2 Introduction This assignment consists of x A case study which requires you to apply your learning from the systems analysis module. x An ethical analysis which requires you to apply one of the readings provided on the course website. x A conceptual development and reflection section which requires you to consider how systems analysis tasks impact on a systems development project. x A learning reflection which requires you to identify what you learned from this assignment and to relate these learning outcomes to the UniSA Graduate Qualities. The feedback sheet lists the assessment criteria. Look for it on the assignment’s webpage. Take note of which sections carry the most marks. Note that this assignment’s word count is 4666 without your answers, so x Don’t worry if the final word count seems high. x Also, there are some diagrams in this assignment so don’t worry if your final word count seems low. I suggest that you draw the diagrams by hand, photograph the drawings and insert the photographs in this file. If you prefer, you can use Word’s drawing tools (or some other drawing or modelling software) but you may find working with pen and paper is faster, easier to amend, less cumbersome and more reliable with respect to layout. Instructions When referring to the exemplars on the course website, read the old specifications carefully because the assignments differ every study period. Recall: in the previous study period, students spent an average of 32 hours on this assignment. x Pace yourself accordingly. x For best results o Do not attempt to complete the whole assignment in one session. o Work slowly and carefully. In addition to the instructions on the course website x Do not overlook the ‘Why?’ questions. x Read the case study carefully. x Keep track of the hours you spend. You are encouraged to make assumptions where necessary. Scope for assumptions has been deliberately included in this assignment because it is often necessary to make assumptions openly when dealing with a client who is under-informed with respect to technology. Please label your assumptions clearly. Here’s an example from a previous study period, Assumption: As the passengers of Titanic II may be from any nation, I have assumed a currency converter is required for the ticket-purchasing function. 3 Case study: Socrates & Co From the Systems Planning assessment You work at IT Foundry as a Systems Analyst. Socrates & Co is a bookshop specialising in new, second hand and rare books. It is located on a busy shopping street, close to several university campuses and has been in business for a long time. Today, it’s managed by its owner, Joanna Diakou, but it was started in 1938 by Joanna’s father, Stefanos, who was a well-known local intellectual. When he established Socrates & Co, Stefanos gave a lot of consideration to the store’s interior design and location. It came to be well known as a place where people are welcome to escape the noise, rest their feet, and sit and read without being disturbed. There are comfortable armchairs between the shelves and people can have snacks if they are careful. Over time, Stefanos came to know many of his customers by name and Socrates & Co built a reputation and a loyal customer base almost entirely from word-of-mouth recommendations. Stefanos retired in 1974 and turned the business over to Joanna, who at the time was recently graduated with an honours degree in the humanities. She has maintained her father’s practices and has come to know her regular customers by name and people know they can come to Socrates & Co and find a warm welcome, insightful and witty conversation, or quiet solitude. Although she draws a salary from Socrates & Co, Joanna doesn’t consider the time she spends there to be ‘work’ – instead it is simply her lifestyle. She goes to Socrates & Co every day except Sundays. Four other people work there: Kavya Amal works on Mondays and Thursdays; Adam Matchoss works on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays; Rajavel Sulake and Priyam Farrukh both work on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Kavya, Adam, Rajavel and Priyam are postgraduate coursework students whose schedules change every semester. Priyam has worked at Socrates & Co for five years and is paid a higher wage because she manages the store on Sundays. All of the staff love the relaxed atmosphere and they deeply appreciate Joanna’s attitude because, as long the customers have what they need, Joanna doesn’t mind if the staff work on their assignments while they are at the store. The store’s opening hours are the same every day: 11am to 7pm. However, Joanna has recently been unwell and has come to realise that perhaps Socrates & Co could afford her an additional afternoon off if she didn’t have to spend so much time on keeping track of inventory, sales, special orders, rosters and all the other little administrative tasks. Also, Kavya and Adam are students in an IT department and they both think Socrates & Co really ought to expand into ecommerce, with an app and a website. Joanna is not entirely sure what this would entail, but she trusts Kavya and Adam and she decides to investigate further. One of Joanna’s regular customers is Andrew Frawley. He is one of your workmates at IT Foundry. When Andrew came into the store, Joanna asked him for advice. He immediately advised Joanna to work with you; you have more experience in ecommerce and publishing than Andrew. She agrees to a meeting, which Andrew arranges between yourself and Joanna. You talk to Joanna about Socrates & Co and you realise its significance extends to the wider community: even people who never buy a book can enjoy reading in the peaceful atmosphere. You learn that Socrates & Co has long-standing relationships with thirty-four publishers and you know that seventeen of the publishers (the larger ones) offer B2B ordering, returns and invoicing. You talk about various business processes. For example, you discuss how Joanna sources rare books and you 4 discuss the Socrates & Co text-book sales service (on a 5% commission) for uni students. You talk about the process for replenishing the second hand stock and the process for when a customer makes a special order. You are sure there are other business processes Joanna has not mentioned; payroll comes immediately to mind and you begin to identify other overlooked business processes. Joanna also tells you about a project she has had in mind for some time: she wants to start a small café in one corner of the store, for which she has obtained a licence. You can see potential for supporting Socrates & Co business processes and for supporting Joanna’s plans for a small café, both without disrupting the Socrates & Co reputation. However, as you are a seasoned professional, you don’t rush in. Instead you suggest that Socrates & Co funds a preliminary investigation of a potential future IS project. Joanna agrees to the cost, your manager approves, and when one of your existing projects closes, you begin the Socrates & Co preliminary investigation. You now have outlines of the Socrates & Co business processes but you need another meeting with Joanna to double check some details and to discuss project constraints. At the meeting, you sketch diagrams on the whiteboard outlining four of the main business processes. Then you ask Joanna if the processes share data, and if not, could they share data in the future. Joanna says, “Well, no, they don’t share data … wait, what do you mean exactly? Because I know what sales are made when I check the day’s transactions and when I know the sales, it helps me figure out if I need to order more stock. There are other things that overlap too, like the rosters and the payroll.” You explain that’s exactly what you mean and you ask her to describe more ‘overlaps’ in the Socrates & Co business processes. “Well, the cash sales determine the next morning’s bank deposits, but the POS transactions just happen automatically. Also, you know how the sales tell me what to order? Well, I also use a bit of knowhow, like when Michael Sandel’s latest book came out, I knew it was going to sell quickly so I ordered quite a few. Actually, I can say the same for several other authors, like Sam Harris. He sells quite well these days. Hmm … come to think of it, if the new system knows how quickly an author sells, then it could keep those authors in a special list, couldn’t it?” You agree that’s one of the functions a system could provide. But you point out that it wouldn’t be able to figure out whether to stock new authors because they wouldn’t have a sales history. Joanna says, “Oh, that’s ok, the publishers know the store so well, I can usually rely on their recommendations. Then I just order a few copies of what they recommend, unless I think the author wouldn’t work at all. It’s especially easy if the publisher takes returns of unsold stock.” You say, “Like Fractal Publishing? They do that for one of my other clients.” You recall that Fractal Publishing is one of the B2B publishers and that they are going to upgrade the security of their B2B system next year; as are Continuum, MUP, OUP and Stanford Law Books. “Yes, we’ve had an account with Fractal for ages! Do you know Jane Berne? She’s my account manager.” 5 “No, but let’s stay on track. If you email me a list of publishers that take returns and a description of the important ‘overlaps’ we can look at some other things. About the app… do you want it to offer the same transactions as the website? Or do you have something else in mind?” “I’m not sure. What do you recommend?” “To keep costs down, let’s keep the transactions the same for now and if you need to review that decision in future, you can do so. But, transactions aside, the website can have other features if you want it to. It doesn’t have to be only sales.” “Really? That’d be great. We can advertise our different Writers’ Week events. I need to talk it over with Kavya and Adam, they’re bound to have some suggestions. Oh! Can the customers review the books they have read?” “Sure. But let’s be a little cautious with respect to budget and schedule. So perhaps we ought to …” The discussion carried on for another fifteen minutes before you shook hands and estimated that you would finish the preliminary investigation within a week. New information The preliminary investigation you wrote up for the Socrates & Co project enabled you to develop a basic understanding of the business context. Your SWOT analysis and scope lists captured the project’s key elements and made a positive impression on Joanna and her staff. Jo has approved the project’s system analysis. In a JAD-style approach to eliciting requirements, you decide to speak to each of the staff members. Even if they don’t contribute to the project, benefits may arise from each of them being able to put your face to your name. However, this is more difficult than it seems as they are not always available on the same days. You discuss this with Joanna and she says that she plans to close the store early on the following Sunday because she and Priyam will be inducting a new employee, Archie Nguyen, who has filled the position previously occupied by Kavya (who recently resigned). She suggests closing the store at 1 and then she will provide a lunch for everyone before your meeting at 2. Once your meeting is adjourned, everyone can go home and she and Priyam will induct Archie. 6 1. Prepare for this meeting. Write an agenda that includes six topics you would like to discuss with the staff (if you do not know what an agenda is, look it up on the internet). These topics should provide them with an opportunity to discuss data and processing in depth. A meeting agenda is a list of activities that are taken up in a meeting (Hocking 2000). The meeting agenda will be divided into six agenda items which will be used to fetch information related to the data and processes. The following table is the list of agenda items along with the questions that will be addressed while discussion: WELCOME MESSAGE OPENING Present: Apologies: Notes from the previous meeting: AGENDA ITEMS Understanding the process of books sale. Understanding the process of books purchasing from suppliers. Understanding the inventory process. Understanding the roster management system. Understanding the payment system. Understanding the existing POS System. FUTURE MEETING DATES CLOSE OF THE MEETING For each of the agenda item, a meeting action will be related. The action item for the meeting is as below: SNO AGENDA ITEMS ACTION 1. Understanding the process of books sale. How is sales record maintained? What all information is stored, if record is maintained? 2. Understanding the process of books purchasing from suppliers. Who is responsible for contacting suppliers and maintaining supplier records? How are supplier details maintained? Who is responsible for contacting suppliers? How are supplier payment details maintained? 3. Understanding the inventory process. Who is responsible for maintaining inventory? How is the record of books purchased maintained? 4. Understanding the roster management system. Who is responsible for maintaining rosters? How are shifts allocated? How is the availability of employees maintained? How are employees informed about their shift details? How is the shift covered if an employee is unable to do the shift? 7 How efficient is the current system in allocating shifts equally and as per each employee’s availability? What is employee’s satisfaction with the current roster system? 5. Understanding the payment system. How is supplier payment record maintained? How is payroll record maintained? How are the different payment methods (credit card/cash) handled? Who is responsible for finance department? 6. Understanding the existing POS system. What all processes are handled by the POS system? What all data is stored in the POS system? How efficient is the POS system? What are some of the problems encountered? After this meeting, the following requirements are known. x The information you presented during the preliminary investigation is confirmed, except where it conflicts with the following. x As in most bricks and mortar commerce, sales can be cash or credit card. When a sale is conducted (cash or credit card), a scanner will be used to keep track of which items are being purchased. Priyam described what ‘sales data’ currently is: the date, the item(s) being sold, the quantity per item, the total price and the receipt number. For a cash transaction, the customer is handed their change and a receipt. For a credit card transaction, the customer is handed a receipt. In the new system, sales data will be used to determine inventory levels. x Once inventory is known, other business processes can be supported. In the new system, a weekly inventory report will be used by Joanna and Priyam before they place orders with publishers. It will tell them which items are popular and which items are low in stock. If a popular item is low in stock, it will be highlighted. Also, old stock will be reported so that Joanna and Priyam can discount the price or return it to the publisher. x Depending on the publisher’s capability, ordering will be performed in a traditional manner (a phone call to the publisher’s agent) or via B2B. Joanna is going to speak to her contacts at each publishing house and compile a list of B2B publishers. Once you have this list, you will embed B2B components in the new system’s design. x When ordered items arrive in the store, they will be scanned in the back room (this will add them to the inventory database), price tags will be printed and attached. Finally, new stock will be put on the shelves. x Joanna will need daily and monthly sales reports, with subtotals for cash and credit card sales. x All the staff would like more flexible working hours. So the rostering system will be available to everyone so they can swap shifts online. A shift will be 4 hours duration and there will be two shifts each day. First, staff log in and enter their ongoing availability (this can be changed at any 8 time) and the maximum number of shifts they want to work in a week. Then, every week, any time before Thursday night, staff can make changes to next week’s roster, putting their name down for whichever shifts they prefer. Every Friday morning, the roster is finalised by a process that will fill any empty shifts according to (a) ongoing availabilities (b) a staff member’s maximum number of shifts and (c) a round-robin allocation scheme (to make sure everyone gets the same number of shifts – it’s important to Joanna that everyone gets an equal chance to develop skills and expertise, so she can call on all staff in an emergency). Then a “report” will be sent to everyone via SMS or email (whichever they prefer). This report will show the finalised roster. If staff make sure all empty shifts are filled before the roster is finalised, there will be no surprises in the final roster. x However, there has to be some flexibility for when people are unexpectedly unable to come to work. In these cases, Joanna or Priyam will call the people who are available for that day. For this purpose, an ad hoc report of staff availabilities is required. Also, Joanna or Priyam will amend that week’s roster because the payroll process will depend on the previous fortnight’s shifts. When the roster is amended a “thank you” SMS or email will be sent to the staff member who filled in on short notice. x To support the payroll process, at the end of a shift, each staff member will enter the hours they worked (there are times when a shift unexpectedly runs longer than four hours). This is checked off by Priyam or Joanna before they go home for the evening. Staff are paid directly to their bank account for the hours they have worked, with a small bonus if they have filled in for someone else on short notice. This bonus is currently $10 but it might go up in future. x Online sales will be available via the Socrates & Co website. Product categories will correlate to the different sections in the shop because these sections evolved over a long time and are effective in supporting the browsing habits of the Socrates & Co customers. However, an additional ‘Sale’ category will be provided. Items in the Sale category are old stock at discounted prices. As in most ecommerce systems, customers can browse different product categories and can add items to their ‘shopping bag’ as they browse. When a customer is ready to checkout, they can either log in and use their profile data for the transaction or they can checkout as a guest. If they checkout as a guest, they will have to provide a delivery address, credit card details, etc. Also, if a customer checks out as a guest, they will be invited to create a profile which will save their data for future transactions. x The café will be going ahead, but there has been a delay. Although Joanna has a licence, the planning permission has been denied and changes have been requested by the planners. So the café’s information requirements will not be a part of any new system at this point in time. Joanna thinks this is probably a good idea as she is not sure what those requirements might be until the café is running. x Special events will be advertised on the Socrates & Co website. A content management system will be required to support this ongoing web-authoring activity. Each event will have its own web page, which will be linked to a splash image on the Socrates & Co homepage. “Advertised” means o Announced with the splash image and the web page, on which people can rsvp for a free event or buy tickets for a paid event. o Followed (an event’s page will contain a widget to re-publish tweets that include the event’s Twitter hash tag). o Wrapped up (highlights will be described and celebrated). 9 x Some events are annual (eg part of the annual Writers’ Week Festival), some events are monthly (eg the local writers’ society meetings, the local poetry slam, the Socrates & Co book club) and some events are one-of. Some of these one-of events are held in conjunction with a publishing house (eg readings and book signings to promote a new book) and others are held in collaboration with individual people (eg an author or an illustrator may have been invited to give a talk about their career highlights or about their professional practice). Web pages of events that are held in conjunction with other organisations must contain the logos of these other organisations and those logos must be linked to the other organisations’ web sites. You make a start on systems analysis. As so many of the business processes impact on service provision, it is clear that several different data stores will be needed. However, you also realise more detailed information will come to light over time, which may require you to amend your current analysis. Recall: you can make assumptions in this assignment (as noted above). Also, you can use the course forum if you have any questions. Data and process modelling 2. What is the purpose of a data flow diagram? Data flow diagram is a graphical representation of the flow of data between various processes in the system. The purpose of a data flow diagram is as listed below (Shelly & Rosenblatt 2014): ¾ To determine the various processes that constitute a system. For example, a restaurant data flow diagram will show the various processes that are within the restaurant like process order, verify order, prepare, etc. ¾ To determine the entities in a system. For example, a restaurant data flow diagram will have Customer, Waiter, Cook as the entities. ¾ To determine the flow of data for each process and entity. For example, in a restaurant data flow diagram, the flow of data from customer to process payment will be “pays the bill” while from process payment to customer will be “gives receipt”. ¾ To determine the location of data storage. For example, in a restaurant data flow diagram, after each order inventory database will be updated. ¾ It is used as a beginning point by any person trying to analyse a system. ¾ It is used by system analysts to determine the loopholes and required modifications. ¾ It is used as a tool by system analysts to communicate their findings. 3. Do data flow diagrams show system logic and decision points? Explain. No, data flow diagrams do not show system logic and decision points. DFD’s are just the graphical representation of the processes, entities, data storage and information flow in a 10 system. To determine system logic and decision points, one of the following logic modelling diagrams can be used: ¾ State-transition diagrams ¾ Sequence diagrams ¾ Activity diagrams ¾ Decision Tables ¾ Decision Trees 4. Why is it important for a systems analyst to understand how data flows through an information system? An organization hires a system analyst for following reasons: ¾ To correctly capture all the business requirements. ¾ To identify the challenges during system transition. ¾ To correctly determine client expectations. ¾ To correctly represent the expected solution (with/without prototype). ¾ To document each and every detail in documents like feasibility analysis, business requirement document (BRD) etc. In order to fulfil all the above mentioned responsibilities effectively, a system analyst must understand the flow of data. Also this will help him to understand the system better, determine the loopholes and with the help of data flow diagrams, he will be able to compare the gaps between old and proposed system. Without this knowledge a system analyst can never drill down to the problems and recommend a solution. This is also supported by the views from the forum: “A system analyst has deep understanding of identifying the various processes in an organization and how the data flows between them” (Gill 2016a) and “System analysts generate more common objects which can be reused in many projects” (Cheng 2016). 5. Draw a context diagram for the new information system. 11 Figure 1: Context Diagram of Socrates & Co. 6. Write a brief email (50-100 words) to Joanna explaining how to read DFDs. Dear Joanna, As per the analysis of the existing system, data flow diagrams have been prepared for the proposed system. These DFD’s will help us in visualizing the new solution. In order to understand and read DFD’s, it is very important to understand the symbols used, hence some of the notations used are as listed below: ¾ Square – external entity, for example: customer ¾ Rounded corner rectangle – Process, for example: Shipping goods ¾ Arrow – Data flow, for example: Order information from customer to employee ¾ Open ended rectangle – Data store, for example: supplier database I hope the above information will help you in gaining better understanding of the proposed solution. Let me know if you need further clarification. Regards, Analysis Team 12 7. Draw a level 0 DFD for the new system. Figure 2: 0 Level DFD of Socrates & Co. 13 8. Draw two level 1 DFDs for the new system. Process 1: Process Order Figure 3: Level 1 DFD – Process Order Process 2: Ship Goods Figure 4: Level 1 DFD – Process Ship Goods 14 9. Name the data stores in the Socrates & Co information system. The data stores in the Socrates & Co information system are as listed below: ¾ Warehouse ¾ Shopping Cart ¾ Customers ¾ Orders ¾ Suppliers ¾ Location ¾ Courier facilities ¾ Employee ¾ Account details of employees ¾ Sales database 15 10. Draw a FDD for the Socrates & Co information system. Socrates & Co. Organization Staff Management Sale Management Maintain employee data Roster management Calculation of working hours Payroll preperation Round robin shift allocation system Confirmation via sms/email Depositing pay to staff account Cash deposit Card payment Receipts Reporting Staff reports Store sales reports Inventory reports Online sales reports Purchasing reports Inventory Checking inventory Placing orders to publishers Updating inventory report Collection of orders Attaching price tags & scanning Ecommerce Admin Services Customer services Content Management System New UserRegistered UserGuest Registration Browse Place order Shipping details Payment Confirmation email Recieves order Search Read summary Read reviews Write reviews Give ratings Add/delete items to shopping cart Update website with advertisements Re-publish tweets Update with events & news Add/Delete books Update price Update Discounts Figure 5: FDD for Socrates & Co system 16 11. Identify and name two functional primitives. The two identified functional primitives are as listed below: ¾ Depositing pay to staff account ¾ Receipts 12. Draw a modular design for one of the functional primitives named in your previous answer. Modular design for depositing pay to staff account: Figure 6: Modular design 17 13. Draw a decision tree for the other functional primitive. Decision tree for receipts: Figure 7: Decision tree for receipts Development Strategies 14. Which components of the Socrates & Co project will be developed as web-based systems? Why? Today many organizations opt for web-based system as compared to traditional system as it provides many benefits in term of easy operation, security and customer service (Rosenblatt 2014). The following components of Socrates & Co project will be developed as web based system: ¾ Online ordering system: Online ordering system will be achieved by developing a website and an App including content management system. Reasons: x The online website and app will provide Socrates & Co a platform for customers to get easy access to Socrates & Co products and services at all times, irrespective of their location. x Since all the processes like ordering by customers, order tracking, shipping etc will be handled in one system, it will result in a streamlined system. x Using a web based system and an app, it will become very easy to integrate many standalone systems as well as flexible for any future enhancements. x Website and app can handle many users at one time unlike traditional system. x Using web-based system and app, Socrates & Co will achieve a secure system. x The content management system for the website will update all the latest events of Socrates & Co and hence will assist in achieving more customers. 18 ¾ Roster Management: Another component of Socrates & Co that must be developed as webbased is roster management system. Reasons: x It will provide a great flexibility to employees to register or change their availability. x Since the online roster management system will adopt round robin allocation system, it will provide a fair shift allocation system. x Any changes in the roster will be easily handled via web based roster management system. 15. Which components of the Socrates & Co project will be developed as traditional systems? Why? Sometimes there are challenges with developing all the systems as web-based like security issues. Hence it is advisable to continue with the some of the traditional systems. In Socrates & Co organization, Payroll system (Process 6) must be kept as a traditional system as this system handles the payroll processing of the employees and hence, there will be a great security risk associated if it is developed as a web based system. 16. Explain how you will make the build or buy decisions for Socrates & Co. The build or buy decisions for Socrates & Co. organization will be made by following below listed stages (Greaver 1999): ¾ PREPERATION: A team will be formed in Socrates & Co. consisting of key members who hold the knowledge of the organization. This team will be responsible for making the final decision. ¾ DATA COLLECTION: In order to make build or buy decision data will be collected and compared on the basis of following factors: x SKILLS: Socrates & Co organization will be analysed on the basis of existing skills: o Technical skills: If the organization has technical expertise it should go with the build decision else must go for buy to ensure product quality. o Subject matter expert: In order to construct an efficient product, it is very important to have the direction of experts in the area of the business. Hence if the organization lacks in subject matter experts, it must go for buy else build decision. x COST: Cost is an important factor when making buying or build decision. There are basically two types of cost: o Development cost: The development cost will be calculated in both the scenarios of build and buy which will include labour, overhead, supplier cost etc. 19 o Short and long term costs and savings: The short and long term cost like support, upgrades etc must also be considered while calculating cost. The cost analysis of build buy decision can be summarized by following figure: Figure 8: Cost analysis for Build (Make) and Buy decision (Greaver 1999) x TIMELINE: Timeline is an important factor which affects an organization. If the organization wants to develop the product in a short span, it must go with buy option else build. x VOLUME: If the organization is small in size, it is often not recommended to build a solution as cost involved will be more. ¾ DATA ANALYSIS: The data collected in the previous stage will be thoroughly analysed by the selected team at this stage. ¾ FINAL DECISION AND REVIEW: A final decision of buy or build product will be taken by the Socrates & Co. team. 17. You plan to prepare a systems requirements document for Joanna. What sections will you include? Document revision history 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose 1.2 Scope 20 1.3 Related documents 2. Background 2.1 System description 3. Current System Analysis 4. Objectives 5. System Requirements 5.1 Functional requirements 5.2 Operational requirements 5.3 Interface requirements 5.4 Resource requirements 5.5 Development requirements 5.6 Performance requirements 5.7 Hardware requirements 5.8 Security requirements 5.9 Quality requirements 5.10 Testing requirements 5.11 Training requirements 6. System Acceptance Criteria 7. Recommendation 8. Glossary 9. Appendix 18. You have decided to recommend that Socrates & Co acquire software for managing business processes. There are four major software vendors in this market. What factors will you consider when evaluating the vendors? The four selected vendors will be compared on the basis of two categories of factors as listed below: GENERAL FACTORS: ¾ Years in Business: This factor helps in determining vendor’s reputation and hence in developing trust. This can be enquired via vendor’s websites. ¾ References: References will help in identifying the quality of service provided and reliability of the services provided. ¾ Ethics: The ethics of an organization provides a clear image of the attitude of the organization and its employees. Hence the ethics of the organization must be analysed. ¾ Existing relationships: The organizations presently having relations with the vendor must be enquired to gain in depth knowledge of the service provided. CRITICAL FACTORS: ¾ Timeline: A good vendor must stick to the vowed deadlines while maintaining the quality of product/service to be delivered. 21 ¾ Cost: Vendor delivering maximum value in lowest price must be selected. Cost must be negotiated with the vendors while making a decision. All the costs must be discussed in detail. ¾ Quality: The quality of service provided by the vendor must be analysed from all aspects. ¾ Flexibility: The vendor must be flexible in terms of any requirement changes. ¾ Staff expertise: The staff must be competent to determine all functional and technical requirements as well as analysing business requirements from all aspects. ¾ Terms of business: The terms of business and contracts have direct impact on the costs and hence it must be analysed before reaching to a final decision of vendor selection. ¾ Innovation: The vendor selected must be well-versed with the latest technologies and hence must be capable to engage the benefits of latest technologies to the service. ¾ Customer service: The vendor must provide support to the organization at all times. ¾ Consistency: The vendor selected must persist all the above qualities throughout the project. A weightage and ranking of each vendor for all of the above mentioned factors must be prepared in order to reach to the final decision of vendor selection. 19. For which components of the Socrates & Co project will you recommend prototyping? Why? Prototype is a technique to provide a realistic idea of the actual solution/product to be developed. This is supported by the views from the forums: “Prototype provides a real feel of the end product as well as assists in efficiently understanding the business requirements” (Gill 2016b) and “prototype reduces risks and provides potential financial exposure” (Kanaujia 2016). A prototype like wireframes created using Visio tool will always help an organization in getting more customers.” In order to understand the business requirements and desired solution of Socrates & Co project, prototyping is a highly desirable solution. Prototyping is recommended for the following components: ¾ ROSTER MANAGEMENT: As employees are the backbone of the Socrates & Co, it is very important that the shift allocation is efficiently handled. As per the requirements, round robin allocation method will be used to equally provide shifts to each employee. Hence if a prototype is developed for this functionality, it will help in: x Visualizing how the system will work in future. x Gaining better understanding of the system. x Identifying any other needed requirement. x Understanding the layout and logic of the system. 22 ¾ WEBSITE: As per the requirements, an online website will be developed in order to enable online ordering of books with various other features for the customers. Hence if a prototype like wireframes using Visio are created, it will help Joana and others to have visual experience of the website as well as a glimpse of the various functionalities of the website. This will improve user involvement and reduce time and cost. Ethical analysis Joanna spoke to her contacts at the publishing houses and is very enthusiastic about the capabilities of B2B ordering and supply, the staff look forward to working with the new system and you are enjoying the project, having built a rapport with everyone. The next time you are in the shop to observe and analyse business processes and data, you notice customers who are on a “first name basis” chatting and laughing with staff. Also, in one corner of the shop is the space where special events are held – this is the space in which Joanna plans to place the café. On one side of this space is a pin board with flyers, posters and photographs of various smiling people. You recognise some of the faces in the photographs: Joanna, the staff, two authors you have met and some of the customers. You assume the photos were taken at some of the special events. Adam Matchoss approaches you and suggests that the new system should support the publishing of photos online, in order to build the Socrates & Co community. You know from experience that, although there might be a few design discussions and iterations, implementation of such a feature can be very rapid; depending on the programmer’s approach, maybe only one hour. The two of you have a coffee with Joanna and put the suggestion to her. She is immediately enthusiastic (you are beginning to realise that enthusiasm is a natural state of mind for Joanna) but after a few minutes chatting she commented on privacy. Also she thinks there is something ‘different’ about online publishing of photos – it might not feel as warm and friendly; not as communal. At least, that’s how she feels about the photos she has seen on Facebook. But she ends by saying that if you decide it is a good idea, she will support you 100%. Analyse this scenario by responding the following questions. These questions encourage you to apply the stages of the ethical decision-making process described in O’Boyle (2002). This reading can be located on the course web site. Do not overlook the ‘Why?’ questions because answering them will support the development of your certitude. 20. Stage 1, perception. Identify all ethical issues suggested by the scenario above. According to the ACM code of Ethics mentioned by O’Boyle(2002), perception is the first of five stages in the process of ethical decision-making. This stage defines the ability to identify an ethical problem and consider self to be responsible to resolve the same. The Ethical Issues identified in the above scenario are as listed below: 1.3 – Be honest and trustworthy: There is always a risk of misuse of photos uploaded online. Hence, Joanna on behalf of the developers must take the consent of the customers before using their photos for the website. 23 1.7 – Respect of the privacy of others: the publishing of the customer’s photos online can affect privacy of the customers. Hence it is the responsibility of the entire staff including programmers to respect their privacy. 1.8 – Honour confidentiality: In relation to the issues discussed in 1.7, the confidentiality of the customers will be affected. 21. Stage 2, discernment. Which of the ethical issues is the most significant? Why? In the second stage discernment a person analyses all the aspects of the identified ethical problem (O’Boyle 2002). In the given scenario the most important ethical issue will be: “Shall we seek customer’s permission prior to publishing their photos onto the website?” The reason being, we need to determine whether respecting customer’s privacy and confidentiality holds more importance or publishing photos for promoting business. 22. Stage 3, resolution. Articulate your resolve with respect to Joanna’s concerns. This stage defines how a person can deal with the intricacies of the problem and reach to a position where he is personally defensible. With respect to 24 moral imperatives of ACM code of ethics, following codes will be used to resolve the issue and to achieve self-defence: I will not provide harm to others and this is supported by: 1.2 - Avoid harm to others: This code of ethics can be used in defence by stating that in the given proposal of publishing customer’s photos on the website, there is no intention to provide harm to the customers. It is purely an approach aimed for the promotion and publicity of the business. I will respect laws related to professional work and this is supported by: 2.3 - Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work: In relation to 2.3, there is no law or condition related to customer’s privacy is mentioned in the contract. All the laws pertaining to professional work are obeyed. 23. Stage 4, assessment. Are you qualified to respond to Joanna’s concerns about the loss of a communal ‘feel’? Should you consult with someone who has expertise in community? Why? The stage 4 defines a person’s freedom to deal with a moral situation. Among the various responsibilities of a system analyst, one of the duty is to identify risks in the proposed solution and discuss the same with the client. In the given situation, being a system analyst, I can project the positive and negative implications of publishing customer’s photos online to Joanna and then a mutual decision can be taken after discussion. If need arise, advice will be taken from expert organizations/societies like ACS (Australian Computer Society). These organizations provide guidance to efficiently handle the business problems. 24 24. Stage 5, decision. What are your professional duties in this situation? Why? Through stage 5 of ethical decision making process, the professional duties of the system analyst towards Socrates & Co for the given situation will be to organize an open discussion with Joanna and staff. Following issues will be addressed in the meeting to obtain valuable information: ¾ To analyse all the aspects of the problem. Both the negative and positive impacts of publishing customer’s photos on the website must be analysed. ¾ To discuss the results of analysis with Joanna and other staff to reach to a decision which supports business as well as maintains professional behaviour. 25. Stage 6, action. Have stages 1-5 enabled you to construct a commitment to action? Why? Following all the five stages of the ethical decision making proposed by O’Boyle, the decision to inform Joanna about the possible impacts of publishing customer’s photos online is the most sensible decision in the given scenario. The reasoning can be explained in more detail as below: In the initial discussion with Joanna about the proposal of publishing customer’s photos online had a positive response from Joanna. But later Joanna had concerns of customer’s privacy and confidentiality. Neglecting Joanna’s concerns is not a good decision from an analyst responsibilities point of view. Thus it is important that both the positive and negative implications of the proposed solution must be projected in front of Joanna. Since Joanna is the owner of the business, the final decision will be her call. Conceptual development and risk identification So far, this assignment has supported the development of skills required in professional practice, including ethics. Now, it supports the development of professional expertise. 26. What is the overall purpose of the systems analysis phase of a project and how does it differ from the systems planning phase? Purpose of System Analysis Phase: The purpose of a system analysis phase is to analyse all the business requirements and further breakdown them to get a clear picture of the expected solution. Various documents are used to in this process to gain understanding like Business Requirement Document (BRD) and Options Analysis document. Various techniques like data modelling, object modelling etc are also used to get an insight of the requirements. 25 Difference between System Analysis and System Planning phase: The system planning phase occurs prior to system analysis phase which involves various steps to begin with the project. It is then by followed by the other phases of the project. System planning phase involves: ¾ Understanding the existing system. ¾ Identifying stakeholders. ¾ Defining project scope. ¾ Identifying sponsors for the project. ¾ Forming project team. Consider the case study above and the analysis you have prepared. You may have completed the tasks with a lot of care. If so, your analysis is more likely to be effective in supporting future project activities. Consider a situation in which the responses were careless. 27. With respect to the systems analysis tasks you completed in the case study section of this assignment, identify risks for each of the following stakeholders. Your answer should have eight unique risks (two per stakeholder). a. Socrates & Co. i) ERROR IN DFDs: The system analysis phase affects the success of a project. If during the system analysis phase, the constructed data flow diagrams are not error free, it will affect the business which is well established at the present date. For example: if the analysis of the flow of data between the processes is not done properly, it will lead to data inconsistency with direct impact on the success of the business. ii) ERROR IN MODULAR DESIGN: If the modular design has errors, it will have direct effect on the business as there will be incorrect data flow. For example: if the modular design of “depositing pay to staff account” has errors, it will affect the calculation of employees pay. iii) The system analysis phase need to analyse and categorize all the business requirements on the basis of their priority into mandatory, highly desirable and optional. If the analysis is inaccurate or requirements are not identified and categorized properly, it can affect the budget and timeline. For example, if the requirements are not analysed effectively it can exceed Socrates & Co project timeline and budget adversely. 26 b. The wider community. i) ERROR IN DFDs: Inaccurate development of data flow diagrams in the system analysis phase of the project can lead in development of an inefficient website which can affect the customer relationship. For example: if the data flow between online customers and database is not properly determined, it will directly affect the service and hence the customer relationship and business. ii) INEFFICIENT ETHICAL ANALYSIS: If the ethical analysis during the system analysis phase is not conducted effectively, it will directly affect the wider community. For example, improper ethical analysis done in relation to publishing customer’s photos online might spoil their relationship and trust on Socrates & Co. c. Your profession. i) If in the future the final solution is unable to meet the business requirements it will directly the IT profession. The system analysts will not be considered to be helpful for a business. The job market and reputation of system analysts will be badly affected. ii) A improper end solution for Socrates & Co. will affect my reputation in other businesses too and in turn lead to less contracts in future. d. Your own future work tasks (systems design tasks). If the analysis phase in Socrates & Co is not well executed, it can affect the system design phase in following manner: i) It can lead to data discrepancies between various process like process order and shipping goods. This may result in a massive change management which in turn will directly affect budget and timeline. ii) The development of user interface will be quite a challenging task if there is inaccurate data flow between the processes. For example, designing the customer shopping cart page will be a challenging task if the data flow with its prior processes is not clearly defined. 28. Select two of the risks from question 27. With reference to these two risks, what are your conclusions about the importance of attention to detail with respect to system analysis? The following two risks must be given the highest level of attention: 27 RISK a(i) – ERROR IN DFDs: Data flow diagrams form a foundation of a successful project. If the data flow diagrams have errors, it will lead to data discrepancies and hence leading to rework, effecting budget and timeline. RISK d(ii): The data modelling must be done accurately to build an effective database and data flow model. If the data flow which is considered to be a projects foundation is designed accurately, it will help in the next phases of the project. An inefficient data modelling in a project has great chances of massive change management project leading to rework in the later stages of the project. Recall that the systems planning assignment asked you to draw some conclusions about the importance of attention to detail in the preliminary investigation activities. In this assignment, you are thinking about and demonstrating systems analysis. 29. Read and think about your answer to question 19 of the Systems Planning assessment. Compare it to your answer to question 28 above. Identify and discuss two important differences in your answers. Note: this question does not ask you to compare systems planning and systems analysis. Instead, it asks you to compare what you think about these two topics. In the System Planning assessment performed, it identified the risks which were related to requirement analysis, user expectations, budget and timeline which are a result of the analysis done. While in the System Analysis, the risks identified are in relation to in-depth analysis of the data flow between processes which in turn affects the later stages of a project and could result in huge change management process. Not for assessment How many hours did you invest in this assignment? This information will be provided to future students in this course. Approximately 25 Hours. Thank you for the time and effort you have invested. I look forward to reading your submission. 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