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Information Systems College of Business Administration University of Missouri - St. Louis Information Systems Analysis
Current Events Discussions and Announcements
Remember to check the Analysis Links Page for more information on specific topics. Homework BA215 Client Calendar Cooperative Group Agreement Individual Rating Sheet Group Rating Sheet The mere formulation of a problem is often far more essential than its solution. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science. -Albert Einstein
Being creative involves:
a. consistently producing lots of ideas
b. putting existing or new ideas together in different combinations
c. breaking an idea down to take a fresh look at its parts
d. making connections between the topic at hand and seemingly unrelated facts.
-The Creative Tools Memory JoggerWhat is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity.
In the end, there are no certain answers. -Marina Horner
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries,
is not 'Eureka!' (I found it) but 'That's funny...' -Isaac AsimovArticles about analysis and design on the web. 
Check out this article from Good Experience on the Stages of the Life Cycle.
The newest methodology is called "extreme programming." Read what eWeek has to say about it.
- Introduction to ER Diagrams
- Their Meaning
- An Example
- Remember to look at other analysis links about ER Diagrams
- Their Meaning
- System Definition
- Process Modeling
- Introduction to Data Flow Diagrams
- DFD Examples
- DFD Explosion
- Data Repositories
- Process Modeling
- Prototyping Star Wars Figures
- Joey's airplane
- The Chick's Coat
Fables
Introduction to Prototyping
Prototyping Lessons Learned
Prototyping User Interfaces
a Use of Prototyping
- Joey's airplane
- A man stepped out of a speeding train to his death. He had been on his
own in the compartment, and all that was found there was a very large
handkerchief. If he had made the journey by any means other than train, he
would almost certainly not have decided to commit suicide. Why did he take
his life?
- John Jones lives in Maidenhead. He has one girlfriend in Reading and another in Slough. He has no car and therefore takes the train whenever he goes to see them. Trains stopping in Maidenhead can go either east or west. If they are westbound, they will go to Reading. If they are eastbound, they will go to Slough. There are an equal number of trains going in each direction. John likes his two girlfriends equally. Because he finds it hard to choose between them, he decides that when he goes to the station, he will take the first arriving train,regardless of whether it is going east or west. After he has done this for a month, he finds that he has visited the girl in Slough 11 times as often as he visited the girl in Reading. Assuming that he arrived at Maidenhead station at random times, why should the poor girl in Reading have received so little of his attention.
- The Michaelian Postal Service has a strict rule stating that items sent through the post must not be more than 1 metre long. Longer items must be sent by private carriers, and they are notorious for their expense, inefficiency , and high rate of loss of goods. Boris was desperate to send his valuable and ancient flute safely through the post. Unfortunately, it was 1.4 metres long and could not be disassembled as it was one long, hollow piece of ebony. Eventually, he hit on a way to send it through the postal service. What did Boris do?
- You must choose between two cylinders. They are identical in size and appearance. Each is painted green. However, one is solid and made of a non-magnetic alloy. The other is hollow and made of gold. They both have solid ends. They both weigh the same, measure the same and have the same density. You are not allowed to scratch through the paint. How can you simply tell which cylinder is made of gold? (2/12/01)
- John Jones lives in Maidenhead. He has one girlfriend in Reading and another in Slough. He has no car and therefore takes the train whenever he goes to see them. Trains stopping in Maidenhead can go either east or west. If they are westbound, they will go to Reading. If they are eastbound, they will go to Slough. There are an equal number of trains going in each direction. John likes his two girlfriends equally. Because he finds it hard to choose between them, he decides that when he goes to the station, he will take the first arriving train,regardless of whether it is going east or west. After he has done this for a month, he finds that he has visited the girl in Slough 11 times as often as he visited the girl in Reading. Assuming that he arrived at Maidenhead station at random times, why should the poor girl in Reading have received so little of his attention.
- Why
Interview?
- Types of Interviews and Potential Problems
- How to Interview
- Examples of Problems with Interviewing
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 3
- Example 2
(2/12/01) - Types of Interviews and Potential Problems
- Life
Cycle issues
- Systems Theory
- Process Modeling
- Systems Theory
- Alternative
Syllabus
- Information Comparison
- Building Blocks
- Value of Information
- Information Comparison
- A man worked into a bar and asked the barman for a glass of water. They
had never met before. The barman pulled a gun from under the counter and
pointed it at the man. The man said "Thank you" and walked out. Why should
that be so?
- Two brothers were having a drink in a bar. Suddenly one of the brothers got into a heated argument with the barman. He pulled out a knife and, despite his brother's attempts to stop him, stabbed the barman in the chest. At the trial, he was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and grievous bodily harm. At the end of the trial, the judge said, "You have been found guilty of a vicious crime. However, I have no choice but to set you free." Why should that be so?
- A traveller came to a small town. He had never visited it before, he knew no one there, and knew nothing about the town or its inhabitants. He needed a haircut. There happened to be two barbershops close to each other on the main thoroughfare -- the only barbershops in town. The man studied each of them with care. One shop was very neat and tidy. Everything about it was smart. The barber was sweeping away the last traces of hair from the floor while waiting for his next customer. The other barber's shop was very untidy. Everything looked rather run down and ramshackle. The scruffylooking barber within was lolling on a chair waiting for his next customer. Both shops charged the same amount for a haircut. After careful consideration, the traveler decided to go to the scruffy barber for his haircut. Why?
- Two brothers were having a drink in a bar. Suddenly one of the brothers got into a heated argument with the barman. He pulled out a knife and, despite his brother's attempts to stop him, stabbed the barman in the chest. At the trial, he was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and grievous bodily harm. At the end of the trial, the judge said, "You have been found guilty of a vicious crime. However, I have no choice but to set you free." Why should that be so?
- Approaches
to Different Kinds of Systems
- Overview of the Products of the Life Cycle
- Stages of the Life Cycle
- Problems with Users
- Analysis Deliverables
- Life Cycle
- Overview of the Products of the Life Cycle
The final exam is now available.
Documenting Current System and Proposed System: Data
Documenting Current System and Proposed System: Process
Materials on Prototyping
SMARTER APPROACH TO BUILDING APPS, By Peter Coffee (as appeared in eLabs Report [eLabs_Report@eletters1.ziffdavis.com], March 19, 2001):
There's a TV commercial that begins with two smug
consultants mouthing buzzwords about "improving inventory
velocity" and suchlike. The client breathes deeply, smiles
happily, and says, "Great. Do it." The consultants look
flummoxed. "We don't do it, we just propose it," one of them
replies after an awkward pause.I spent a morning last week with people who do, in fact, do it, and who have defined their business as rapid implementation of custom Java applications. The company is iRise, based near LAX in El Segundo, Calif., and it's a real breath of fresh air to hear them talk about what they do and how.
Web-driven development cycles preclude a classic "waterfall" model of requirements driving specifications driving implementation. "Waterfalls are for people who want to go over cliffs," said iRise CEO and co-founder Emmet Keefe. Instead of pretending that problems will sit still to be analyzed, iRise begins by treating deployment time as a constraint.
"Let's build the most sophisticated application that we can build in three months; let's do a full build-and-test cycle every two weeks," summarized iRise Chief Marketing Officer William Collins in explaining iRise's approach. To do the most important things that can fit within that timetable, the company's small development teams (rarely as many as five developers) "focus on expert requirements gathering," Collins continued, "and continuing requirements definition that lasts through the full life cycle."
Customers typically come to iRise having chosen an application server and seeking custom Java code to fulfill the potential of that platform. "What's interesting about app servers is all the things that an app server touches," Keefe said. "It's a challenge to integrate them all." The opportunity for iRise to add value, he emphasized, is in understanding and meeting that need for process integration--not in merely staying abreast of rapidly changing technology.
"In the long run," said Collins, "software development will be instant, free and perfect. Those are the asymptotes." The question for iRise, and for every software developer, is what services an enterprise will still want to buy when software development, in general, gets a whole lot better than it is today: when making it work the way it should, on time, is something to take for granted. The things that will keep being hard to do are the talents most worth developing now.
For more on iRise, click here: http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo?y=eHMJ0Bf5ip0DSm0CFB0AB
As you begin to think about
requirements, remember the KISS
Strategy. Also think about issues of cost
of your requirements.
The midterm is now available.
The group rating forms are
now available. Before completing the forms, please review the Cooperative
Group Agreement. Then each person must complete the Individual
Rating Sheet, and each group must complete one Group
Rating Sheet. These must be submitted by Monday, March 12, and each Monday
thereafter when a progress report is due.
Information flow in large
companies.
More about benchmarking.(2/16/01)
Group assignments are now available.
More creativity exercises!
For each, what questions would you ask and what do you think is the correct
solution?
Interviewing
Three skills of an analysis
TEAM are
now available. (2/08/01)
Resumes are available.
(Please note that as of this moment, not all are in. The others will be posted
as they become available. (2/08/01)
Why do we care
about Systems Analysis? (2/08/01)
Systems
Remember a team is "a group
of people where the whole is more than the sum of the parts." As you form
teams remember the characteristics
of successful teams. (2/08/01)
Skills for systems analysis
are now available. (1/31/01)
Information
We will look at some
creativity exercises today.
(1/24/01)
What is systems analysis?
Consider the following:
As you work on your resume
assignment, be sure to check the Resumes
FAQ for help. This page now includes examples of past resumes to
illustrate the amount of HTML Programming you need include: Example 1,Example 2, and Example 3. (1/17/01)
For more information about
the tasks necessary for Systems Analysis, visit some of the sites on the
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- Introduction to ER Diagrams