John Juan and Peter Pedro

Note: Assignment 6 of System Analysis and Design

When it comes to the communication between two or more people from different fields of work and specialty, there is a tendency that they will not understand each other and most probably there will be misunderstanding and argument to decide who is right or who is wrong or whose idea or proposal is better than the other. Misunderstanding happens mostly to people who discusses all about highly critical issues that needs careful and, if possible, the highest attention. This happens as for the reason that the topic they talk over is very important to each other due to the huge effect on both sides. One wrong decision may lead to a loss of business, lowering of the level of integrity of a person, and other discouraging events. At some point in time, one person may think that his solution is better than the other who believes that his way is the better way out. Both of them may be right anyhow, but what is being weighed in here is of which consequences would solve the problem, yield far better results, and lesser expenditure and risks. The most important thing to consider is that the benefits should outweigh the costs.

The Situation
By understanding the situation between John Juan and Peter Pedro, we could assume that the condition needed to happen or to meet is the call for a change or improvement in the information systems of the department which is managed by Peter Pedro where the systems professional assigned is John Juan. It seems that Juan aims to investigate first the processes of the whole system, reviewing and observing the details of how the old system functions, and after that, determine which parts really needs improvements and are targeted for renovation or should be kept. On the other hand, Pedro believes that Juan’s style is just like any other he had experienced where the professional team suggests to make similar steps as mentioned by Juan then after all they (Pedro’s department) only gets the same old system but just slightly customized. Pedro now does not want to be confined in the old system so he recommends that they better identify a list of requirements for their system and let Juan and his team develop it.
This paper aims to answer the following questions or problems: 

1. 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.
2. What method would you propose they take? Why?

To understand more of the situation and to answer the above mentioned questions and problems, it seems right to understand first the nature of the two characters involved in the dialogue, the system analyst John Juan and the department manager Peter Pedro.

John Juan

John Juan, as stated in the situation, is a system professional working on a project for the company managed by Peter Pedro. Specifically, John Juan can be called as a system analyst based on the conversation of two people concerned. To know the duties and responsibilities of John Juan, we should first define and understand what a system professional, more specifically a system analyst is. So what is the work of a system analyst?

Based on the previous assessments, and by my own understanding, a system analyst is a specialist in formulating or designing solutions, specifically by developing information systems, for a wide variety of businesses and other organizations that needs support in technological aspect. A system analyst is married to the concept of system development life cycle (SDLC). He or she does the following:

• A system analyst investigates the problem.
• The first step of the system development life cycle is to investigate the current status of the client company or what is the problem all about. System analyst gathers basic information of everything the system is all about. He or she interviews some of the employee who are going to be the users of the system, or asks the person who truly understands the whole process or the flow of the business (for example, in an enrollment system, a system analyst should know what would be the different steps of the enrollment, who are the people involved in this step, or how long will the operational time be). The system analyst would also ask the client to define his or her basic requirements that the to-be-system must have.
• A system analyst analyzes the situation.
• After the system analyst gathers enough information, he or she would now analyze the situation. He or she would work on understanding everything that happens during the operation of the system. The system analyst studies the problem, what is the possible reason why such problem arises, and what would be the best way to solve the problem considering many things such as efficiency, cost, and other components critical to a business. In analyzing, a system analyst would still be in constant communication to the client for it would be faster to understand the unique process of the business.
• A system analyst designs the solution.
• By fully understanding the problem, the system analyst could now design the system. He or she creates the database design, the user interface, and other important parts of the system while still considering the wants and needs of the client company. The system analyst also decides what tools and approaches he or she must use for the system to be finished on time and efficiently.
• A system analyst develops what he designed.
• In this step, the system analyst now uses different tools such as programming tools and other utilities needed in developing systems. The system analyst now may also be called a system developer. He or she develops the system based on the design created, where he displays his or her skills in programming, constructing the system by modules for an easier approach.
• A system analyst installs the system.
• In this stage, the system has now attained the defined requirements of the client. The system is now to be deployed in the operation area ready to be tested by the users. The system analyst should train the users on how to use the finished system or how it works.
• A system analyst evaluates the installed system.
• Even though the system has finished developing, the system analyst should now evaluate how the users reacted to the system or how are they with the system. He or she should know if the client is happy with the resulting system the system analyst has developed. If there are any requirements failed to meet, the system analyst should handle the failure and continue developing it until the client is satisfied.
• A system analyst should maintain the system.
• There is no perfect system. Eventually, bugs and malfunctions will occur and as a system analyst, he or she should be prepared for the worst. Thus, a system analyst should know how to maintain the system where possible bugs and malfunctions will be prevented.

So basically, a system analyst is a specialist who creates an information system as a solution or an answer to any business problem that another person have and unable to solve by himself or herself.

Peter Pedro

While John Juan is a system professional specifically in the area of system analysis who deals with clients to solve their problems, Peter Pedro is the client who hires systems analyst like John Juan. Based on the conversation or dialogue between John Juan and Peter Pedro, he (Peter Pedro) is a manager of a department of a company. To understand the part of Peter Pedro, let us define what a manager of a department does.

A department manager aims to improve the outcome of a business using solutions created by successful management of integrated workforce. Specifically, the department manager can do the following on a department:

• Add new users within the department

o   A department manager can decide who can be a worker in his or her department. He makes sure that his or her co-workers are skilled enough to generate better work and choose persons who he or she thinks that are easy to be managed.

• Reassign users to another department.

o   A department manager can reassign an employee to another department if he or she thinks that his or her (employee) specialty is not really on the current department residence but to another department of the company. With this, the efficiency of the other department may be improved and also is the department managed by the one who decided to transfer the worker to another department.

• Change Job Titles for users within the department.

o   On a specific department, there are also different types of work could be found; and if the department manager can see that the skills of the employee or worker is not suitable to his or her original assignment, and is better to be working on another job, the department manager can reassign the worker’s job title.

• Assign users in their department as Document Owners and/or Document Reviewers

o   Some specific works on a department deals with documents. Specifically, an employee can be a document owner or a document reviewer. And as a department manager, he or she must know who to assign or who has the skill to become a document owner or a document reviewer.

• Assign users in the department as Proxy Authors.

o   Proxy authors are persons who can sign some documents for specific persons (being absent or on a leave) who are unable to do so. By persons who are absent or on leave, one of them is the department manager. So when that happens, a certain employee must be authorized to sign a document if a signature is really in need. And with that, the department manager must assign a person who can become a Proxy Author.

To become a department manager, one should have the following basic skills:

• The ability to lead and motivate the team
• Excellent communication and ‘people’ skill
• A strong commitment to customer service
• The ability to work under pressure and handle challenging situations
• Confidence, drive, and enthusiasm
• Decision-making ability and a sense of responsibility
• Sound business sense
• An understanding of retail laws, security, and health and safety

 

Peter Pedro, who is a department manager, should basically have the skills and ability to do his roles in a company specifically in his department.

Now that we already know and understand the different roles of John Juan, who is a system professional, and Peter Pedro, who is a department manager, this time, we will dwell on the system development life cycle which is a framework of how an information system is created.

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

As how I defined a while ago what systems development life cycle (SDLC) is, it is a framework used by system analysts and developers in creating different information systems, and is composed of different phases.

• Feasibility

o   The feasibility study is used to determine if the project should get the go-ahead. If the project is to proceed, the feasibility study will produce a project plan and budget estimates for the future stages of development.

• Requirement Analysis and Design

o   Analysis gathers the requirements for the system. This stage includes a detailed study of the business needs of the organization. Options for changing the business process may be considered. Design focuses on high level design like, what programs are needed and how are they going to interact, low-level design (how the individual programs are going to work), interface design (what are the interfaces going to look like) and data design (what data will be required). During these phases, the software's overall structure is defined. Analysis and Design are very crucial in the whole development cycle. Any glitch in the design phase could be very expensive to solve in the later stage of the software development. Much care is taken during this phase. The logical system of the product is developed in this phase.

• Implementation

o   In this phase the designs are translated into code. Computer programs are written using a conventional programming language or an application generator. Programming tools like Compilers, Interpreters, and Debuggers are used to generate the code. Different high level programming languages like C, C++, Pascal, and Java are used for coding. With respect to the type of application, the right programming language is chosen.

• Testing

o   In this phase the system is tested. Normally programs are written as a series of individual modules, these subjects to separate and detailed test. The system is then tested as a whole. The separate modules are brought together and tested as a complete system. The system is tested to ensure that interfaces between modules work (integration testing), the system works on the intended platform and with the expected volume of data (volume testing) and that the system does what the user requires (acceptance/beta testing).

• Maintenance

o   Inevitably the system will need maintenance. Software will definitely undergo change once it is delivered to the customer. There are many reasons for the change. Change could happen because of some unexpected input values into the system. In addition, the changes in the system could directly affect the software operations. The software should be developed to accommodate changes that could happen during the post implementation period.

 

John Juan and Peter Pedro on System Analysis Phase

In a situation where an old system is about to be replaced with a new one, examining the former is an important part in the system analysis phase for the reason that this step will be able to help the systems professional to know more about the old system. If the existing information system’s features and functional requirements are made known to the systems professional, then it will not be difficult for him to discover the real problem about that particular system and will be able to help him find more ways or alternatives which he may apply for the new information system.

In the situation of John Juan and Peter Pedro, both of them are really concerned with the systems analysis phase, where in the system development life cycle or SDLC is composed of the feasibility study and requirement analysis and design.

Peter Pedro’s concern is that on the previous development life cycle of their system, he thinks that it is unsatisfying to have a new system that only few modifications were made by the systems professional. And this time, he really wants to have a whole lot different system where his wants would be met but still not forgetting about the needs for the system to function well. Peter Pedro requests that he and John Juan should allot a specific time where they try to define and understand well the requirements of Peter Pedro and the company.

And on the side of John Juan, the system professional, he assures Peter Pedro that their job would be just to have a thorough analysis of the system, determining the things that work well and not. They do this by first examining the old system and observing the general and specific flow of the system they are trying to enhance.

On my opinion, and as a defense to the previous system professionals who analyzed and created the system (where the department manager is unsatisfied with), they have conducted the system development life cycle traditionally or just followed the framework. And the resulting system is really just what they think that is the best system for the company of Peter Pedro. But as Peter Pedro was dissatisfied, we must assume that some of their requirements of were not met by the system professional. And as John Juan enters on a new timeline, I think that he thinks that the problem with the last system development process is that there was a lack of communication that resulted to a dissatisfying system for the client. And so now, he assures Peter Pedro that the new system would be different from the last. And as in choosing sides, I would sympathize on John Juan.

Systems analysis is done to determine where the problem is. Essentially, John Juan is trying to analyze the situation and project goals (as what a systems analyst would do based on the systems analysis life cycle or SDLC), so in breaking down the elements of the system, the particular part which needs to be targeted can be recognized. In this way definite requirements can be defined and requirements gathering sometimes call for the individuals or team who are involved in developing the information system in the organization. This is where Peter Pedro, the manager of the department where the new information systems be developed comes into view.

Peter Pedro must also 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.

Requirements shall be well determined and defined so to give an accurate list of what should be aimed to develop, change, or improve in a system. In constructing or repairing a house, you must first then identify which parts you need to build, hammer, saw, or paint and prompt for the materials and equipment you needed. Just like in solving any problem, you first identify the scope, the given, the steps you have to take before implementing the solution.

Gathering the right and accurate data is crucial in defining the requirements. It is because the specifications of the system to be developed depend largely on the requirements you have elicited. That is why, Mr. Pedro asserts to have a list of requirements to tell exactly what they wanted their system to do with their department.

Method of System Development

When we talk of System Development Life Cycle, there are a lot of methods (or known as models to system analysts) that a system analyst can perform. The approaches on these models differ in a way that some are predictive and some are adaptive. And based on the conversation of John Juan and Peter Pedro, I think that the method or model they would take is the waterfall model which is a traditional model and is focused on completing and, if most possible, perfecting each phase so that there would be no need to conduct again the previous phases.

The main focus or concern on the situation of John Juan and Peter Pedro is the system analysis phase. Though all models conduct analysis, I can say that they would propose the waterfall model because of what John Juan said that they would conduct a thorough understanding of what is working well and what is not. There is this assurance that the system analysis must be conducted only once, and when we say once, we always think that the analysis is a one shot where it would be slowly and surely, meaning almost perfecting it with one try only. And as what I have stated on the qualities of the waterfall model, the concept of analysis in the situation matches with the waterfall model. And as such, I can say that waterfall model is the method John Juan would perform in the development of the system for Peter Pedro.

Sources:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_job_role_of_department_manager

http://www.policytech.com/support/help/ppm45/Administrator_Topics/Setting_Preferences/HR_Users_Groups/Departments/Department_Manager_Responsibilities.htm

http://www.totaljobs.com/Content/Job-descriptions/Retail/Department-manager.html