Chapter1. The Systems Development Environment
Problems and exercises 1. Answer: It is essential that systems analysis and design methodologies should be applied to build a system due to methodologies, which are a sequence of step-by-step approaches, helping develop your final product: the information system.
Supposing that the system is built in whatever way seems to be “quick and easy”, a series of problems will occur in the following steps. Since the main goal of systems analysis and design is to improve organizational systems and the efficiency of employees accomplishing key business tasks, it seems to ignore the potential danger when skipping the process of systems analysis and design.
The value provided by the engineering approach is the software engineering process that forms an organizational approach to systems analysis and design meanwhile makes the process be performed more easily and effectively. Additionally, to improve the organization’s current information.

2. Boundary
Education level
Answer: Students might describe inputs to a university or college as new students, new faculty, new employees, supplies, or funding. Some outputs include graduating or transferring students, faculty, and other employees who take jobs elsewhere, knowledge, or inventions. The boundary should be the level of education. The components of a university they typically have business functions, academic functions and functional hierarchy. Nearly all universities are faced with constraints on funding. Universities interact with community colleges, high schools, business organizations, professional organizations, alumni, and many other external entities. The interfaces with these external entities are sometimes formal and sometimes informal such as research collaborations between professors and researchers. The purpose of the university is to cultivate top notch talents with professional abilities for the society.

UNIVERSITY
Inputs
New students, etc

Functional hierarchy subsystem Academic functions subsystem Business functions subsystem Constrains
Funding

Purpose
Cultivate professional talents
Outputs
Graduating or transferring students, etc

Interface
Collaborations

Environment
Community colleges, high schools, business organizations, etc

3. Answer:
Climate-control subsystem
Passenger subsystem

Car

Engine

Fuel subsystem
Braking subsystem
Electrical subsystem

4. Answer:

Interface: Internet
Boundary: processing ability

Environment: other computers

Interrelationship: information entered transforms to pictures, figures, etc output

Output equipment: display, etc
Input equipment: keyboard, etc

Constraints: bugs, errors

COMPUTER

CPU
Storage:
hard disk, etc

5. Answer:
Plug-in card

Enter password

Menu

Money

Remove card

As the data flow diagram shown above, the whole process of withdrawing cash by using an ATM machine can be explained explicitly. Initially, you should plug-in card. Then enter your private password, if it is confirmed by the bank system, the screen will access to the selection menu. After pressing the cash button, you have to type the amount of money you want, additionally the number you enter must be integer. It ought to be noted that the number must be counted correctly before removing the card.

6. Answer: JAD and PD are development processes designed to help build better systems by engaging the direct participation of users. The first difference between them lies in the locus of control for systems development. With the JAD approach, control of systems development typically still rests with the systems staff. Indeed, the outputs from JAD sessions are commonly summarized and handled by the systems staff after users have a chance to review the transcripts. With the PD approach, control of systems development is either shared by systems personnel and users or rests solely with the users and their managers. With the movement toward end user development in the United States, we are moving more toward shared control of systems and systems development.
The benefits to the JAD and PD approaches are that they are likely to result in better systems and higher user commitment to the systems than would be the case if these techniques were not used.
Some of the barriers are that they require extra systems analyst skills and knowledge, in the short run they add more time and expense to the systems development process, and more time and effort from already busy users and user managers are needed.

7. Answer: Prototyping may also be used to augment the SDLC. For example, a prototype of the final system may be developed early in analysis to help the analysts identify what users want. Then the final system is developed based on the specifications of the prototype.

8. Answer: The role of the systems analyst in the SDLC is essentially the same as that in prototyping. The primary difference is in prototyping. The analyst is simultaneously performing tasks from the analysis, logical design, and physical design phases of the SDLC. In that case all or part of the prototype will be used for the actual system, the analyst is also performing tasks from the implementation phase of the SDLC. In cases where the analyst builds the prototype with the direct, real-time assistance of the users, the analyst and users are collaboratively completing several steps of the SDLC in one step.

9. Answer: The student project team should be of a size that is adequate for the task at hand. The requirement of team members should handle the necessary set of skills and experience for the task. It is important that there be diversity of skills and abilities across team members. There should be clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each of the team members. There should also be a reward structure (for example, a grade) that promotes shared responsibility and accountability. Finally, because their project is for a small business client, the team members must act professionally and deliver a quality product on time.
However, these steps do not necessarily change much for organizing a project team within a professional consulting organization.
One difference might be that, because you would focus more on the long-term professional growth of the team members, you might make team member selections and project assignments that take into account the long- term career development of each of the team members.

10. Answer: Figure 1-9 highlights four SDLC steps generating a endless cycle, simultaneously Figure 1-10 is the circular nature of the life-cycle, but it illustrates how the end of the useful life of one system leads to the beginning of another project that will replace the existing system together.