Question 1.
If someone at a party asked you what a systems analyst was and why anyone would want to be one, what would you say? Support your answer with evidence from the textbook.
Write your answer in a 400-word essay. In your response, post the question first followed by your answer.
Question 2.
a) Explain this statement: "We need to institutionalize the SDLC as our organizational project management methodology."
b) Describe two advantages and two disadvantages of using interviews in requirements gathering.
c) Explain the difference between a waterfall and an iterative/incremental System Development Life Cycle. Illustrate your answer with diagrams.
d) Compare the use of a DFD model with a UML activity diagram for modeling business processes (No need to show diagrams).
Question 3.
Draw a use-case diagram to illustrate the following online UMUC registration system.
The system should enable UMUC staff members of each academic department to examine the courses offered by their department, add and remove courses and change the information about the courses (e.g., setting a maximum number of students permitted). The system should permit UMUC students to examine currently available courses, add and drop courses to and from their class schedules as well as examine the courses for which they are enrolled. Department staff should be able to print a variety of reports about the courses and the students enrolled in them. The system should ensure that no student takes too many course and the students who have any unpaid fees are not allowed to register (assume that a fees data store is maintained by the university's financial office, which the registration system accesses but does not change).
(Use MS Office tools, Visio or a free tool from Creately.com; no hand-drawn maps).
Question 4.
(a) Explain two reasons why the object-oriented techniques have improved systems analysis and design.
(b) Explain two similarities and two differences between the following UML diagrams: sequence and communication diagrams.
(c) Describe four ways that a CASE tool can help to improve the quality of a system being developed.
(d) Givean example of an output bias and two strategies to avoid UI design output bias.