System Analysis and Development and models

Module 4

What is Software?
Instructions (computer programs) that when executed provide desired function and performance Data structures enable the programs to adequately manipulate information Documents that describe the operation and use of the program
Software engineering : A Practitioner's Approach

A definition of the software development:

The application of a systemic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to development, operation, and maintenance of software.
EEE Standard Computer Dictionary, 610, ISBN 1-55937-079-3 Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach

Whos Who
CUSTOMER

Sponsors system development

$$$, needs USER Uses system Contractual obligation Needs Software system

DEVELOPER

Builds system

Two Main Approaches

Both traditional and object-oriented approaches to system development use the system development life cycle (SDLC) as a project management and a process management framework. The predictive approach to the SDLC is used for projects that are well understood and low risk. The adaptive approach to the SDLC is used for projects that are not well understood and are higher risk. Adaptive SDLCs are more iterative and allow the project team to adapt the project to changing circumstances. Sometimes very important in today's rapidly changing environments.
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The System Development Life Cycle

What is an information system (IS)?

Hardware, software, data, people, and procedures that work together to produce quality information

SystemSet of components that interact to achieve common goal

Businesses use many types of systems

The System Development Life Cycle

What are the phases of the system development cycle?
Phase 2. Analysis

Phase 1. Planning

Review project requests Prioritize project requests Allocate resources Identify project development team

Conduct preliminary investigation Perform detailed analysis activities: Study current system Determine user requirements Recommend solution

Phase 3. Design

Acquire hardware and software, if necessary Develop details of system

Phase 5. Support

Phase 4. Implementation

Conduct post-implementation system review Identify errors and enhancements Monitor system performance

Develop programs, if necessary Install and test new system Train users Convert to new system

The System Development Life Cycle

What are guidelines for system development?

Arrange tasks into phases Involve users (anyone for whom system is being built)

Develop clearly defined standards (procedures company expects employees to follow)

The System Development Life Cycle

Who participates in the system development life cycle?

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the role of a systems analyst?

Responsible for designing and developing information system Liaison between users and IT professionals

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the project team?

Formed to work on project from beginning to end

Consists of users, systems analyst, and other IT professionals

Project leaderone member of the team who manages and controls project budget and schedule

The System Development Life Cycle

What is feasibility?
Operational feasibility

Measure of how suitable system development will be to the company

Four feasibility tests:

Schedule feasibility Economic feasibility (also called cost/benefit feasibility)

Technical feasibility

The System Development Life Cycle

What is documentation?
Collection and summarization of data and information

Includes reports, diagrams, programs, and other deliverables

The System Development Life Cycle

What are six data and information gathering techniques? Review documentation Observe Questionnaire Interview Joint-application design (JAD) session Research

The System Development Life Cycle

What are some reasons to create or modify an information system?

To correct problem in existing system

To improve existing system

Outside group may mandate change

Competition can lead to change

The System Development Life Cycle

What is a request for system services?

Formal request for new or modified information system

Also called project request

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the planning phase?
Begins when steering committee receives project request
Steering committee decision-making body for the company

Function of committee:
Review and approve project requests
Form project development team for each approved project

Prioritize project requests

Allocate resources

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the analysis phase?
Conduct preliminary investigation, also called feasibility study Perform detailed analysis

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the preliminary investigation?

Determine exact nature of problem or improvement and whether it is worth pursuing

Findings are presented in feasibility report, also known as a feasibility study

The System Development Life Cycle

What is detailed analysis?
1. Study how current system works 2. Determine users wants, needs, and requirements

3. Recommend solution

Sometimes called logical design

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the system proposal?
Assesses feasibility of each alternative solution Recommends the most feasible solution for the project Presented to steering committee, which decides how system will be developed

The System Development Life Cycle

What are possible solutions?
Buy packaged softwareprewritten software available for purchase
Horizontal market softwaremeets needs of many companies

Write own custom softwaresoftware developed at users request

Vertical market softwaredesigned for particular industry

Outsourcehave outside source develop software

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the design phase?

Acquire hardware and software

Develop all details of new or modified information system

The System Development Life Cycle

What is needed to acquire new hardware and software?

Identify all hardware and software requirements of new or modified system

Talk with other systems analysts

Surf Web

Visit vendors stores

Read print and online trade journals, newspapers, and magazines

The System Development Life Cycle

What are three basic documents used to summarize technical specifications?
Identifies product(s) you want

Request for quotation (RFQ)

Vendor quotes price(s) for listed product(s)

Vendor selects product(s) that meet(s) your requirements and then quotes price(s)

Request for proposal (RFP)

Request for information (RFI)

Less formal method that uses standard form to request information about product or service

The System Development Life Cycle

How do systems analysts test software products?

References from vendor Talk to current users of product Product demonstrations Trial version of software Benchmark test measures performance

The System Development Life Cycle

What is a detailed design?
Detailed design specifications for components in proposed solution

Includes several activities

Database design Input and output design Program design

The System Development Life Cycle

What is a mockup?

Sample of input or output that contains actual data

The System Development Life Cycle

What is a prototype?

Working model of proposed system Beginning a prototype too early may lead to problems

The System Development Life Cycle

What is computer-aided software engineering (CASE)?

Software tools designed to support activities of system development cycle

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the implementation phase?

Purpose is to construct, or build, new or modified system and then deliver it to users
Convert to new system Train users

Install and test new system

Develop programs

The System Development Life Cycle

What are the three types of tests performed by system developers?
Unit Test
Verifies each individual program works by itself

Systems test
Verifies all programs in application work together

Integration Test
Verifies application works with other applications

The System Development Life Cycle

What is training?

Showing users exactly how they will use new hardware and software in system

The System Development Life Cycle

What is the support phase?

Provides ongoing assistance after system is implemented

Conduct post-implementation system reviewmeeting to find out if information system is performing according to expectations

Identify errors

Identify enhancements

Monitor system performance

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT MODELS

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Two Approaches to System Development

1. Traditional Approach
Structured system development
Structured analysis Structured design Structured programming

Known as Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT)

2. Object-Oriented Approach

Structured Programming
Improves computer program quality Allows other programmers to easily read and modify the code Each program module has one beginning and one ending Three programming constructs

Three Structured Programming Constructs

Satzinger et al (2006) Fig 2-12

Top-Down Programming
Divides complex programs into hierarchy of modules Module at top controls execution by calling lower level modules Modular programming
Similar to top-down programming One program calls others to work as single system

Top-Down or Modular Programming

Satzinger et al (2006) Fig 2-13

Structured Design
Developed to provide guidelines
What the set of programs should be What each program should accomplish How programs should be organized into a hierarchy Structure Chart

Main principles of program modules

Loosely coupled Highly cohesive

Structure Chart

Satzinger et al (2006) Fig 2-14

Structured Analysis
Helps developer define what the system needs to do (processing requirements)
Data to store and use Inputs and outputs How functions work together

DFDs and ERDs commonly show results of structured analysis

Structured Analysis Leads to Structured Design and Structured Programming

Satzinger et al (2006) Fig 2-17

Automated Tools and Technology

Computer-aided systems engineering (CASE) Application Development Environments (ADE) or Integrated Development Environments (IDE) Process and project managers

ADE Tools
Application development environments (ADEs) are:
integrated software development tools provide all the facilities necessary to develop new application software maximise speed and quality

A common synonym is integrated development environment (IDE)

Project Managers
A project manager is an automated tool to:
help plan system development activities (preferably using the approved methodology) estimate and assign resources (including people and costs) schedule activities and resources monitor progress against schedule and budget control modify schedule and resources report project progress

Computer-Aided System Engineering (CASE)

Automated tools to improve the speed and quality of system development work Support the drawing of models Provide for the translation of system models into application programs Database of information about system called repository Upper CASE, Lower CASE, ICASE

CASE repository
is a system developers or project database it is a place where developers can store system models, detailed descriptions and specifications, and other products of system development synonyms include dictionary and encyclopedia

Forward and Reverse Engineering

Forward engineering requires the systems analyst to draw system models, either from scratch or from templates. The resulting models are subsequently transformed into program code Reverse engineering allows a CASE tool to read existing program code and transform that code into a representative system model that can be edited and refined by the systems analyst

CASE Tool

Repository contains all system Information

Satzinger et al (2006) Fig 2-22

System Process Modeling

Process Analysis

Three main analysis techniques to be reviewed here are:

Data

Flow Diagrams (DFDs)

Dictionary Definitions Specifications

Data

Process

Introduction to Data Flow Diagrams

Basic Constructs:
Processes

Data

flows

Files

External

Entities: sources or sinks

The Interrelation Between Specification Components

Example of a Data Flow Diagram(1)

Example of a Data Flow Diagram(2)

Introduction to Data Flow Diagrams (cont.)

Constructing Data Flow Diagrams

Identify

the Static Components the Main Processes and Refine the Diagram the Diagram

Identify

Expand

Review

Context Diagram Decomposition Level: 0

Diagram 0 Decomposition Level: 1

Diagram 1 Decomposition Level: 2

Diagram 2 Decomposition Level: 2

Data Dictionaries (DD)

Purpose:
to

keep data about:

Data

Flow and Data Item Specifications File Specifications Process Specifications

Data Specification Language:

Notational

Conventions: = , + , [ ] , { } , ( ) e.g. amount due = [dollar amount, sterling amount]

Process Specifications

Process Specifications

Processing and control information omitted from a DFD belongs in a process specification Each functional primitive has one process specification

Process Specifications can be represented in a variety of languages, the most popular are:
Structured English Decision Tables and Decision Trees

Decision Tables

A tabular of conditions and actions and an indication under which conditions, which actions must be performed Consists of four quadrants Condition Stub
a list of all possible conditions that can arise within the process

Rules
contains selectors which identify different combinations of the possible conditions

Action Stub
a list of all possible actions that occur within the process

Action Entries
indicators which select the actions to be performed

Decision Tables: 3 variants

Limited Entry Decision Table

Mixed Entry Decision Table Extended Entry Decision Table

Limited Entry Decision Table

Contains only the binary selectors Y & N and the catch all selector in the rules quadrant. In the action entries, it contains only the action selector symbol X. 1 2 3 4

Credit Satisfactory Prompt Payer Special Clearance Accept Order Return Order

Y X

N Y X

N N Y X

N N N

Mixed Entry Decision Table

Contains only the binary selectors Y & N and the catch all selector in the rules quadrant. In the action entries quadrant, indicators other than X appear. 1 2 3

Salaried Employee Hours Worked > 40

N Y

N N

Y -

Pay

Overtime Regular Regular rate rate rate

Extended Entry Decision Table

Selectors in the rules quadrant are no longer simply binary (y or N) but may take on specific values or ranges of values. 1 2 3 4

Approved Credit Quantity Ordered Discount (%) Release Order Reject Order

N -

Y 0-24 0 X

Y 25-55 5 X

Y 56-99 10 X

Advantages of Decision Tables

Easily understood Alternatives are shown side by side

Cause & effect relationship is shown, thus permitting easier user validation Possible to check that all combinations of conditions have been considered

SDLC Model
A framework that describes the activities performed at each stage of a software development project.

Waterfall Model
Requirements defines needed information, function, behavior, performance and interfaces. Design data structures, software architecture, interface representations, algorithmic details. Implementation source code, database, user documentation, testing.

Waterfall Strengths
Easy to understand, easy to use Provides structure to inexperienced staff Milestones are well understood Sets requirements stability Good for management control (plan, staff, track) Works well when quality is more important than cost or schedule

Waterfall Deficiencies
All requirements must be known upfront Deliverables created for each phase are considered frozen inhibits flexibility Can give a false impression of progress Does not reflect problem-solving nature of software development iterations of phases Integration is one big bang at the end Little opportunity for customer to preview the system (until it may be too late)

When to use the Waterfall Model

Requirements are very well known Product definition is stable Technology is understood New version of an existing product Porting an existing product to a new platform.

Structured Evolutionary Prototyping Model

Developers build a prototype during the requirements phase Prototype is evaluated by end users Users give corrective feedback Developers further refine the prototype When the user is satisfied, the prototype code is brought up to the standards needed for a final product.

Structured Evolutionary Prototyping Steps

A preliminary project plan is developed An partial high-level paper model is created The model is source for a partial requirements specification A prototype is built with basic and critical attributes The designer builds
the database user interface algorithmic functions

The designer demonstrates the prototype, the user evaluates for problems and suggests improvements. This loop continues until the user is satisfied

Structured Evolutionary Prototyping Strengths

Customers can see the system requirements as they are being gathered Developers learn from customers A more accurate end product Unexpected requirements accommodated Allows for flexible design and development Steady, visible signs of progress produced Interaction with the prototype stimulates awareness of additional needed functionality

Structured Evolutionary Prototyping Weaknesses

Tendency to abandon structured program development for code-and-fix development Bad reputation for quick-and-dirty methods Overall maintainability may be overlooked The customer may want the prototype delivered. Process may continue forever (scope creep)

When to use Structured Evolutionary Prototyping

Requirements are unstable or have to be clarified As the requirements clarification stage of a waterfall model Develop user interfaces Short-lived demonstrations New, original development With the analysis and design portions of objectoriented development.

Rapid Application Model (RAD)

Requirements planning phase (a workshop utilizing structured discussion of business problems) User description phase automated tools capture information from users Construction phase productivity tools, such as code generators, screen generators, etc. inside a time-box. (Do until done) Cutover phase -- installation of the system, user acceptance testing and user training

RAD Strengths
Reduced cycle time and improved productivity with fewer people means lower costs Time-box approach mitigates cost and schedule risk Customer involved throughout the complete cycle minimizes risk of not achieving customer satisfaction and business needs Focus moves from documentation to code (WYSIWYG). Uses modeling concepts to capture information about business, data, and processes.

RAD Weaknesses
Accelerated development process must give quick responses to the user Risk of never achieving closure Hard to use with legacy systems Requires a system that can be modularized Developers and customers must be committed to rapid-fire activities in an abbreviated time frame.

When to use RAD

Reasonably well-known requirements User involved throughout the life cycle Project can be time-boxed Functionality delivered in increments High performance not required Low technical risks System can be modularized

Spiral SDLC Model

Adds risk analysis, and 4gl RAD prototyping to the waterfall model Each cycle involves the same sequence of steps as the waterfall process model

Spiral Quadrant Determine objectives, alternatives and constraints

Objectives: functionality, performance, hardware/software interface, critical success factors, etc. Alternatives: build, reuse, buy, sub-contract, etc. Constraints: cost, schedule, interface, etc.

Spiral Quadrant Evaluate alternatives, identify and resolve risks

Study alternatives relative to objectives and constraints Identify risks (lack of experience, new technology, tight schedules, poor process, etc. Resolve risks (evaluate if money could be lost by continuing system development

Spiral Quadrant Develop next-level product

Typical activites: Create a design Review design Develop code Inspect code Test product

Spiral Quadrant Plan next phase

Typical activities Develop project plan Develop configuration management plan Develop a test plan Develop an installation plan

Spiral Model Strengths

Provides early indication of insurmountable risks, without much cost Users see the system early because of rapid prototyping tools Critical high-risk functions are developed first The design does not have to be perfect Users can be closely tied to all lifecycle steps Early and frequent feedback from users Cumulative costs assessed frequently

Spiral Model Weaknesses

Time spent for evaluating risks too large for small or lowrisk projects Time spent planning, resetting objectives, doing risk analysis and prototyping may be excessive The model is complex Risk assessment expertise is required Spiral may continue indefinitely Developers must be reassigned during non-development phase activities May be hard to define objective, verifiable milestones that indicate readiness to proceed through the next iteration

When to use Spiral Model

When creation of a prototype is appropriate When costs and risk evaluation is important For medium to high-risk projects Long-term project commitment unwise because of potential changes to economic priorities Users are unsure of their needs Requirements are complex New product line Significant changes are expected (research and exploration)