UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

FACULTY OF SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

NAME: MAVENYENGWA DUMISANI K

REG #: R184880Z

PROGRAM: ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (HETT).

COURSE: HETT 203

ASSIGNMENT1

DATE: 04/11/19
1. Discuss three reasons why aligning overall business goals with Information System goals is
important.
 It increases the efficiency of technological investment
 Reduces the financial and operational risks associated with IS change
 The alignment gives the business a competitive advantage over other businesses
as it will be able to foster a better customer experience and make for faster time-
to-market.

2. Define the different types of feasibility that systems development must consider.

 Technological feasibility
o Proposed technological requirements are they accessible to the business
 Resource feasibility
o the resources should be enough up to the end of the system development
 Schedule feasibility
o the time frame of the project is it logical for the project to be completed
successfully
 Organisational feasibility
o This involves the fact that the new system should be in line with the existing
organisational structure i.e. are the goals of the system aligned with those of the
business

3. What intangible benefits might an organization obtain from the development of an

information system?
 The customer satisfaction is increased
 In-house expertise are developed easily
 Increases then level of service becomes faster and more efficient
4. Discuss why some systems developers believe that a data model is one of the most important
parts of the statement of information system requirements
Data model is a diagram of entities and their relationships, for example a class diagram and
the E-R diagram the relational model.
o Data model is used to get a logical feel of the system before it is physically made
o This is where the relationships between data and users are defined and this initiates a
speeding up of the process of system development.
o These data models can be used as reference documents

5. What is the difference between systems investigation and systems analysis? Identify the
stakeholders and activities which happen during the systems investigation process.
System investigation System analysis

-This involves the act of understanding -analysis involves the act of trying to
the problem at hand understand the solutions

-investigation also involves determining -Analysis also deals with determination of

whether the problem is worth solving (is the faults of the old system
the benefit correlated with the cost)

-Considers what the available resources -Puts across what the system must do to
and opportunities are solve the problem

-A stake holder is anyone who has an interest in the successful implementation of

the system they can however be grouped as follows:
 Executive users
 Operational users
 Clients
6. State and explain the differences between systems analysis and systems design, with
reference to activities done and outcomes of both instances?
 System analysis involves the act of trying to understand the solutions while system
design aims at designing organising and structuring the components of the final
solution
 The activities that are involved in the process of system analysis are:
o Gathering the detailed information about the solution
o Defining of the system requirements
o Developing a user interface
o Evaluating the requirements with users
 The activities involved in system design are:
 Design the environment
 Design the user interface
 Design the application architecture and software
 Design the system control and security
 Designing a prototype

7. List and briefly describe the five activities of systems analysis.

 Gathering the detailed information about the solution
o processes like interviewing and questionnaires as well as observation are used in this
stage
 Evaluating the requirements with user
o creating a prototype and issuing it out will aid in the successful determination of
requirements
 Defining of the system requirements
o Determining what the stakeholders wan the system to be able to do
 Prioritizing the critical parts (which requires process of selecting the critical parts)
o some requirements are more important than others and so determining the critical
ones and prioritizing will aid the success of the project
 Developing a user interface
o models can be used here so that a logical feel of the system is existent
8. What is the difference between functional requirements and non-functional requirements?
 Functional requirements are those that define activities that the system must perform
(the core service that the business needs) while the Non-functional requirements are
not core services for example usability, reliability, security and performance.

9. Describe the steps in preparing for, conducting, and following up an interview session? State
how would you ensure that you get all the right information during an interview session?

 Before the interview,

o The objective should be determined so that they guide the interviewer
o Detailed and specific questions should be selected
o The decision on which stakeholders to approach should be made
o The nature of the interview should be determined i.e. between fact finding and idea
hunting
o For accuracy more than one analyst is needed

 During the interview

o Punctuality (the interviewer must arrive on time)
o Exception and error handling
o Probe for more details by asking the question what if
o Take notes of the system for now
o Document any unclear or unanswered questions

 After the interview

o Thank the participants
o Areas for specific classification
o Then properly review the notes and post the findings to a proper model
10. List and briefly describe the six information gathering techniques.
 Interviews
o generating a set of questions and then approaching a couple of stakeholders and
asking questions about the system
 Collection of the active user comments
o Use of suggestion boxes to have what the active users have to say about the current
system
 Research of vendor solutions
o This is a study of how other businesses have solved the problems that we are facing
in our company it helps us create systems that are up to date
 Questionnaires
o A set of questions printed out in the form of a fill in paper that is distributed to a lot
of people and then collected and the answers are analysed
 Review of the inputs, outputs and documentation
o The daily inputs to the system, the processing and the output are observed over a
period and analysed
 Observation and documentation of business procedures
o The developer can go to the business and study the way things are done

11. You have been hired to perform systems investigation for a restaurant owner in Bulawayo.
She is thinking of opening a new restaurant with a state-of-the art computer system that would
allow customers to place orders on the Internet or at kiosks at restaurant tables. Describe how
you would determine the technical, economic, legal, operational, and schedule feasibility for the
restaurant and its new computer system.

 Technical feasibility
We look at the devices needed for the system to run successfully and compare with those
devices that are already available in restaurant
 Economic feasibility
The amount of money needed to develop the required system can the restaurant afford it
or not
 Legal feasibility
The implementation of the system should be within the legal confines of the state and so a
research avoids a case whereby the restaurant is sued.
  Operational feasibility
Will the customer be able to operate the system, how computer literate are the
employees?
 Schedule feasibility
The size of the system determines how long it will take for the system to be built, an
estimate will determine whether the deadline can be handled or not

12a. The purchasing department handles purchase requests from other departments in the
company. People in the company who initiate the original purchase request are the “customers”
of the purchasing department. A case worker within the purchasing department receives the
request and monitors it until it is ordered and received. Case workers process requests for the
purchase of products under $1,500, write a purchase order, and then send it to the approved
vendor. Purchase requests over $1,500 must first be sent out for bid from the vendor that
supplies the product. When the bids return, the case worker selects one bid and then writes a
purchase order and sends it to the vendor.

Request for
purchase Casewkr

Customer
Case-worker (less than
Write purchase
order 1500)

write

Send out for

bids

Case-worker

(Greater than 1500) Select a bid

Send order to
approved
vendor
 vendor

Request for
purchace

< $1500 >$1500

Write purchase Send bids

Select bid

Send to vendor
b. The shipping department receives all shipments on outstanding purchase orders. When the clerk
in the shipping department receives a shipment, he or she finds the outstanding purchase order for
those items. The clerk then sends multiple copies of the shipment packing slip. One copy goes to
Purchasing, and the department updates its records to indicate that the purchase order has been
fulfilled. Another copy goes to Accounting so a payment can be made. A third copy goes to the
requesting in-house customer so he or she can receive the shipment. After payment is made, the
accounting department sends a notification to Purchasing. After the customer receives and accepts
the goods, he or she sends notification to Purchasing. When Purchasing receives these other
verifications, it closes the purchase order as fulfilled and paid.

Receive
shipment

Clerk Find
outstanding
order

Send copy of
shipment
packing slip
Allow for Purchasing
payment to
Accounting Updates be made
records

Send customer
notificationto
purchasing
department

In-
Receive
goods hou
se
 Receive shipment

Find outstanding
purchase orders

Send copies of packing

slip

Update purchases Allow for payment Receive goods

records

Receive
notifications
Send notifications
informing the purchases
department
 13. Draw an entity-relationship diagram, including minimum and maximum cardinality, for
the following: The system stores information about two things: cars and owners. A car has
attributes for make, model, and year. The owner has attributes for name and address.
Assume that a car must be owned by one owner and an owner can own many cars, but an
owner might not own any cars (perhaps she just sold them all, but you still want a record of
her in the system).

Owner Car

14. Draw a class diagram for the cars and owners described above, but include subclasses for
sports car, sedan, and minivan, with appropriate attributes.

Owner Car

 NAME 1… 0…  MAKE
 ADDRESS  YEAR
 YEAR

SEDAN MINIVAN
SPORTS CAR