Semester Two Examination Period

Office Use Only

MonashUniversity

Semester Two Examination Period

2004

Faculty of Information Technology

EXAM CODES:IMS1805

TITLE OF PAPER:Systems Analysis

EXAM DURATION:3 hours writing time

READING TIME:10 minutes

THIS PAPER IS FOR STUDENTS STUDYING AT:( tick where applicable)

BerwickClaytonMalaysiaDistributed LearningOpen Learning

CaulfieldGippslandPeninsulaEnhancement Studies Sth Africa

PharmacyOther (specify)

During an exam, you must not have in your possession, a book, notes, paper, calculator, pencil case, mobile phone or other material/item which has not been authorised for the exam or specifically permitted as noted below. Any material or item on your desk, chair or person will be deemed to be in your possession. You are reminded that possession of unauthorised materials in an exam is a discipline offence under Monash Statute 4.1.

AUTHORISED MATERIALS

CALCULATORS YES√ NO

OPEN BOOK YES√ NO

SPECIFICALLY PERMITTED ITEMS YES√ NO

if yes, items permitted are:

Candidates must complete this section if required to answer in this paper

STUDENT ID______DESK NUMBER______

SURNAME ...... SIGNATURE......

OTHER NAMES (in full) ......

The paper has a total of 8 questions worth 100 marks. There are three (3) sections. You should answer ALL questions in every section.

SECTION A

This section contains short answer questions worth a total of 20 marks.

1.Write a brief explanation (about 3-4 sentences) of each of the following:

(a)What is the difference between a physical and a logical Data Flow Diagram?

(b)What is Structured English and what is it used for?

(c)Why is levelling used in modelling?

(d)What does the term relationship mean in an entity-relationship model; what is meant by the cardinality of a relationship?

(e) What is a rich picture and what is it used for?

(f)What is meant by the terms “class”, “instance” and “object” in object-oriented modelling?

(6*2 = 12 marks)

2.Write a briefexplanation(about 5-6 sentences) of each of the following, and show an example to illustrate.

(a) What is a use case diagram? Draw an example of one. Explain briefly why they are useful.

(b)What is a data dictionary and what is it used for? What are the elements of data models and process models which need data dictionary entries? Give an example of a data dictionary entry.

(2*4 = 8 marks)

SECTION B

This section contains 3 short essay questions worth a total of 30 marks

3.Human beings are analytical by nature, but much of the analysis which we do is intuitive and unstructured. Why are formal analytical techniques such as those you studied this semester needed in information systems development?

(6 marks)

4. During this semester you have studied process modelling, data modelling, object-oriented modelling and soft systems modelling as different forms of analysis which are commonly used in the development of information systems. Compare and contrast the role which these different approaches to analysis play in the process of development of an information system. Your answer should include consideration of the following:

• How do they differ in terms of the elements or aspects of an information system which are included in each form of analysis?
• What does each form of analysis contribute to the task of understanding system needs and developing an information system?
• What (if any) are the specific technologies used in information systems for which each form of analysis is particularly suited? Explain why.

(12 marks)

5.Data gathering is a crucial aspect of analysis. List the main data gathering techniques available to the systems analyst, describe the strengths and weaknesses of each, and discuss how the choice of modelling form may relate to methods of data collection.

(12 marks)

SECTION C

This section contains 3questions worth a total of 50 marks

6.The diagrams below show fragments of system models for a business. Describe the data and processing elements of this business as revealed by the models.

Model 1: Entity-Relationship Diagram

Model 2: Data Flow Diagram

(10 marks)

7.Carefully read the following description of a business system, then answer the questions which follow.

Eddie’s Electrical Repair Shop offers a repair service for a range of household electrical appliances. When a customer brings in an appliance for repair, the desk clerk fills out a Repair Job form, which records the current date, the manufacturer, model number and serial number of the appliance, and a brief description of what the customer says is wrong with it. If it is a new customer,the clerk records their name, address and phone number(s) in the shop’s Customers Register.

The clerk assigns the repair job a serial number to identify it and records this on the Customers Register. There is a minimum fee charged for having the appliance looked at by a technician, and the customer is also asked to provide an indication of the maximum amount they are willing to pay for the repair job. They do not have to give a figure for this, but it saves the time and inconvenience of having to contact them again after the estimated cost of repair is finalised. This information is also written on the Repair Job form, and a copy of the form is given to the customer for their records.

Items waiting for repair are stored in a set of numbered storage cubicles (like pigeon holes, only bigger) in the repair room. The clerk records the number of the storage cubicle on the Repair Job form and places the form in the Repairs Pending tray.

The technicians repair each appliance on a ‘first come first served’ basis. When a technician is free, theytake the next Repair Job form from the Repairs Pending tray, get the appliancefrom its storage cubicle and see what needs to be done to fix it. If it can be fixed for less than the maximum sum quoted by the customer, the technician goes ahead and does the repair, calculates the payment owed and records the details of the repair work done and the details of the payment owing for it on the Repair Job form. The cost of repairs is broken into two parts – the cost of parts and the time taken to do it. If the customer has not specified a maximum amount, or if the cost of repair is estimated to be greater than the maximum specified amount, the technician writes the details of the repair work needed and the estimated cost on the Repair Job form. The technician then returns the item to its storage cubicle, and places the Repair Job form in the Jobs Completed tray.

The desk clerk regularly collects the Repair Job forms from the Jobs Completed tray. For appliances which have been fixed, he puts the form into the Awaiting Collection tray and leaves them there to wait for the customer to call in. For appliances which have not been fixed, he looks up the customer’s contact details in the Customers Register and phones them to tell them the quote and find out what they want to do. Their answer is recorded on the Repair Job form. If they want to go ahead with the repair, the Repair Job form is returned to the Repairs Pending tray; if not, it is placed in the Awaiting Collection tray.

When a customer returns to collect the appliance, the desk clerk gives them an invoice showing the details of the cost of the job, and sends a copy of the invoice and the Repair Job form to the Accounts clerk to deal with payment.

(a) Prepare a table which lists the main business processes and their data inputs and outputs

(b) Draw a logical Level Zero data flow diagram for the information processing required in the business.

(c) Prepare a table which lists the main business entities and their attributes.

(d) Draw an entity-relationship diagram for the business.

Note: If you have to make assumptions about the system, list them with your models

(5+10+ 5 + 10 = 30 marks)

8.Following are five models of aspects of a library borrowing system. The narrative model is correct, but the other models have significant errors. Carefully examine each model and identify the major errors in them (five in total). List the errors and briefly explain what is needed to correct them.

(i)Narrative description: Following is a description of how the main aspects of the library borrowing system operates:

The library lends books and journals to the university’s enrolled students. The borrower brings the items they want to borrow to the library’s main loans desk, and one of the borrowing clerks on duty there processes the loan.

The borrowing clerk first checks to see whether the material is available for loan by looking up the item's call number on the cataloguing system. The cataloguing system shows what the loan period is for every item, ranging from unavailable for loan up to maximum loan period of 4 weeks; the loan period is set in the cataloguing system when the book is bought by the library, and will vary from item to item depending on expected demand from borrowers. The Library also runs a system which enables borrowers to put items on hold to be picked up by a specified date, so the staff have to check the item's availability from the holds system.

Once the item has been identified as being available for loan, the staff then check the borrower’s ID to see whether they are eligible borrowers. Details of enrolled students are held in the University's student enrolment system. The student's current loans status has to be checked from the loans file, because no undergraduate student with an overdue loan is allowed to borrow, and students are allowed to have only up to ten books out on loan at any one time.

The university finance system is also checked to see whether the student has any outstanding fines. Students are not allowed to borrow if they have any outstanding fines, unless they are postgraduate students, in which case they are still allowed to borrow provided the fine is their first one for the year. However, in this case they are allowed to borrow the item for overnight loan only, no matter what the normal loan period is for that item.

All information about a student's outstanding fines and past fines is recorded in the university's finance system. Fines are paid at the finance office in the main administration building.

If the borrower is eligible and the book is available for loan, the student’s details, the book details, the date of the loan and the loan period are recorded in the loans file. This information is also printed on a standard receipt slip which is issued to the borrower.

(ii)Function Decomposition: Following is the top two levels of a functional decomposition diagram for the library borrowing system. Each of the functions at the lower level shown can be decomposed further, but these details are not shown here:

(iii) Data Flow Diagram: Below is a Level Zero data flow diagram for the system.

(iv)Data Dictionary Entries:Following is a data dictionary entry for the 'Approved loan item' data flow:

Data Flow name: Approved Loan Item
Data Elements = {Item Call number
+ Item type
+ {Author}
+ Title}

(v)Process Description:Following is a decision table used to show how a student's fines status affects their borrowing rights:

Postgraduate Student? / Y / Y / Y / Y / N / N / N / N
Outstanding fine? / Y / Y / N / N / Y / Y / N / N
Previous fines this semester? / Y / N / Y / N / Y / N / Y / N
Normal loan /  /  /  / 
Overnight Loan only /  / 
No loan /  / 

(10 marks)

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