System Analysis and Design
Introduction to System Analysis
and Design
- Dr. Mahmoud Abu-Arra
- Mr. Ahmad Al-Ghoul
Learning Objectives
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Use profiles and models to understand
business functions and operations
Describe kinds of companies
Explain the Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems and their impacts on
information systems
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Introduction
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Information systems must supports business and
information needs
First you need to understand the business
needs and the Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems and their impacts on
information systems, then you will build a
business model to understand the specific
operation and processes
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Understanding The Business
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Every business has its operations, rules and constraints.
IT professionals must understand business operations to
create successful systems.
For example a retail store, an internet auction, library,
and hotel chain, have unique information system
requirements. Even with the same business each
company has its own rules, requirements, and
constraint.
System analysts use a process called business process
modeling to represent a company's operation and
information needs. To do that the analyst needs.
Business Profile
Business Models
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Understanding The Business
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Business Profile
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Is an overview that describes the company's overall
functions, process, organization, services, customers,
suppliers, competitors, constraints, rules, and future
directions.
The analysts must study all that in addition to
interactivity among the firms information systems,
specialized information needs, and future expected
growth.
Armed with a business profile, the analyst then
creates a series of business models
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Understanding The Business
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Business Models
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Business models make it easier for managers
and system analysts to understand day-to-day
business operation
Is a graphical representation of one or more
business processes that a company performs.
Complex business operations require a series
of linked models in order to show the overall
picture.
Business models support communication
between analyst and system users to
determine if the system achieve the user
requirements
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Understanding The Business
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New kinds of companies
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Traditionally, Companies are classified based
on their main activities to:
Production-oriented: the companies who
manufactured and sell products such as
computers, furniture, clothes and so on
Service-oriented: primarily offer services
like information, or sell goods produced by
others.
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Understanding The Business
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New kinds of companies
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Now a days IT industry is a growing sector in business
world, many companies offer a mix of products, services,
information, and technical resources to a customer.
The newest company category is the Internet-dependent
firm, often described as a ( Dot-com (.com) ) company
because its primary business depends on the Internet
rather than a traditional business channel, Like Yahoo.com.
At the other end of the spectrum are traditional companies,
sometimes called brick-and-mortar companies because they
conduct business from physical locations.
Many of the traditional companies have added Web-based
marketing channels to increase sales and serve customers
more effectively
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Globalization of the Economy
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Impact of the internet
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Security and Privacy
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Collaboration and Partnership
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Knowledge Asset Management
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Continuous Improvement and Total Quality
Management
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Globalization of the Economy
The biggest players in today’s global marketplace are
multinational corporations
Global Economy brings
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New and expanded international markets
New international competitors
Impact on information systems
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Require support of multiple languages, currency exchange rates,
business cultures
Require consolidation of international data
Demand for players who can communicate, orally and in writing,
with management and users that speak different languages
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Business Drivers for Today’s Information
Systems
Impact of the Internet
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The Internet can be used for any business application that
involves data communication, including both communication
inside the firm and with the environment
Unlike proprietary networks, the Internet can be used with any
computer platform without any special effort to access the
network
The Internet also makes it possible to transmit a wider variety of
media than can be handled over most conventional networks
Internet offers
 E-commerce
 Buying and selling of goods and services over the
internet
 E-Business
 The use of the internet to conduct and support day-today business activities
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Impact of the Internet
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Internet-based commerce
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Called E-Commerce (I-Commerce), open a wide
area for new systems development called Internetbased system development and add a new
functions for a traditional information systems. ECommerce includes several sectors the main two
are:
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B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
B2B (Business-to-Business),
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Impact of the Internet
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B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
A commercial exchange (e.g. products or
services) between businesses and consumers
conducted over the internet.
 B2C commerce is changing traditional business
models, that means more demand for system
analysts, designer, and programmers to produce
efficient, attractive Web-based information
systems.
 Until now B2C transactions accounted for small
portion of total retail sales, but B2C activity is
expected to grow significantly.
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Business Drivers for Today’s Information
Systems
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Impact of the Internet
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B2B (Business-to-Business), A commercial exchange
(e.g. products or services) between businesses,
typically enabled by the internet or electronic means.
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The volume of B2B transactions is many times greater than
B2C transactions, about 94% of electronic commerce is B2B
leaving 6% for B2C
B2B allows companies to access the global market place, B2B
is especially important to firms under pressure to reduce
costs
B2B enables smaller suppliers to contact large customers
On an industry-wide scale, B2B sites exist where buyers,
seller, distributors, and manufacturers transact business,
exchange information, and collaborate
As B2B volume increased, the development of extensible
markup language (XML) enabled company-to-company traffic
to migrate to the Internet
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Impact of the Internet
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extensible markup language (XML)
XML is a data description language that allows Webbased communication between different hardware
and software environments
XML is flexible because it is concerned with the data
itself rather than the output format
In XML data description is not linked to output
formatting, and this is just the opposite of HTML
(hypertext markup language), where the language
controls the way the information is displayed on a
Web browser.
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Impact of the Internet
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The Path to Electronic Commerce
 Implementing an e-commerce system includes a
significant risk of failure
 The first step is a commitment to implement the
system as part of a strategic business plan to use
e-commerce to achieve competitive advantage
 The firm then gathers business intelligence to
understand the potential role each environmental
element will play
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Impact on Information Systems
 Most new ISs designed for internet
 Client operating system less important
as only client-side software is a web
browser
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Security and Privacy
Security
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Privacy
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How will the business continue in the event of a security breach,
terrorist attack, or disaster?
How can the business protect its digital assets from outside
threats?
Consumer demands for privacy in e-commerce transactions
Government requirements
Impact on information systems
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Need to incorporate stringent security and privacy controls
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Collaboration and Partnership
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Organizations seek to break down the walls
that separate organizational departments and
functions.
Organizations collaborate with outside
business partners and even competitors.
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Knowledge Asset Management
Data
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Information
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Raw facts about an organisation and its business transactions
Data that has been refined and organised by processing and
purposeful intelligence
Knowledge – data and information that is further
refined based on the facts, truths, beliefs, judgments,
experiences, and expertise of the recipient.
Knowledge Asset Management
 Recognizes that data, information, and knowledge are
critical business resources
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Business Drivers for Today’s
Information Systems
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Continuous Improvement and Total Quality Management
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Business Processes
 Tasks that respond to business events (e.g., an order).
Business processes are the work, procedures, and rules
required to complete the business tasks, independent
of any information technology used to automate or
support them.
Continuous process improvement (CPI)
 The continuous monitoring of business processes to
effect small but measurable improvements in cost
reduction and value added.
Total quality management (TQM)
 Comprehensive approach to facilitating quality
improvements and management within a company
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Sequence Summary
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A systems analysts starts with a business profile, which is an
overview of company functions, and then he creates a series
of business models that represent business processes, which
describe specific transactions, events, tasks, and results
Companies are production oriented, service oriented, or a
combination of the two
The newest category is the Internet-dependent firm, which
relies solely on Internet-based operations.
Business drivers for today’s information systems are
globalization of the Economy, electronic Commerce and
Business, security and Privacy, collaboration and Partnership,
knowledge Asset Management, continuous Improvement and
Total Quality Management, business Process Redesign
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Sequence Summary
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In this Sequence we have
Described how systems analysis and design
in organizations has changed over the past
40 years
 Defined the terms system and information
system
 Described the characteristics of system
 Described information system components
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Sequence Summary
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In this Sequence we have
Distinguished between business profile and
business model
 Described the various types of companies
 Described the major business drivers for
today’s information systems
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Reference
[1] System Analysis and Design, Sixth Edition
Authors: Gary B. Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman and Harry J. Rosenblatt ,
Publisher: SHELLY CASHMAN SEWIES.
[2] Modern Systems Analysis and Design Third Edition
Authors: Jeffrey A. Hoffer , Joey F. George, Joseph S. Valacich
Publisher: prentice hall
[3] Systems analysis and design methods
Authors: Jeffrey L.; Bentley, Lonnie D., Dittman, Kevin
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
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