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Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh GX_____
National University of Ireland, Galway
Autumn Examinations 2008 / 2009
Exam Code(s) 3BF Exam(s) B. Sc. in Business Information Systems
Module Code(s) MS Module(s) Applied Systems Analysis
Paper No. Repeat Paper
External Examiner(s) Prof. Hans van der Heijden Internal Examiner(s) Prof. J. F. Collins Mr. C. J. Barry
Instructions: Answer Question 1 and two other questions.
Duration 2 hours No. of Pages 6 Department(s) Course Co-ordinator(s) Martin Hughes
Requirements : MCQ Handout Statistical Tables Graph Paper Log Graph Paper Other Material
Question 1
Using the description and interview transcript below of the TDC Construction Company case study, answer the following questions. Note that all question parts do not carry equal marks.
(a) Discuss the manner in which the systems analyst, Inez Corbell, conducted the interview. In your discussion consider how well she directed and controlled the interview. Also, identify any shortcomings in how the interview was conducted and what you might have done differently.
15 marks
(b) Model the processes and activities for TDC’s new system for in the following respects:
- Draw a Functional Decomposition Diagram for the whole system
- Draw two high level Use Case Diagrams
- Draw an Activity Diagram for a significant function of the system
20 marks
(c) Identify data entities and draw an entity relationship model for the TDC system. Identify primary and foreign keys. Make every effort to show only one-to-many relationships. State any assumptions that you make.
15 marks
Total: 50 marks
The TDC Construction Company
TDC specialise in the construction and management of commercial properties. The company has enjoyed a period of sustained growth and high profitability over the past ten years as the Celtic tiger roared ahead. This boom period is now well over due to a severe slow-down in the national economy. Company management feels that if it is to remain competitive, it must depend on some of its internal strengths to compensate for a diminishing market. In line with this strategy, management has recently decided to re-design certain construction activities such as tendering, materials management, budget management and analysis, safety, the preparation of reports, payments, and determining payroll expenditure including bonuses. While building design, project management and financial management are also key aspects of their business the firm does not feel at this time that the systems supporting these activities need to be re- developed.
Management has consulted with City Systems who have been contracted to develop a full design specification based on using web technologies so that all of its staff, including mobile workers, can access aspects of the system. A second phase of
tender document but to be honest these are just the initial basis for the job - the materials and service requirements all need to be specified in detail. These will come from the Construction Project Manager and the Senior Project Engineer. The Construction Project Manager will specify the service requirements such as outsourced activities like recruitment needs, plant hire and scaffolding. The whole recruitment activity is agreed with a specialist recruitment agency that is sent a detailed Skilled Construction Work Force Request. Other recruitment agencies are sent details of contracts for casual un-skilled workers. The Senior Project Engineer handles materials specification. He starts with the design and tender documents and using industry standard benchmarks, metrics and specification methods (many of which come from the Construction Industry Institute (CII)) to produce a ‘project materials list’. This is used by the various engineers who have specific responsibility for steel, concrete, electricals, plumbing, security, and so on. Each of these engineers needs to maintain a material’s usage record that indicates conformance or deviations from the project materials list. The engineers send out requests for bids for materials to vendors. Those selected are approved for payment authorisation vouchers and are eventually sent Purchase Orders by the Accounting Department.
Inez: I take it that you would want to keep a record of the Purchase Order?
Gerry: Naturally. OK then, another major task will be the monitoring of actual versus budgeted expenditures on a monthly basis. We really need to change the current annual budgeting system by general ledger account to a new monthly budgeting system by general ledger account and job number. A budget is always tied to a particular job and every item in a budget is a ledger account. The first thing here is a Budget Authorisation Sheet that is prepared by the Engineering and Accounting Departments. This sets out the budget for the project on a monthly basis. The payroll roster, payment authorisation vouchers and various other approved expenses are used to calculate the actual expenditures for a month. The Purchase Orders will be retrieved if any questions arise from the monitoring procedure. A 'Budget versus Actuals' (BVA) report is produced by the Accounting Department. All BVA reports are sent to senior managers for projects they are involved in.
Inez: That's fine. How do you want the payroll system to operate?
Gerry: As you know, I'm not from the Accounting Department, but I'll do my best to explain. A payroll roster is a statement of the employees, for example, carpenters, electricians and plasterers, who have been allocated to certain jobs for a particular period. Preliminary payroll rosters are sent, at the beginning of each week, by Accounting to engineers in charge of particular tasks. At the end of each week engineers return time logs and the completed payroll roster to Accounting. The time logs and completed payroll roster are recorded. They run the payroll application and pay the employees. The labour costings for jobs are posted to the Job Costing Ledger. The Accounting Department then produces the job cost reports and sends them to the Construction Project Manager.
Inez: How are the work assignments for the engineers figured out?
Gerry: There has been a problem, as you know, with the turnover of engineers in the existing system. We are thinking about letting the engineers choose some of their own work assignments, but there are obvious problems if that is not organised properly.
Inez: And how about paying vendors?
Gerry: Just before we leave the staff problem, it's important to know that the work assignment chosen by the engineers will of course have to meet the demands of the Project Schedule that is prepared by the Construction Project Manager. OK then, the procedure for paying vendors works like this - requests for payment authorisation are received from the Accounting Department and signed off by the Senior Project Engineer. Accounting checks the Purchase Order files to see if the materials have in fact been ordered. Then they check with the relevant engineer and ask him or her to confirm the use or stock of materials. Once they are satisfied they fill out a Payment Authorisation Voucher, one copy of which is sent to the Accounting Department, while the other is posted to the Job Costing Ledger.
Inez: Would you describe how you want the safety system to operate?
Gerry: Well we really need to bring about a lot of change in this respect. We are governed by an industry code of practice as well as safety legislation. The key areas are on-site training, inspection and incident investigation. The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) provides a number of services such as: Advice; Training Courses; and Safety Publications and Videos. We have three Safety Officers who report directly to me. They send me all the inspection and incident investigation report. We are also going to subscribe to the CII for the ‘Zero Accidents Techniques’ guidelines service they offer.
Inez: That's great Gerry. I'm going to have to leave it at that, as I have another appointment. So, if we could meet again on Monday at 10.00a.m. we could look at some of these tasks in more detail. In the meantime, I'm going to draw some first-draft diagrams to confirm my understanding of your data and task requirements. Is that OK?
Gerry: Sure Inez, no problem! Should I write down some of these details before our next meeting, as we would like to move this along as quickly as possible?
Inez: That would be great, Gerry. I'll see you on Monday.
Question 2
Describe the principal fact finding techniques that an analyst can use during systems analysis in the elicitation and determination of user requirements. In your answer outline the merits and drawbacks of each.
25 marks
Question 3
(a) The following table describe the major activities of an information systems development project for Handy Systems Ltd.
