KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

KABWE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY [Document subtitle]

STUDENT NAME:CHINYAMA LWEENDO

STUDENTNo :2021011

PROGRAM : BACHELAR OF ICT WITH EDUCATION

COURSE NAME :SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

YEAR :2ND YEAR

ASSIGNMENT NO :ONE

LECTURER : MR.BWALYA

DUE DATE : 19TH AUGUST 2022

 QUESTION ONE (1)

A.
 Business organisation can be considered as a system through the
production subsystems that transform inputs into outputs such as goods
and services. A production which is a system method used in industry
to create goods and services like labour, land, materials etc.
 It can also be considered as a system through supportive subsystems
which perform acquisition and distribution functions within the
organisation. Acquisition activities include security resources such as
employees and raw materials from external environment.
 Maintenance subsystem: These systems maintain the social
involvement of employees in an organisation. Activities in this system
include providing employee benefits and compensation that motivate
workers, creating favourable work conditions, and other forms of
satisfying human needs.
 Business organisation can also be considered as a system through
adaptive subsystems which serve to gather information about problems
and opportunities in the environment then respond with innovation that
allows the organisation to adapt. And managerial subsystems which
direct the activities of other subsystems in the organisation. They set
goals and policies, allocate resources, settle dispute, and genetically
work to facilitate the efficiency of the organisation.
B. Data flow diagram DFD maps out the flow of information for any business process or
a system. It uses defined symbols like rectangles, circles and arrows and text tables
C. Use case diagram is a behavioural ULM diagram type and frequently used to analyse
various systems.
 QUESTION THREE (3)

a) Merits of the software package approach in acquisition of systems

 Cost savings: The purchase of a software package is perceived as
significantly cheaper than developing a bespoke alternatives.
 Time savings: The software package is a product that already exist. It can
be purchased and implemented almost immediately, there is no
requirement for design, programming, unit and systems testing.
  Quality benefits: The software package is a proven product that has
undergone systems testing in development and user acceptance testing,
therefore the product should be relatively error-free as well as fulfilling
most of the functional requirements of the application.
 Available documentation and training: In the software package approach
the documentation can be inspected and evaluated before purchasing the
product and the economies of scale allow the software vendors to produce
and provide high quality training courses at a cheaper price.
 Organised maintenance and enhancement: Software products are usually
supported by a formal maintenance agreement. The cost of this support
and enhancement is spread across a number of users cheaply to each
individual customer.
 Try before you buy: This entails the ability to examine the product in
detail before purchasing it.

Demerit of the software package approach in acquisition of systems

 Ownership: In the software package approach the ownership of the

software usually remains with the supplier. Customers are licensed to use
the product but they don’t own it.
 Financial stability of the supplier: External software suppliers are subject
to the vagaries of management and the markets.
 Competitive edge: In software package approach the software solution is
open to all competitors and potential competitors, so it is difficult to see
how such a solution can provide a competitive edge as all potential
competitors have access to that solution.
 Failure to fit requirement: Most software packages do not fulfil all the user
requirements defined for a particular application.
 Legal redress: Clearly this last resort is inappropriate if the system has
been developed an internal software but it is an option if the system has
been developed an external software house.
b) Reasons for buying a software package
 Lower costs
 Requires less time to implement
  Proven reliability and performance benchmarks
 Implemented other companies
 Requires less technical development staff
 Future upgrades provided by the vendor.
c) In software development a prototype is a rudimentary working model of a product
or information system usually built for demonstration purposes. It is a smaller
vision of the original system. In terms of an information system prototypes are
employed to help system that intuitive and easy to manipulate for end users.

QUESTION FOUR (4)

a) i. Data flow diagram: Data flow diagram is graphical representation of flow of data in
an information system. It is capable of depicting incoming data flow, outgoing data
flow and stored data it can be logical or physical.
ii. Structured English statement: Structured English uses plain English words in
structured programming paradigm. It is not the ultimate code but a kind of description
what is required to code and how to code it e.g.
IF-THEN-ELSE,
DO- WHILE-UNTIL
b) Data dictionary assists in ensuring common meanings for system elements and
activities. It records addition details about the data flow in a system so that all persons
involved can quickly look up the descriptions of data flows, data stores and processes.
c) Identifying benefits and costs can eight her be tangible or intangible.
 Tangible benefits are advantages measurable in dollars through the use of the
information system.
 Intangible benefits are difficult to measure.
 Tangible costs are accurately projected by the systems analysts and
accounting personnel.
 Intangible costs are difficulty to estimate and may not be known.
d) The entity-relationship model describes the main-things of interest to the business and
defines the relationships between them. It provides a graphical representation of some
of the business rules of the system and these need to be confirmed the user. For
example an entity type CLAIM may be in a one-to-many relationship with another
 entity type PATMENT. The model is an improvement on textual specification in at
least two ways firstly it is a more compact way of showing the business rules and
specifying these in consistent detail. Secondly it also identifies what business
relationships are not supported.

QUESTION FIVE (5)

a) Systems development
Operations
Systems support
1. System development: The systems development manager is responsible for the
offline development of systems and their implementations. Their activities includes:
system investigations, system design, and system testing. System implementation
and system maintenance and programming section their main activities includes the
writing of programs, testing programs, and maintaining programs. System
programmers write and maintain the program.
2. Operations: The operations manager is responsible for the efficient day-to-day
running of the computer operations and the operating staff. Their activities include
planning procedures, schedules and staff timetables, contingency planning,
supervision and co-ordination of data collection, preparations, control and computer
room operations, and liaising with the IT manager and system development manager.
3. Data preparations: They are responsible for converting data from source documents
to computer sensible form. Their duties is to correctly enter data from source
documents and forms, keeping a record of data handled and reporting problems with
data or equipment.
4. Data control: These are generally clerks. Their activities is to receive incoming work
in time checking and logging incoming work before passing it to the data preparation
staff, dealing with errors and queries on processing and checking and distributing
output.
5. The maintenance section: Fixing software and hardware problems. Their duties is to
create and delete users, training users, conflict resolution and advising managers on
planning and acquisition of communication equipment.
b) Charge back systems IT as a corporate overhead: IS costs are treated as an
administrative overhead.
Merits of charge back systems IT as a corporate overhead
 Simple and cheap to administer
 Encourage innovation and experimentation
 Minimal conflict between IT and user department

Demerits of charge back systems IT as a corporate overhead

 No incentive to control costs
 No responsible use of IT
2. IT charged out on a cost basis or cost based charge-out. Users are charged for the
costs of IT in proportion to their usage.
Merits of IT charged out on a cost basis or cost based charge-out
 Conceptually simple
 Cost control responsibility
 Motivation to regulate costs

Demerits of IT charged out on a cost basis or cost based charge-out

 Inefficiencies of the IS department may be passed on to users

 Complex to implement in practice
 Difficulty in determining appropriate costs unity
 Overhead costs of IT department still need to be met
3. Market based charge-out. It department acts as a profit centre.
Merits of based charge-out
 External standards and price available
 Encourages an entrepreneurial attitude
 Prices are negotiable

Demerits of market based charge-out

 No comparable services might exist

 May result in underutilisation of resources
 Management skills may be lacking in IT.
 QUESTION SIX (6)

a) i. Understanding of business issues

 Knowledge of the industry
 Attitude to technology and level of expertise
 Project engagement
 Team playing and communication

ii. Plan out our project

 Set clear gaols for your project

 Create a steady check-in schedule
 Record and analyse data
 Make changes to your goals if necessary
b) i. Open or closed systems: An open system continually interacts with its
environments, it receives inputs from and delivers output to the outside. And a closed
system is isolated from environmental influences.
ii. Deterministic or probabilistic systems: A deterministic system is one in which the
occurrence of all events is perfectly predictable. Probabilistic system is one in which
the occurrence of events cannot be perfectly predicted.
c) Every system has a purpose
 Most systems have five components, input, processes, output, feedback, and
control.
 Systems are made up of subsystems, whose goals are referred to as sub goals.
 The goals of a system are more important that the sub goals of its
subsystems.
 Subsystems are guided both by their individual goals and by their
relationships with other subsystems within the system.
 Subsystems must work together in harmony to achieve system goals.