ITEC2010
Systems Analysis and Design I
Information Page
Prof. Sotirios Liaskos
E-mail: liaskos@yorku.ca
Phone #: 416 736 2100
(x33862)
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Course Information
Overview and Learning
Objectives: why take a course on Systems Analysis and Design?
Modern organizations rely
on Information Technologies to fulfill their strategic and business
goals. Information Technologies help organizations systematize and
simplify their activities while making them more efficient and
reliable. Many of the conveniences we enjoy and services we use in our
daily lives are due to the successful operation of Information Systems
with a strong technological component: from Internet services (banking,
shopping) and common business automation (Logistics, Payroll,
Marketing) to air-traffic and nuclear plant control,
technology-intensive Information Systems have a tremendous impact to
our lives and societies.
Nevertheless, introducing
Information Technologies to an organization (or a group thereof) is far
from being simple. It involves acquisition of a good understanding of
the structure of the organization and their processes as well their
specific goals and needs. Then, it requires thoughtful interpretation
of business and stakeholder goals and needs into requirements for a new
information system. Subsequently, it involves careful architecting,
designing and developing the system that best implements the identified
requirements. Finally, it requires careful management of the transition
of the organization from the old to the new situation, as well as
maintenance and support after the transition has been performed.
Needless to mention: all these need to happen (correctly) within tight
schedule and budget limitations...
In your career as IT
Professionals, you are sure to be involved in managing and/or
conducting any or all of these activities. ITEC2010 will help you
understand the nature of these activities and get you started in
building your toolset for successfully conducting them. We will start
by looking at project management, scoping, feasibility and alternatives
evaluation during the initial stages of a project. Those are the stages
in which we try to learn more about the problem and potential solutions
that can be pursued within a certain schedule and budget. Then we will
focus on the
actual problem understanding and analysis process. This involves
gathering information about the problem and understanding the
complexities of the stakeholder goals, activities and
interdependencies. We will use UML models as a tool for understanding
and communicating problems and envisioned solutions. Closer to the end,
we will look at the challenges involved in designing a system that can
solve the problems identified in earlier phases. We will look at the
problem of architecting and developing a solution, and the complexities
of organizing and managing the transition from the old to the new
system.
This section of the course is
largely practice-oriented and course meetings ("lectures") rely on
students collaboratively working on given examples. Coursework involves
two exams and a group term project with three deliverables, or two
deliverables and a group presentation.
At the end of the course, students will have a good understanding of
the difficulties and complexities involved in understanding,
representing and solving problems that organizations pose to systems
analysts. They will also develop the elementary skills needed for
attending more advanced courses related to Systems Analysis and Design
such as AK/ITEC4010 - Systems Analysis and Design II and AK/ITEC4040 -
Requirements Management.
Textbook (required)
John W. Satzinger,
Robert Jackson and Stephen
Burd. Systems
Analysis and Design in a Changing World. (4th Edition or later) Course
Technology, 2007.
(ISBN: 1-4188-3612-5)
Prerequisites
AK/AS/ITEC
1000 3.00, AK/AS/ITEC 1010 3.00 and AK/AS/ITEC 1620 3.00, or
equivalent. Course credit exclusions: GL/CSLA/ITEC 2010 3.00, SB/OMIS
4740 3.00.
Evaluation
The evaluation components
are generally as follows:
- Term Project (20 - 40%) in groups of 4/5. Project will be
based on a
"real" system that you need to analyze, explore and design
interventions for.
- Deliverable 1: Requirements Acquisition, Feasibility and
Planning.
- Deliverable 2: Requirements Modeling.
- Class presentation and examination.
- Two (2) or three (3) exams, totaling 60-80%.
The project is
mandatory. All exams as well as the class presentation are based on
the project, and assume students know the case and have worked on
it.
Course Outline and Typical
Schedule
Week 1: Chapters 1 &
2: World of the
Systems Analyst, Approaches to System Development
Week 2: Chapter 3: Project
Management
Week 3: Chapter 4:
Investigating System
Requirements
Week 4: Chapter 5: Modeling
System
Requirements: Events and Things
Week 5: Chapter 6:
More Events and Things. Structured analysis
Week 6: Term 1
Week 7: Chapter
7:
Object Oriented Requirements I
Week 8: Chapter 7:
Object Oriented Requirements II
Week 9: Term 2
Week 10: Chapter 8:
Environments Alternatives and
Decisions
Week 11: Chapter 9: Architecture and Design
Considerations
Week 12: Recap and/or
Student
Presentations
Week 13: Final Exam.
Communicating with the Instructor
(Registered Students PLEASE ATTEND):
- Student questions about lectures, material,
assignments,
additional information etc. should be posted publicly on Moolde so that
other students benefit from the answers. Students who want to
answer to their colleagues' posts on Moodle are encouraged to do
so!
- Use private e-mail for administrative issues or
when your message
contains information your colleagues should not see (e.g. implies bits
of your
solution). All correspondence MUST be named and the instructor must
be able to
confirm you are in the course list; anonymous messages will of course
be ignored, unless good reason provided..
- Make sure you use office hours and
opportunities to talk to me
directly, for quick responses.
- Also, please use phone only in cases of
emergency and DON'T use voicemail
if you can send
e-mail (I will check the latter sooner). Use both to be on the safe
side; all this in case of emergency.
Please show professionalism
in all your correspondence.
See
you in class!! (and Moodle)