Chapter 3a/b Flashcards
What are the key activities involved in Systems Analysis?
Gather Detailed Information: Use interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, observing business processes, researching vendors, and collecting comments and suggestions.
Define Requirements: Model both functional and non-functional requirements.
Prioritize Requirements: Categorize requirements as essential, important, or nice to have.
Develop User-Interface Dialogs: Design the flow of interaction between the user and the system.
Evaluate Requirements with Users: Involve users for feedback and adapt the system to any changes.
What methods can be used to gather detailed information during system analysis?
Interviews
Questionnaires
Document analysis
Observing business processes
Researching vendors
Comments and suggestions from users
Differentiate between functional and non-functional requirements.
Functional Requirements: Describe the activities the system must perform, such as business uses and functions the users carry out.
Non-Functional Requirements: Describe other system characteristics like constraints and performance goals.
Why is it important to prioritize requirements, and how can they be categorized?
Importance: Prioritizing requirements ensures that the most critical needs are addressed first, which is crucial for project success.
Categories: Requirements can be categorized as essential, important, or nice to have.
Explain the role of user-interface dialogs in system development.
User-interface dialogs determine the flow of interaction between the user and the system, ensuring that the system is user-friendly and meets the user’s needs.
How do you evaluate requirements with users during system analysis?
Involve users throughout the process for their feedback, and be prepared to adapt the system to accommodate any changes suggested by the users.
What does the FURPS+ acronym stand for in system requirements?
Functional requirements
Usability requirements
Reliability requirements
Performance requirements
Security requirements
+ (Plus): Additional categories
The FURPS+ acronym stands for:
- Functional requirements: These define the specific behavior and functions the system must perform.
- Usability requirements: These address how user-friendly and accessible the system is to users.
- Reliability requirements: These ensure the system performs consistently and is free from errors over time.
- Performance requirements: These focus on the system’s efficiency, including speed, responsiveness, and resource usage.
- Security requirements: These define measures to protect the system from unauthorized access and data breaches.
- + (Plus): Additional categories: This includes other factors like supportability, implementation, and design constraints that are important but don’t fit into the main categories.
Give examples of requirements under the FURPS+ categories.
Functional: Business rules and processes
Usability: User interface, ease of use
Reliability: Failure rate, recovery methods
Performance: Response time, throughput
Security: Access controls, encryptions
Who are stakeholders in the context of system development, and how are they categorized?
Stakeholders are persons who have an interest in the successful implementation of the system.
Categories:
Internal Stakeholders: Persons within the organization.
External Stakeholders: Persons outside the organization.
Operational Stakeholders: Persons who regularly interact with the system.
Executive Stakeholders: Persons who don’t directly interact with the system but use the information or have financial interest.
What information gathering techniques can be used in system analysis?
Interviewing users and other stakeholders
Distributing and collecting questionnaires
Reviewing inputs, outputs, and documentation
Observing and documenting business procedures
Researching vendor solutions
Collecting active user comments and suggestions
What are the advantages and limitations of using questionnaires in system analysis?
Advantages:
Allows an analyst to reach a larger number of stakeholders.
Enables a wider geographical reach.
Useful for preliminary understanding of stakeholder needs.
Best for collecting quantitative data with more close-ended questions.
Limitations:
Too many open-ended questions may result in a poor return rate.
Not effective for learning about processes, workflows, or technique
What are the different types of models used in system analysis, and what do they represent?
Textual Model: A text-based representation, typically written down or described.
Graphical Model: A visual representation such as pictures, diagrams, or schematics.
Mathematical Model: Numerical representations using formulas, statistics, or algorithms
What is Unified Modeling Language (UML) and its significance in system analysis?
UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a standard way of using diagrams and symbols to visually represent parts of an information system. It helps create clear and consistent models to describe how the system works.
List some common analysis and design models used in system development.
Event list
Use case diagram
Use case description
Activity diagram
Class diagram
Sequence diagram
Communication diagram
State machine diagram
- Event list: A list of significant events that trigger system behaviors or actions.
- Use case diagram: A visual representation of the system’s functional requirements, showing the interactions between actors and use cases.
- Use case description: A detailed narrative that explains the steps, conditions, and outcomes of a use case.
- Activity diagram: A flowchart that illustrates the sequence of activities or workflows within the system.
- Class diagram: A diagram that shows the system’s classes, attributes, methods, and relationships between them.
- Sequence diagram: A diagram that depicts the interaction between objects in a particular sequence to accomplish a specific task.
- Communication diagram: A diagram that highlights the interactions between objects or components based on the messages exchanged.
- State machine diagram: A diagram that describes the states an object can be in and the transitions between these states based on events.
What is an activity diagram, and what is its purpose in documenting workflows?
Activity Diagram: A UML diagram that describes user or system activities, identifies the person responsible for each activity, and shows the sequential flow of these activities.
Purpose: It is useful for providing a graphical model of a workflow, which is the sequence of processing steps that completely handles a business transaction or customer request.
