System Analysis And Design: A Case Study In Business Management

Observation and interview for system analysis

Question:

Discuss about the Assignment of System Analysis and Design.

The Acme garage is a firm which is specialized in repairing of the cars. They take the payment in advance before doing the maintenance of the car. The information related to the customers and suppliers and other details are recorded in the database. The company wants a new database which fills the gap and overcome the problem faced by the acme garage.

Business Overview:

• Structure: The Acme garage keeps the customer detail in the customer file and the detail of work done is kept in the separate file which is named as job file. The employees of the firm maintain the database for the customers for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting the information of the customers. The job book keeps the details of the work done within the organization according to the requirement of the customer. The proper record for stock management should also be kept as it deals with the regular purchase of the spare parts of the car which are used in repairing the car. The excel sheet is used for managing the details of the stock.
• Key activities: The firm refers to the stock file for getting the details of the requirement of the stock availability. Proper updating of the file is a necessary task for getting the accuracy in the stock availability. The working hours of the labor are recorded in the job file. The order file helps in managing the stock availability. The information to the customer regarding the payment is sent for paying the amount within 30days otherwise the penalty of 10% will be applicable.
• Problems: The Company facing the problem in taking regular order from supplier because all the detail should be kept in the supplier file. An order file is used to place the order of the requirement. And it is difficult in checking the invoices for all the deliverables at the end of the month.
• Gaps: Proper synchronization of activities is required for making the company work efficiently and smoothly. There is a gap in determining the customer that he is a new customer or from the existing.
• Opportunities: The organization needed a new information system to overcome the difficulties faced in the traditional system. The requirement of the firm is to develop an automated system which directly deals with the customer for collecting the details of the requirement, automatic update in the requirement of the spare part and also the accuracy in the payment.
• Functional Decomposition: The decomposition of the system is done in the smaller modules which can be categorized as customer file, job file, order file, supplier file, account file, and worker file. It helps in describing the relationship between the elements of the garage such as location, business unit, process, information system and etc. The metrics should be prepared for location to function, location to unit, unit to function, function to objective, function to process, function to data entity, process to data entity, process to information system, data entity to information system, information system to objective and etc. to give the clear perspective view of the information system.

Analysis:

• Current Process: The current system deals with the collection of customer details, supplier detail, availability of the spare part stock, working hours of the labor, maintenance of the job file, account file, supplier file, customer file, and worker file.
• Requirement Determination: The determination of the requirement is implemented by using the following techniques of

Interview and Observation: “The interview is arranged with the individuals and group and proper documentation has been done in a proper format of planning” (Alter, 2005). Observing the working activities helps a lot in studying the functioning of the company.

From the details included in the previous documents: To analyze the mission and strategy of the organization, the documentation should be refer. It also helps in developing the business forms, manuals, description of the job, requirement for the training, and etc.

From the Computerized sources: “The data can be collected from the result of the joint application design, repositories of the case tools, reports generated from the existing system and by using the prototype” (Gowanit, 2015). The characteristics of the good analyst are categorized as impertinence, impartiality, Relax constraints, attention to details, and reframing.

“For analyzing the system 5D process has been implemented:

Discover: By analyzing the existing system, the issues are discovered

Define: Identification of the critical issues for the garage system

Design: Designing in the new system and innovation in the alignment of the business strategy helps in evolving the new techniques and trend for the system.

Develop: It helps in the development of the system and business processes.

Deploy: Pilot testing helps in determining the changes required in the system” (Mathijssen, 2010).

ER Diagram:

Data Flow Diagram:

Level 0 DFD

Level 1 DFD:

Sequence Diagram:

Requirement Specification:

Functional requirement:

• Customer database is used to design the attributes for name address phone number, requirement details, delivery date, and payment
• Supplier database: it is having attributes of the supplier, specification of the spare part, order data, delivery date, payment
• Job Database: labor information regarding the working hours and the payment
• Account database deals with the resale of the spare part and the information regarding the tax

Table for activities:

Steps	Activities	Sub- activities
1	Customer arrival	·         Customer do the enquiry about the fault occurred in his vehicle ·         Customer provide his detail ·         Information regarding the payment
2	Employees of the organization	·         Insert the details of the customer and the requirement specification in the database ·         Payment update incase of any advanced payment by the customer ·         Proper update of activities related to the stock ·         Generation of the report related to unpaid invoice ·         Generation of the report related to unfilled orders
3	Claim Officer	·         It sends the details for return of tax ·         Depreciation in equipment is claimed for the income tax return.
4	Operational unit	·         Carries the operation required for fulfilling the demand of the customer ·         Record the completion and incompletion of the activities
5	Customer Satisfaction	·         Feedback from the customer to check his satisfaction
6	Billing	·         Payment of the work done by the customer
7	Calculation of profit	·         Payment from the customer ·         Payment of income tax ·         Investment in the spare part ·         Salary to the labor ·         Income tax return and etc

Proposed Business Solution:

The information system should contain the information regarding the customer details, vehicle type and brand, Date and time of order placement, recognition of the fault, details of spare part used, checking of the availability of the spare part, date of delivery, claiming for the income tax return by the depreciation on the spare part, and etc.

Logical Database Design:

“By using the principles of normalization, logical data model is developed for the user interface” (Siau, 2011). The second step is to combine the requirement of the normalized data into a single logical database model. The third step focuses in translating the conceptual ER diagram into the application. And the last step is to create final logical database model for the acme garage.

Physical Database Design:

The first step is to provide an appropriate storage format to every attribute. The second step concentrates on grouping the attributes for establishing physical records. The third step focuses on proper arrangement of the related record in the secondary memory so that the process of creating retrieving and updating can be done with speed.

Computerized sources for data collection

The database contains the entity of administrator who deals with the customer and takes the details of him. The customer places the requirement to the admin. The admin check the availability of the spare part to deliver the vehicle on time. If the spare part is unavailable then he places the order to the supplier and do the extension in the delivery date. After placing the order ge generate the bill for the customer according to the fulfillment of his requirement. Finally the assignment of the order given to the mechanic for renovation. The customer can do the payment in advance or within the time limit of 30 days. If the payment extended beyond the thirty days then 15% extra charge, customer has to pay to the acme garage.

Project Feasibility:

• “The Economic feasibility helps in determining the cost of the project and also focuses on the financial benefits which are generated from the receiving payment, making payment, return of the income tax and etc” (Crowder, 2008). The economic feasibility helps in analyzing the cost benefit of the organization.
• Technical Feasibility helps to focus on the technical concept of the organization
• Operational Feasibility helps in working structure of the organization
• Scheduling feasibility helps in providing proper structuring to the demand of the supplier

Cost Analysis:

• Tangible cost is the cost associated with the development of the information system and can be measured in the monetary terms. It focuses on determining the cost related to the hardware, spare part, labor cost, operational cost and etc
• Intangible Cost is the cost which cannot be measured in the monetary terms. “This cost is determined if there is a loss in income of the acme garage due to the loss of goodwill of the organization among customer, employees are not morally strong, inefficiency of the organizational working structure” (Uddin, 2013).

Project Risk Analysis:

The managerial risks which are associated with the project are if the manager is inefficient in attaining the expected result from the project, inaccuracy in the estimation of the cost, failure in attaining the adequacy in the system, failure in integrating the new system with the existing hardware and software. “Sometimes the management of the acme system is inefficient in estimating the size of the team which is required for the maintenance of the system” (Joshi, 2012). Other risk factors are the structure of the project, development of the team, and customer requirement.

Implementation:

The installation and the evaluation of the proposed system take place during this phase of the project management life cycle. This phase mainly focuses on integrating the information system according to the requirement of the acme garage. The activities should also take place for testing the security of the system. The completion of the phase takes place by accreditation of all the activities included in the system.

In this phase, operated system can be enhanced with the development of the new software and hardware according to the changing requirement of the user demand and requirement. The performance of the system should be monitored periodically. “The operational activity of the system should be measured for testing the efficiency and security of the system. The operation of the proposed solution will takes place up till it is efficient in overcoming the risk associated with the firm” (Pretorious, 2008). The maintenance phase is comprised of the activity of reviewing the operational readiness of the system, proper management of synchronizing the activities, proper control on the process and procedure of the system. Reauthorization is the important activity of the maintenance phase.

Conclusion

The Acme garage is working traditionally with the complex process, complex supply chain management, and complex IT system. The success of the system design depends on the alignment of the activities according to the project strategy. The IT resources should be utilized to its full extent for the better functioning of the acme garage. Proper monitoring of the activities should be done periodically. “Proper communication should be managed between the employees and the customer to know the exact requirement of the customer. Proper synchronization of activities is required for making the company work efficiently and smoothly” (Jog and Vidwans, 2010). The proposed solution helps in overcoming the risk associated with the organization and also helps in filling the gaps which is determined for the efficient working of the activities.

References:

Alter, S. (2005). A Broad View Of Systems Analysis And Design: Implications For Research (1st ed.). Retrievedfrom https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.95.929&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Gowanit, C. (2015). information technology systems of service process innovation (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.arpnjournals.com/jeas/research_papers/rp_2015/jeas_0215_1481.pdf

Mathijssen, A. (2010). Specication, Analysis and Verication of an Automated Parking Garage (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.win.tue.nl/vis1/home/apretori/Publish/garage_tr.pdf

Siau, K. (2011). Systems Analysis & Design — Trends, Directions & Others (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://eurosymposium.eu/SIGSAND-Europe.pdf

Crowder, M. (2008). Developing an Intelligent Parking System (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://static.tti.tamu.edu/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/167229-1.pdf

Uddin, A. (2013). Design of an Automated Secure Garage System (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.mecs-press.org/ijisa/ijisa-v6-n2/IJISA-V6-N2-3.pdf

Joshi, P. (2012). global review of parking management systems & strategies (1st ed.). retrieved from https://www.transport-research.info/sites/default/files/project/documents/20150807_141918_57605_p111115001.pdf

Pretorious, J. (2008). Verified Design of an Automated Parking Garage (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220992800_Verified_Design_of_an_Automated_Parking_Garage

Jog, Y. & Vidwans, S. (2010). Understanding Smart and Automated Parking Technology (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.sersc.org/journals/IJUNESST/vol8_no2/25.pdf