midterm

systems analyst key role

solve business problems using info systems technology

systems analyst skills

technical
business
people

technical skills

skills that involve the ability to perform tasks in a specific discipline or department

business skills

?Understanding the way an organization performs its procedures

people skills

the ability to work well with others by using polite communication procedures

importance of problem solving skills

being able to look into the problem in great detail, understand everything about the problem, generate several alternatives for solving the problem, and then pick the best solution.

automation boundary

the separation between the automated part of a system and the manual part of a system

system boundary

the separation between a system and its environment that inputs and outputs must cross

information system

includes hardware, software, inputs, outputs, data, people, and procedures.

tools

a software application that assists developers in creating models or other components required for a project

techniques

strategies for completing specific system development activities

systems analysis

the process of understanding and specifying in detail what the information system should accomplish

systems design

the process of specifying in detail how the many components of the information system should be physically implemented

agile development

an information system development process that emphasizes flexibility to anticipate new requirements during development

iterative development

an approach to system development in which the system is "grown" piece by piece through multiple iterations

subsystem

a system that is part of a larger system

project

a planned undertaking that has a beginning and end and that produces some definite result

systems development life cycle

-Identify the problem or need and obtain approval
-Plan and monitor the project
-Discover and understand the details of the problem or need
-Design the system components that solve the problem
-Build, test, and integrate system components
-Complete system

key documents used in planning on Agile projects

-System Vision document
-user stories
-product backlog
-sprint backlog
-domain model class diagram
-activity diagram

key documents used in systems analysis and design

-Screen layout
-Database schema:

system development process

...

Systems Development Life Cycle

The overall process for developing information systems from planning and analysis through implementation and maintenance

Activity Diagram

a UML diagram that describes user (or system) activities, the person or component that completes each activity, and the sequential flow of these activities

executive stakeholders

persons who don't interact directly with the system but who either use information produced by the system or have a significant financial or other interest in its operation and success

External Stakeholders

people or groups in the organization's external environment that are affected by it

Functional Requirements

the activities that the system must perform

FURPS

Functionality
Usability
Reliability
Performance
Supportability

Internal Stakeholders

employees, owners, board of directors

model

A pattern, plan, representation, or description designed to show the structure or workings of an object, system, or concept

Nonfunctional Requirements

required system characteristics other than the activities it must perform or support

operational stakeholders

Persons who regularly interact with the system as part of their jobs

Performance Requirements

the requirements that describe operational characteristics related to measures of workload, such as throughput and response time

Reliability Requirements

requirements that describe system dependability

Security Requirements

requirements that describe how access to the application will be controlled and how data will be protected during storage and transmission

Stakeholders

any persons or groups who will be affected by an action

Unified Modeling Language

Widely used method of visualizing and documenting software systems design

usability requirements

operational characteristics related to users, such as the user interface, related work procedures, online help, and documentation

Workflow

describes the internal steps of a use case

Acceptance Criteria

A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted.

Actor (UML)

a role played by a user or any other system that interacts with the subject.

event

something that occurs at a specific time and place, can be described, and should be remembered by the system

event decomposition technique

a technique to identify use cases by determining the external business events to which the system must respond

external event

an event that occurs outside the system, usually initiated by an external agent

perfect technology assumption

the assumption that a system runs under perfect operating and technological conditions

state event

an event that occurs when something happens inside the system that triggers some process

temporal event

an event that occurs as a result of reaching a point in time

Use Case

an activity that the system performs, usually in response to a request by a user

use case diagram

A picture showing system behavior, along with the key actors that interact with the system

User Goal Technique

a technique to identify use cases by determining what specific goals or objectives must be completed by a user

User Story

one short sentence in the everyday language of the end user that states what a user does as part of his or her work

abstract class

a class that only exists in a model so subclasses can inherit from it

Association (UML)

relationship between two entities

association class

An association that is treated as a class in a many to many association because it has attributes that need to be remembered (such as grade)

attribute

characteristic

brainstorming technique

a technique used to identify problem domain classes in which developers work with users to identify classes by thinking about different types of things they use in their work

cardinality

A measure of the number of links between one object and another object in a relationship

Class (UML)

individual entity

compound attribute

an attribute that consists of multiple pieces of information but is best treated in the aggregate

concrete class

a class that allows individual objects or instances to exist

data entities

the term used in ERD modeling to describe things about which the system needs to store information

domain classes

classes that describe objects from the problem domain

domain model class diagram

a class diagram that only includes classes from the problem domain and documents info requirements in new system

Entity Relationship Diagram

a technique for documenting the entities and relationships in a database environment

generalization/specialization relationship

based on the idea that people classify things in terms of similarities and differences.?

identifier

A candidate key that has been selected as the unique, identifying characteristic for an entity type.

Inheritance

the concept that subclasses classes inherit characteristics of the more general superclass

multiplicity

the number of associations between classes: 1 to 1 or 1 to many (synonym to cardinality)

multiplicity constraints

the actual numeric count of the constraints on objects allowed in an association

noun technique

a technique to identify problem domain objects by finding and classifying the nouns in a dialog or description

problem domain

the specific area of the user's business need that is within the scope of the new system

relationship

naturally occurring association among specific things

subclass

the subordinate or more specialized class in a generalization/specialization relationship

Superclass

the superior or more general class in a generalization/specialization relationship

Context Diagram

summarizes all processing activity within the system in a single process symbol..

data flow

the movement of data among processes, stores, sources, and destinations

Data Flow Diagram

illustrates the movement of information between external entities and the processes and data stores within the system

data store

a file or part of a database that stores information about a data entity.

Data Flow Definition

a textual description of a data flow's content and internal structure

DFD fragment

a DFD that represents the system response to one event within a single process symbol

External Agent

a person or organization, outside the system boundary, that supplies data inputs or accepts data outputs

Levels of Abstraction

modeling technique that breaks the system into a hierarchical set of increasingly more detailed models

process

A series of actions or steps taken to achieve an end

supportability requirements

how a system is installed, configured, monitored, and updated

?Functional Decomposition

the division of a system into processes or subsystems.

?human resource management system

?A system that is subject to many external laws and regulations

?collaboration support system

A type of information system that allows geographically distributed personnel to work together on projects and tasks

A business intelligence system supports

?strategic planning and executive decision making

?A knowledge management system

supports the storage of and access to documents within an organization.

?A process in which an organization commits to using an integrated set of software packages for key information systems is called

enterprise resource planning

One common element of all types of business information systems is that they all _______.

use database technology

?Highly integrated systems that support company-wide operations and data, often combining aspects of many other systems is a(n) ____.

enterprise resource planning application

What is the purpose of an iteration recap??

to review the project processes

An information system consist of

software, database, and manual processes

Design Class Diagram

includes method signatures

Programming is included in which Core Process?

5

One important reason for prioritizing requirements is to

avoid scope creep

Which two of the following are activities of Core Process 3?

-Develop user-interface dialogs?
-Gather detailed information

The term "I'll know it when I see it" refers to what method of requirements definition.?

collecting active user comments

client

person funding the development of new system

most time consuming and resource expensive operation

interviewing stakeholders

Application Architecture

the organization and construction of software resources to implement an organization's information systems

Looping in an activity diagram is best represented using what??

synchronization bars

In using the event decomposition technique, which of the following is NOT a type of event that is considered??

event initiated by a user login

In UML notation, the guillemets character is used to show what kind of notation??

stereotypes

User stories are different than use cases in what way??

differ in the amount of detail captured

When making a list of nouns to determine what are the important "things" for the new system, there are three question that should be asked about each noun. Which of the following is one of those questions??

should it be researched further

A relationship between a "sports team" and the players, coaches, and sponsor would be described as what kind of relationship??

aggregation

Which of the following is NOT true about a UML class.?

it has multiplicity

unary association

0..
to 0...

If we modeled a "sale" and the "sale items" with a whole-part relationship, it would best be described as a _______ relationship.?

composite

?Which of the following data flow diagram (DFD) symbols represents the communication between an external agent and a process while the process is executing?

real-time link

?A data flow diagram (DFD) that models system requirements using a single process for each event in a system or subsystem is called a(n) ____.

event-partitioned system model

?Minimization of interfaces is directly related to the rule of ____.

?7 � 2

?Activity-location matrix

describes the relationship between processes and the locations in which they are performed