Systems Analysis & Design

PURPOSE OF COURSE

This course provides a methodical approach to developing computer systems including systems planning, analysis, design, testing, implementation and software maintenance.  Emphasis is on the strategies and techniques of systems analysis and design for producing logical methodologies for dealing with complexity in the development of information systems. The course approaches the development of information systems from a problem-solving perspective. This course builds upon concepts to which the student has been exposed in previous classes. The course is designed to impart skills of system design approaches. It covers the IT System Development Cycle, Conception, Feasibility Study, Systems Investigation, fact-finding Methods, Analysis of Investigation, Systems Design, and Distributed vs. Centralized File systems, Security and Audit, System Study Report.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course unit, students should be able to;

·         Familiar with the concepts of a system and what it means to develop and implement an information system in an organization.

·         Be familiar with the major phases of the system development life cycle.

·         Identify the information and processing needs of the organization.

·         Elicit, identify, recognize, and capture requirements for information systems.

·         Produce a structured system specification for a simple system from system analysis.

·         Clearly represent the system analysis and design by means of basic diagrammatic modeling tools.

·         Design the information system from the specifications including the user interface, menu structure, system modular structure, etc.

This course serves as a capstone to the more technical courses that students have taken to date. It is important for the student to begin to see their job as a builder of 'systems', not a producer of programs. Part of each student's training is to develop the ability to determine the problems, as opposed to symptoms of the problems, of organizations and to develop solutions to those problems using computer technologies.