System Development Tools And Techniques

Discuss about the System Development Tools and Techniques.

Types of System Requirements

The usage of EMC system is very beneficial for the patients and the users of Epping Medical Centre. It will reduce the workload of employees of EMS and will help the patients also. In this era of technology, no one wants to waste it’s time to stand in queue. The new system will keep the record of patients and employees and it will diminish the redundancy of records.

The complete system development process of new SMC system is being shown in the report below. The report is showing the complete development process by following steps-

• System Requirements
• Fact Finding Methods
• System Development Tools

The report is showing the new EMC system by modeling technique e.g. Use Case Diagram, ER Diagram, DFD diagram etc.

These are the main objectives of new EMC system-

• Transform the manual system into computerized system
• Develop a prototype on the new system using web application
• Reduce the workload of employees as well as hurdles of patients

Following system requirements are followed and discussed while implementing the new EMC system-

This requirement sows the objective and goal of the system. It is the basis requirement types that should be measured first. The new EMC system has the following objectives-

• Make new computerized system and remove the earlier manual system
• Make a easy to use web interface for the EMC system
• Store the employee’s and patient’s data appropriately

This requirement is get by the user’s point of view. It shows the user’s goals and the inputs that the users can feed.

This requirement detail shows the information related to the system that is not functional e.g. security, integrity etc.

This requirement detail shows the functionality of the system. The best way to show the functional requirement of the system is use Case Diagram.

This requirement is used to show the software’s on which the system will be built. There are so many web application services and databases that can be used in making the new EMC system.  Following software’s are required in implementing the new EMC system-

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012
• Microsoft Visual Studio .Net  2013

This requirement is used to show the minimum hardware requirement to make EMC system.  It will show the hardware that is necessary to install the software’s on which the system will be built.

Processor – 2 x 1, 6 GHz CPU

RAM – 3, 5 GB RAM

HDD – 1 x 40 GB

To start work on system, the system analyst collects facts and information.  If the information is not correct, the system cannot be built according to the expectation.  A best system will be built by using exact and correct information. There are so many fact finding methods as shown below-

The main intention about interview is to verify facts, find correct information, collect ideas and recognize requirements. In interview, we collect information by face-to-face interviews from the end users. The system analyst is the interviewer who takes the interview from the owner of the system or from the users who belong to the system directly or indirectly. There are two types of interviews –

• Structured interview
• Unstructured interview

Fact Finding Methods

In structured interview, a predefined set of questions is asked. A close-ended question type is used in structured interview and the interviewees give a concise and exact answer.

In structured interview, a general goal is taken in the mind of interviewers. An open-ended question type is used in unstructured interview and the interviewees give the answers appropriately.

Interview is one of the best fact finding technique. By interview, the system analyst can easily get the information from the direct users of the system. Sometimes, the user cannot write the information but by the interview, the system analyst can see the body language of interviewees and understand the exact scenario.

It is very time consuming and costly fact finding technique. The system analyst has to go to every user to take interview. If the analyst’s communication skills are not good enough, the interview will not work properly. The system has to take care much about communication and interaction skill.

Questionnaires are one of the best fact finding method. It is very helpful for the system analyst to get information in a very short time. The system analyst will send the questions to all the users and they will give answers and will send back. This work can be easily done by email. It saves time of both analyst and users as well. The system analyst should make the questionnaire according to the requirement and should be clear to the users. There are two types of questionnaire –

• Free format questionnaire
• Fixed format questionnaire

In free format questionnaires, users are allowed to give answers in free format. They are not bothered to give answers in fixed format. This type of questionnaire is very useful in getting the real experience, knowledge and feeling of users.

In fixed format questionnaires, users have to give answers in fixed format. They have to choose answers from the given options. There may be different types of fixed format questionnaires like below-

• Multiple choice questions (Yes, No etc.)
• Ranking questions (1, 2, 3, etc.)
• Rating questions (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor etc.)

Questionnaire is one of the best fact finding technique. The users can easily fill the form without hesitation as their personnel detail is hiding in questionnaire. Users give the answers very genuinely. They are not bothered about their fake status etc. this is the best advantage of questionnaire.

Sometimes, the system analyst cannot get exact and appropriate information as the users do not give answers well. Sometimes they do not fill the complete form. Therefore, the system analyst has to take another way to get the accurate information. The correct questionnaire format is also very important in questionnaire fact finding technique.

One more fact finding technique is prototyping. In this technique, the user has to make a small working model of the system. It is pre designed model in which the system analyst and the users can analyze the system. It is done in earlier stages of system development life cycle. It is known as discovery prototyping also as it finds out the users requirements and objective of the system.

There are lots of advantages of prototyping. The users and the analyst can easily understand and test the system before final system. It is just like the training process of the system. it is very useful to get the consistent information. The users get aware with the system before implementation and it is the best advantage of prototyping technique.

It is very costly fact finding technique as the training is necessary for the developers in this technique. Sometimes users don’t understand the clear functionality and it may lead to the loss in the accuracy of the final system. It is very time consuming also. In making prototype, the actual deadline of the system may extend

To understand the business operations, the system analyst has to use different tools and techniques. The system analyst has to use various system development tools and techniques to show the input, output and operations of the system.

Modeling constructs the graphical representation of a process or a concept. There are different models to show the different type of information e.g. business model, data model, object model, network model and process model.

The business model shows the information that the system provides.  

The data model shows the data structure and design of the system.

The object model shows the objects that combine the data and processes of the system.  

The network model shows the design and protocols of the telecommunications.  

The process model shows the logic that the programmers use in the working of the system.  

Prototyping is also one of the best system development tools. It provides the system concept and gives the facility to check the input, output and process of the system. It is the early version of the system. It is developed to observe the new system before implementation. It is just like the model on which the users can test and understand the functionality.

If the prototype works well, it can be the final system by doing changes in that. It speeds up the system development process.

Only one disadvantage of prototyping is that the important decisions regarding system needs to be taken early without knowing them completely. A prototype based upon the exact fact finding technique, may be a very valuable system development tool.

There are so many different system development methods. Two major used and very appropriate system development methods are defined below-

Structured Analysis

Structured Analysis is very easy to understand system development method. It is time tested method. It uses a series of development phases which is called Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

It is very dominant system development method that is used in all types of systems that are based upon the mainframe processing. Structured analysis uses the set of processes that define the system graphically. Therefore, it is also called process- centered technique.

Along with process modeling, structured analysis describes the database design, data structure, interface design etc. too.

Object Oriented Analysis

In contrast to Structured Analysis in which data and process are treated as different models, the object oriented analysis works on data and process together. Processes that act on data are considered as objects.

It is used to represent real world application. That is why; the developers use the object oriented languages to generate the code for the real world applications which are based upon the people etc.

(Galeon R. J. 2013)

 

(Tutorialspoint 2018)

(Modern Analyst Media LLC. 2014)

(Lucid Software Inc. 2015)

(Oracle 2000)

There is 1: M relationship in Employee and Employee_Availability relations.

There is 1: M relationship in Employee and Appointment relations.

There is 1: M relationship in Patient and Insurance relations.

There is 1: M relationship in Patient and Registration relations.

There is 1: M relationship in Registration and Appointment relations.

References

Lucid Software Inc. (2018). What is a Data Flow Diagram. [online]. Available from: https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/data-flow-diagram. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]

Modern Analyst Media LLC. (2014). Intervies Questions for Business Analysts and System Analysts. [online]. Available from: https://www.modernanalyst.com/Careers/InterviewQuestions/tabid/128/ID/1433/What-is-a-Context-Diagram-and-what-are-the-benefits-of-creating-one.aspx. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]

Lucid Software Inc. (2015), ER Diagram Symbols and Meaning, [Online]. Available: https://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/modeling_languages/data_flow_diagrams.html. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]

Oracle (2000), Drawing the Entity Relationship Diagram, [Online]. Available from: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/A87860_01/doc/java.817/a81358/05_dev1.htm. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]

Tutorialspoint (2018), UML – Use Case Diagrams, [Online]. Available from: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/uml/uml_use_case_diagram.htm. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]

Galeon R. J. (2013), System Development Tools and Techniques, [Online]. Available from: https://jessevimgaleon.blogspot.com/2013/07/systems-development-tools-and-techniques.html. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]

Awesome Inc. (2008), Fact Finding Techniques, [Online]. Available from: https://systemanalysisanddesign.blogspot.com/2008/11/fact-finding-techniques.html. [Accessed: 1-September-2018]