Modern Systems Analysis and Design,

What are the principles of Agile Methodologies?

1. A focus on adaptive rather than predictive methodologies 2. A focus on people rather than roles 3. A focus on self-adaptive processes

What is a Gantt chart?

A graphical representation of a project that shows each task as a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to its time for completion.

What is a Project Manager?

A systems analyst with a diverse set of skills , management leadership, technical, conflict management and customer relationship, who is responsible for initiating, planning, executing and closing down a project.

What is the idea behind the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?

An approach to systems development based on building complete systems through assembling software components, each of which model generic business functions.

What are the four phases of the project management process?

Initiating the project, Planning the project, Executing the project, Closing down the project.

What is the focus of project management?

Is to ensure that systems development projects meet customer expectations and are delivered within budget and time constraints.

How do you determine cost for off the shelf software?

It involves comparing the cost of developing the same system in house with the cost of purchasing or licensing the software package.

Describe the conflict management skill?

Problem solving; smoothing out personality differences; compromising; goal setting

What is a network diagram?

A diagram that depicts project tasks and their interrelationships.

What is ease of installation?

A measure of the difficulty of loading the software and making it operational.

Why choose outsourcing?

Because of the following reasons. Freeing up internal resources Increasing the revenue potential of the organization Reducing time to market Increasing process efficiencies Outsourcing noncore activities

What does closing down the project include?

Closing down the project, conducting postproject reviews and closing the customer contract.

Describe the Team management skill?

Communication within and between teams; peer evaluations; conflict resolution; team building; self-management

What does leadership skill describe?

Communication; liaison between management, users and developers; assigning activities; monitoring progress

What does the management skill describe?

Defining and sequencing activities; communicating expectations; assigning resources to activities; monitoring outcomes

Describe the Risk and Change management?

Environmental scanning; risk and opportunity identification and assessment; forecasting; resource redeployment

How do you choose off the shelf software?

For these reasons, cost, functionality, Vendor support, Viability of vendor, Flexibility, Documentation, Response time and Ease of installation.

When is it a good time to use Agile methods?

If a project is considered to be high risk, highly complex, and has a development team made up of hundreds of people, then more traditional methods will apply. Less risky, smaller, and simpler development efforts lend themselves more to Agile methods.

Who can be designated as a project manager?

In some organizations, the project manager is a very experienced systems analyst, whereas in others, both junior and senior analysts are expected to take on this role.

Describe the Technical problem solving skill?

Interpreting system requests and specifications; defining activities and their sequence; making trade-offs between alternative solutions; designing solutions to problems.

Describe the customer relations skill?

Interpreting system requests and specifications; site preparation and user training; contact point for customers.

What is a distinguishing feature of a network diagram?

Is that the ordering of tasks is shown by connecting tasks depicted as rectangles or ovals-with their predecessor and successor tasks.

What are some of the problems with the Traditional Waterfall SDLC?

Once a milestone had been reached and the new phase initiated, it became difficult to go back. The enormous amount of effort and time necessary to implement a specific design meant that it would be very expensive to make changes in a system once it was developed.

What are the 5 phases of the SDLC?

Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Maintenance.

What is Flexibility in regards to off the shelf software?

Refers to how easy it is for you , or the vendor to customize the software.

How do you define response time?

Refers to how long it takes the software package to respond to the users request in an interactive session. Another measure of time would be how long it takes the software to complete running a job.

What is cloud computing and why do we need it?

Refers to the provision of applications over the Internet, where customers do not have to invest in the hardware and software resources needed to run and maintain the applications.

How do you determine functionality for off the shelf software?

Refers to the task the software can perform and the mandatory essential and desired features.

How do you define vendor support?

Refers to whether and how much support the vendor can provide. Support occurs in the form of assistance to install the software, to train user and systems staff on the software, and to provide help as problems arise after installation.

What is the purpose of using CASE tools?

Software tools that provide automated support for some portion of the systems development process.

What is a turnkey system?

Some off-the-shelf software systems cannot be modified to meet the specifiec individual needs of a particular organization. Such application systems are some-times called this.

What are code generators used for in CASE tools?

They enable the automatic generation of program and database definition code directly from the design documents, diagrams, forms, and reports.

What are computer display and report generators?

This CASE tool helps prototype how systems look and feel. They make it easier for the systems analyst to identify data requirements and relationships.

What is a central repository for?

This enables the integrated storage of specifications, diagrams, reports, and project management information.

What is a request for proposal?

This is a document provided to vendors that asks them to propose hardware and system software that will meet the requirements of a new system.

What is a project workbook?

This is an online or hard copy repository for all project correspondence, inputs, outputs, deliverables, procedures, and standards that is used for performing project audits, orienting new team members, communicating with management and customers, identifying future projects and performing post-project reviews.

Describe the Maintenance

This is the final phase of the SDLC in which an information system is systematically repaired and improved.

What is a work breakdown structure?

This is the process of dividing the project into manageable tasks and logically ordering them to ensure a smooth evolution between tasks.

Describe the Analysis phase of the SDLC?

This is the second phase of the SDLC in which system requirements are studied and structured.

What does planning the project involve?

This is the second phase of the project management process that focuses on defining clear, discrete activities and the work needed to complete each activity within a single project.

Define executing the project.

This is the third phase of the project management process in which the plans created in the prior phases are put into action.

What is the purpose of reusing the software?

This should increase programmer productivity because being able to use existing software for some functions means they can perform more work in the same amount of time. This also decreases development time, results in higher quality software with lower defect rates, decreasing maintenance costs.

What does documentation refer to in regards to off the shelf software?

This would include the users manual as well as technical documentation. How understandable and up to date is the documentation? What is the cost for multiple copies?

What is vender viability?

You do not want to get stuck with software developed by a vendor that might go out of business soon.

What does project execution put into action?

The Baseline Project Plan is put into action.

Describe the planning phase of the SDLC?

The first phase of the SDLC in which an organization's total information system needs are identified, analyzed prioritized, and arranged.

What is Project Initiation?

The first phase of the project management process in which activities are performed to assess the size, scope, and complexity of the project and to establish procedures to support later project activities.

What are Documentation generators for?

The help produce technical and user documentation in standard formats.

Name some of the criticisms of the traditional waterfall SDLC?

The focus on milestone deadlines, instead of on obtaining and interpreting feedback from the development process, leads to too little focus on doing good analysis and design. The focus on deadlines results in systems that do not match users needs and that require extensive maintenance, unnecessarily increasing development costs. Finding and fixing a software problem after the delivery of the system is often 100 times more expensive than finding and fixing it during analysis and design.

Decribe the Implementation phase of the SDLC?

The fourth phase of the SDLC in which the information system is coded, tested, installed, and supported in the organization.

What is the logical design?

The part of the design phase of the SDLC in which all functional features of the system chosen for development in analysis are described independently of any computer platform.

What is the physical design?

The part of the design phase of the SDLC in which the logical specifications of the system from logical design are transformed into technology-specific details from which all programming and system construction can be accomplished.

What is outsourcing?

The practice of turning over responsibility for some to all of an organizations information systems applications and operations to an outside firm.

Who can be designated as a system alalyst?

The primary role of a systems analyst is to study the problems and needs of an organization in order to determine how people, methods, and information technology can best be combined to bring about improvements in the organization.

Describe the Design phase of the SDLC?

The third phase of the SDLC in which the description of the recommended solution is converted into logical and then physical system specifications.

What is SDLC?

The traditional methodology used to develop, maintain, and replace information systems. Systems development life cycle.

What are Diagramming tools?

These tools enable system process, data and control structures to be represented graphically.

What do Analysis tools do?

They automatically check for incomplete, inconsistent, or incorrect specifications in diagrams, forms, and reports.