Principles of System Analysis

Imran Parwaz

Assessor: Bosco Angol

Submission Date: 10/12/14

Principles of system analysis
System analysis is usually used as a process to learn businesses behaviour and features so that a System can be created that would be fully beneficial to a business. Also if a business already has a current system, it can be analysed to see how it can be improved rather than implementing a whole new system.

Development life cycles
Development life cycle models identify the stages to which processes must be carried out in order to develop a successful system. There are different types of development life cycles which include: waterfall model, rapid applications design (RAD), and spiral model.
Development life cycles stages are crucial when looking into a new system;
The first stage- Preliminary study, this stage is to look at the whether a new system is required or not required. Managers initiate a the study if they feel that the current operating system is running old and newer systems are out there that can help improve the service and efficiency of their business for customers and their staff. This is linked to Iains and Co because the manager feels that the smaller company needs to link well with the existing company hence wanting a new system.

The next stage is the feasibility study, this stage looks at the existing system to see if the current system can be upgraded or if a completely whole new system has to be implemented, this stage includes 5 factors; • Technical feasibility
• Economic feasibility
• Legal feasibility
• Operational feasibility
• Schedule However, this stage is not required by Iains and Co because it’s not being compared to an old system, but in fact a new system is already the main idea put forward by the network manager. Analysis of the problem and proposed solution, the 3rd stage. This stage is carried out by system analysts. An analysis is carried out about finding the requirements about the current system and investigating the requirements of the users. There are a couple of ways to find information about the current system such as; Interviewing staff, questionnaires to staff, observation and examining existing documents. The analyst’s team use graphical and tabular methods to represent the current system, then the analysts use these results to produce a set of deliverables for the new system which is agreed with the people who will be using the new system. However, again this stage is not required because the network manager has already outlined what ‘deliverables’ are required of the new system for Iains and Co. Furthermore, the 4th stage is looking at the design for the new system it determines the required specifications for the system. The whole overview of the design is divided into sub-sections such as;
• The fields and tables of the database
• Input formats
• Output formats
• Validation checks
• Macro design
• The test plan
These sub-sections allow the system to be designed in a fair amount of time not over running the project. This links to Iains and Co because the network manager wants both the departments to be able to show their hardware which employee has what hardware. Continuously, the next stage, constructing the solution. This is the part where the system is produced by the developments of programs. Iains and Co would need this stage to be efficient to ensure it doesn't consume too much time. The next stage is testing, this is the most crucial part because it tests all factors that vary from testing inputs to outputs and validation checks to ensure that the new system is fully functioning well and so that is sold to ensure that it will not break down or will be functional and will last a long time. This links to Iains and Co as they would want a fully functioning system as do all companies. Installation and conversion, this is the stage where the system is built and fully functioning and is ready to be implemented. For Iains and Co I