Data and Information – Types of information: operational, tactical, strategic and statutory – why do we need information systems – management structure – requirements of information at different levels of management – functional allocation of management – requirements of information for various functions – qualities of information – small case study.
Systems Analysis and Design Life Cycle: Requirements determination – requirements specifications – feasibility analysis – final specifications – hardware and software study – system design – system implementation – system evaluation – system modification. Role of systems analyst – attributes of a systems analyst – tools used in system analysis.
Information gathering – strategies – methods – case study – documenting study – system requirements specification – from narratives of requirements to classification of requirements as strategic, tactical, operational and statutory. Example case study.
Feasibility analysis – deciding project goals – examining alternative solutions – cost – benefit analysis – quantifications of costs and benefits – payback period – system proposal preparation for managements – parts and documentation of a proposal – tools for prototype creation.
Tools for systems analysts – data flow diagrams – case study for use of DFD, good conventions – leveling of DFDs – leveling rules – logical and physical DFDs – software tools to create DFDs.
Structured systems analysis and design – procedure specifications in structured English – examples and cases – decision tables for complex logical specifications – specification oriented design vs procedure oriented design.
Data oriented systems design – entity relationship model – E-R diagrams – relationships cardinality and participation – normalizing relations – various normal forms and their need – some examples of relational data base design.
Data input methods – coding techniques – requirements of coding schemes – error detection of codes – validating input data – input data controls interactive data input.
Object oriented systems modeling – what are objects? – why objects? – objects and their properties – classes – inheritance – polymorphism – how to identify objects in an application – how to model systems using objects – some cases of object oriented system modeling.
Control – audit and security of information systems – why controls are needed – objectives of control – techniques used in control – auditing information systems – auditing around, through and with the computer – testing information systems – types of tests – how to generate tests – security of information systems – disaster recovery – business process continuity.
Systems analysis and design in the era of electronic commerce – B2B, B2C and C2C e-commerce – advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce. E-commerce system architecture – physical networks, logical network, world wide web, web-services – html, XML.
Electronic data interchange – EDI standards – virtual private networks – XML and EDI.
Security of e-commerce transactions, firewalls – encryption methods – symmetric and asymmetric encryption – digital signature – certifying authorities for signatures – legal status of e-commerce transactions.
Payment systems in e-commerce – cheque payment, credit card payments, e-cash payments.
Complete system analysis and design case studies – a system for journal acquisition in libraries – walk through the entire life cycle.
