Who is system analyst | Explain the role of system analyst.

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A system analyst is a person who is involved in analyzing, designing, implementing, and evaluating Computer Based Information Systems (CBIS) to support the decision-making and effective operations of an organization. The system analyst studies the problems and their solutions using computer technology among technology. Among the system development professionals, the job of a system analyst is the most important one because s/he is the captain of a team. So, s/he should have the ability to study the system, analyze it, design it, and develop the system. Finally, a System Analyst has to know about business operations and have a strong background in relevant areas of the computer system.

Major Roles of System Analyst

The major roles or responsibilities of a system analyst are:

1. Defining requirements: It involves understanding the user's requirements. It consists of interviewing users to find out what information is being used in the current system, how it is used and what are their expectations towards the proposed system.

2. Prioritizing requirement: Each user in the organization has some special needs. There is a need to set importance among the necessary requirements of various users.

3. Gathering data, facts, and opinions of the user: The system analyst must collect necessary data from the users and get their views. 

4. Analysis and evaluation: The system analyst analyses the working of the current information system in the organization. S/he then shifts through the facts and opinions gathered by her/him and finds the best characteristics of a new or modified system.

5. Solving problems: A system analyst must study the problem in depth and suggest alternate solutions to the management. The relative difficulties in implementing each of the alternatives and the benefits of each must be considered so that a manager can pick what s/he considers the best solution.

6. Drawing up specification: The job of a system analyst is to obtain the functional specification of the system to be designed in a form that can be understood by users. The specification must be precise and detailed so that it can be used by the system implementer. It must also take into account expansion into the near future.

7. Designing system: Once the specification is accepted, the system analyst designs the system. The design must be understandable to the system implementers and it must be modular to accommodate changes easily. 8. Evaluating system: A system analyst must evaluate a system after it has its used for a reasonable period. The time at which the evaluation is to be done, how it is to be done, comments of the users are to be gathered must be decided by the system analyst.

Characteristics of a Good System Analyst

To successful system analyst, he must possess the following characteristics:

1. Knowledge of organization: A system analyst must understand how various functions of an organization. He must be a smart and knowledgeable person who knows how an organization functions. He must understand the management structure and the relationship among the departments in the organization, and its day-to-day operations.

2. Technical knowledge: A system analyst must have good knowledge about new technology and should be well-trained in relevant areas of computer science.  He must know programming ideas and techniques to be able to design a system, which can be implemented.

3. Good interpersonal communication skills: System analysts must be able to talk intelligently with high-level management, technical staff, and non-technical users, programmers, and operators. He is required to influence people to change their minds and attitudes and motivate them to work in a group. He must have good diplomatic skills.

4. Character and ethics: System analysts must possess good moral character and a sense of ethics. The nature of the job of a system analyst requires a strong character and a sense of ethics. Ethics is a personal character quality in which an individual understands the difference between "right" and "wrong" and acts accordingly.

5. Problem-solving skills: System analysts must have wide experience in solving problems. A good system. analyst would use appropriate analytical tools as necessary.

6. Systems analysis and design skills: The system analyst needs strong knowledge and experience in system analysis and design. The basic responsibility of a system analyst is to analyze the system and design it as per the requirement.

What is a Feasibility Study?

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A feasibility study is the process of analyzing whether the proposed system is feasible to develop or not. It is done to determine if the system would be constructive, profitable, and meaningful for the organization or not. A feasibility study is conducted once the system goal is set. It is basically the test of the proposed system in its workability, effective use of resources, and cost efficiency. Different levels (components) are technical feasibility, economic feasibility, feasibility studies operational feasibility, social feasibility, management feasibility, legal and contractual feasibility, schedule feasibility, and behavioral feasibility.

What are the components of the feasibility study?

1. Technical feasibility: The main objective of technical feasibility is to determine whether the proposed system can be developed and implemented using existing technology or not.

Technical feasibility includes the determination of technology needed for a system is available or not. It also determines how the technology can be well used within the system. It identifies the correct personnel and correct equipment including hardware and software systems.

2. Economic feasibility: It determines the cost and benefits of the proposed system and compares it with the budget. This feasibility evaluates the financial aspects of the project and whether an organization can afford the cost of the system or not. The cost of the system includes the cost of hardware, software, development, and implementation. To ensure the new system will certainly lead to benefits, a cost-benefit analysis is also carried out.

3. Operational feasibility: It studies whether the user can operate the new system or not. It depends upon human resources for the development and implementation of the system. It is considered whether the qualified and experienced manpower is available for the development and implementation of the system or not. The operational feasibility determines the general skills, training, and capabilities of the existing personnel.

4. Social feasibility: It determines whether a proposed system will be acceptable to the people or not. This determination typically examines the probability of the system being accepted by the group, directly affected by the proposed system change. It determines the impact of the system on employees. It covers more than just human issues. There could be a cost to the environment, a cost to society, and a cost to company culture.

5. Management feasibility: It determines whether a proposed system will be acceptable to management or not. If management does not accept a system and provides no support, then the system will be a failure.

6. Legal and Contractual feasibility: Legal feasibility determines whether a proposed system is according to the law of the country. Legal issues like tax, copyright, patent, and trademark must be considered. Contractual feasibility determines contractual issues like software and hardware ownership, and license agreements.

7. Time (schedule) feasibility: It determines whether a proposed system can be complemented within the defined time or not. It concerns with time constraints and system deadlines.

8. Behavioral feasibility: Behavioral feasibility includes a study of organizational behavior. It concerns the behavioral approach of the staff and workers like fear of loss of job and identity.

technical feasibility, economical feasibility, behavioral feasibility, schedule feasibility, operational feasibility, and legal feasibility.

Why is it necessary to do a Feasibility Study before Designing a System?

A feasibility study is necessary before designing a system because:

1. It determines whether the proposed system meets the goal of the clients or not.
2. It determines the strengths and limitations before starting to develop the system.
3. It provides quality information for decision-making.
4. It helps to increase investment in the system and its development.
5. It provides documentation of the investigated system.
6. It allows new technologies and development areas for faster processing, more storage, and lower costs than ever before.

What is an expert system? 

An expert system is a computer-based system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to simulate the judgment and behavior of a human or an organization that has expert knowledge and experience in a particular field.

Typically, an expert system uses a knowledge base containing collected experience and inference to access the knowledge when it is required. It can provide suggestions and support in decision-making similar to human experts.

Expert system is mainly used in fields like:

• Financial services
• Telecommunications
• Healthcare (medical diagnosis, treatment)
• Customer service
• Transportation
• Video games
• Design and manufacturing
• Aviation
• Communication
• Planning and Scheduling

Define program logic. Explain different types of program logic tools.

Program Logic

Program logic is the idea or concept of a program. It defines how the program takes input, and process and gives required output. It explains the working mechanism of a program.

Types of Program Logic (Designing) Tools

1. Algorithm: An algorithm is the step-by-step description of the program. It is a designing tool that explains how a program can be developed or how a problem can be solved by using steps of instructions. It consists of a stepwise list of instructions.

 

2. Flowchart: Flowchart is the pictorial representation of the program. It explains the sequence of steps of a program by using graphical symbols. 

3. Pseudo code: A pseudo-code uses English phrases and mathematical expressions to describe the processing steps of a program. It doesn't contain any strict rules as in programming language.

4. Decision table: A decision table is used to simplify the logic of the problem when there are multiple conditions and actions. It helps to find out the correct action for a specific condition. A decision table contains two parts: condition and action.

5. Decision tree: It is similar to a decision table. It represents conditions and actions in a tree structure. Each branch of the tree represents conditions and actions, which are placed at the end of the branch.

6. Data flow diagram (DFD): DFD is a pictorial representation showing the flow of data into, around,, and out of the system.  The main components of DFD are process, external entities, data flow, and data storage.

7. Context diagram: This is the lowest level of DFD which contains only one process. External entities represented in the rectangle interact with the process represented by the circle.

8. E-R diagram (Entity-Relationship): It is used for the designing of a database. It is a diagrammatic representation of entities, attributes,, and their relationships.

What are the documentation techniques? Explain with an example.

Documentation

Documentation is the process of keeping records of all system information during the system development process. It is required to operate the system, modify the system, and for the maintenance of the system.

The documentation should include the following things:

• A statement of the problem.
• Specification of the format of input and output.
•  Details about data structure & file structure. 
• Description of how to eliminate errors.
• Limitation of system or programs.
• Finally, instructions with examples, of how to use it.

Documentation Techniques

Different documentation techniques are:

1. Operation documentation: It is a well-designed system may fail if the user of the system lacks detailed knowledge about how to run the program so, proper documentation is needed to run any system effectively. It includes:

• Instructions to execute the program.
• Description of the procedure to start the program. 
• Listing of the programmed error and their solution. 
• Detailed description of the file used for I/0 processes. 
• Accuracy standard for data in the system.

2. System documentation: Documentation that is related to the system analysis and design process is called system documentation. It contains:

• File specifications.
• Use and meaning of variable names.
• A written description of the program. 
• Transaction specification.
• Output specification.

3. Management documentation: The system designer must know the requirements of the management and provide documentation to enable management to perform the function, which is called management documentation. It provides:

• Monitor existing system.
• Evaluate the progress of the system.

How can you test a newly developed system? Explain different types of testing techniques.

System testing is the process of verifying the newly developed system whether:

• It contains errors or not.
• Whether it meets the users' requirements or not.
• It includes checking the input, output, processing, database, etc. It is done after the system is developed and before it is implemented. Different testing processes are White box testing and Black box testing. In white box testing, the internal working of the system including the program codes are visible and tested. It is normally done by experienced programmers or system developers.

In black box testing, the internal workings of the system are hidden and not tested. The output of the system, when a particular input is provided is tested. It is normally done by the users who have good knowledge about

the system.

The testing process can also be classified as Unit testing, Integration testing, and System testing.

• In unit testing, individual components of the system are tested.
• In integration testing, individual components of the system are tested but after the components are combined together.

In system testing, the complete system is tested after all the components are combined together.

Explain the importance of computer security in this knowledge-based society.

Importance of Computer Security

Computer security refers to the protection of computing resources like hardware, software, and data from unauthorized access. It ensures that the computing resources are used only by the permitted users. Knowledge-based society uses computing resources like computing devices, software, computer networks, and data. Data stored in the databases are processed to generate information required for day-to-day decision-making operations. 

Since a Knowledge-based society applies computing resources; it has to protect resources from both intentional and accidental losses.

Intentional loss refers to the loss of data and other resources from unauthorized access or from those who are willing to destroy the system. It can be protected by using proper authentication tools like username and password policy, bio-metrics like fingerprint recognition, encryption/decryption techniques in data communication, physical security, database security, and network security.

Accidental loss refers to the loss of data and other resources from accidental or unexpected cases like floods, earthquakes, fires, and computer system crashes. It can be protected by using the proper backup system, RAID.