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FACULTY OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
DIT 203 & DBIT 205: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS AND
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
DEFINITION OF TERMS
System
It is a group of related and interacting components which work together to
achieve a desired purpose or a set of objectives. A system takes input,
performs processing of data to give some desired outputs. Basically there
are three major components in every system. I.e. Input, Processing and
Output.
Information System
An information system is an arrangement of people, data, process,
interfaces, networks and technology that interact to support and improve
both day-to-day operations in a business (sometimes called data process),
as well as support the problem-solving and decision-making needs of
management (sometimes called information service).
Systems Analysis
System Analysis is the study of business problem domain to recommend
improvements and specify the business requirements for the solution.
System design
System design is the specification or construction of a technical, computer-
based solution for the business requirements identified in a systems
analysis.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GENERAL SYSTEM
a. A purpose- A system has a set of objectives to fulfill. This is the
overall goal or function of a system.
Examples:
• Increase company productivity by 50% in the next two
years
• Reduce wastage of papers by 20%
• Reduce time taken to process 100 certificates to one day
b. Subsystems- A sub system is a part of a bigger system which performs a
specific function.
c. A Boundary- The boundary is the line that makes the inside and outside
of a system and that sets off the system from its environments
d. An Environment- This is everything external to a system that interacts
with the system i.e. everything outside the system’s boundary, usually the
system interacts with its environment, exchanging, in the case of an
information system, data and information.
e. Interrelated Components- The components are interrelated. This means
the dependence of one subsystem on one or more subsystems. The function
of one subsystem is tied to the function of others.
f. Feedback - It monitors the output to check that it conforms to the
expected goals and objectives. Feedback may be positive or negative.
Negative Feedback
This is a system that works on the principle of trying to reduce the
fluctuations around a set standard. For example if there is credit limit of
those customers who have outstanding debts, it restricted them it is known
as negative feedback since the action is taken opposite to deviation.
Positive Feedback
It is a system that attempts to increase a detected deviation. It helps the
system to adjust but acting in the same direction in which deviation has
occurred e.g. If the demand for any product increases and as a result,
production is also increased, then it is positive feedback it helps to increase
the efficiency of the system.
