Application Architecture and Process Design: - Essay

The design method that would be used for Riordan Manufacturing would involve the use of Joint Application Development (JAD). Participants in this methodology would include users, managers, sponsors, programmers, and systems analysts. By involving everyone in the program, we can obtain the most vital information on what is needed to improve the current process for Riordan.

Another way of successfully gathering information is by building a prototype or model of the system, so that users can test or get an idea of what the finished product will be like. With this they can determine issues, problems, or inconsistency with the system. Another important part of gathering information is organizing it so that it can be understood and put to proper use. I propose categorizing the requirements into functional requirements, operational requirements, technical requirements, and transitional requirements. The functional requirements define how the user thinks the system is functioning overall, the operational requirements define what background processes need to be executed in order for the system to work optimally over a period of time, the technical requirements define what technical issues that must be addressed in order to successfully implement the system, and the transitional requirements define the processes or steps needed to implement the system smoothly and successfully. ("Mind Tools", 2012).

This way the IT department can understand what the higher level and lower level employees need for system stability and a better graphical interface. Another plan of action would include the method of Systems Development Life Cycle or SDLC. The phases of this method are planning, analysis, system design, implementation and operation. First we must plan on what exactly we are trying to accomplish. We know we need to upgrade the Riordan Manufacturing system. Next we must analyze the system and look for problematic errors. A project proposal can be essential to launching a system analysis (Farah, 2013). These are things to keep in mind: understand the business situation or problem, understand the significance to the problem in the organization, think of alternate solutions, the use of computer information systems for solutions, find people interested in the solving the problem (Farah, 2013). This plan is used to decrease redundancies, errors, and increase security. Finding all the weak spots in the company will help in the improvement of integrating an updated efficiently functioning system. Feasibility is important to account for when upgrading the system. Integrating a CRM will help to work with customers and understand their needs and wants to benefit the company and the relationship with their customers. Designing the system will involve knowing what kind of software is needed to store and

Activity diagrams are graphical representations of workflows of stepwise activities and actions with support for choice, iteration and concurrency. In the Unified Modeling Language, activity diagrams are intended to model both computational and organizational processes (i.e. workflows). Activity diagrams show the overall flow of control.

As the information system is designed, implementation decisions describing how the system will work are made. Data flow diagrams offer those implementation details, including data stores that refer to files and database tables, programs and human actions that perform processes. The automated parts of the system are differentiated from the manual parts by the human-machine boundary (Dennis, Wixom,

The system development life cycle is a formal four-step process that can be followed in order to identify a problem and solve it. The first step is

In designing and building a payroll program for a large organization with offices spread across the country, which possesses quite a few changelings to overcome and must be done in a particular manner. Thus having the right application architecture is important where the design is concerned. Because the company has one large data center that each office connects to via a wide area network (WAN), hence the appropriate architecture for this solution would have to consist of a WAN diagram to be used in management of this project, along with system documentation, and information technology architecture documents to provide a visual representation of the network. A wide area networks (WANs) usually covers a large, physical area. And many WANs

A ____________________ typically includes a data flow diagram to describe the flow of information for a

2) Current inventory level – Every few days, Mr. Watkins performs a detailed analysis of inventory. He looks for trend that could establish larger-volume buying or reduction in inventory that the MRP action report would not recommend. There are times when volume discounts apply and he consults with the CFO of SSC to determine what the most profitable alternative is for SSC. The decisions are always made by Mr. Watkins and the CFO.

The POS is a great indicator of items in stock and knows when to order more stocks of the items. Every time any item is sold, POS updates the server and the inventory amount changes. Remember that POS system is the location where a transaction or checkout takes place. POS systems are able to track the internal stock and automatically schedule the replenishment stock from external sources. This inventory management is an important part of Information Systems. Inventory management is mainly about specifying the size and placement of stocked goods. Inventory management is also required at different locations of the supply chain; this encompasses everything from replenishment lead time, carrying the cost of inventory, inventory and demand forecasting, inventory valuation, inventory visibility, price forecasting, quality management, and returns of defective goods. The inventory management needs to be handled in the efficient manner as it is

The following analysis takes a look at scenario-based usability engineering and software architecture-based design and the effects, if any, of each given design technique on software quality attributes as defined by McCall. McCall lists the following attributes as part of a quality software product: correctness, reliability, efficiency, integrity, usability, maintainability, flexibility, testability, portability, reusability, and interoperability. These quality attributes will be used as evaluating factors in determining whether scenario-based usability engineering or software architecture-based design can help significantly increase the chances of meeting a project’s goal with respect to that quality attribute. This analysis should provide an overarching view as to which design scenario is best suited for a project given a set of desired quality goals. Below is an introduction to the two methods being compared.

Data Flow Modelling – This is the process of modelling and recording how data flows around a system. A Data Flow Model is made up of connected Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) which are supported by appropriate documentation. DFDs represent the processes and functions within a system (activates that transform data from one form to another), data stores (file storage, external entities (things that send data into a system or receive data from a system) and finally data flows (show the flow of data around the system).

(FIFO) policy, minimum stock reorder for each item and periodic stock evaluation. One of the

As part of our MIS 4163 class, we are going to work in a project that will prepare a system design for the application we select. Our team, the Purple Pirates, is a team composed of 5 people. We have selected to put together the design for a service order and invoicing application for an auto repair business. We have named our project ARS which stands for Auto Repair System.

The interview session has been done by include an open-ended and closed-ended question which are related to the implemented project. Next, sampling technique is executed by system analyst who does evaluation to the current system or prototype. These processes give feedback in evaluation form that filled after tested the system. Lastly, observation is performed by using questionnaire form. According to Burch (1992), the questionnaire is analyzed and transform into structured form that easy to understand. After all information has been collected, structuring of system requirement takes place. It focused on development process modeling which perform “graphically representing the process, or actions, that capture, manipulate, store, and distribute data between a system and environment” (Hoffer, George, & Valacich, 2012, p. 182). In this step, Data flow diagram (DFD) is structured by system analyst using special tools and techniques to create a decision table. According to Hoffer, George and Valacich (2012), decision table is a “diagram of process logic where the logic is reasonably complicated” (p. 200). This table is useful to help system analyst to make a decision toward the project. Then all information’s gained from this phase are documented in System Analysis Report (SAR) that acts as a guideline or reference to the future system development project (Burch, 1992).