SIA REVIEWER 5.
Four Frames of Organizations
1. System
- An array of components designed to accomplish a
particular objective according to plan.
2. Systems Thinking
- Is a way of understanding an entity in terms of its
purpose
- The three major steps followed in systems
thinking
1. Identify a containing whole (system), of which
the thing to be explained is a part.
2. Explain the behavior or properties of the
containing whole.
3. Explain the behavior or properties of the thing
to be explained in terms of its role(s)or
function(s) within its containing whole
3. Project
- A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
accomplish a unique product or service
Attributes of projects
 unique purpose
 temporary
 require resources, often from various areas
 should have a primary sponsor and/or
customer
 involve uncertainty
4. Information Systems
Information Systems Projects Originate (Source
of Projects)
- New or changed IS development projects come
from problems, opportunities, and directives and are
always subject to one or more constraints.
1. Problems – may either be current, suspected, or
anticipated. Problems are undesirable situations
that prevent the business from fully achieving its
purpose, goals, and objectives (users discovering
real problems with existing IS).
2. An Opportunity – is a chance to improve the
business even in the absence of specific problems.
This means that the business is hoping to create a
system that will help it with increasing its revenue,
profit, or services, or decreasing its costs.
3. A Directive – is a new requirement that is
imposed by management, government, or some
external influence i.e. are mandates that come from
either an internal or external source of the business.
Structural frame
-Focuses on roles and responsibilities,
coordination and control. Organizational charts
help define this frame.
Human resources frame
-Focuses on providing harmony between needs
of the organization and needs of people.
Political frame
-Assumes organizations are coalitions composed
of varied individuals and interest groups. Conflict
and power are key issues.
Symbolic frame
- Focuses on symbols and meanings related to
events. Culture is important.
6. Project Phases and Lifecycle
PROJECT PHASES
- Project phases vary by project or industry, but
some general phases include : concept,
development, implementation, support
PROJECT LIFECYCLE
-A project life cycle is a collection of project phases
The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- is a framework for describing the phases involved
in developing and maintaining information systems
Systems development projects can follow:
Predictive models: The scope of the project can be
clearly articulated and the schedule and cost can be
predicted.
Adaptive models: Projects are mission driven and
component based, using time-based cycles to meet
target dates.
7. Requirements
-Requirements are fundamental basis of all the
system development processes.
 -Requirements are statements that identify the
essential needs of a system in order for it to have
value and utility.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD REQ’TS
1. Describes What, Not How.
2. Atomic.
3. Unique.
4. Documented and Accessible.
5. Identifies Its Owner.
6. Approved.
7. Traceable.
8. Necessary.
9. Complete.
10. Unambiguous
11. Quantitative and testable
12. Identifies applicable states
14. States Assumptions.
15. Use of Shall, Should, and Will.
16. Avoids Certain Words.
REQUIREMENT LIFE CYCLE
Elicitation Phase
-The starting point of the requirements
engineering process is an elicitation process that
involves a number of people to ensure
consideration of a broad scope of potential ideas
and candidate problems
Organisation Phase
-In this step there is no transformation of the
requirements, but simple classification and
categorization
Analysis Phase
-This represents a transformation.
Prototype Phase
-In this way poorly understood requirements may
be tested and perhaps strengthened, corrected,
or refined. This activity is often done as a proof of
concept and serves to induce feedback from both
the stakeholders and engineers.
Requirements documentation and
specification
-This represents the requirements as the finished
product of the stakeholder requirements team.
The requirements are compiled into a
requirements list or into some equivalent
document format. These collected requirements
are then transformed into a specification.
Two Types Of Documents Realised From The
Requirements Elicitation Phase
User Requirement Specification Document
-The URS document outlines precisely what the
User (or customer) is expecting from this system.
 Non Functional Requirements
-Consists of Constraints that must be
adhered to during development
 Functional Requirements
-Describe what the system should do
System Requirements Specification Document
-A structured document setting out detailed
descriptions of the system services.
-Written as a contract between client and contractor.
8. Effective Methods for Software Integration
-The primary purpose for the implementation of
Effective Methods for Software and Systems
Integration does increase communication,
knowledge, visibility into the software life cycle, and
the importance of integration operations.
-To develop, operate, and maintain software and
systems integration capabilities inside work product
facilities, there must be a major discipline in
supporting the entire software life cycle that does
need to be completely understood.
-The critical understanding and the start of the right
disciplines of these methods will empower and
achieve effective, flexible, and quality results in an
integration environment.
9. Program and Project Planning
-the purpose of program and project planning is to
provide the necessary process steps to scope out
planning for systems and software design/
development within integration efforts
-Program and project planning is important as it
describes the necessary planning for software and
system efforts during software design/development
life cycles.
10. Gantt Chart/Critical Path
Gantt Chart
- A Gantt chart is a visual representation of
scheduled activities within a defined time interval.
-It provides an instant overview of the status of the
project.
-Simply lists what needs to be done and when.
Critical Path
-is a sequence of activity between a project’s start
and finish that takes the longest time to complete. It
is based on mathematical calculations and it is used Each object has a column and the messages
for scheduling project activities. exchanged between them are represented with
-In 1950, CPM was developed by Kelly and Walker arrows:
to assist in building and maintaining of chemical Lifeline Notation
plants. - They should be
11. UML Diagrams arranged horizontally
across the top of the
12. Use Case diagram
- Use-cases are descriptions of the functionality of a
system from a user perspective.
Components of use case diagram: Activation Bars
 Actor - Activation bar is the box
- An actor is someone or something that must placed on the lifeline
interact with the system under development - It indicates that an
- UML notation for actor is stickman object is active ((or
 Use case instantiated) during an
- A use case is a pattern of behavior, the interaction between two
system exhibits objects
- USE CASE is dialogue (oval) between an
actor and the system Message Arrows
 System boundary - An arrow from the Message Caller to the
- It is shown as a rectangle. Message Receiver specifies a message
- It helps to identify what is external versus Different message types;
internal, and what the responsibilities of the - Synchronous message
system are. - Asynchronous message
 Relationship - Return message
- Relationship is an association between use - Participant creation message
case and actor. - Participant destruction message
There are several Use Case relationships: - Reflexive message
 Association Comment
- The comment
 Extend object is a
rectangle with a
 Generalization folded-over
corner as
 Uses shown below. The comment can be linked to the
related object with a dashed line.
 Include 14. Activity Diagram
- Activity diagrams illustrate the flow of functionality
in a system.
13. Sequence Diagram - These diagrams define where the workflow starts,
- A sequence diagram models a single scenario where it ends, what activities occur during the
executing in the system workflow, and in what order the activities occur.
- sequence diagrams are preferred by both Activity Diagram Notations
developers and readers alike for their simplicity. 1. .Swimlanes
- determine which object is responsible for which
activity.
2. Start / Stop Marker
3. Activity – Transition
- A single transition
comes out of each
activity, connecting it to the next activity.
4. Action nodes
- executable activity nodes;
the execution of an action
represents some
transformations or
processes in the modeled system.
5. Control Nodes - decision nodes (Branching)
- A branch specifies alternate paths taken based
on some
Boolean expression
-Guard expressions
(inside [ ]) label the
transitions coming out
of a branch.
6. Control Nodes – fork nodes
- Fork nodes split flows
into multiple concurrent
flows
7. Control Nodes – join nodes
- Join nodes synchronize
multiple flows

15. Flowchart

16. Three-tiered Architecture

Layered Architecture
 Presentation tier
- Graphical User Interface
- Passes the user’s different action to the logic
tier.
- HTML, CSS, Javascript
 Logic tier
- Does all the thinking.
- Does the reading and writing into the data
tier.
- PHP
 Data tier
- The storage of all the data used in the
application.
- CRUD
- MySQL

17. Can include case study