Modern Systems Analysis and Design covers the concepts, skills, methodologies,
techniques, tools, and perspectives essential for systems analysts to successfully
develop information systems. This course provide a clear presentation of the
concepts, skills, and techniques that students need to become effective systems
analysts who work with others to create information systems for businesses. This
course use the systems development life cycle (SDLC) model as an organizing tool
throughout the topics to provide students with a strong conceptual and
systematic framework.
This is a practical course about information systems development methods. All
businesses and organizations develop information systems. You can be assured
that you will play some role in the systems analysis and design for those systems
– either as a customer or user of those systems or as a developer of those
systems. Systems analysis and design is about business problem solving and
computer applications. The methods you will learn in this course can be applied
to a wide variety of problem domains, not just those involving the computer.
We start in Part One – Foundations for Systems Development (The Systems
Development Environment, The Origins of Software, Managing the Information
Systems Project) with fundamental concepts, philosophies, and trends that
provide the context of systems analysis and design methods – in other words, the
basics! If you understand these basics, you will be better able to apply, with
confidence, the practical tools, and techniques you will learn in Part Two –
Planning (Identifying and Selecting Systems Development Projects, Initiating and
Planning Systems Development Projects). Part Three - Analysis (Determining
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System Requirements, Structuring System Process Requirements, Structuring
System Data Requirements). Part Four - Design (Designing Databases, Designing
Forms and Reports, Designing Interfaces and Dialogues, Designing Distributed
and Internet Systems), and Part Five – Implementation and Maintenance
(System Implementation, Maintaining Information Systems).
While providing broad coverage of the systems development life cycle, this
course also presents topics that should be covered in any introductory systems
analysis and design course. Such topics include business information systems
concepts; mission statements; strategic planning; feasibility studies; fact-finding
techniques; data flow diagrams; structured English; decision tables; decision
trees; object-oriented analysis and design; enterprise computing; make or buy
decisions; employee empowerment; prototyping; CASE tools; systems
flowcharts; the use of codes; reducing input errors; data security; automated
design tools; entity-relationship diagrams; cardinality; normalization; UML
notation; database design and management; traditional file organization; online
versus batch processing; centralized versus distributed processing; LANs and
WANs; client/server systems; software engineering; unit, link, and system
testing; documentation; training; systems changeover; post-implementation
evaluation; support activities; maintenance activities; capacity planning;
communication tools; feasibility and cost analysis tools; and project management
tools. Each of these topics is covered in detail and clearly linked to the
appropriated phase or phases of the SDLC, so that students understand where
they fit with the larger systems development life cycle.
More than ever, today’s students are “consumer-oriented,” due in part to the
changing world economy, which promotes quality, competition, and professional
currency. They expect to walk away from a course with more than a grade and a
promise that they’ll someday appreciate what they’ve learned. They want to
“practice” the application of concepts, not just study applications of concepts.
Given these themes, this course emphasizes the following:
 A business, rather than a technology, perspective. The role, responsibilities,
and mind-set of the systems analyst as well as the systems project manager,
rather than those of the programmer or business manager.
 Balance the coverage of concepts, tools, techniques, and their application.
 Provide the most examples of system analysis and design deliverables
available.
 The methods and principles of systems development, rather than the specific
tools or tool-related skills of the field.