Structured System Analysis & Design

JIM Dharmendra Arora

Contents
1. What is Information?
2. What is a System?
3. What is System Design?
4. What is System Analysis?
5. Thus SAD is…
6. Information System
7. Some Bits From History
8. Implications
9. The animal called SSAD…
10. So How do we develop an information system?
11. More On SSAD
12. Waterfall Model
13. Major Elements of SSAD
14. Benefits of SSAD
15. Drawbacks
16. Snapshot of RAD
17. Which approach is better?
JIM Dharmendra Arora
What is information?

The simple most definition- Information is

processed data presented in a
meaningful manner.

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What is a System?
A system is a collection of elements or
components that are organised for a
common purpose.

• Solar System
• Computer System
• Operating System

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What is System Design?
It is the process of planning a new
system or one to replace or
complement an existing system.

To do so one must thoroughly

understand the old system &
determine how it can be made
operationaly more efficient (say by
computerisation). This is essentially the
concept of System Analysis.

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What is System Analysis?

It is all about gathering & interpreting

facts, diagnosing problems and
using information to recommend
improvement.

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Thus SAD is…

Cleary System Analysis & Design (SAD)

refers to the process of examining a
business situation and improving it
through better procedures &
methods.

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Information System

a collection of all the elements or

components organised to manage
information.
predominantly in industry term
information system depicts “software
system meant to furnish some specific
information need”.

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Some Bits From History
In the early days of large scale information
systems development many organisations used the
Cobol programming language together with
indexed sequential files to build systems for
customer billing, payroll, stock control and a
variety of other business areas. These
developments at this time were characterised by :-
limited user involvement;
inadequate requirements elicitation;
use of ad hoc analysis and design techniques;
absence of CASE support for analysis and design;
time consuming use of 3GL tools;
inflexible file and 3rd generation database management
systems.

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Implications
Frequently the results of this approach were systems
which, on delivery, did not satisfy business requirements.
This caused extensive maintenance requirements and
thus an increase in the applications backlog. A variety of
problems may have caused the mis-match between
system functionality and business requirements :-
a lack of ownership of and commitment to the system from
users as a result of the low level of involvement;
business requirements may have changed between inception
and delivery;
requirements may have been mis-understood;
inadequate analysis and design tools and techniques may
have been used;
or more likely a combination of these problems.

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The animal called SSAD…
The response from the information systems community
to these problems was the development of structured
methodologies.

To fully understand large complex system (in popular

terms here we are talking about software system)
Structured System Analysis & Design (SSAD) adopts a
prescriptive approach to information systems
development in that it specifies in advance the
modules, stages and tasks which have to be
carried out, the deliverables to be produced and
furthermore the techniques used to produce the
deliverables. It facilitates better control in the entire
process.

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So How Do We Develop An Information System?

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Preliminary Investigation (Feasibility)

System Requirement Gathering

LIFE CYCLE
Designing of System

Development

Testing

Implementation

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More On SSAD
SSADM adopts the Waterfall model of
systems development, where each
phase has to be completed and signed
off before subsequent phases can begin.

It’s a strictly unidirectional process, like

a waterfall from top to bottom.

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Waterfall Model
START

Preliminary Investigation (Feasibility) Structured

Analysis
System Requirement Gathering

Structured
Designing of System
Design
Development

Testing

Implementation

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Major Elements of SSAD.
Structured Analysis-focus on what system does
or what is it required to do, not on how it
should be done.
Graphical Description
Data Flow Diagrams
Data Dictionary
Structured Design-focus on the development of
software specificaiton.
Graphical Description-flow charts
Languages that support SSAD- BASIC, Cobol,
C etc. (basically all the procedural languages)

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Benefits of SSAD
Improved project management & control
More effective use of experienced &
inexperienced development staff
Proper documentation makes project resilient
to the loss of staff
Enable projects to be supported by Computer
based tools such as CASE
Establishes a framework for good
communication among the participants of the
project.
Develop better quality systems.
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Drawbacks
Because of its strict top-down
unidirectional nature, it does not cater
to the changes in the needs, after
analysis phase.
Specific concentration on software
development not on implementation.
Thus it is in contrast to the popular
methodology called Rapid Application
Development (RAD).

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 Snapshot of RAD START

Preliminary Investigation (Feasibility)

Detailed requirements
Prototyping System Requirement Gathering
Iterative phases
Re-use of software
components Designing of System
Rapid schedule
Less formal reviews and Development
communication
Embraces Object Testing
Orientation
Languages that follow Implementation
RAD-java, C++

STOP

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Which Approach Is Better?

??
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 THANKS

Dharmendra Arora

arora_dharmendra@yahoo.com

JIM Dharmendra Arora