Course: CIT 460 – Systems Analysis and Design
College: College of Technological Innovation
Systems Analysis and Design Project Guidelines
Instructions, and Mode of Work
- This is a Group-based project. A group size of maximum 4 allowed; however, a group size of 3 is highly recommended due to the effort required in the timescale given.
- Each student in the group MUST lead one of the tasks/parts of the project, while others collaboratively work with the leader to support the decision-making process.
- All students in the group will be working together to compile all the tasks and create the final report.
- Each team is responsible for submitting their original work; plagiarism will be dealt firmly according to ZU’s policy.
Outline and Introduction
This project is designed to assess your learning in a number of areas relating to CIT460 System Analysis and Design. In addition, it gives you an opportunity to apply your learning and acquire practical skills while analysing and designing a real system without some of the pressures that exist in industry, such as changing requirements and cost constraints. This will enable you to consider alternative approaches to your analysis and design, giving you an opportunity to reflect on your work and, hopefully, learn from what you have done. It is also an opportunity to work in a team with other students, and to learn how to manage people and workloads in a way that removes many of the problems of difficult teams, but still allows you to engage fully with all aspects of the project work.
Remember that the purpose of this project is to provide you with an opportunity for learning, and your instructor with means of assessing your knowledge retention. The purpose is not to get the system built as quickly as possible to get something handed in. Rather it is to design and develop a system in a safe environment that encourages experimentation and learning. You should continually be questioning your approach to the work and trying to find the best way of developing systems through research and experimentation.
Keep in mind that the outcome of your work in this project, can be a jump start for your Cap Stone project (senior project). If you choose to do so, you would have an excellent starting point having completed a detailed feasibility study, system requirements document, and system design specification.
System Project Options
Your team has the following system project options to choose from:
- Order processing system (for a company of your choosing)
- Textbook management system (for CTI college)
- Faculty professional development approval system (for ZU)
- Open (students propose their own project, subject to instructor approval)
System Project Options (detail)
- Order processing system
An order processing system is one of the most popular transactional processing systems. There are three distinct order processing situations: 1) order processing from stock, 2) order processing for purchase from third party, and 3) order processing where the goods are then manufactured. The first type (processing from stock) is the more common of the order processing systems, and is used to help organize and record the processing of both sales and purchase orders.
Goods are usually picked from a warehouse and then delivered or sent to customers. Thousands of organisations would use such a system, for example:
- Central warehouses (for supermarkets),
- Wholesalers of paper, electrical goods etc.
- Spares departments for vehicle and machinery suppliers
- Catalogue stores
Many online organisations receive orders via the web using a similar system. The main difference is that invoicing is not required as payment is taken during order entry. For this option, you must select an organization which you believe requires a new or an improved order processing system. You should have good familiarity with the selected organization and system.
- Textbook management system
Every semester CTI students receive textbooks from the college on a loan using the existing paper process, and at the end of the semester students are responsible for returning them. Students with records showing unreturned books are required to buy them before graduating. The existing process is manual and prone to errors. A new computer system to manage the processes of textbook distribution, collection, accounting, and reporting is desired.
- Faculty professional development approval system
When a ZU faculty wishes to participate in a professional development opportunity (e.g. academic conference) he/she need to apply for approval from the college and university. The current process is paper-based and lengthy. A new computer system is desired to automate and facilitate the process.
- Open
Students get to propose their own system project idea for analysis and design. This option is subject to instructor approval based on appropriateness of the idea and proposed scope.
Project Parts Detail
DELIVERABLE 0: Group Formations
A single email from one of your group members to the instructor containing: the names and the I.D.’s of all members of your group and the selected project option.
PART 1: Business Case, Preliminary Investigation, and System Requirements
As individuals, read through the project option description; think about the organization, system elements and requirements (users, areas, objects, issues, processes, functions, data, etc.), and consider existing challenges and make notes as necessary. As a group, pool your ideas and complete a preliminary investigation report and document requirements as you go. One member must be identified as the “part leader,” who will be the point of contact between your team and the instructor.
DELIVERABLE 1: A report containing the below element submitted by your part leader on the date specified. No hard copy is required, only a soft copy should also be uploaded to Blackboard by the team leader (one upload per team).
- Business Case
o A business profile of the selected organization, including SWOT analysis, mission, strategy, functions, products and services, constraints, and future directions
o Describe the for the anticipated system improvements, and how IT/IS can address the identified opportunity
- A preliminary investigation report:
o Clearly state the problem; describe existing issue(s) and justify the need for a solution. Use a fishbone diagram to help focus your ideas
o Description of project scope and constraints
o Feasibility study (operational, technical, economic, and schedule)
o Your recommendation to management
- System Requirements; describe business vs. user, functional and non-functional requirements of the new system
PART 2: Data and Process Modelling
In this part, as a first step in the modelling phase, you are required to individually analyse and construct a system logical model (Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) for each system part). In addition, as individuals, pick at least one business process and model it using a process description technique. Then, as a group, work together to compare the created DFD diagrams and process descriptions with those produced by other members of the group; and after discussing the different approaches agree on a model for the system. It should now be fine-tuned and documented using DFD diagrams, data dictionary, and process description. One member must be identified as the “part leader”, who will be the point of contact between your team and the instructor.
DELIVERABLE 2: A report containing the below element submitted by your part leader on the date specified. No hard copy is required, only a soft copy should also be uploaded to Blackboard by the team leader (one upload per team).
- Use Case Diagram for the system
- Complete set of DFD diagrams describing the complete system logical model down to the functional primitive level. A full data dictionary specification to accompany it.
- Select the most interesting business process in your system and document it using at least TWO process description tools.
- Commentary on decisions made while developing diagrams, selecting and merging individual work into a group report, and what you learned from the process
PART 3: Object Modelling
In this part, you are required to develop an object oriented (OO) logical model for the system under analysis. You are required to individually propose and analyse an OO system model. Then, as a group, work together to compare the created diagrams with those produced by other members of the group; and after discussing the different approaches agree on a unified model for the system. You will next fine-tune and document it using the below listed diagrams. One member must be identified as the “part leader”, who will be the point of contact between your team and the instructor.
DELIVERABLE 3: A report containing the below element submitted by your part leader on the date specified. No hard copy is required, only a soft copy should also be uploaded to Blackboard by the team leader (one upload per team).
- Use Case Diagram and Use Case Description Documents (tables) for each system use case; you should refine and extend your previous work in Deliverable 2
- Object Relationship diagram (ORD) for the system
- Class Diagram for the system, detailed enough that it can be directly mapped into executable high level programming language such as Java
- Select one of your use cases and develop a Sequence Diagram for the use case
- Select one of your objects and develop a State Transition Diagram for the object
- Activity Diagram showing actions and events as they occur in the system for one of your business processes
- Select the most interesting business process in your system and document it using Business Process Modelling
- Commentary on decisions made while developing diagrams, selecting and merging individual work into a group report, and what you learned from the process
PART 4: Final Report
One member must be identified as the “part leader”, who will be the point of contact between your team and the instructor. No hard copy is required, only a soft copy should also be uploaded to Blackboard by the team leader (one upload per team).
DELIVERABLE 4: A single group report for the final submission, with:
- ALL previous deliverables must be combined and refined into a single group report for the final submission, with each section clearly identified. Your refined submission should improve your work based on what you learned and discovered while designing the system. Any previous mistakes or omissions should be addressed at this stage, as well as incorporating provided grading.
- The report should be structured appropriately, providing a conclusion at the end summarising what you have learnt about Systems Analysis and Design as a result of completing this part, and commentary on decisions made while merging different parts, refining results.
PART 5: Final Presentation
DELIVERABLE 5: The group will deliver a presentation at the date and time specified in the syllabus. You will have to create a PowerPoint presentation for this part. The students will have to explain clearly their work. Each group will have 20 minuets to present the entire work, and 5 to 10 minuets for questions and discussion. Keep in mind the time allocated for your presentation, and that you have to cover all the slides within the time. A soft copy should also be uploaded to Blackboard by the same team leader (one per team).
Guidelines
- This is a group-based work but you will be valuated individually as well; only good collaboration will accomplish good results.
- If you are unclear about any part of this part you must consult the instructor via email, in person (during office hours), or during designated workshop/lab class sessions.
The reports length is flexible.
Resources Required
You have access to all the computer labs and software found within the college. In addition, you may use any equipment that you may own yourself. You will need access to the following resources: LucidCharts and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Other Sources of Information
Any source material protected by copyright that you use must be clearly stated within your report.
NOTE! AEssay Team of professional writers have already completed this assignment. We are ready to help You with it. Please use the coupon code AE-FB-2018-15 to get a discount if You order till the end of 2018 or contact our support to get a new one.
