INTRODUCTION

Problem Based Learning 1 (PBL 1) consists of System Planning and

Preliminary Investigation, System Analysis and System Design which are phases
from System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Under system planning, it provides
information regarding, preliminary investigation and end result of process, skills
needed of an information system project team, system request for the further
development and responsibilities of steering committee. Besides that, system
planning will identify project feasibility including person involved in feasibility team
and aspects in feasibility and will determine short term and long term planning for the
new system that will be develop by the team.

System analysis is the detailed understanding of important features of the

system under investigation. Microsoft Project will be used to prepare Gantt chart.
Gantt chart is useful for planning and scheduling projects. It allows to assess how
long project should take, determine the resources needed and layout the order in
which tasks must be carried out. It also useful in managing the dependencies
between tasks. Other than that, Gantt chart also will monitor the project progress.
Under system analysis, we also able to know the system facts that should be
gathered by the development team, facts gathering techniques and accountants role
in system selections.

Lastly system design will studied in more detail and put into design
specification of the information needs and system requirement proposed in system
analysis. Data Flow Diagram is a graphical presentation of external entities, data
movement, processing functions and data store necessary to support an information
system. From all the content, our objective from this project is able to understand
more details about all the phases in the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and
can interpret it well. Next, we able to use the knowledge especially project
management and database application software during our work in future. Last but
not least is able to improve our skills especially in communication and writing
throughout the project.

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2.0 SYSTEM PLANNING AND PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

2.1 Provide explanation on the SDLC phases.

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a series of recommended steps or phases

designed as a guideline as to what you should be doing and when you should be doing
it. This cycle consist of five phases which include System Planning, System Analysis,
System Design, System Construction and Implementation and System Maintenance.

System Planning is a proper planning on long term and short term must be done to
prevent poor analysis and design of the new system. The activities in the planning phase
can be divided into three major steps which are Project Initiation (Project Identification),
Preliminary Investigation (or Feasibility Study) and Project Planning. Project initiation
begins when someone in an organization identifies that there is a need to improve an
existing system or a new system is needed to improve business operations. Most ideas
come from outside the IT department such as marketing, accounting and others as a
form of systems request. If the project is approved for preliminary investigation, an
analyst from the IT department is assigned to perform preliminary investigation. The
analyst might be part of the organization or from a contracted software development
company. His or her purpose is to identify clearly the nature and scope of the problems,
opportunities of improvement, and define specific solutions. To accomplish the
preliminary investigation, the analyst embarks an activity called feasibility Study (or
feasibility analysis). Then they will prepare a framework for managing the system project
development. The objective of an information systems project management is to deliver
a system that is acceptable to users and that it is developed within time and budget.
Information systems project management is the process of planning, scheduling and
controlling the activities during the systems development life cycle. So it will contain
tentative start and completion dates for each phase and the number of persons expected
to be involved in each phase. Related to the case, Encik Rahim is the one that identifies
that there is a need to improve existing system to overcome the problem. The the IT
analyst will perform preliminary investigation and they will prepare a framework for
managing the system development.

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System Analysis is the detailed understanding of important features of system under
investigation. This include finding out how the existing system works such as the detailed
operations of the existing system. It includes finding out in more detail what the system
problems and what the requirement of users need to the new system. In this phase,
Encik Rahims team will gather the information by interview users or do some
observations. Fact-gathering can be enhanced through the use of prototyping and joint
application design technique. Then they will analyze the requirements from the gathered
fact to identify the user information needs and new system requirements. The
information systems development team must to ensure that the new system will serve
the needs of the organization. This phase results in a detailed proposal of the new
system describing the system functions, system data and system information flows.

During System Design, the information needs and system requirements proposed in the
system analysis phase studied in more detail and put into design specifications. System
design can be divided into general systems design and detailed system design. So for
the case of Encik Rahim, they need to know what they need to implement computerizes
sales ordering system and this may include what software to use. For detailed system
design, they need to know the detailed design, the input, output, interface between user
and the computer, database, network, program and controls.

System Construction and Implementation is where the system is actually being

developed. It is broken down into two phases construction and implementation. During
systems construction, the individual systems components are built. During
implementation, the components built during construction are put into operational use.
Users must be trained, site prepared and the existing system converted into new system.
Therefore in the case of Encik Rahim, in this phase they will construct the computerized
sales ordering system and then will be put into operational use. So the output of this
phase is the users are provided with a working system. After the new system is
completed and working quite sometime, a post implementation review is performed. The
purpose of post implementation review is to evaluate the new system to see if it has
intended satisfied the goals set for it.

System Maintenance is to eliminate errors in the system working life and also to fine-
tune the system to any variation in its working environment. Maintenance implies that
there is continuous improvement of the newly implemented system. In this phase, Encik
Rahims team will provide maintenance to the system if there is an error.

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2.2 Explain purpose of preliminary investigation and end result of this phase.

Preliminary investigation is a step represents an initial investigation. Investigation is the

first step in system analysis which determines whether there is a real need for a system
and whether the system is conceived feasible.

The purpose of the investigation is to study the system request and recommend specific
action. The mainly purpose are to determine the problem, establishing the scope and
specify the project goal to define which part of the information system is to be changed
and which part is outside its control. The investigation also specifies the resources to be
made available to the information systems project.

In the preliminary investigation stage, the true nature of the problem must be
determined. Sometimes what appears to be a problem turs out to be, on a closer look,
only a symptom. So we need to treat the problem not the system. Related to the case of
Encik Rahim, by doing the preliminary investigation they will determine the nature of the
problem on the late deliveries and incomplete order.

Next is establishing the scope of the problem is very important. This is because the
problem tends to expand if no firm boundaries are established. Scope is also necessary
to stay within budget and schedule. The development team and user must agree on the
scope. If the scope is too broad, the project will never be completed. If the scope is too
narrow, the user needs maybe cannot be met. So the scope will define which part of the
system need to change and which part is outside the control. This stage will also specify
the resources to be made available to the information systems project. Therefore for this
case, Encik Rahims team and user must agree on the scope to make sure the project
will stay on budget and schedule so they can know that they need to improve their
manual sales order to integrated computerized sales ordering system to overcome the
problems.

Setting the project goal is perhaps the most important activity in the system
development life cycle. It ensures we solve the right problem and are not working on
something that will not contribute to the organizations effectiveness. The guideline for
goal definition is identification of deficiencies in the existing system. The project goal is to
remove the deficiencies often found in the course of interviews or by examining
documents about system performance. During preliminary investigation, the interview
should search the deficiencies such as missing functions, unsatisfactory performance or

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 excessively costly operations. In relation to the case of Encik Rahim, during preliminary
investigation they should search the deficiencies such as unsatisfactory performance. So
to remove that deficiency they need to set goal to overcome the problem.

At the end of this phase, the team will be able to determine the nature of the problem,
establishing the scope and identify their project goal. This may include any restriction on
the project such as the parts of the existing system which cannot be changed as well as
those which can. The development team also can specify the resources limitations to
indicate the funds and personnel available for the project.

2.3 Specify the new system objectives on the above case study.

The new system objective on the above case study is to improve the efficiency of the
system as a whole by implementing an integrated computerized sales ordering system.
The main objective is to overcome the problem on the late deliveries and incomplete
orders. So the new system is expected to handle at least 500 transactions per hour and
it allows orders received by 2pm to be shipped to the customer by the end of the day.
The Sales Department could create efficiency through automated data entry and
approval routing that will improves the customer service and easy access to documents
and accurate data downstream can reduce days sales outstanding.

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2.4 Justify the necessities to have a development team, who should be involved and
their roles in the development team.

A system development team plays an important role in developing the new system
because they are responsible for determining the specific objectives of the system and
they are also responsible for delivering a system that meets these objectives. The
development team usually perform well when they work effectively as a team because a
good teamwork will create synergy where the combination of effort of a group of people
in a team is greater than the effort of one person. When they working together as a team
they will apply individual perspectives, experience, and skills to solve complex problems,
creating new solutions and ideas that may be beyond the scope of any one individual. As
well as enhancing organizations performance, a good teamwork also give benefits to
individuals. It enables mutual support and learning, and can generate a sense of
belonging and commitment. In relation to the case, Encik Rahim necessary to have a
development team because they are an important role in developing the new system
because they are responsible for determining the specific objectives of the system and
they are also responsible for delivering a system that meets these objectives and when
they work in a team, the performance will be better compare to individuals work.

The persons that should be involved in a development team are users, managers,
system analysts, programmers, and other stakeholders. Each of them has a different role
in the team.

Users represent those people who are going to be working with the system on a regular
basis. Users can be at any level of the organization, from employees on the work floor to
senior executives - this really depends on the nature of the system being developed. The
system will have to meet the users need since they will have to working with the system.
Users should be involved from the very start of system development. They may not
always have technical expertise in system development, but their input is critical in
making sure the system can be implemented and will meet its objective. Users are
critical to determine the user requirement for the system being developed. Typically, the
user requirements are developed by a system analyst based on the input from user.
Users are also involved in system testing including the testing of any prototypes.

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Project managers role is coordinating the various team members and the resources to
complete a project on time. So he or she needs group of people that have different skills
in business, technical and people skills. He must know the progress of the project and
need to make sure the project complete within the specified time. He is also responsible
for controlling the quality of the system being developed, bringing personnel on board
and training them, facilitating communications among team members and acquiring the
various resources needed to support the activities of the various members of the
development team. So related to the case of SportsCamp Sdn Bhd, Encik Rahim as a
project manager need to coordinate various team members and the resources to make
sure the project will be completed on time.

System analyst focuses in information system issues surrounding the system by

identifying how information technology can improve business process, design the
information system and the new business processes and ensure compliance with
standards. The system analyst is responsible for planning, undertaking and coordinating
the overall development activities. The system analyst will likely have significant training
and experience in analysis and design, programming and even areas of business. The
system analyst will work extensively throughout the project but perhaps less during the
implementation phase. Therefore for this case, the system analyst will analyse and
designing business systems. To perform those tasks, he constantly interacts with users
and manager within and outside the company. So he needs to understand how the
current systems operate and developing new systems that meet specific objectives. The
system analysts also will be interact with all the team members and coming up with a
system design - a design that meets the original objectives, will be enjoyed by users, can
actually be built by programmers and can be accomplished with the available resources.

Programmer are kind of translators who are translate the human language and the
language of graphics into the language of digital technologies that computer and
technical devices can understand and thus execute what client wants. So programmer
will responsible for developing specific computer programs that meet the specifications.
This includes writing the actual code that makes the program work. Like this case, to
upgrade the manual sales order to an integrated computerized sales ordering system,
the programmer will implement the system design specified by the system analyst.
Writing code is often one of the more time consuming parts of system development, in
particular if many components have to be custom build. A system design developed by a
single system analyst may require a number of different programmers to develop.

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 Users represent those people who are going to be working with the system on a regular
basis. Users can be at any level of the organization depends on the nature of the system
that will be implemented, so user can be from employees on the work floor to senior
executives The developed system must meet the users need since they will have to
working with the system. Users should be involved from the beginning of system
development. They may not have technical expertise in system development, but their
input is critical in making sure the system can be implemented and will meet its objective.
Users are the important person to determine the requirement that they need for the
system being developed. Usually, the users requirements are developed by a system
analyst based on the input from them. Users are also involved in system testing including
the testing of any prototypes.

2.5 Discuss the purpose of system request and identify the considerations that
should be taken in the system requests.

The purpose of system request are enhancement for existing system, the correction of
problems and the replacement of an older system, or the development of an entirely new
information system that is needed to support a companys current and future business
needs. The main reasons for system request is to improved service to customers, better
performances, support for new product and services, more information, stronger controls
and reduced cost. So for the case of SportsCamp Sdn Bhd, the purpose of their system
request is to solve the problems that they faced which are they cannot handle many
orders at one time and the delivery to customers cannot be done during the same day of
order. So the main reason for their system request is to improve their service to the
customers to overcome the complaints.

For improved service, system request often are aimed at improving service to customer
or users within the company. Allowing mutual fund investors to check their account
balance on a Web site, storing data on rental car customer preferences or creating an
online college registration system are examples that provide valuable services and
increased customer satisfaction. In relation to the case, SportsCamp Sdn Bhd want to
improve their service by upgrading the manual sales order to an integrated computerized
sales ordering system because the company had received complaints from the
customers on late deliveries and incomplete order. Therefore by upgrading the manual
sales order to integrated computerized sales ordering system, they can overcome their
problems as well as increasing the customer satisfaction.

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For better performance, the current system might not meet the performance
requirement. For example, it might respond slowly to data inquiries at certain times or
might unable to support company growth. So related to the case of SportsCamp Sdn
Bhd, the company cannot handle many orders at one time. So from the system request,
they expect when they upgrade their current manual sales order to an integrated
computerized sales ordering system, they can handle at least 500 transactions per hour.
On top of that, they can improve their performance as well as improving the efficiency of
the system.

There are five considerations that should be taken in the system requests which are
project sponsor, business need, business requirements or functionality, business value
or expected value and special issues or constraints. The first consideration is project
sponsor. It is the individual who initiates the project and has the interest to see the
system completed and succeed. This sponsor serves as the primary point of contact
during the whole process of system development and also oversees the SLDC thereby
making sure that the project is headed in the right direction. Examples of project sponsor
may include an owner of a small business and IT manager of an organization. Based on
SportsCamp Sdn.Bhd case, the system request will be sent to the CEO as he is the
project sponsor in developing the computerized sales ordering system.

The second consideration is business need which it described why new system is
important. It includes the reasons which will convince the approval committee to fund
and support the new system. In other words, it is a concise description of what business
value the new system will bring to the organization. For SportsCamp Sdn.Bhd they need
to find solution on the late deliveries and incomplete order.

Thirdly is a business requirement or functionality. This part describes the

requirements and the functionality of the new system comparing it to the existing system
and what features and capabilities the information system will need to have. It also gives
an idea to the intangible benefits that the system will provide. Based on SportsCamp
Sdn.Bhd, the new system should be able to process the orders efficiently by
computerised and it can handle many orders at one time.

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Next the forth consideration is business value or expected value which its describe in
detail the benefits and the expected value that the new system will bring in terms of both
tangible and intangible aspects. Tangible benefits are those that can be qualified and
measured. For example is customer service. Based on SportsCamp Sdn.Bhd, in order to
increase their sales per day, they need to improve their customer services and satisfied
them.

Lastly is special issues and constraints. It is the consideration that needs to be

considered if the new project is taken up for development and implementation. This is
also a very important part of the document as the committee carefully studies the issues
listed here before approval. They may include issues like having a parallel working
system in place so that the business continues to run at its normal pace during the
development phase of the new system. Based on SportsCamp Sdn.Bhd, Encik Rahim
needs to ensure whether the benefits from the system are worth the cost of developing
the system.

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2.6 Discuss the specific responsibilities of the steering committee.

There are seven responsibilities of the steering committee. The first one is determine
and create an organizational structure that will sustain the project and review the
assessment teams goals and objectives, work program and activity schedule. So in this
case, the steering committee will determine and create an organizational structure to
sustain the project of implementation computerized sales ordering system. Second is
identify, recruit, screen, and select qualified individuals to be members of the
assessment teams and committee officers. So the steering committee will select
qualified individual like system designer, IT designer, IT analyst and others as
assessment team and committee officers. Third is establish a regular meeting
schedule, extend invitations to appropriate meeting participants, and make physical
arrangements for the meetings. For this case, the steering committee will establish a
regular meeting schedule and needs to make sure all the development team will
participate in that meeting. Fourth is to determine the self-assessment process that
the committee will utilize to develop the action plan. In relation to the case of Encik
Rahim, the steering committee will utilize all members of the development team to
develop the action plan. Fifth is obtaining the approval and support of all partners
involved in the adoption and implementation of the action plan. Related to the case of
SportCamp Sdn Bhd, the steering committee needs to obtain the approval and support
from the development team in the adoption and implementation of the action plan. Next
is monitor all activities and projects initiated as part of the Action Plan. So the steering
committee will monitor all activities and projects of implementing a computerized sales
ordering system. Lastly is to manage the planning and assessment project and
provide all necessary guidance and direction to staff, consultants, sub-committees, and
action teams. So the steering will provide guidance and direction to the development
team.

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2.7 Explain who should be involved in the feasibility team and discuss the five aspect
of feasibility study.

The member that should be involved in the feasibility team are technical, finance, legal,
operational and planning.

Technical team helps organizations determine whether the technical resources meet
capacity and whether the technical team is capable of converting the ideas into working
systems. Technical feasibility also involves evaluation of the hardware, software, and
other technology requirements of the proposed system.

Operational team member should be involved at all stages starting from the concept. If
we dont understand the operation of a project, we probably cannot do a reliable
feasibility study.

Legal team must be involved from the day one to guide if the conceptualized project
either product or service is legal in your country / location.

Finance team should start working on the feasibility analysis. This involves projecting
the profit and loss statement, forecasting capital expenditure, designing an optimal
capital structure and finally doing a discounted cash flow analysis.

Planning team determine whether the plan that they had made will achieve or not at the
end of the period and worthy for further consideration. They also will ensure that the plan
going smoothly throughout the project.

The five aspects of feasibility study are operational feasibility, scheduling feasibility,
technical feasibility, economic feasibility and legal feasibility.

Operational feasibility means that a proposed system will be used effectively after it
has been developed. Under this assessment, it is covers two aspect. One of it is
technical performance which means whether the information system can provide the
right information at the right place and time. While, for the second aspect is acceptance
within organization on the new system. Moreover, this feasibility is more likely to a
function of human resource for the project when Encik Rahim have to know about how
the system will operate and how the users will accept it once it is installed so that, it
would more easier to conduct it.

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Schedule feasibility means that a project can be implemented in an acceptable time
frame. When assessing schedule feasibility, a systems analyst must consider the action
between time and costs. This is the most important for project success, after all a project
will fail if not completed on time. In scheduling feasibility, an organization estimates how
much time the project will take to complete. Under the situation, Encik Rahim should
scheduling their timetable so that there no late deliveries anymore.

Technical feasibility involves determining whether a proposed information system is

possible given the current state of the technology. So it focuses on the technical
resources available to the organization. It helps organizations determine whether the
technical resources meet capacity and whether the technical team is capable of
converting the ideas into workings system. Technical feasibility also involves evaluation
of the hardware, software and the other technology requirements of the proposed
system. So, under this situation, Encik rahim should have assessed the suitability of
hardware and software to be acquired and whether this equipment is compatible with the
existing information system because it would help them to overcome the order problems.

Economic feasibility involves determining whether a proposed information system will

yield benefits that exceed its cost. So typically it involves a cost/benefit analysis of the
project, helping organizations determine the viability, cost and benefits associated with a
project before financial resources are allocated. It also serves as an independent project
assessment and enhances project credibility which helping decision makers determine
the positive economic benefits to the organization that the proposed project will provide.
Under this situation, the companys team will produces financial and economic
statements and graphical displays and all of this is for to calculate measurement of the
performance of organization, so, Encik Rahim should review all this statement that could
help him more.

Legal feasibility investigates whether any aspect of the proposed project conflicts with
legal requirements like zoning laws, data protection acts, or social media laws. Encik
Rahim should not disclose the clients information to the public.

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3.0 SYSTEM ANALYSIS

3.1 Activities involve in the project management process.

The project initiation phase is the first phase within the project management life cycle,
as it involves starting up a new project. Firstly, we need to identify the business problem
or opportunity, a solution is defined, a project is formed, and a project team is appointed
to build and deliver the solution to the customer. A business case is created to define the
problem or opportunity in detail and identify a suitable solution for implementation.

Second phase in the project management life cycle is project planning, which is the
heart of the project life cycle, and it tells who are involved, where we are going and how
we are going to get there. The planning phase is when the project plans are
documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project
schedule is created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide our team through the
implementation and closure phases of the project. The plan will help us manage time,
cost, quality, changes, risk, and related issues. They will also help us control staff and
external suppliers to ensure that we deliver the project on time, within budget, and within
schedule.

The Project Execution Phase is the third phase in the project life cycle. During this
phase, we will build the physical project deliverables and present them to our customer
for signoff. It usually the longest phase in the project life cycle and it typically consumes
the most energy and the most resources. In order to monitor and control the project
during this phase, we will need to implement a range of management processes that will
help us to manage time, cost, quality, change, risks and issues. They also help us to
manage procurement, customer acceptance and communications.

During the fourth phase, the monitoring and controlling process oversees all the tasks
and metrics necessary to ensure that the approved and authorized project is within
scope, on time, and on budget so that the project continue with minimal risk. This
process involves comparing actual performance with planned performance and taking
corrective action to yield the desired outcome when significant differences exist.
Monitoring and Controlling process is continuously performed throughout the life of the
project.

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Lastly is the Project Closure Phase. In this phase, we will formally close our project and
then report its overall level of success to our project sponsor. Project Closure include
handing over the deliverables to our customer, passing the documentation to the
business, cancelling supplier contracts, releasing staff and equipment, and informing
stakeholders of the closure of the project.

After the project has been closed, a Post Implementation Review is completed to
determine the project success and identify the lessons learned.

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3.2 Draft of Gantt chart for the new project.

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3.3 (i) Identify eight (8) system fact that should gathered by the development team.

1. Control
2. Future growth
3. Performance
4. Penalty
5. Payment Schedule
6. Documentation and analyzing requirement
7. Vendor support
8. Benefits and total cost of ownership

(ii) Explain four facts gathering techniques:

a) Observation

Observation is one of the fact-finding techniques which the system analyst either
participates in or watches a person perform activities to learn about the system,
studies the flow of documents, applies the existing system and also interacts with the
users of the system. Observation also allowed to verify statements made in
interviews and determine whether the procedures really operate as they are
describes.Some advantage of observation is observer can see exactly what is being
done and inexpensive. On the other hand, disadvantages are people may knowingly
or unknowingly perform differently when being observed and may miss observing
certain task. For example recommendations often better accepted when they are
based on personal observation of actual operations. Base on SportsCamp Sdn.Bhd,
Encik Rahim can conduct observation technique to find a reason why the late
delivery and incomplete orders happen in their company. He can observe how they
made delivery and ordering process in order to find the problem.

b) Personal interview

Interview is the most commonly used technique to collect information from the face to
face interviews. The purpose of interview is to find, verify, clarify facts, motivate end
users involved, identify requirements and gather ideas and opinions. The role of
interview includes interviewer who is system analyst and interviewee who are system
owner or user. The interviewer needs goods communication skills for interaction
between system analyst and user.

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 There are 2 types of interviews which are structured and unstructured interview.
Structured interview is an interview which contains predefined set of questions.
Unstructured interview is an interview that is conducted with only a general goal or
subject in mind and with few or specific questions. Open ended questions type is
used in unstructured interview that allows user to answer freely in an appropriate
way. Based on case of SportCamp Sdn.Bhd, Encik Rahim can conduct personal
interview with their customer in order to get more information about the complaint of
late delivery to customer and he also can interview his employee about the complaint
they get from the customer.

c) Questionnaires

It is the technique used to extract information from number of people. This method
can be adopted and used only by a skilful analyst. The Questionnaire consists of
series of questions framed together in logical manner. The questions are simple,
clear and to the point. This method is very useful for attaining information from
people who are concerned with the usage of the system and who are living in
different countries. The questionnaire can be mailed or send to people by post. This
is the cheapest source of fact finding. Based on our case, Encik Rahim can distribute
the questionnaires to the customers that used the system. From that, he will get the
facts about the current system.

d) Reviewing documents

Document review can help us to understand how the current system is supposed to
work. System documentation sometimes is out to date. Forms can change or be
discontinued and documented procedures often are modified or eliminated. We
should obtain copies of forms, as well as samples of actual completed forms. We
usually can obtain document samples during interviews with the people who perform
that procedure. Related to the case, Encik Rahim can review the document to identify
the facts that he need for the development.

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3.4 Accountants role in system selection.

First accountants role in system selection is accountant must ensure that only
escapable costs are used in calculations of cost-saving benefits. An escapable cost
is a cost that can be eliminated by not engaging in or no longer performing an
activity. Next, reasonable interest rates are used in measuring present values of
cash flows. We must choose the correct percentage that have been set according to
the useful life and percentage of return. Others, intangible benefits are assigned
reasonable financial values and realistic useful lives are used in comparing
competing projects. We must compare the assets that have similar useful life then we
can have relevant result. Lastly, one time and recurring costs are completely and
accurately report. Errors, omission and misrepresentations in the accounting for such
items can distort the analysis and result in suboptimal decision. So, accountant must
ensure all the things as stated above must be take into consideration for the system
selection.

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4.0 SYSTEM DESIGN

4.1 Context DFD for customer ordering system.

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4.2 Intermediate DFD for customer ordering system.

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4.3 Four (4) basic symbols use in DFD using Yourdon symbols.

Symbol Explanation

This symbol is used to indicate the external entity who can be

person, department, other systems or organization out of the
system. The external entity will supply data or receive data from that
system.

This symbol is for some process or transformation of data notation.

The processes show what the system does which each process has
one or more data input while producing one or more data outputs.
The process name should be formed one single phrase and define
specific action of the process which appears inside the circle.

Arrow symbol is used to show the movement of the data. An arrow

that pointing to a data store indicate a process of writing or updating
to the data store while an arrow that pointing coming out of the data
store shows reading process.

A pair of parallel line is a symbol for data store where the data are
being stored until it being used by other parts or processes of the
system. Process can enter data into the data store or retrieve data
from the data store.

4.4 Describe characteristic of good DFD.

i. It should be graphical with supporting textual detail.

ii. It should allow the system to be viewed top-down and partitioned fashion.
iii. It should have minimal redundancy.
iv. Number each process sequentially.

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 CONCLUSION
At the end of this Problem Based Learning 1 (PBL 1), we learned System
Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases, preliminary investigation, system request
for the further development and responsibilities of steering committee and we also
able to know the skills needed and their roles in an information system project team.
Those are under Chapter Introduction to Accounting Information System Analysis
and Design.

Furthermore, we also able to identify and defined systems problem and

specify systems objective. We also can identify the person involved in feasibility
team and aspects in feasibility study. Besides that, we have learned the roles of the
accountant in system planning. All of this covered under Chapter System Planning.

Last but not least, we also learned how to use Microsoft Project to prepare
Gantt chart which is covered under Chapter Project Management Software. We also
able to draw Context Data Flow Diagram (DFD) and Intermediate Data Flow
Diagram (DFD) using Yourdon symbols. We also can identify the characteristic that
made a good Data Flow Diagram (DFD). This DFD is covered under Chapter System
Analysis.

Lastly, from this PBL 1 we are able to apply what we have learned in the class
to solve Encik Rahims case. This PBL also helps us in preparation for our
Accounting Information System (AIS655)s final examination

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