Wednesday, July 22, 2009
1.2.3 Who are the users of system?
The system end users of the system refer to the people who use computers to perform
their jobs, like desktop operators. Further, end users can be divided into various
categories.
Very first users are the hands-on users. They actually interact with the system.
They are the people who feed in the input data and get output data. Like person at the
booking counter of a gas authority. This person actually sees the records and registers
requests from various customers for gas cylinders.
Other users are the indirect end users who do not interact with the systems hardware and
software. However, these users benefit from the results of these systems. These types of
users can be managers of organization using that system.
There are third types of users who have management responsibilities for application
systems. These oversee investment in the development or use of the system.
Fourth types of users are senior managers. They are responsible for evaluating
organization's exposure to risk from the systems failure.
Now we know what are systems and what is system analysis and design. So let us take a
case in which we’ll apply the concepts we have learned in the chapter. The case would be
referred to as and where necessary throughout the book and in this process we will be
developing the system required.
1.2.2 Role of System Analyst
The system analyst is the person (or persons) who guides through the development of an
information system . In performing these tasks the analyst must always match the
information system objectives with the goals of the organization.
Role of System Analyst differs from organization to organization. Most common
responsibilities of System Analyst are following
1) System analysis:
It includes system's study in order to get facts about business activity. It is about getting
information and determining requirements. Here the responsibility includes only
requirement determination, not the design of the system.
2) System analysis and design
Here apart from the analysis work, Analyst is also responsible for the designing of the
new system/application.
3) Systems analysis, design, and programming
Here Analyst is also required to perform as a programmer, where he actually writes the
code to implement the design of the proposed application.
Due to the various responsibilities that a system analyst requires to handle, he has to be
multifaceted person with varied skills required at various stages of the life cycle. In
addition to the technical know-how of the information system development a system
analyst should also have the following knowledge.
- Business knowledge: As the analyst might have to develop any kind of a business
system, he should be familiar with the general functioning of all kind of businesses.
- Interpersonal skills: Such skills are required at various stages of development process
for interacting with the users and extracting the requirements out of them
- Problem solving skills: A system analyst should have enough problem solving skills
for defining the alternate solutions to the system and also for the problems occurring
at the various stages of the development process.
1.2.1 What is System Analysis and Design?
System development can generally be thought of having two major components: systems
analysis and systems design.
In System Analysis more emphasis is given to understanding the details of an existing
system or a proposed one and then deciding whether the proposed system is desirable or
not and whether the existing system needs improvements. Thus, system analysis is the
process of investigating a system, identifying problems, and using the information to
recommend improvements to the system.
Fig 1.3 shows the various stages involved in building an improved system.
System design is the process of planning a new business system or one to replace or
complement an existing system.
Analysis specifies what the system should do. Design states how to accomplish the
objective.
After the proposed system is analyzed and designed, the actual implementation of the
system occurs. After implementation, working system is available and it requires timely
maintenance. See fig 1.3.
1.2 Brief introduction to System Analysis and Design
Till now we have studied what systems are, their components, classification of system,
information system. Now we will look into the different aspects of how these systems are
built. Any change in the existing policies of an organization may require the existing
information system to be restructured or complete development of a new information
system. In case of an organization functioning manually and planning to computerize its
functioning, the development of a new information system would be required. The
development of any information system can be put into two major phases: analysis and
Design. During analysis phase the complete functioning of the system is understood and
requirements are defined which lead to designing of a new system. Hence the development process of a system is also known as System Analysis and Design process.
So let us now understand
1) What exactly System Analysis and Design is.
2) Who is system analyst and what are his various responsibilities
3) Users of the Systems
1.1.3.1.3 Decision Support Systems
These systems assist higher management to make long term decisions. These type of
systems handle unstructured or semi structured decisions. A decision is considered
unstructured if there are no clear procedures for making the decision and if not all the
factors to be considered in the decision can be readily identified in advance. These are not
of recurring nature. Some recur infrequently or occur only once.
A decision support system must very flexible. The user should be able to produce
customized reports by giving particular data and format specific to particular situations.
1.1.3.1.2 Management Information Systems
These systems assist lower management in problem solving and making decisions. They
use the results of transaction processing and some other information also. It is a set of
information processing functions. It should handle queries as quickly as they arrive. An
important element of MIS system is database. A database is a non-redundant collection of
interrelated data items that can be processed through application programs and available
to many users.
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