Systems Analysis & Design | Exam 1 Review

What is a 'methodology' in Systems Analysis?

A formalized approach to implementing the SDLC

What is Business Process Management?

A methodology used by organizations to continuously improve end-to-end business processes

TJ has prepared a spreadsheet where the total benefits are $182,000; the total cumulative costs are $120,000. The ROI would be:

About 51.7%

Which would normally NOT be a reason for a project?

An open source platform has just come on the market

Kallie is creating use cases, data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams. In what phase of the SDLC would she do this?

Analysis

Michaela is a systems analyst who is determining business requirements. What would most likely be the SDLC phase for her?

Analysis

Jack is going over financial numbers for a proposed project. Which of the following system analyst skills is he exhibiting currently?

Analytical

The type of skill that is common to systems analysts to deal fairlyand honestlywith other project team members is:

Analytical

The type of skill that is common to systems analysts to understand how IT can be applied to business situations and to ensure that the IT delivers real business value is:

Business

Which of the following project roles would analyze the key business aspects of the system?

Business Analyst

The business-related reason for initiating the system. (Ex. Reach new market segment, improve access to information)

Business Need

Which of the following transforms a manual process and make it an electronic that is more efficient?

Business Process Automation

Moderate changes to existing processes falls under the _________ analysis.

Business Process Improvement (BPI)

Wayneis a senior director of finance. His company only recently came under Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and is the project sponsor to become compliant. He realizes that examining the as-is system may not be much help as the regulations are so radical that a major analysis and design project must be completed to make the company compliant. He is leaning towards: ____________

Business Process Reengineering

The new or enhanced business capabilities that the system will provide. (Ex. Provide online access to information, produce performance reports)

Business Requirements

The benefits that the system will create for the organization. (Ex. 3% increase in sales, reduction in headcount by 5 FTEs)

Business Value

Which of the following project roles would probably make a presentation about the objectives of a proposed project and its benefits to executives who will benefit directly from the project?

Champion

The amount of time spent in which phase is used to estimate the time required to build a system.

Design phase

Forecasting what the cost and benefits will be over a certain period, usually 3-5 years. Apply a growth rate to rate the values, if necessary.

Determine Cash Flow

PCM Incorporated will need to purchase new servers for a system. This would be a:

Development Cost

Which is NOT a requirements analysis technique?

Document Analysis

When gathering requirements from processing clerks and lower level managers about 'how' a system works, the best approach might be: _________________.

Document analysis

Which requirements elicitation technique could be done by yourself at your desk?

Document analysis

(T/F) Because of the need to be focused on providing information about the business value of a system, a systems analystwill probably have much training or experience in programming or application development

False

(T/F) Determining business requirements is generally done in the planning phase of the SDLC.

False

(T/F) Generally 'system requirements' are developed in the analysis phase and evolve to more technical 'business requirements' in the design phase.

False

(T/F) In BPA and BPI, analysis is generally divided into three steps: understanding the as-is system; developing acost-benefit analysis; and understanding the technical feasibility.

False

(T/F) In most IT departments, the demand for IT projects is generally about the same as the department's ability to supply them.

False

(T/F) It is acceptable to begin the design phase even when the system proposal is not fully completed.

False

(T/F) On projects with tight timelines, it is acceptable to skip the design phase and begin implementation as soon as the analysis phase is complete.

False

(T/F) Once a project plan is created, estimates do NOT need to be refined.

False

(T/F) One of the first activities of an analyst is to determine the business requirements for the new system.

False

(T/F) Systems analysts are generally experts in business, finance and application development.

False

(T/F) The implementation phase of the the SDLC takes the longest amount of time in the overall project timeline.

False

(T/F) The question 'Can we build it' is asked in the design phase.

False

(T/F) When compared to a business analyst, the systems analyst will identify how the system will provide business value.

False

Which is NOT a reason to be a systems analyst?

It can be a tedious job

A team of developers and customers are in close communication, with frequent communications, simplicity, feedback and courage. This would best describe:

The Extreme Programming methodology

Evaluating the project's expected returns in comparison to its costs.

Assess Project's Economic Value

Working with business users and IT professionals to create numbers for each of the costs and benefits. Even intangibles should be valued if at all possible.

Assign Values to Costs and Benefits

Which was NOT given as a method for determining business requirements?

Benchmarking

Ramona is preparing an economic feasibility study. She is calculating the payback period. She is calculating:

Break-even Point

Which is an activity the users probably will NOT do on a pro

Budget funds for the project

Listing the tangible costs and benefits for the project. Include both one-time and recurring costs.

Identify Costs and Benefits

Chang is working on "How this system will work". What SDLC phase is he in?

Implementation

Which phase is generally the longest and most expensive part of the development process?

Implementation

In which phase of the SDLC the system is installed?

Implementation phase

Linda is a clerk in the accounting department. She was interviewed by David and is excited about the proposed system that will utilize electronic funds transfer. This would be an example of _____.

Intangible Asset

Rocky is dealing one-on-one with users and business managers (including some that have little experience with technology). He is demonstrating what system analyst skill?

Interpersonal

Amy is planning on talking with a clerk and a manager in the accounts payable area,a manager in the procurement department,and two vendors. She is probably doing:

Interviews

When gathering requirements, the most commonly used technique is: ______________________.

Interviews

A technique where the project team, users, and management work together for several hours or several days or several weeks until the needed information is collected is: ______________.

Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions

Which is not a phase in the SDLC

Modeling

Robert is doing an economic analysis using today's dollar values. He is doing:

Net present value analysis

Which of the following methodologies might be most appropriate if you have a system project: clear requirements; very familiar technologies; not all the complex; reasonably reliable; a very long time schedule and the schedule visibility is not important?

Parallel

Alice is calculating whether a system will lower costs or increase revenues. What SDLC phase is she in?

Planning

Another outcome of the planning phase is the:

Project Plan

The person that initiates the project and who serves as the primary point of contact for the project on the business side. (Ex. Members of Finance, VP of Marketing, CIO, CEO)

Project Sponsor/Manager

Which is NOT suggested for IT development projects?

Projects need to give a positive return on investment within four years

Which of the following project roles would focus on stakeholder requirements?

Requirements Analyst

Ramya is preparing an economic feasibility study. She has a calculation where she takes total benefits minus total costs and divides that answer by the total costs. She is calculating:

Return on Investment

Which is NOT a requirements elicitation technique?

Root Cause Analysis

Which is NOT an attribute of a systems analyst?

Selecting which projects to approve

Issues that pertain to the approval committee's decision. (Ex. Government-mandated deadline for May 30, Top-level security clearance needed by project team to work with data.)

Special Issues or Constraints

A critical success factor in project management is to:

Start with a realistic assessment of the work that needs to be done.

The outcome of the planning phase is the:

System Request Document

The outcome of the design phase is the:

System Specification Document

The outcome of the analysis phase is the:

System proposal document

The document which described the business reasons for building a system.

System request

Which of the following project roles would identify how technology can improve business processes?

Systems Analyst

Which of the following project roles would insure that the system conforms to information system standards?

Systems Analyst

Which of the following would identify how technology can improve business processes?

Systems analyst

Becky is a systems analyst for Laswell Consulting. She is attending a three day intensive workshop on developing applications in php. What systems analyst skill is she working on?

Technical

Because the cost can be immense, _________ is one of the most critical steps in implementation.

Testing

The V-Model pays more explicit attention to _________________.

Testing

Which is NOT true for systems analysts?

They are the project sponsors for system proposals

(T/F) A classic planning mistake mentioned in the textbook is having an "overly optimistic schedule".

True

(T/F) A project must be feasible technically, economically, and organizationally to move forward.

True

(T/F) Anne has asked users and managers to identify problems with the as-is system and to describe how to solve them in the to-be system. She is probably doing Business Process Automation (BPA) in this case.

True

(T/F) Investments in information systems projects today are evaluated in the context of an entire portfolio of projects.

True

(T/F) Many of the agile development methodologies and RAD require the use of new tools and techniques.

True

(T/F) Online loan companies (like LendingTree) attempt to return quotes for loans within an hour. With more traditional banks, getting a quote on a loan may take weeks to a month. Two techniques that were probably carefully analyzed in creating online loan quotation systems would be duration analysis and activity elimination

True

(T/F) Part of staffing a project is to consider employee motivation and how well employees work together.

True

(T/F) Scope creep is when new requirements are added to the project after the original project scope was defined.

True

(T/F) Systems that are not cancelled or abandoned are frequently delivered to the users significantly late or costing more than expected.

True

(T/F) The SDLC generally can be broken into four phases: planning, analysis, design and implementation

True

(T/F) The Waterfall is the most traditional SDLC methodology and is still used today.

True

(T/F) The business analyst role focuses on the business issues surrounding the system.

True

(T/F) The most important purpose of the requirements definition is to define the scope of the system.

True

(T/F) The normal sequence of SDLC phase outputs (from beginning to end) would be: System Request; System Proposal; System Specifications; and Installed system.

True

(T/F) The primary goal of a system is to create value for the organization.

True

(T/F) The primary output of the analysis phase is the System Proposal.

True

(T/F) The primary output of the planning phase in the System Request Feasibility study

True

(T/F) The primary output of the planning phase is the System Request.

True

(T/F) The requirements analyst role includes complete and accurate determination of what the system requirements consist of for all stakeholders.

True

(T/F) When compared to a systems analyst, the business analyst will probably have more responsibility fordetermining business value.

True

Security is a non-functional requirement.

True

The key person in the SDLC is the systems analyst who analyzed the business situation, identifies opportunities for improvements and design an information system to implement the improvements

True

The line between analysis and design is sometimes very blurry. One reason is that _________________.

the deliverables are really the first step in the design of the new system.

Which of the following is an aspect of managing and controlling the project?

timeboxing