Slide 1: Summary of Chapter 1 (Types of Systems)
Must know types to converse with Business and IT people
 
For each type of system, you might use totally different software and methods and make different design tradeoffs
 
For example in a TPS you the system must run fast enough to handle business transaction s as they arrive.  (speed of update)
 
MIS - updates applied periodically ususally at night.  Optimize for speed of retrieval
 
MIS and DSS might use special software for delivering reports. An Example of such software is Business Objects.
 
Slide 2: Types of Systems (cont.)
Expert Systems capture the knowledge of an expert - many times in the form of if-then rules stored in a knowledge base. A rule based engine is then used to apply these rules to actual situations.  In 1984, GE built an expert system to capture the knowledge of  the people who repaired diesel  locomotives before these people retired.  This system was written in Fourth and it was successful.  Today's rules based engines have names like ilog, blaise, ops, clips and jess.  Jess is written entirely in Java and was developed at the Sandia National Labs in Livermore, CA.  Building expert system requires different tools and skills than those that are required to build Transaction Process Systems.  This course focuses on Transaction Processing Systems.
 
Slide 3 (Skills Needed by the Systems Analyst)
In the opening presentation I showed some skills required by the Systems Analyst. The list on this page is what the textbook shows as Systems Analyst skills and I agree with it.  Notice that it does not say that you need a detailed knowledge of Java, ORACLE, HTML, SQL Server, Photoshop, or any of a number of languages and database systems.  These more detailed type of skills will be useful later in Systems Design and Construction.
 
Slide 4 (The Systems Analyst as a Facilitator)
 The more technical knowledge that you have, the better that you will be able to interact with the people that you meet while doing systems analysis. The more technical knowledge that you have, the better you will be able to work with Database Administrators, Consultants, Interface Design Experts, Application Programmers and Information Technology Vendors.  For example, if you work in a company that uses the ORACLE database management system, you will be able to have a much more productive working relationship with the DBA if you understand the basic concepts of ORACLE and the Structured Query Language.
 
This is also a great diagram to use on a project. You could use it to write down the names and phone numbers and email addresses of all the players that you deal with on the project and then decide your approach on how you would interact with each of these players
 
Slide5 ()
 
This list of Business Drivers is also valuable.  You should consider how any system that you are building will deal with each of these Business Drivers. The value of this specific list will decrease over time.  If you are working on a project five years from now, you should ask yourself the question "What are today's business drivers"?  For example, how should you consider use of energy and the planet's resources in the design of a new system.
 
Here are just a few examples of what these business drivers might mean to the systems that you will build. Systems must handle multiple currencies, characters require two bytes of storage (not just one) in Asian Languages.  European Privacy Laws may dictate what data can be stored and how it must be protected in some systems. Literals and help text may need to be delivered in multiple languages and therefore should not be coded into programs.  How will your system deal with business partners.  Boeing is building their next generation airplane, the Dreamliner using multiple business partners in multiple countries.  This has had a major impact on the Business Processes and the Systems being used to build the Dreamliner. Interaction with External  Business Partners and use of the Internet dictates that Security and Privacy be addressed early in systems projects.
 
Slide6
 
I have a separate slide for BPR because a major question you must ask when defining the scope of any project is "Will we computerize existing business processes or will we redesign the business processes to improve the way the business operates and then design the new system to support the new processes?
 
Slide7
Technology Drivers will also change over time. For example, none of the items on this slide were a factor at the time I started my career. This should tell you that you are continuously responsible for learning new technology -- especially after you graduate.
Comment 1: You can expect most of the systems that you work with to use some form of Internet Architecture and this will be discussed in Chapter 13
 
Comment 2: Wireless hand held devices such as cell phones and iPods will continue to evolve rapidly.  You will need to consider how you use these types of devices in all new systems.
 
Comment 3: After this presentation concludes, you can review a document that shows how the systems that I have worked with over the last 40 years have changed.
 
Slide 8 (Enterprise Applications)
The trend is for core applications to be purchased and for these applications to be licensed from a single vendor. The current method of application integration is to share data in a central database. This central database is designed by a software vendor to work with that vendor's applications. It is important to acquire knowledge of what these commercially available software systems do before you begin a project involving any of the applications shown in this slide. It is interesting to note that you learn a programming language such as Java.  But it is equally important to learn what is available for you to use in that language such as the many Class libraries that are available for you to use with Java. In this course you learn the language of Systems Analysis and Design (UML including ERD) but this is just a start.  In the future you will need to learn what software packages and services are available in the market place before you attempt to build a system.  For example, you would not build your own mapping database and software to show your store locations on a map when Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth of Yahoo Maps could be used to do much of the work.
 
Slide 9 
There are many methodologies that can be used to manage projects and systems development. This slide which shows the FAST methodology that is used in the textbook can be used to evaluate other methodologies.  You could ask, "how does the methodology being evaluated compare to the basic methodology that is taught in this course"?  You can also ask, "how does the methodology being evaluated determine what project to do next, how does it determine how to set overall project scope, and what approach is used by the methodology to perform systems analysis?
 
The chosen methodology will help define how projects will be conducted.
 
Slide 10
In addition to projects, any IT Department has processes that are relatively independent of a specific project.  These can include program source code version control, moving systems from test into production, making changes to database designs and so on. You will need to plan how any of your development projects will interact with these processes that are in place.  Failure to do so could result in the information technology group refusing to accept and operate the system that you design and implement.
 
This concludes the 10 slide overview of Chapter 1. Please continue to the next step.