JOHN JUAN or PETER PEDRO?

a.Obviously these two workers have different views on how the systems analysis phase should be conducted. Comment on whose position you sympathize with the most.
b.What method would you propose they take? Why?

Consider the following dialogue between a systems professional, John Juan, and a manager of a department targeted for a new information system, Peter Pedro:

Juan: The way to go about the analysis is to first examine the old system, such as reviewing key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks. Then we can determine which aspects are working well and which should be preserved.

Pedro: We have been through these types of projects before and what always ends up happening is that we do not get the new system we are promised; we get a modified version of the old system.

Juan: Well, I can assure you that will not happen this time. We just want a thorough understanding of what is working well and what isn’t.

Pedro: I would feel much more comfortable if we first started with a list of our requirements. We should spend some time up-front determining exactly what we want the system to do for my department. Then you systems people can come in and determine what portions to salvage if you wish. Just don’t constrain us to the old system.


On the conversation of Peter Pedro the manager and John Juan, a systems professional, I must likely agree on what John Juan trying to say. I understand that John Juan is basically concerned on how really the old system operates and how efficient its performance towards the users until the company decided to change. Although Peter Pedro had also the point of not dealing too much with the old system since they are afraid of just getting the same old system but with just little modifications.

As the Requirement Elicitation Principle is concern, Peter Juan must consider that the systems professional have more knowledge than him. Not that he doesn’t know anything but the aim of requirements elicitation is to understand the problem clearly. Given that system development is determined by a problem.

By reviewing the key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks, the problem could be literally understood. From there on they would already know what is really needed to be change and which should remain. It is right that a thorough understanding with the old system must be the first objective for with this they could already identify and elicit requirements needed for the project.

The analysis stage is the front-end phase of the development process of computer-supported learning systems. This phase constitutes an essential step of the development process and one of the critical issues that determines the quality of the final product. The analysis phase sets the stage for the whole project. The necessary groundwork for understanding what the project is all about is completed in this phase. I believe that they take the strong position that the more effort you put into planning, the smoother the rest of the project will go and the better the quality will be of your final product.

In Analyzing the problem, a system developer must first identify the goal of the system itself. And as John Juan insisted, old system must be examine first to see if there is something wrong with this. An example is the current information is costly to maintain. By then, John Juan could suggest that the next goal would be to reduce maintenance cost. Determining the goals are really a very high requirements for any projects. Next, is to identify the constraints on the solution. An example would be the requirements towards the Operating System look and feel and deciding if they would preserve it or change it.

The goals and constraints should be perceptible in order for the developer and the client have it access at the end of the project management. All of John Juan point’s of view is on evaluating the old system to ascertain the boundary of the system, whether it is on the internal or external environment of the project.

Peter Juan must be right on saying that they should start on listing of the requirements needed. But, he must know that evaluating the old system is not constraining them from the old one, instead giving them a clear picture of a more perfect system.

Because as I have read, doing software requirements specification is not an easy one. That if you finish the software requirements specification in a single time, its already perfect. But, this should undergo revisions in order to be closer on the idea of the client.

The scenario is just somehow related to software prototyping. It has two kinds which are the Evolutionary prototyping and the other is the throw-away prototyping. With the Evolutionary prototyping, the developer must create the prototype of the system that is created for demonstration and requirements elaboration. The reason for this is that the Evolutionary prototype, when built, forms the heart of the new system, and the improvements and further requirements will be. Simply means that this should be made to expect revisions from the old system to the new one.

While throw-away prototyping is a model that eventually be discarded and would not be used for the new system. But throw-away prototyping can be done quickly, so it is much advantage for the system developer. If the users can get quick feedback on their requirements, they may be able to refine them early in the development of the software.

Analysis is the stage by which the needs and conditions of the problem are determined in order to specify the characteristics of the system under development.

This also includes on identifying the requirements resources. Such as the Stakeholders
The domain, the operational environment, the organizational environment , the organizational environment and the application domain.

Next, is to elicit the necessary requirements for the project. So by assessing the old system based on John Juan’s perception, the system developer could actually find out what the users really need. It is not about on what the stakeholders say or opinion. Because not all of the stockholder’s requirements is realistic. Not all information from them would be useful. So before spending too much on doing a non directional system, it is better if they study first the current system leading to specifications to the new system.

Basically, if you just think like a Systems Analyst, obviously you would also choose the side of John Juan.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_prototyping
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4052801/Introduction-to-System-Analysis-and-Design