Systems Analysis and
Project Management
Unit 1
Overview and Basic Systems Concepts
Agenda
 What is Systems Analysis? Systems Design?
 Role of Systems Analyst
 Systems Concepts
 Types of Information Systems
2
What is Systems Analysis and Design?
 Systems analysis is the process of examining
current business processes, identifying limitations
in them, and determining improvements to them.
The firm is not meeting profitability goals currently
 Analysis found that product quality is the reason
 Increase product quality

 Systems design is the process of developing and
specifying in detail the technical specifications of
IT-based systems that will implement the improved
business processes

Implement modern quality control procedures. Both in
production process and post-production inspection
4
Analyst’s
Approach
to
Analysis
and
Design
Knowledge and Skills
Required of a systems analyst
Systems Thinking

System

An inter-related set of components with an identifiable boundary, working
together to achieve a common goal

Components

Component Relationships

Boundary

Goal

Environment

Input/Output/Interface
An Example
 System
UT Dallas
Components

JSOM, School of Engineering, Administration, Student Body, Faculty
Component Relationships

Faculty-Student Interactions, Administration-Faculty Interactions
Boundary

Limits the scope of analysis/system
Goal

A global force in innovative, transdisciplinary research and education in emerging
areas of technology, science and learning.
Environment

Government, Funding Agencies, Other Universities are in UT Dallas environment
Input/Output/Interface

Exchange of information/things among components, between system and
environment
Constraints










Manpower, Machinery, Money, and Time related
Budget, physical space
A General Depiction of a System
System Elements
Elements
System
Organs, such as the lungs, that deliver oxygen to the circulatory
system.
The Respiratory System
Locomotives, wagons, tunnels, railroads, switches, engineers,
conductors, etc.
A Railroad System
Microprocessor(s), printed circuitry, keyboard, monitor, mouse,
operating system, storage, etc.
A Computer
Receipts, canceled checks, correspondence, folders, and file
cabinets.
A Filing System
Canals, ditches, dams, sprinklers, etc.
An Irrigation System
Trees, vegetation, animals, humans, insects, rivers, etc.
The Amazon Ecosystem
Systems Thinking (Continued)
Develops Decomposition skills
 Dividing a task or a problem into sub tasks or
subproblems
 Encourages the Use of Top-Down methodology
 Aggregate level analysis to detailed analysis
 Big Picture to Details
 Develops Modular Design thinking
 Plug-and-play components
 Relatively independent components that are loosely
assembled together
 Imposes structure into inherently unstructured process
 Makes the analysis and design process more
formal, rigorous, and disciplined

Information Systems
 Information systems are systems that process
data into information and possibly decisions
 Developing information systems and software
applications involves abstract concepts but
have very concrete outcomes.
Types of
Information
Systems
based on
Functional
Area
Types of Information Systems
Based on Support for Decision making

Transaction Processing Systems

Management Information Systems

Decision Support Systems

Expert Systems
Types of Information Systems
 Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

The goal is to collect and store data that arise out of business
transactions in a efficient manner; does limited processing of data

Examples: Point of Sale systems, order processing systems
• Data collection
• Database design

How to assess the quality of TPS?
• Quality of database – Storage, ease of data maintenance, response time
 Management Information Systems (MIS)

The goal is to process data stored by TPS and produce high quality
information; more complex processing, consisting primarily of query
retrieval and summarizing operations

Examples: Sales analysis and report generation applications
• Database Queries
• Report Generation
• Data Visualization

How to assess the quality of MIS?
• Information Quality – Accuracy, Timeliness, right level of aggregation, format
Types of Information Systems (Cont..)
 Decision Support Systems (DSS)

The goal is to actively support managerial decision making process; uses
mathematical models such as statistical and operations research models

Examples: Forecasting systems, production scheduling systems
•
•
•
•
•

What If Analysis
Optimization
Indentifying or Anticipating Problems
Generating Alternative Courses of Actions
Evaluating Alternatives
How to assess the quality of DSS?
• Extent of Support – Active or Passive, quality of generated alternatives, ease of
analysis
 Expert Systems (ES)

The goal is to make decisions like human experts; uses mathematical
models and qualitative knowledge such as logical deduction

Examples: diagnosis (medical, troubleshooting) systems
• Logical deduction
• Common sense reasoning

How to assess the quality of ES?
• Performance Relative to that of Human Expert
Summary
 Analysis answers the ‘What’ question and design
answers the ‘How’ question
 A Systems Analyst requires technical, business, and
people skills
 Systems approach seeks to decompose a system into
its components and relationships among components
to examine existing systems and design new systems
 Four types of IS; our focus is mainly on the design of
TPS and MIS
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