system to satisfy ne user needs. (i) 1aintenance 1aintenance is necessary to eliminate errors in the system during its orking life and to tune the system to any variations in its orking environments. It has been seen that there are alays some errors found in the systems that must be noted and corrected. It also means the revie of the system from time to time. #he revie of the system is done for$ knoing the full capabilities of the system knoing the re0uired changes or the additional re0uirements studying the performance. If a ma"or change to a system is needed! a ne pro"ect may have to be set up to carry out the change. #he ne pro"ect ill then proceed through all the above life cycle phases.