2.2 System Analysis 2.2.1 Fact Finding It involves technical staff working with customers to find out about the application domain, the services that the system should provide and the system’s operational constraints. There is a variety of techniques can be used for analysing and designing software solution. • Interviewing and questionnaires • Brainstorming • Prototyping • Research and survey As the specific techniques will vary, based on the type of application, the skill and sophistication of the development team, the skill and sophistication of client, the scale of the problem, the criticality of the application, the technology used, and the uniqueness of the application. We have used Interviewing and questionnaires technique in order to obtain information about the requirements of the customers. 2.2.2 Feasibility Study Technical Feasibility:- A large part of determining resources has to do with assessing technical feasibility. It considers the technical requirements of the proposed project. The technical requirements are then compared to the technical capability of the company. The system is considered technically feasible if the internal technical capability is sufficient to support the project requirements. It is an evaluation of the hardware and software and how it meets the need of the proposed system. The technical needs of the system may vary considerably, but might include: • The facility to produce output in a given period of time.
Along with interviewing, it would be beneficial to hold a JAD (Joint Application development) session with the stakeholders so everyone may come together and share their opinions and knowledge of the system. While a JAD session may have high costs, the benefits of a JAD session are very high as the session enables analysts, developers and the stakeholders to come together and work towards the design of the new system. Bringing all the users in a room together helps the analysts and developers greatly understand the needs of the new system as discussed
Another factor to ensure success is to train the IT personnel on the system’s applications and processes. How well the IT personnel understand the systems is extremely relevant to the success of system implementation. The involvement of IT personnel, who have knowledge regarding the application requirements, increases the ability of the team to correctly and quickly specify the requirements. Experienced IT personnel on a team help ensure others understand terminology and have more of an understanding of the stakeholders needs (Havelka and Lee, April 25, 2002).
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).
The commonly used methods of observation, interviews, etc., can help analysts pinpoint exact requirements based on user input and business processes. According to Charvat (2003), “One of the biggest benefits of a proper user requirements specification is that you'll be able to plan and estimate your project correctly, decreasing the chance of cost and time overruns.” The analyst must listen to the employees and gain a thorough understanding of all business processes before establishing the new system requirements.
Full implementation should be completed in six months. The boundaries are the human resource system. Crossing over into design or inclusion of other departments such as accounting or sales would be out of scope. The business requirements are that the system is to be a single system instead of the multiple tools they are using now. The other business requirement is more vague, only stating that they would like to take advantage of more sophisticated, state-of-the-art technology. Project feasibility is determining if the technical, economical, and operational factors of the project can be accomplished under the schedule given. Technical looks at what hardware and software are available compared to what the requirements of the project are. Economic compares the cost of the overall project to what is budgeted and what can be justified by potential financial returns. Operational factors examine if the system will receive support from the people that use it and make it work (“System Development Life Cycle”, 1998).
One of the first steps involved in carrying out a preliminary investigation include understanding the problem or opportunity in sight. The analyst must first identify which department, users and business processes the system request is involved in to evaluate and assess the causes and effects related in the proposed system. Defining the project scope and constraints is the second step. With clear indications of the projects boundaries or extent the project scope is determined, while the requirements or conditions the system must confer to or achieve determine the projects constraints. The third step in a preliminary investigation consists of fact finding techniques, that involve the analyses of charts, interviews with users, managers and review of documents , observing operations and finally user surveys. Followed by the fourth step that includes the process of evaluating feasibility. This step consists of evaluating the feasibility of the proposed projects operational, technical, economical and
The information system’s requirements in the systems planning phase are based on a case summary, potential interview questions, and the systems analyst’s experience in systems planning. One must not only generate requirements based specifically on what users’ state they want or need. Analysts must also generate requirements based on insight into the overall organization and project goals.
Requirement Analysis: collect the business needs, document the requirements, and help team members to prepare Functional and enhancement Specification Document and Technical detail design document.
•Implement all Riordan's current and future information into the new systemFeasibility of the ProjectThe feasibility of the project will be determined by many factors. These factors include1.Does Riordan have enough experience to use newer technology2.Will the new system allow for efficient, effective, and cost
Systems analysis is when business hire individuals to analyse their systems to determine what issues are present with their current systems and provide a solution that will fix the issues.
Technical feasibility: Checks the organizations current technology. Asking the question “will it handle the suggested new system?” If the current technology does not, this would mean that the company would need to upgrade software or hardware or both to make it technically feasible. If the current technology can handle the new system, then it would be technically feasible without any technical upgrades.
Computer systems analysts job involve both business and technology knowledge in order to work in this field. Computer systems analysts are liable for determining how a business’ computer system is obliging the requirements of the company, and what can be done to make those systems and processes more effectual. (Western Governors University, 1)
The current development process devotes a large amount of time at the front end of development to establishing customer needs and converting them into system level requirements. The client-site team meets with customers, learns their needs, develops specifications, verifies them with the customers, and then sends them offshore for development. This is a very formalized, documented process. (+)
System development can generally be thought of having two major components: systems analysis and systems design. In System Analysis more emphasis is given to understanding the details of an existing system or a proposed one and then deciding whether the proposed system is desirable or not and whether the existing system needs improvements. Thus, system analysis is the process of investigating a system, identifying problems, and using the information to recommend improvements to the system. System design is the process of planning a new business system or one to replace or complement an existing system.
The requirements gathering and analysis phase is the most critical phase for the overall success of the project because this phase helps “identify and capture stakeholder requirements using customer interviews and surveys” (Smith, 2016). In order to successfully capture software requirements from the stakeholder, developers need to conduct conference meetings to understand the capabilities of the software. This conference meeting usually takes place only once, so it is essential that developers collect all the information required for the software during the elicitation requirement meeting. For developers to be successful in collecting all the required information, it is a