Systems Analysis and Design

Since computers are used in every possible field today, it becomes an important issue to understand and build these computerized systems in an effective way. Building such systems is not an easy process but requires certain skills and capabilities to understand and follow a systematic procedure towards making of any information system. For this, experts in the field have devised various methodologies. Waterfall model is one of the oldest methodologies. Later Prototype Model, Object Oriented Model, Dynamic Systems Development Model, and many other models became very popular for system development. For anyone who is a part of this vast and growing Information Technology industry, having basic understanding of the development process is essential. For the students aspiring to become professionals in the field a thorough knowledge of these basic system development methodologies is very important.

Object-Oriented Design

Object-oriented design (OOD) transforms the conceptual model produced in object-oriented analysis to take account of the constraints imposed by the chosen architecture and any non-functional – technological or environmental – constraints, such as transaction throughput, response time, run-time platform, development environment, or programming language.

The concepts in the analysis model are mapped onto implementation classes and interfaces. The result is a model of the solution domain, a detailed description of how the system is to be built.

Christopher Alexander

My experience has shown that many people find it hard to make their design ideas precise. They are willing to express their ideas in loose, general terms, but are unwilling to express them with the precision needed to make them into patterns. Above all, they are unwilling to express them as abstract spatial relations among well-defined spatial parts. I have also found that people aren't always very good at it; it is hard to do..... If you can't draw a diagram of it, it isn't a pattern. If you think you have a pattern, you must be able to draw a diagram of it. This is a crude, but vital rule. A pattern defines a field of spatial relations, and it must always be possible to draw a diagram for every pattern. In the diagram, each part will appear as a labeled or colored zone, and the layout of the parts expresses the relation which the pattern specifies. If you can't draw it, it isn't a pattern.

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Textbooks

1. John Satzinger, Robert Jackson, and Stephen Burd, Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World (4th Ed.), THOMSON Course Technology, 2007..

2. Object oriented system analysis and design using UML, by: Simon Bennett, Steve Mcrobb and Ray Farmer.

Group Project

Students will form teams and each team will work on a systems analysis and design project. This project is an integral part of the course, since it allows students to apply the concepts, methodologies, and tools in the context of a real-world application.

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