SYSTEM ANALYSIS LESSON SUMMARY

4708915 ABDUL SAMED BATAMIA LIGBI

The five major project management fundamentals that the systems analyst must handle are
project initiation
defining the problem, determining project feasibility, activity planning and control, project
scheduling, and managing systems analysis team members. When faced with questions of
how
businesses can meet their goals and solve systems problems, the analyst creates a problem
definition. A problem
definition is a formal statement of the problem, including the issues of the present situation,
the
objectives for each issue, the requirements that must be included in all proposed systems,
and the constraints
that limit system development.
Selecting a project is a difficult decision, because more projects will be requested than can
actually be
done. Five important criteria for project selection are that the requested project be backed
by management
that it be timed appropriately for a commitment of resources,)that it move the business
toward
attainment of its goals, that it be practical, and that it be important enough to be
considered over other
possible projects.
If a requested project meets these criteria, a feasibility study of its operational, technical,
and economic
merits can be done. Through the feasibility study, systems analysts gather data that enable
management to
decide whether to proceed with a full systems study. By inventorying equipment already on
hand and on order,
systems analysts will be able to better determine whether new, modified, or current
computer hardware
is to be recommended.
Computer hardware can be acquired through purchase, lease, or rental. Vendors will supply
support
services such as preventive maintenance and user training that are typically negotiated
separately. Software
can be created as a custom product, purchased as a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
software package, or
outsourced to an application service provider (ASP).
Preparing a systems proposal means identifying all the costs and benefits of a number of
alternatives.
The systems analyst has a number of methods available to forecast future costs, benefits,
volumes of
transactions, and economic variables that affect costs and benefits. Costs and benefits can
be tangible(quantifiable) or intangible (nonquantifiable and resistant to direct comparison).
A systems analyst has
many methods for analyzing costs and benefits, including break-even analysis, the payback
method, and
cash-flow analysis.
Project planning includes the estimation of time required for each of the analysts activities,
scheduling
them, and expediting them if necessary to ensure that a project is completed on time. One
technique available to
the systems analyst for scheduling tasks is the Gantt chart, which displays activities as bars
on a graph.
Another technique, called Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT), displays
activities as
arrows on a network. PERT helps the analyst determine the critical path and slack time,
which is the information
required for effective project control. Creating a project charter containing user expectations
and analyst deliverables is recommended, since
unrealistic management deadlines, adding unneeded personnel to a project that is trying to
meet an unrealistic
deadline, and not permitting developer teams to seek expert help outside their immediate
group, were
cited by programmers as reasons projects had failed. Project failures can usually be avoided
by examining
the motivations for requested projects, as well as your teams motives for recommending or
avoiding a particular
project.
The systems analyst has three main steps to follow for putting together an effective systems
proposal:
effectively organizing the proposal content, writing the proposal in an appropriate business
style, and orally
presenting an informative systems proposal. To be effective, the proposal should be written
in a clear and
understandable manner, and its content should be divided into 10 functional sections. Visual
considerations
are important when putting together a proposal.