Business Analysis Exam 1 Study Guide

...

Analyzing systems top-down helps analyst see the subsystems, which reveal the inner workings of the system and greatly enhances the understanding of how an overall system works. It allows us to focus on one particular part of a system, making it easier to think of how to modify that one part independently of the entire system to fix the problem of that system. Thus, It allows an analyst to create an efficient information system.

-

When would we want to interview people individually?

- during interviewing, you gather facts, opinions, and speculation and observe body language, emotions, and other signs of what people want and how they assess current systems.We would use it to interview people about their work, the information they need to do it, and the types of information processing that might supplement their work. Others interview to understand organizational direction, policies, and expectation that managers have for the units they supervise.

- Ways to interview people better: prepare thoroughly before the interview, prepare an interview guide or checklist, choose interview questions, and have interview guidelines.

- Prepare thoroughly before the interview: make an appointment and explain the purpose of the interview

- Prepare an interview guide or checklist: helps you know in which sequence to ask your questions and how much time to spend in each area of the interview. Checklist might include: some probing questions to ask as follow-up if you receive certain anticipated responses.

- Choose interview questions: You need to decided on the mix and sequence of open-ended and closed-ended question to use. Open-ended questions (fill in the blank or so) : are often used to probe for information when you cannot anticipate all possible responses or when you do not know the precise question to ask. Closed-ended question (multiple choice)- provides a range of answer from which the interviewee may chose.

- When would we want to interview people in a group?

- A focus group is an interactive session with a carefully selected group of people designed to capitalize on the synergy of a group.

PREPARE FOR THE FOCUS GROUP

- Select participants: Decide who needs to participate in the focus group in order to achieve its purpose.

- Define roles, topics, and logistics: Define who (among the people running the focus group) must do what, and the specific topics that the participants will discuss. Also define the basic logistics such as when and where the focus group will be held, and how the participants will be invited.

RUN THE FOCUS GROUP

- Carefully facilitate the group to ensure free and open interaction among the participants. Participants must feel free to interact openly or the focus group could fail.

FOLLOW UP

- The focus group report records what was learned, including both agreements and disagreements among the participants.

-

- When would we want to use a questionnaire?

- When an analyst wants to know more topics about a company. Use closed-ended question to receive more answer,but a disadvantage is that useful information that does not quite fit the defined may be overlooked as the respondent tries to make a choice instead of providing his or her best answer.

- Chapter Six

- What is a DFD? What is the primary use for a DFD?

- Data-Flow Diagram: a graphic that illustrates the movement of data between external entities and the processes and data stores within a system. It is part of the process modeling, which involves graphically representing the processes, or actions, that capture, manipulate, store, and distribute data between a system and its environment and among components within a system. The primary use for a DFD is to illustrate movement of data between external entities and processes and data stores in a business process. It’s great because it allows the decomposition of business processes into subprocesses.

- What do you model in a DFD? What are the main symbols in a DFD?

- We model in a DFD to show the movement of data between external entities and processes and data stores within a system.

- Main symbols in DFD are: data flows, data stores, processes, and sources/sinks (external entities).

- Data Flow: is data that are in motion and moving as a unit from one place in a system to another, can represent data on a customer order form or payroll check. Composed of many individual pieces of data that are generated at the time and that flow together to common destinations.

- Data Stores:data at rest; may represent one of many different physical locations for data, including a file folder, one or more computer-based files, or a notebook.

- Processes: the work or actions performed on data so that they are transformed, stored, or distributed. Doesn’t matter if whether a process is performed manually or by a computer.

- Sources/Sinks:the origin and/or destination of the data. They are usually outside the system.

What is balancing in terms of a set of DFDs? (pg. 168)

Balancing in terms of a set of DFDs is when you decompose a DFD from one level to the next and you must conserve inputs and outputs to a process at the next level decomposition. For instance, Process 1.0, which appears in a level-0 diagram, must have the same inputs and outputs when decomposed into a level-1 diagram. The principle of balancing and the goal of keeping a DFD as simple as possible leads to four additional rules for drawing DFDS that is : Rule R, S, T, and Q. Rule R states that the input to a process must be sufficient to produce the outputs from the process, in other words, all outputs can be produced, and all data inputs move somewhere. Rule S is new data flows may be added to represent data that are transmitted under exceptional conditions; these data flows typically represent error messages. Rule T says that you can avoid having data-flow lines cross each other, you may repeat data store or sources/sinks on a DFD. Rule Q states that a composite data flow on one level can be split into component data flows at the next level, but no new data can