IS 634: Structured Systems Analysis & Design (3 credits)

All of the activities required to progress from the initial identification of an organizational problem to the design of an IT-based solution are covered, as well as specific techniques for carrying out those activities.

The emphasis will be on both learning the mechanics of the techniques and applying them to real projects.

CO-requisite: IS 605 and IS 606.

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Example Syllabus - IS 634: Structured Systems Analysis & Design

Each syllabus is an example of a course structure and assignments and is subject to change at any time by the course instructor or Program Director.

The information contained in this document can also be found under Course Information on the CourseInfo website for this course.

Here are the first few things you should do to get started:

1. Read through all the information in this document (which contains all the documents in the Course Information section of the course site). This will help you get a feel for what you will be doing and what is expected of you this semester.
   
   
2. Decide whether or not you are going to participate in a group project. Participation in the project is the best option for most students. However, you may opt out of the project if: 1) you don't mind taking extra quizzes, 2) you have previous experience in information systems development projects, 3) you can submit documents (a Baseline Project Plan and a Systems Proposal) from your previous work that conform to the requirements for group project deliverables 1 and 3 (these requirements can be found in the Project Deliverables subfolder under Assignments), and 4) you can provide proof that you were significantly involved in producing these documents.
   
   
3. If you decide to participate in a group project, first read the Project Guidelines document in the Project Deliverables subfolder under Assignments. Then, post a message to the Course Project forum of the discussion board (you can get to it by hitting the Communication button) introducing yourself and asking for other students to form a group with you. Read other students' introductions and contact those you would like to work with. Forming project teams will be a rather ad hoc, informal process, with students taking the initiative. If there are problems in forming teams, contact the instructor for help.
   
   
4. Once you have formed a team, meet (physically or electronically) to discuss topics and start writing your project proposal. Requirements for the project proposal (and the other project deliverables) can be found in the Project Deliverables subfolder under Assignments.
   
   
5. Begin work on the learning objectives. Start with LO1 and LO2, and get them out of the way quickly. The To Do Lists in the subfolders under Course Documents will guide you to the right materials and assignments. These first two learning objectives are pretty easy and straightforward and will help you get your feet wet while making progress.
   
   
6. Keep going! Work through the learning objectives one at a time, using the To Do Lists as a guide and the Recommended Schedule to keep yourself on track. At the same time, work with your project team on the project deliverables, using the requirements in the Project Deliverables folder (under Assignments) and the Recommended Schedule to submit the deliverables on time. And, finally, keep up with the discussion board (accessed via the Communication button). You should be reading all the posts on the discussion board at least 2-3 times a week and posting your own messages at least 2-3 times per month. Read the Discussion Board Guidelines, below, for more information on using the discussion board.
   

Course Description

This course is part of the UMBC Online Master's Degree in Information Systems. The purpose of this course is to describe the goals and purposes of all the activities involved in the analysis and design phases of a systems development project and to teach the specific techniques used to carry out those activities using a structured approach. No specific prerequisite knowledge is required, but students will be required to use a CASE tool to fulfill some of the learning objectives. However, the choice of CASE tool is up to the student.

All of the activities required to progress from the initial identification of an organizational problem to the design of an IT-based solution are covered, as well as specific techniques for carrying out those activities. The emphasis will be on both learning the mechanics of the techniques and applying them to real projects. Although students will be introduced to all the SDLC phases, this module includes content specific only to analysis and design. Thus, no implementation, testing, or maintenance techniques will be included. The student's competency with these skills will be assessed with a variety of mechanisms. Many of the learning objectives can be demonstrated by participating in a group project that involves the analysis and design of an actual information system, and submitting the products of analysis and design (diagrams, descriptions, analyses) to be assessed. Other learning objectives will be assessed through short exams. There is also the option of taking the course without participating in a group project. This option requires that the student have prior experience in systems development projects. The student who does not participate in a group project will be required to submit some work products from previous projects, as well as take more quizzes.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to apply structured techniques for analyzing the information system needs and problems of an organization, and then design solutions to those problems.

After successfully completing this course, the student will be able to

1. Clearly and correctly describe the motivation behind structured systems analysis and design and the consequences of developing systems without this methodology.
   
   
2. Describe, correctly and completely, the stages of the traditional waterfall systems development life cycle (SDLC) and distinguish between different SDLC models, including iterative, evolutionary, spiral, etc.
   
   
3. Define a systems analysis problem, given some informal description of an organizational situation, including problem and scope statements that clearly and unambiguously outline the implications and boundaries of the problem
   
   
4. Given a well-defined systems analysis problem, conduct a complete systems analysis, correctly applying structured systems analysis techniques.
   Specifically, the techniques learned and applied will include
   · efficient and thorough collection of information on user requirements using techniques such as interviewing, observation, surveys, prototyping, and analysis of organizational documents.
   · the construction and interpretation of the traditional products of structured systems analysis, including conceptual data models, data flow diagrams, logic models, and network diagrams.
   · application of these traditional structured systems analysis techniques to a given collection of unstructured information regarding user requirements, resulting in a correct and comprehensive model of the organization's current data management and processing.
   · application of techniques (such as walkthroughs and reviews) to evaluate a set of structured user requirements.
   
   
5. Given a well-defined problem and a complete systems analysis, present to a customer, in written and/or verbal form, a systems proposal that is judged (by the customer) sufficient to enable the customer's decision concerning the choice of system alternative.
   Specifically, the following activities will be learned and demonstrated
   · generation of at least three alternative solutions to the problem that all represent feasible and realistic solutions from the customer's point of view.
   · a complete and useful (from the point of view of the customer) feasibility analysis that addresses economic, operational, technical, political, legal, and schedule issues, that compares the system alternatives.
   · a cost/benefit analysis that correctly and appropriately applies the following techniques: identification of tangible and intangible costs and benefits, identification of one-time and recurring costs and benefits, projection of costs and benefits over the expected lifetime of the system, calculation of net present value, quantification of risk reduction, cash flow analysis, return on investment, and break-even analysis.
   · a schedule analysis that correctly and appropriately uses work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, and PERT charts.
   
   
6. Correctly apply structured design techniques to produce a complete design of an information system, given a complete systems analysis.
   Specifically, the techniques covered will include control flow diagramming, data flow diagramming, conceptual data modeling, dialogue diagramming, logic modeling, and network diagramming. The student will be able to use these techniques to
   · produce a system architecture design and use the architecture to identify the components of the system to be designed.
   · produce useful (to the programmer) and correct designs of software system components.
   · produce useful and usable (from the point of view of the customer) designs for all input and output interfaces of a system.
   · design an appropriate and usable user interface paradigm for a system.
   · plan an effective usability assessment to evaluate the design of a user interface.
   · design a normalized relational database that correctly represents the data requirements represented in a given conceptual data model.
   · conduct a thorough design review.
   
   
7. Demonstrate effective and appropriate use of CASE tools for some systems analysis and design activities.
   
   
8. Demonstrate a clear and practical knowledge of the concepts and terminology associated with structured systems analysis and design.
   

Assignments, Discussion and Grading

Most of the assignments for this course fall into two categories: Assessments and Practice Assignments. Assessments are meant to be used to demonstrate the student's mastery of a learning objective and constitute many of the graded elements of the course. Practice assignments are not submitted or graded, but are recommended to help the student prepare for the assessment and to exercise their knowledge of the material.

One assessment must be completed for each learning objective (i.e. 8 assessments in all) in order to complete the course. Some learning objectives have several alternative assessments, and some have several parts to the assessment. Some assessments are quizzes, which can be found in the Quizzes subfolder under Assignments. Other assessments are deliverables from the group project. Descriptions of these deliverables, as well as other information about the group project, can be found in the Project Deliverables subfolder under Assignments. Other assessments require the student to submit previously completed work that demonstrates similar skills as the project deliverables. The requirements for these assessments are the same as those for the project deliverables. Either a combination of quizzes and a student project, or a combination of quizzes and deliverables from previous work, must be used to satisfy the assessments for the course.

The assessments are weighted and scored, and the final grade for the course is based on the weighted sum of the scores for the assessments, a research paper, and discussion participation. The scores for project deliverables (for learning objectives 3 through 6) may also be adjusted depending on the peer evaluations submitted at the end of the semester. The weighting is outlined below:

Assessment for LO1: 5 pts
Assessment for LO2: 5 pts
Assessment for LO3: 10 pts
Assessment for LO4: 15 pts
Assessment for LO5: 10 pts
Assessment for LO6: 15 pts
Assessment for LO7: 0 pts
Assessment for LO8: 5 pts
Research paper: 25 pts
Discussion participation: 10 pts

This translates to 35% of the final grade being determined by the group project, 30% by the quizzes, 25% from the research paper, and 10% from discussion participation.

Although the course is scored on a scale of 100 points, it cannot be assumed that any score above a 90 constitutes an A, one between 80 and 90 constitutes a B, etc. The final letter grades will be determined based on the distribution of scores among the entire class.

The research paper is described in a document in the Assignments folder.

The practice assignments are listed in each To Do List. Solutions to the assignments, and some discussion of them, can be found in the Practice Assignment Solutions subfolder under Assignments. It is recommended that questions or comments about the assignments be directed to the discussion board for the course.

"Discussion participation" refers to the student's participation on the on-line discussion board. It is expected that each student will post comments and questions to the discussion board on a regular basis, but students do not have to participate in all discussion threads. The groundrules concerning the discussion board are:

• All students must participate in the discussion board throughout the semester. A minimum of 2-3 posts per month is expected from each student.
  
• I have created several forums on different topics Please try to place your messages in the appropriate forum.
• I will create new discussion threads periodically throughout the semester as discussion-starters, but students should feel free to create their own threads on any topic of interest.
  
• Plan to read the discussion board at least several times per week. You are responsible for any information that is posted there.
  
• I will read all postings to the discussion board and I will post any announcements concerning the course there.
  
• Any questions related to the course should be posted to the discussion board, not sent via email to me. I encourage students to answer each other's questions whenever possible. For this reason, I will wait a minimum of 24 hours before answering any student questions posted to the discussion board, in order to encourage other students to answer it first. I will (gently and tactfully) correct any answers posted by students if need be. Also, I will not answer any questions that have been previously addressed.
  
• No messages that simply say "Me too". All postings must contribute information or insight.
  
• Send me questions via email only if they are confidential or unrelated to the course. If I receive an email that I feel the rest of the class would benefit from, I will post it to the discussion board.
  

Course Materials and Resources

Under Course Documents, there is a subfolder for each learning objective (see Course Objectives, under Course Information, for an overview of all the learning objectives for this course). In each of these subfolders is a "To Do List" which spells out the recommended series of activities needed to cover the material. In each To Do List are references to chapters in the textbook, lecture slides, practice assignments, and assessments.

The required textbook for this module is Modern Systems Analysis and Design, by Hoffer, George, and Valacich, 3rd edition, published by Addison Wesley. The textbook is an important, integral part of the course and should be considered the student's primary source of information. The lecture slides are meant to augment, clarify, and expand on the topics in the book chapters, as well as to provide the student with another opportunity for absorbing the material.

The lecture slides are sets of PowerPoint slides annotated with audio. They will be of limited use without the audio, so you need to use a PC with sound. The slides can be found in the subfolders of the Course Documents folder corresponding to each learning objective.

Statement on Academic Dishonesty

By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBC's scholarly community in which everyone's academic work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating, fabricating, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty and they are wrong. Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may range from a grade of 0 on the relevant assignment or failure of the entire course, to suspension or dismissal from the program.

In particular, for this course:

• No cheating will be tolerated on quizzes.
  
• Plagiarism (misrepresenting as your own work any part of the work performed by another person, including Internet sources) applies to both the research project and the team project. In the case of the research project, all sources must be properly cited and the work as a whole must represent some added insight, analysis, or synthesis on the part of the student that does not come from any other source. In the case of the team project, the team must actually work with a real (not fabricated) customer organization and must not fabricate any information that should come from that organization.
  
• Academic dishonesty also includes interfering with another student's work or aiding another student to commit academic dishonesty.
  

Recommended Schedule

Week #	Learning Objective you should be working on:	Quizzes you should be completing:	Project Deliverables you should be working on:
1	LO1: Introduction/Motivation, LO2: SDLC	Intro Quiz, SDLC Quiz	0
2	LO3: Problem Definition		0,1
3	LO4: Analysis (Requirements Gathering)		1,2
4	LO4: Analysis (Data Flow Diagrams)		2
5	LO4: Analysis (ER Diagrams and the Data Dictionary)		2
6	LO4: Analysis (Logic and Network Models)	Analysis Quizzes	2
7	LO5: The Systems Proposal		2,3
8	LO5: The Systems Proposal		3
9	LO6: Design (User Interface Design)		3,4
10	LO6: Design (User Interface Design)		4
11	LO6: Design (Process Design)		4
12	LO6: Design (Process Design)	Design Quizzes	4
13	LO7: CASE Tools, LO8: Terminology		presentation
14	LO7: CASE Tools, LO8: Terminology		presentation
15	slack time		presentation
Note: The deadlines below allow for some slippage on the recommended schedule, above. If you stick to the recommended schedule, you should be able to
complete all assignments well ahead of the deadline, as recommended. Thus, the deadlines below should be considered "drop dead", or absolute latest dates.
No extensions will be granted, and no credit will be given for late submissions.
Deadlines:
	Project Deliverables:	Due:	Resubmit due:
	Deliverable 0: Project Proposal	week 3	week 4
	Deliverable 1: Baseline Project Plan	week 5	week 7
	Deliverable 2: Structured Requirements	week 8	week 10
	Deliverable 3: Systems Proposal	week 11	week 13
	Deliverable 4: System Design	week 15	week 16
	Project Presentation	week 11	n/a
	Research Paper and Presentation	week 14
	Quizzes:	Due:
	Intro	week 2
	SDLC	week 2
	Analysis	week 7
	Design	week 13
	Terminology	week 15