Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition -Solutions 04

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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Chapter 4 – Beginning the Analysis: Investigating System Requirements Solutions to End-of-Chapter Material Review Questions 1.

What is the difference between functional requirements and nonfunctional requirements? Functional requirements define the functions or user services that will be supported by the system. Such things as support of business processes and reports are included in functional requirements. Nonfunctional requirements are other technical specifications and include such things as technical, performance, usability, reliability, and security requirements.

2.

Explain the use of a discovery prototype and an evolutionary prototype. A discovery prototype is used to help understand user requirements. Often the users are not sure what capabilities are needed in a system, or how certain functions should work. A discovery prototype can be built to help define and refine the business activity as a combined manual/computer process. Usually discovery prototypes are considered throwaway prototypes. An evolutionary prototype, on the other hand, is one that is expected to grow and evolve until it eventually becomes the final working system. It may be used for discovery, but its main objective is to become the final system.

3.

List and describe the three fact-finding themes. What are the business operations and processes? The purpose of the first theme is to identify the various business processes that must be supported in the new system. The standard question to users is, “What do you do?” or “What are your job responsibilities?” How should those operations be performed? The purpose of the second theme is to understand the details of the business process in the context of a new system. The focus is not necessarily on how the operation is done now, but how should it be done. What information is needed to perform the operation? The purpose of the third theme is directly tied to the development of the new system, and what information it must maintain and provide.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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What is the objective of a structured walkthrough? The objective of a structured walkthrough is to find errors in a piece of work. In other words, it is a quality control activity to improve the quality of a piece of work, such as a data flow diagram or data model. The objective is not to be a performance review or an evaluation of an employee.

5.

Explain the steps in preparing for an interview session. See Figure 4-9.      

6.

Establish an objective for the interview session. Determine the persons who should be involved in the interview, both users and team members. Develop a list of questions and issues to be discussed. Review any related documentation. Existing reports or procedure manuals are a good source of questions and issues to discuss. Set time and location. Inform all participants of objective, time, and location. It is especially important that the users be informed of the objectives so that they can come to the meeting prepared.

What are the benefits of doing vendor research during information-gathering activities? Doing vendor research, both for vendors of packaged solutions and consulting firms that develop solutions, allows the project team the opportunity to see what other companies have done. It is less expensive to buy a solution than to build one, if a viable solution is available. Vendor research helps the project team see other solutions that may be state-ofthe-art and able to provide a competitive advantage to the enterprise.

7.

What categories of stakeholders should you include in fact finding? The type and scope of the system will dictate which stakeholders are required. However, user stakeholders are always required. Client stakeholders are sometimes needed. Technical stakeholders sometimes also need to be involved.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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What is meant by vertical and horizontal dimensions when determining which users to involve? Horizontal dimension means that various departments in a company may be affected by a system. For example, a marketing system may have information that might be useful to the production plant. Therefore, not only marketing users need to be interviewed, but also production users. Vertical dimension means that within each department there are clerical users and middle management users. Both should be included. The vertical dimension also goes higher, up to top management and executives who may have an interest in the information provided by the system.

9.

What is JAD? When is it used? JAD stands for joint application design. It is a technique used to speed up the fact-finding or design process. It can be used when the requirements for a system are fairly standard and can be defined in detail during only a few working sessions with the right stakeholders. The approach is to have meeting sessions with all the necessary stakeholders so that requirements and final decisions can be made quickly.

10.

What is BPR? What does it have to do with systems analysis? BPR stands for business process reengineering. Business systems are always a combination of manual and automated processes. A change in the level or approach of automation will have an important impact on the total business process. Increasing levels of automation have also provided opportunities to shift many manual processes to automated processes. Additional information and services are also possible with increased automation. Thus, information technology has provided opportunities for companies to reengineer their business processes.

11.

What technique is used to validate user requirements? Because user requirements cannot be tested in the programming sense of the word, another method must be used to validate the requirements. A widely used method is a structured walkthrough. When a piece of work is completed that describes some user requirements, either in the form of a diagram or textual description, a walkthrough is conducted. In the walkthrough the work is reviewed with the objective of finding missing pieces, checking for accuracy, and verifying that the diagram is internally consistent.

12.

Describe the open-items list, and explain why it is important. The open-items list is a list of issues that have not been resolved. It is needed to ensure that requirements are complete and that undefined specifications are not forgotten.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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What do correct, complete, and comprehensive mean with regard to systems analysis? Sets of requirements that are developed during systems analysis need to be correct, complete, and comprehensive. Correct means that there are no errors in the requirements specifications. Complete means that each requirement is completely specified with adequate detail. Comprehensive means that the requirements cover all possible processing needs.

14.

List and describe the seven information-gathering techniques.       

15.

Review existing reports, forms, and procedure descriptions. Conduct interviews and discussion with users. Observe and document business processes. Build prototypes. Distribute and collect questionnaires from stakeholders. Conduct joint application design (JAD) sessions. Research vendor solutions.

What is the purpose of an activity diagram? An activity diagram is used to document the detailed steps of a business process or workflow.

16.

Draw and explain the symbols used on an activity diagram. Refer to Figure 4-12.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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Thinking Critically 1.

One of the toughest problems in investigating system requirements is to make sure they are complete and comprehensive. What kinds of things would you do to ensure that you get all of the right information during an interview session? Answers should include the following points:     

2.

Ensure that all stakeholders are identified and included in the requirements definition activities. Review every existing form and report to make sure that all information needs are understood. Identify and understand every business activity. Be sure that all business procedures have been discussed. Ensure that all exception conditions have been identified and associated processing has been defined. Maintain an open-items list and ensure that all items are resolved.

What can you do to ensure that you have included all of the right stakeholders on your list of people to interview? How can you double-check your list? One method is to obtain, or build if necessary, an organization chart of the company. This will ensure that all the potential stakeholders are identified. A subset of the organization chart that includes the required stakeholders can be created based on the scope of the system.

Several ways to check your list are to (1) review it with the primary client (authorizing and funding group), (2) review it with the project steering committee, or (3) review it with the chief information officer or some other knowledgeable systems person. 3.

One of the problems you will encounter during your investigation is “scope creep”— that is, user requests for additional features and functions. Scope creep happens because sometimes users have many unsolved problems and the systems investigation may be the first time that anybody has listened to their needs. How do you keep the system from growing and including new functions that should not be part of the system? This problem is really a project management issue. The project manager should establish guidelines to control this problem. One preventative method is to be sure that the initial scope definition is adequate and comprehensive. A partial definition during the scoping activities will exacerbate the problem of scope creep. Assuming that the system scope was defined adequately, then one way to control scope creep is to establish a committee that consists of both project team members and user (or

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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client) members. All new additions to the scope of the system need to be approved by the committee. Prior to approval, an estimate should be done to determine the criticality of the request and the impact on the project schedule. Have the users participate in the decision so that it is a combined decision and not dictated by the project manager. An additional technique is to begin a list of enhancements for the next version of the system. Some requests can easily be deferred to a later version. 4.

It is always difficult to observe users in their jobs. It frequently makes both you and them uncomfortable. What things could you do to ensure that user behavior is not changing because of your visit? How could you make observation more natural? Because this is an idea-generating question, answers will vary considerably. Some ideas may include:    

5.

Participate in the business process by doing some of the tasks. Ask them to pretend you are a new employee that needs to be trained. First, try to establish a rapport with them, maybe by going on a coffee break together. Do not use a video camera or tape recorder.

What would you do if you got conflicting answers for the same procedure from two different people you interviewed? What would you do if one was a clerical person and the other was the department manager? The first thought would be to take the opinion of the department manager as the correct answer. However, it is not uncommon for the department manager to be behind on some of the latest details of business procedures. The best solution in this case is to get the two people together and let them discuss the differences until they both agree on the correct procedure. The systems analyst should not make the decision as to which answer is correct, nor should he or she try to resolve the difference. It is the users’ responsibility to do so.

6.

You are a team leader of four systems analysts. You have one analyst who has never done a structured walkthrough of his or her work. How would you help the analyst get started? How would you ensure that the walkthrough was effective? First, determine if the analyst is reluctant to conduct walkthroughs. Often the fear of being criticized or evaluated is the source of the reluctance. As a team leader, it would be your responsibility to “groom” the analyst and help him or her get started. You might start with a simple piece of work that will most likely have few errors.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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You have been assigned to resolve several issues on the open-items list, and you are having a hard time getting policy decisions from the user contact. How can you encourage the user to finalize these policies?

Delayed policy decisions impact the project schedule. Sometimes the user does not understand the impact of delayed decisions. Thus, the first approach should be to explain the negative impact that a given decision is having on the project. If that doesn’t work, then stronger measures can be taken, such suggesting that the project steering committee review the outstanding-items list. Also, if the outstanding-items list indicates the length of time that items have been open, the analyst can assign or adjust the priority of those items that have become critical. 8.

You are going on your first consulting assignment to do systems analysis. Your client does not like to pay to train new, inexperienced analysts. What should you do to appear competent and well prepared? How should you approach the client? Obviously, it is not a good idea to try to appear to be something that you are not. The best solution is to become as prepared as possible in the allowed time as the project begins. The analyst can learn about both the general industry and the specifics of the company. Industry information is available in books and magazines. Company information can be obtained from reviewing existing system documentation, including reports, forms, and procedure manuals. The way in which questions are asked will also help to alleviate user or client concerns. Questions that ask for specific details demonstrate that the analyst has done some research in the area. For example, “Will you explain how this process works and how you use these forms?” Questions that are too vague emphasize a lack of knowledge in the area. For example, “What does this mean?”

9.

In the running case of Rocky Mountain Outfitters, you have set up an interview with Jason Nadold in the shipping department. Your objective is to determine how shipping works and what the information requirements for the new system will be. Make a list of questions, open-ended and closed-ended, that you would use. Include any questions or techniques you would use to ensure you find out about the exceptions. Three areas should be addressed in this answer: (1) closed-ended questions, (2) openended questions, and (3) questions related to exception conditions. Sample closed-ended questions:   

What is the volume of shipments on an average day? How does the volume vary across time? How many employees are there in shipping?

Sample open-ended questions:  What is the procedure for getting an order ready for shipment?

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

      

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What forms are used? How is the system updated when a shipment is sent? How are back-orders handled? How are returns handled? What information is updated when a shipment is sent? What reports does the system produce? How are employee responsibilities divided among the various procedures?

Sample exception condition questions:     9.

What happens when items are not in stock for an order? How do you handle errors in the inventory system and physical counts? What happens when shipments are returned due to a bad address? What do you do about lost shipments? How are you notified?

Develop an activity diagram based on the following narrative. Note any ambiguities or questions that you have as you develop the model. If you need to make assumptions, also note them. The purpose of the Open Access Insurance System is to provide automotive insurance to car owners. Initially, prospective customers fill out an insurance application, which provides information about the customer and his or her vehicles. This information is sent to an agent, who sends it to various insurance companies to get quotes for insurance. When the responses return, the agent then determines the best policy for the type and level of coverage desired and gives the customer a copy of the insurance policy proposal and quote. Note: The first activity diagram below is a complete, detailed solution. The second diagram below is a simplified solution. In this diagram, the activities related to distributing the documents have been deleted. In other words, we let the arrows represent not only the sequence of activities, but also the movement of the documents.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

Prospective Customer

Insurance Agent

Insurance Company

H

Fill out application

Send in application Receive application

Send to insurance company

Develop quote

Receive quotes

Decide best policy

Send to prospect Receive proposal and quote H

Activity diagram 1.

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Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

Prospective Customer

Insurance Agent

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Insurance Company

H

Fill out application Receive application

Develop quote

Decide best policy Receive proposal and quote H

Activity diagram 2.

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

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Develop an activity diagram based on the following narrative. Note any ambiguities or questions that you have as you develop the model. If you need to make assumptions, also note them. The purchasing department handles purchase requests from other departments in the company. People in the company who initiate the original purchase request are the “customers” of the purchasing department. A case worker within the purchasing department receives that request and monitors it until it is ordered and received.

Case workers process requests for the purchase of products under $1,500, write a purchase order, and then send it to the approved vendor. Purchase requests over $1,500 must first be sent out for bid from the vendor that supplies the product. When the bids return, the case worker selects one bid. Then, he or she writes a purchase order and sends it to the vendor. In-house Customer

Purchasing Department

Vendor

H

Make purchase request Receive requests