Structured Systems Analysis & Design

Unit I :

What is a System?
The general systems approach to problem solving.
The three approaches to software systems development - The Structured approach, the Object Oriented Approach and the Information Engineering Approach.

Software Development Life Cycle Models.
             Waterfall Model,
             Prototyping Model,
             RAD Model,
             Incremental Model,
             Spiral Model,
             Concurrent Development Model,
             Component Based Model,

Formal Methods Model and Fourth Generation Techniques. -
             Their features
             strengths
             weaknesses
             differences between them.

Fact finding techniques.
             Sampling documents, forms and files.
             Site visits, Observation of Work environment.
             Questionnaire formulation. Interviewing techniques.

Project Feasibility Study.
             Operational, technical, economic, organizational and cultural feasibility.
             Defining project costs and project benefits.
             Cost/Benefit Analysis for a project-Net present value, payback period & return                   on investment  computations.

Unit II :

Investigating System Requirements
             Functional and Technical Requirements
             The sources of system requirements
             identifying system requirements
             structured walkthroughs

Modeling System Requirements
            The purpose, type and overview of models.
            Modeling system requirements for events.
            Modeling system requirement for objects, roles, devices, organizational units,                  and locations.

Data Modeling.
            Data entities attributes and relationships.
            The Entity-Relationship diagram.

Process Modeling.
            Developing Data Flow Diagrams.
            Level of abstraction.
            Context diagram.
            Top level DFD.
            DFD fragments.
            The event-partitioned system model. Decomposing processes.
            Physical and Logical DFD.
            Evaluating DFD quality.
            Documenting DFD components.
            The concept of data dictionary.
            Process, data flow, data store, data elements descriptions.
            Representing Process Logic.
            Building decision tables,
            decision trees,
            structured English,
            tight English and pseudocode.
            Their usage and differences.

Unit III

The process of moving from analysis to design.

Application Architecture Design.
            Determining the automation system boundary.

Software Design.
            Designing the system flowchart and the system level structure chart.
            Transaction analysis and transform analysis.

Designing Databases.
            Databases and DBMS
            Designing Relational DBMS’s. Normal forms upto 3rd normal form
            Understanding of 4th and 5th normal forms. Representing entities, relationships             Enforcing integrity constraints and business rules

Designing system inputs outputs and controls.
            Designing the user interface.
                        Interface design guidelines.
                        Dialog design.
                        Designing Windows forms.

       Unit References:
       SADCW. (Ch. 9,10,11,12).
       SEPA.  (Ch. 13,15).