S556: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS & DESIGN Week 2. Announcements Three new classmates Luke Tassie Rebecca.
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Transcript of S556: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS & DESIGN Week 2. Announcements Three new classmates Luke Tassie Rebecca.
S556: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS & DESIGN
Week 2
Announcements
Three new classmates Luke Tassie Rebecca
Problems with Information Systems
Information Systems-centric
Problem w/ Traditional Systems Analysis Approach
Dataflow diagram
Problem w/ Traditional Systems Analysis Approach
Dataflow diagram
Consider Business Problems
People and work practices are essential ingredients in IT success stories, and that supposed “computer glitches” often involve sloppy work practices and human error (Alter, 2006, p. 4)
The Analyst as a Business Problem Solver (Satzinger, et al., 2009)
Information systems are developed to solve problems for organizations. Therefore a system analyst is often thought as a problem solver rather than a programmer.
Definition of A System
A collection of interrelated components that function together to achieve some outcome
Other examples of a system?
Definition of An Information System
A collection of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and provide as output the information needed to complete a business task.
Definition of An Information System
Any examples of an information system?
System Development Life Cycle (SDLC, or the waterfall method)
Problem definition Analysis Design/Development Testing Implementation Maintenance
Contextual Design
Discover the everyday work practice of people
Contextual Design
Discover the everyday work practice of people
For example…
If you are asked to automate check out grocery process (design/develop a self-check-out system), what’s the process you should follow?
For Example…
Work Redesign
Work Redesign
5 Work Models in Contextual Design
Flow Sequence Artifact Physical Cultural
Any Questions
What is a Problem?
A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived (Gause & Weinberg)
What is a Problem?
A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived (Gause & Weinberg)
Zero inventory
Defining Problems
Problem
Organizational goals
Defining Problems
Problem
Organizational goals
Long-term Scope Feasibility
You Cannot Solve a Problem Unless You know the Cause
Scientist
Observephenomenon
Formulatehypothesis
Performexperiment
Physician
Observesymptoms
Identifypossiblecauses
Conductdiagnostictests
Systems analyst (You)
Recognizeproblem
List possible causes
Study presentsystem
Communicate the Hypothesis with The Clients
A good problem statement includes: The problem: a list of symptoms
E.g., inventory value is $100,000 too high The objectives: the likely cause(s)
E.g., reduce inventory cost by $100,000 by eliminating obsolete inventory
Scope: analyst’s sense of the problem's magnitude.
Specify what must be done, not how to do it
Problem Definition
The problem definition = the analyst’s preliminary sense of the problem (it could be wrong, thus keep an open mind)
See the assignment page for details: https://info.slis.indiana.edu/~nhara/teaching/sp12/s556/assign.html
Common Mistakes in Problem Definition
Example of a goal/objective: The goals of the analysis of the current
information system used in the Recreational Sports Center is to provide an online form that is generic as much as possible that could help face the challenges described earlier.
Common Mistakes in Problem Definition
Don’t act first. “Think fist, then act” (Davis, p. 38)
Don’t be prescriptive: “Objectives specify what must be done, not
how the problem will be solved” (Davis, p. 38)
Don’t make vague statements
Common Mistakes in Problem Definition
Example of a goal/objective: The major earmark of success in fixing this
problem would be a reduction in the time spent managing it. This would entail a system that is designed to reduce erroneous data entry, create simple and complex data reports, and automatically import certain data sets from the online catalog to reduce the amount of time spent entering bibliographic information.
Common Mistakes in Problem Definition
Example of a goal/objective: A concrete, tangible goal of this project to
be considered successful would be a 50% decrease in the number of ordering and reporting errors.
Common Mistakes in Problem Definition
The scope of the problem is your sense of the problem's magnitude
For the assignment: identify how significant/serious the problem is
Davis (1994): a preliminary cost estimate
Example of a scope: The departments primarily involved in resolving
product failures are Engineering, Service, and Quality in the U.S., and Service in Japan. . . . The team consists of 5-10 members, and each team leader is responsible for 4-5 projects simultaneously.
Common Mistakes in Problem Definition
The scope of the problem is your sense of the problem's magnitude
For the assignment: identify how significant/serious the problem is, e.g., # of people who are affected by the problem, cost of failure if not addressed
Davis (1994): a preliminary cost estimate Wait for later until you are certain about the
solution
WSLC Overview Activity
1. Form groups of 4-5 people 2. Two teams will work on the UpNow
case, and the other two will work on the Websters4 case
3. Discuss the cases by asking the question on the worksheet for apx. 20 minutes
4. Report back to the class