INFS1006 - Systems Analysis & Design

Workshop 1
Workshops cover the practical aspects of the lecture topic using case studies and other ex-
amples.

• Workshop Quiz
o Students to visit app.gosoapbox.com, click Join and use access code ‘wsquiz’
to attempt the workshop quiz. Pls note this quiz is not assessable. Students
must attempt this quiz in the time allocated by the workshop facilitator/tu-
tor, followed by discussions on the student attempt and the topics
• Workshop questions
This document contains 2 parts
o Part A contains the workshop case studies and questions. These are to be
done in the workshop with the tutor in groups of 3-4 students. Task 1 will al-
ways refer to Workshop Case study, some additional case studies are in-
cluded for more tasks
Group work should be run like an agile daily/weekly Standup meeting. Roles
include:
• Product Owner – they know the product and provide the information
on delivering the product
• Scrum Master – controls the flow of the standup. In the workshop
they will communicate the finding of the group.
• Team Member – communicate what they are working on, any road-
blocks etc, what needs to be done next
Roles should rotate so that all students have an opportunity to play each role.
o Part B contains questions and tasks related to case studies that individual stu-
dents need to answer in their own time and submit as Portfolio exercises as
per the Portfolio due dates given in the Learning guide.
Part A: To be done during the workshop

Task 1 DeliverNow Case Study – Running case study

DeliverNow is a parcel delivery company located in Sydney. During the pandemic they have
seen a gap in the market for delivering goods within a local area and have started a pickup
and delivery service from independent small business such as newsagents, butchers, chemists
etc to residential households in the same local area.

As an independent Systems Analyst, you work as an IT consultant. You have been contacted
by DeliveryNow’s IT administrator, Victoria Owens, to discuss the possibility of setting up an
information system to handle the logistics of parcel pickups, deliveries and financial tasks for
the local delivery service. You organize to meet with Victoria and the COO, Mark Edwards to
discuss the need for an information system.

Victoria explains her role as the IT administrator is to co-ordinate the IT related activities of
the organisation in accordance with the mission, vision, and policies established by the Board
of Directors. Her role is to support all staff, including office admin and the delivery drivers in
IT related needs.

Mark Edwards is the Chief Operations Officer in charge of the current parcel delivery service.
Mark explains that the current operations is a large-scale operation where parcels can come
from overseas, interstate, regional NSW, and various parts of Sydney. The parcels are picked
up and brought into the dispatching facility where they are sorted and allocated to the
delivery runs. Delivery drivers then pick up the parcels for their run, on a daily basis, and
deliver to their allocated area.

DeliverNow has started a delivery service where delivery driver’s pick up the parcels and
good(s) from local business and deliver direct to door, without going through the dispatching
center. These goods may include perishables and must be picked up and delivered in a timely
manner.

DeliverNow started the operation in 1 local area, and recently added an additional 2 areas,
and due to the success of the operations are looking to quickly roll-out the service to more
areas as soon as possible.

They were planning on using their current logistics software however this has had limitations
and they have resorted to using spreadsheets, to track the drivers, customers, and deliveries
for the local delivery service.

Customers currently book and pay for their deliveries using the company Web Portal, which
was specifically designed for their parcel delivery service, but recently modified to include a
local pickup and deliver option. This web application integrates directly with DeliverNow’s
logistic software. To cater the for the local delivery service the Web Portal is monitored by
administration staff, and they call drivers with the pickup and delivery details. Information
from the logistics software is manually extracted into spreadsheets, manipulated and used to
manage the local delivery service.

Michelle Madrid is the administrative assistant reporting to Victoria and is responsible for
extracting, updating, and maintaining the spreadsheets for each delivery. Michelle also enters
new customer information in the Customer Relationship Management system which is used
for sales and marketing purposes. The delivery information in the spreadsheet is summarized
on a weekly basis and imported into the financial system for payment to delivery drivers,
recording of Customer payments and for financial reporting.

Michelle, and her team, are feeling the strain of the increased workload associated with the
rapid growth of the local delivery service and using spreadsheets to record delivery
information, and the amount of time spent copying information from one place to another is
daunting, and the possibility of errors is increasing. An information system, specifically
designed for the local delivery service is necessary to cope with the growing administrative
workload.

Questions/Tasks

1. Read the DeliverNow case study carefully and identify various types of Information
Systems (IS) that are currently operating at DeliverNow.

2. List the components of an information system and identify them in the DeliverNow case
study

3. From the lecture we know who a systems analyst is, and that part of a system analyst
role is to examine current IT systems, identify problems or issues, and suggest
improvements. What are some of the skills that are required by a System Analyst other
than technical skills?

4. Assuming that you are a system analyst for DeliverNow, and you are to examine their
current systems, list the problems currently faced by DeliverNow
Task 2 ABCWool Case Study – Running case study
ABCWool is a wool broking organisation that sells bales of wool on behalf of farmers, by
matching wool bale types to buyer orders.

Each year a farmer will shear their sheep, the wool then goes into bales in the shearing shed
and these bales are sealed. The wool is not unpacked from the bale until it is received at it’s
destination for processing, which is often overseas.

For buyers of the wool to know, and have confidence, in what they are buying, a paper
Specification Report, also known as a Specification, is completed in the shearing shed, by a
woolclasser, which outlines the details of the wool. The woolclasser must add their own
Classer No to the speci and sign the specification report to confirm that the information is
correct.

The farmer organises a truck to pick up the wool bales and deliver them to the ABCWool’s
warehouse to be sold. The farmer completes a Consignment Note, also known as a Con
Note, which both the delivery driver and farmer check and sign to confirm what has been
loaded on the truck.

The original copies of the Consignment Note and Specification Report are given to the
delivery driver, to hand to ABCWool’s operations staff when the wool bales are delivered to
the warehouse.

Operations staff use the Consignment Note to confirm the delivery of wool bales, as they
are unloaded from the truck, and details of the wool bales are then entered into the wool
operations system.

The ABCWool’s sales team uses the Specification Report to know what is in the sealed bales
and make sure the wool is sold at fair market value. The sales team enters the information
from the Specification Reports in their system to determine pricing and to match to
potential buyers.

ABCWool maintain all their farmer’s and buyer's information in a Customer Relationship Sys-
tem (CRM), and when wool becomes available that matches the customer orders, the sale
team contact the buyer from the information in the CRM. Once the wool is matched to an
order and the buyer confirms the sale of the wool the details of the sale is transferred to the
finance system where invoices are generated for the buyer, and the farmer is paid for the
bales of wool sold on their behalf.

Wool is greasy and often both the Consignment Note and Specification Reports become
greasy and dirty as they are handled in the wool shed, and during the transport of wool.
Handwriting of the woolclasser and farmer can be ineligible, and at times these reports are
lost or may be forgotten, and ABCWool’s operations staff need to contact the woolclasser
and farmer to get copies, which can take several days.
Often ABCWool’s sales team does not have any indication of what wool is coming in to fill
their orders, and the operations team may be unprepared or not have enough storage when
wool bales from many farms come in at once. Both the sales teams and operation teams
are relying on previous years reports to determine trends on which farms are shearing
when, the amount and types of wool available at times to fill their buyers’ orders.

ABCWool would like to develop an Information System for woolclassers and farmers to
complete both the Wool Specification and Consignment Note on farm, using a portable
device such as their phone or a tablet which will be entered directly into ABCWool
operations system. This project will be known as the OnFarm Data Capture (OFDC) project.

ABCWool works with an IT Company which specializes in wool industry software to look
after all their IT needs, however for this project they are looking to hire an Analyst to do the
analysis and design of the system before the development can start. The Human Resources
manager, Kate Jolley, and IT Team Lead, Scott Middleton, will be conducting interviews in
the coming weeks.

Questions/Tasks

1. You have applied for this job and you have an interview set in two weeks with Kate and
Scott. Should you research about the latest news and information related to the wool
industry before you go for interview with them? What would be the benefit of doing so in
your interview?

2. You have been to several interviews and you have received 2 offers, one from ABCWool
to be their System Analyst on this project and other projects in the future, and one from
a Better Building Society in the city. When deciding on which job to take what would be
the important factors to consider?

3. You have decided to take the job with ABCWool, and you start by looking at their existing
systems. What are the types of Information Systems (IS) that are currently operating at
ABCWool?

4. List the components of the information system and identify them in the ABCWool case
study

5. Assuming that you are a system analyst for ABCWool, and you are to examine their
current systems, list the problems currently faced by ABCWool

6. What are some of the risks involved in implementing the OnFarm Data Capture (OFDC)
project?
Task 3 University Student

You are a first-year university student, and you are taking several subjects, 2 of these being:
• Systems Analysis and Design

• Programming 101

As part of Systems Analysis and Design subject you are required to submit workshops an-
swers each week. You start to make friends with other students in the course and form a
study-group to go over the workshops and work that needs to be submitted.

The group discusses ideas and answers and you all come to a general agreement on the an-
swers. One member of the group takes notes on the answer, and email it to the others, who
then add it to their case study.

1. Is this plagiarism?

2. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that you, as a student, are not reported for plagia-
rism?

A couple of weeks into the course a friend that you have made as part of the course, is start-
ing to fall behind in their workshop submissions. They know that the first workshops have
been marked and you did well in them. They come to you ask for a copy of your workshops,
knowing they have already been marked.

3. Should you provide them with a copy of your workshop?

You are doing a workshop and you find the workshop questions similar to questions you
have answered as part of another subject, in the same or other course.

4. Can you use the answers from your previous work and submit as part of your workshop?
Part B: To be done as part of Portfolio 1 and submitted online, in Word format

Task 1 SoccerAssociation information software

SoccerAssociation is a not-for-profit organization that organises and facilitates soccer games
in a local Sydney area. It has 10 affiliated clubs, and each club can have 20 or more teams
registered across the various age groups and divisions, each age group and division is one
competition. The area that SoccerAssociation looks after is rapidly developing new estates,
which is bringing in more young families to the area, and in turn more players.

For the next season the number of affiliated clubs will grow from 10 to 14, and some age
groups will have extra divisions added to cater for the increased number of players.

To be part of the SoccerAssociation competitions each club must submit an application, with
all their details, to SoccerAssociation who then approves or denies the request. Once ap-
proved that club details are uploaded for the web portal.

Players can register in the web portal for an affiliated club, where they pay their member-
ship fees, via Credit Card directly to SoccerAssociation, who then pay the affiliated soccer
club their portion of the fees, these details are directly integrated into the Finance system.

SoccerAssociation keeps the records of each club, and the details of each player registered
for that club in a Customer Relationship Management system.

The clubs themselves organise the players into teams, and submit the teams list to Soc-
cerAssociation, by age group and division. SoccerAssociation checks the players are regis-
tered with them, and confirms they meet the requirements eg age and ability, of the team
they have been allocated to by the club.

SoccerAssociation then organises the various competitions. Spreadsheets are used to record
the details of each competition, multiple spreadsheets are kept, one for each age group and
division (competition).

SoccerAssociation have a web portal where people can view a list of clubs affiliated with
them, find where and when games are being played, details of the current competition for
each age group/division including the ladder, results of each game etc.

For each game played a “Game sheet” is kept, by each team manager and the referee. The
game sheets are collected by each club's secretary and sent to SoccerAssociation, and de-
tails are entered into an Excel spreadsheet, the points for each team are calculated and are
then updated, manually, onto the website results table.

The small admin team at SoccerAssociation spends a lot of time following up on the
gamesheets for each club. Once the Gamesheets are received from the clubs, these are
compared to the gamesheets of the opposing team and referee, and if they match, the
admin team then enters the data from each of the gamesheets into the Excel spreadsheets
and copying the calculated results to the website.

SoccerAssociation issues fines for late gamesheets, or non-submitted gamesheets, and

where gamesheets are incorrect as creates admin overhead, and delays the updating of the
website.

SoccerAssociation does not have it’s own IT staffing and their admin staff are not technical
savvy. SoccerAssociation has been granted some funding to develop an information system
to help with administrative tasks and has contacted you as a System Analyst to review their
current systems and assist in identifying where an information system can help improve
their administration.

Questions/Tasks

1. Read the SoccerAssociation case study carefully and identify various types of
Information Systems (IS) that are currently operating at SoccerAssociation.

2. List and describe, in detail the 5 components of an Information System as they relate to
the SoccerAssociation case study

3. What are some of the problems that SoccerAssociation currently have without a new
information system?

4. What are some of the risks involved in implementing a new system?

 Task 1 Rubric Scoring
Ques- Absent Basic Fair Good Excellent
tion 0 1 1.5 2 3
Answer not attempted 1 Information Sys- 2 Information Sys- 3 Information 4 more Infor-
1 or no valid IS systems tems identified tems identified Systems identi- mation Systems
identified fied identified
Answer not attempted Some components All 5 components All 5 components All 5 components
or no correct compo- identified identified identified and identified and re-
nents identified OR some compo- some related lated back to the
2 nents identified and back to the case case study, giving
related back to case study, giving ex- examples of at
study amples for each least 2 types for
component each component
Answer not attempted 1-2 problems iden- 2-3 problems identi- 2-3 problems Active Attempt, at
or no valid problems tified fied and related identified and re- least 3 problems
identified back to the case lated back to the identified, with
3 study (some justifi- case study with complete justifica-
cation) reasonable justi- tion given while
fication creating responses

Answer not attempted 1-2 risks identified 2-3 risks identified 2-3 risks identi- Active Attempt, at
or no valid problems and related back to fied and related least 3 risks identi-
and risks identified the case study back to the case fied, with com-
4 (some justification) study with some plete justification
justification given while creat-
ing responses