Information Systems Analysis, Modeling, and Design

Book Needed to complete some of this questions is:

Kenneth E. Kendall; Julie E. Kendall Systems Analysis and Design, Ninth Edition

Question 1:

Steve Smith is a restaurant owner who wants to spend his $15,000 to modernize his restaurant by adapting it more closely to the preferences of his repeat customers by keeping track of his customers' likes and dislikes. Information such as where they like to sit, what they like to eat, when they normally arrive at the restaurant are all items of interest to him, since he believes that in this way he can better serve his customers. Steve has asked you to develop a system for him that will help make his customers happy while increasing his business, while keeping a high regard for privacy.

You have heard what Steve had to say about his customers. There are certainly more preferences that he can keep track of. Develop a problem definition for Steve, similar to one developed for Catherine's Catering in chapter 3, pg. 51. Please note that the problem definition includes 5 items: Problem Definition, Issues, Objectives, Requirements and Constraints.

Question 2:

An analyst needs an organized method for collecting facts. Some systems analysts will frequently jump right into interviews. They believe, "Go to the people. That's where the real facts are!" Wrong! This approach fails to recognize an important fact of life: People must complete their day-to-day jobs. You may be thinking, "But I thought you've been seen saying that the system is for people and that direct end user involvement in systems development is essential. Aren't you contradicting yourselves?"

A. Write a paragraph to offer your opinion on the issue described in the above statement.

B. Given that you can use all seven common fact finding techniques: (1) sampling of existing documentation, forms, and databases, (2) investigation, (3) observation of the work environment, (4) questionnaires, (5) interviews, (6) prototyping, and (7) joint application design. Using all of these seven techniques, propose a general step-by-step strategy (which technique goes first and which technique goes next) to discover the information system requirements and provide an explanation of your strategy decision.

Question 3:

A summary of business activities for registering courses for enrolled students and for registering class lists for faculty members and for administrators at an online university is as follows:

Students send in a course registration form consisting of their personal information and their desired courses. The system checks that the courses are available and that the student is academically qualified to take the course.

Based on the checking results, the system will send to the student a confirmation and/or rejection letter with detailed information for each requesting course. Faculty members and administrators will receive registering class lists when the registration period is complete.

1. Draw a context-level data flow diagram for the "Courses Registration" system using the following items:

Process name: Courses registration system

External entities: Derived from the above narrative

Data flows: Derived from the above narrative

2. Explode the above context-level diagram by drawing the logical data flow diagram level 0 showing all the major processes using the following items:

Process names:

(1) Check Course Availability and Academic Qualification

(2) Register Requesting Courses

(3) Confirm/Reject Courses Registration

(4) Generate Class List

Data stores: Derived from the above narrative

External entities: Derived from the above narrative

Data flows: Derived from the above narrative.