Computer Science (COMP) 361

Overview

Systems analysis and design deals with planning the development of information systems through understanding and specifying in detail what a system shall do and how the components of the system should be implemented and work together. Systems analysts solve business problems through analysing the requirements of information systems and designing such systems by applying analysis and design techniques. This course deals with the concepts, skills, methodologies, techniques, tools, and perspectives essential for systems analysts. The practical component of COMP 361 is object-oriented and use-case driven, requiring you to go through the steps of systems analysis and design to solve a real-life business problem.

Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing this course, you should have gained comprehensive theoretical knowledge as well as practical skills related to the development process of information systems. Students who successfully complete the course should be able to

• gather data to analyse and specify the requirements of a system.
• design system components and environments.
• build general and detailed models that assist programmers in implementing a system.
• design a database for storing data and a user interface for data input and output, as well as controls to protect the system and its data.

Outline

Unit 0: Introduction and Overview. A short introduction to systems analysis and design and an explanation of the course activities and grading.

Unit 1: Systems Development and the Systems Analyst. You will learn about the organizational and business context of systems development as well as the tasks and responsibilities of systems analysts.

Unit 2: Systems Development Methodologies, Models, Tools and Techniques. You will learn to explain and apply systems development methodologies, models, tools and techniques for developing quality software.

Unit 3: Project Management in Systems Development. You will learn about project management in the context of systems development.

Unit 4: Investigating and Modeling System Requirements. You will learn about how to define, prioritize and evaluate requirements of an information system as well as how to build models that specify the system requirements.

Unit 5: Detailed Requirements Modeling Using an Object-Oriented Approach. You will extend your knowledge of requirements modeling learned in Unit 4 using the object-oriented approach and will learn to apply requirements modeling techniques to develop detailed models.

Unit 6: Elements of Systems Design. You will learn to describe, organize and structure the components of a system, including decisions about the system’s hardware, software, and network environment.

Unit 7: Object-Oriented Design – Principles and Use Case Realization. You will learn to apply object-oriented design to build detailed models that assist programmers in implementing a system.

Unit 8: Designing Databases, Interfaces and Controls. You will learn to discuss and specify how to store and exchange data in the system by considering database management, human–computer interaction, and security issues. You will also learn to create database models, user–computer dialogs and controls.

Unit 9: Making the System Operational. You will learn about implementation, software testing and deployment issues.

Unit 10: Current Trends in Systems Development. You will learn about emerging trends in systems development.

Evaluation

To receive credit for COMP 361, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least “D” (50 percent), including an average grade of 50 percent on all assignments and at least 50 percent on the participation mark and on the final examination. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.