System Analysis & Design

PART 6 – Systems Design and Modelling

BY
DR ABDULLAH ALZAHRANI
‫ ﻋﺒﺪﷲ ﺑﻦ ﻋﺒﺪاﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ اﻟﺰھﺮاﻧﻲ‬.‫د‬
[email protected]

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Systems Design and
Modelling
Systems Design
Process Modelling
Data Flow Diagrams
Database Design

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 Systems
Design (1)

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Systems Design (2)
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Systems Design (3)
SYSTEM DESIGN the specification or construction of a technical,
computer-based solution for the business requirements identified in a
system analysis. (Note: Increasingly, the design takes the form of a
working prototype.)

DESIGNER System designers are technology specialists for Information

systems
system designers are interested In information technology choices and in the
design of systems that use chosen technologies. Today's system designers
tend to focus on technical specialities.

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 Systems
Design (4)
METHODS:
1. Modern Structured
Design
Structured design
techniques help
developers deal with the
size and complexity of
programs
A system design
technique that focuses
on processes and
decomposes the
system's processes into
manageable
components.

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 Systems
Design (5)
METHODS:
2. Prototyping
The prototyping
approach is an iterative
process involving a
close working
relationship between
the designer and the
users.
doesn't necessarily
fulfil all design
requirements.

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Systems Design (4)
METHODS:
3. Object-Oriented Design
 an approach used to specify the software solution in
terms of collaborating objects, their attributes, and their
methods
 the newest design strategy.

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Process Modelling
MODEL
a graphic representation of reality.
LOGICAL MODEL
a non-technical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or
does. Synonyms are essential model, conceptual model and business model
PHYSICAL MODEL
a technical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does and how the
system is implemented. Synonyms are implementation model and technical model.

PROCESS MODELLING
involves graphically representing the functions, or processes that capture, manipulate,
store and distribute data between a system and its environment and among system
components

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Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)
Data flow diagrams (DFD)
A common and traditional form of process modelling
technique
Graphically illustrate movement of data between
external entities and the processes and data stores within
a system

DFD’s are not as good as flowcharts to depict details

of physical systems

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Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) (2)
CONTEXT DIAGRAM
◦ The highest-level view of an organizational system that shows the system
boundaries, external entities that interact with the system and the major
information flows between the entities and the system
◦ All context diagrams have only one process labeled “0”
◦ No data stores appear on a context diagram

LEVEL-0 DIAGRAM
◦ A data flow diagram (DFD) that represents a system’s major processes,
data flows and data stores at a high level of detail
◦ Each process has a number that ends in .0
DFD hides many physical characteristics of system
◦ We do not know timing of when data flow is produced, how frequently
it is produced, what size of data is sent

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 Data Flow
Diagrams (DFD)
(3)
Symbols
Four symbols are used
to represent both
physical and logical
information systems

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 Symbols definitions (1)
Data Flow
◦ Depicts data in motion and moving from one place to another in the
system.
◦ Example: results of query of database, contents of printed report
◦ Data flow is data that move together
◦ Data flow can be composed of many individual pieces of data that are generated
at the same time and flows together

Data Store
◦ Depicts data at rest
◦ May represent one of many different physical locations for data:
◦ File folder
◦ Computer-based file
◦ Notebook
◦ Might contain data about customers, students, customer orders

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 Symbols definitions (2)
Process
◦ Depicts work or action performed on data so that they are transformed,
stored or distributed

Source/Sink
◦ Depicts the origin and/or destination of the data
◦ Sometimes referred to as an external entity so they are outside system and
define boundaries of system
◦ Because they are external, many characteristics are not of interest to us
◦ Data must originate from outside a system from one or more sources and
system must produce information to one or more sinks
◦ consist of – another organization, a person inside or outside business, another
information system

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Data Flow Diagramming Symbols
Data flow is shown as an arrow labeled with a meaningful name for data
(all elements of data moving as part of one packet) in motion – sales
receipt, customer order.
Source/Sink is shown as a square and has a name that states what
external agent is – customer, teller.
Data store is shown as rectangle without its right vertical side and left side
has a small box used to number the data store and inside the main part of
rectangle is a meaningful label – student file.
Process is shown as a rectangle with rounded corners with a line dividing it
into two parts – upper part has the number of process and lower part has
name of process

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Developing DFDs: An Example
Process names
should be clear yet concise
begin with an action verb, such as receive, generate, calculate, merge, sort,
read, write………..
should capture essential action of the process in just few words yet describe
the process’ action so that reading its name explains what process does

An Example
Hoosier Burger’s automated food ordering system
CONTEXT DIAGRAM contains no data stores
Next step is (LEVEL-0) to expand the context diagram to show the breakdown
of processes

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CONTEXT DIAGRAM of Hoosier Burger’s
food ordering system

only one process Single process “0”

represents entire system
no data store
Conceptually data stores
four data flows are inside one process
three source/sinks

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 LEVEL-0 DFD
of Hoosier
Burger’s food
ordering system

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 Data Flow Diagramming Rules (1)
Basic rules that apply to all DFDs
◦ Inputs to a process are always different than its outputs – purpose of a
process is to transform inputs to outputs
◦ Objects on a DFD always have a unique name
◦ In order to keep the diagram uncluttered, you can repeat data stores and
sources/sinks on a diagram
Process:
A. No process can have only outputs ( we can’t make data from nothing).
Having only outputs means it must be a source.
B. No process can have only inputs. Having only inputs means it must be a
sink.
C. A process has a verb phrase label

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 Data Flow Diagramming Rules (2)
Data store:
D. Data must be moved by a process and cannot move directly from one data store to
another data store
E. Data cannot move directly from an outside source to a data store. Data must be moved
by a process that receives data from the source and places data into data store.
F. Data cannot move directly to an outside sink from a data store. Data must be moved
by a process.
G. A data store has a noun phrase label

Source/Sink:
H. Data cannot move directly from source to sink and has to be moved by a process else
data flow is not shown on the DFD.
I. A source/sink has a noun phrase label

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 Data Flow Diagramming Rules (3)
Data flow:
J. A data flow has only one direction of flow between symbols. It may flow in both
directions between a process and a data store usually indicated by two separate arrows
as this happens at separate times
K. A fork in a data flow means that exactly the same data goes from a common location
two or more different processes, data stores, or sources/sinks.
L. A join in a data flow means that exactly the same data comes from any two or more
different processes, data stores, or sources/sinks to a common location
M. A data flow cannot go directly back to the same process it leaves.
N. A data flow to a data store means update (delete or change)
O. A data flow from a data store means retrieve or use.
P. A data flow has a noun phrase label.

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 Flowchart
Diagrams
A flowchart is a diagram that
depicts a process, system or
computer algorithm.
They are widely used in many
fields to document, study, plan,
improve and communicate often
complex processes in clear, easy-to-
understand diagrams.

https://www.lucidchart.com/

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 Flowchart
Diagrams symbols

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 Flowchart
Diagrams
example

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Conceptual Data Modeling
Conceptual data model is a representation of organizational
data
Purpose is to show as many rules about the meaning and
interrelationships among data as are possible
Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagrams are commonly used to
show how data are organized
Main goal of conceptual data modeling is to create accurate
E-R diagrams
Methods such as interviewing, questionnaires are used to
collect information
Primary deliverable is the entity-relationship diagram

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Entity-Relationship Model
Technique for carrying out the conceptual and logical design of the
system
A widely accepted data modelling approach
3 basic notions:
1. Entities
2. Attributes
3. Relationships

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What is an entity?

An entity is an object that can be identified in

the users’ work environment and that users
want to track.

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Entities
An entity is a thing or object in the real world
(within the application context)
An entity has a set of properties which uniquely
identify it.
An entity is represented as a rectangle in an ER
diagram

Project

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What is an Attribute?

An attribute describes a characteristic of an entity

For example:
◦ An entity: Employee
◦ Has attributes:
◦ Employee_Name
◦ Extension
◦ Date_Of_Hire

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Attributes
Example: Project = (proj_name, location, budget,
start_date, end_date)

Represented as ellipses in an ER diagram

budget
location start_date

proj_name Project end_date

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What are Relationships?

Relationships are associations between entities

which express some real world relationship

Project Employs Employee

• Project and Employee participate in the employs

relationship
• The function that an entity plays in a relationship is called
that entity’s role
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 Relationship Sets
starts at
• There can be more than Road Town
one relationship between
entities. ends at

• There can be recursive manager

relationships that can Employee works for
indicate roles for clarity. worker

date
• A relationship can also
have descriptive attributes. Client orders Book

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 ER example

Name
proj_name

Project Hires Contractor

location
Address
budget
end_date
start_date
end_date
Contract
number start_date
value

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Database Design
Purpose of Database Design
1. Structure the data in stable structures, called normalized tables
 Not likely to change over time
 Minimal redundancy
2. Develop a logical database design that reflects actual data requirements
that exists in forms and reports
3. Develop a logical database design from which a physical database design
can be developed
4. Translate a relational database model into a technical file and database
design that balances several performance factors
5. Choose data storage technologies that will efficiently, accurately and
securely process database activities

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Database Design
(2)
Logical Design
 Based upon the conceptual data model
 Four key steps
1. Develop a logical data model for each known
user interface for the application using
normalization principles
2. Combine normalized data requirements from all
user interfaces into one consolidated logical
database model
3. Translate the conceptual E-R data model for the
application into normalized data requirements
4. Compare the consolidated logical database
design with the translated E-R model and
produce one final logical database model for
the application

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Database Design (3)
Physical Design
 Based upon results of logical database design
 Key decisions
1. Choosing storage format for each attribute from the
logical database model (txt, CSV, TSV, PSV, JSON)
2. Grouping attributes from the logical database model into
physical records
3. Arranging related records in secondary memory (hard
disks and magnetic tapes) so that records can be stored,
retrieved and updated rapidly
4. Selecting media and structures for storing data to
make access more efficient (DBMS)

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 End

Sources:
1. Whitten, Jeffrey L., Lonnie D. Bentley, and Kevin C. Dittman.
Systems Analysis and Design Methods 5e. McGraw-Hill Higher
Education, 2000.
2. George, Joey F., and Joseph S. Valacich. Modern systems analysis
and design. Prentice Hall, 2002.
3. https://www.lucidchart.com/

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