Chapter 4

Systems design
Best Alternative Design Strategy
•After analyzing the existing system, determining the new user
requirement and how data, process and logic should be modeled
in the new system, the next step is to select the best way of
designing the system.
•Design Strategy is a high level statement about the approach to
developing an information system.
• It includes statements on the system’s functionality, hardware
and system software platform, and method for acquisition.
•There are two sub activities;
–Generating alternative design strategy
–Selecting the appropriate strategy
Cont…
•In identifying design strategy the first thing to come up with is the
minimum or mandatory requirement of the system.
•Every alternative strategy should fulfill the minimum requirement that
is demanded by all users of the information system.
•All the functionality and constraints of the new system should be
considered to identify the set of alternatives for the design strategy.
Cont…
•Design strategy is a combination of system
feature, hardware and system software
platform, and acquisition method. The system
features could be analyzed in terms of;
–Data
–Outputs
–Analysis
–User expectations on accessibility, response time
and turnaround time
The Design Strategies
•Custom development (build from scratch)
–Custom development is developing the system in house from scratch.
–This requires the organization to have its own IT professional capable of
developing a system
•Allows flexibility and creativity
•Problems are best explained and identified by employees
•Builds technical skills and functional knowledge in-house
•Requires significant time and effort
•May require missing skills
•Often costs more
•Often takes more calendar time
•Problems may be overlooked
•Risk of project failure
Cont…
•Purchase and customize
–There are various software's already on shelf that could be used for
information management.
–This software could be purchased off-the-shelf from vendor software
suppliers and customized to fit a specific organizational need.
–Rarely a perfect fit with business needs
–May allow for customization
•Manipulation of system parameters
•Changing way features work
•Synchronizing with other application interfaces
–Building systems by combining packages, legacy systems, and custom
pieces Integrating data is the key Common criteria to select the best
software to buy could be;
–Cost, functionality, vendor support, flexibility, viability of vendor,
documentation, response time, ease of installation and maintenance.
Cont…
•Outsource development
–The concept of outsourcing is to analyze the requirement and forward
the need of the users and the organization to external vendors to design
the system.
–All or some responsibilities of the system development is turned over to
outside firm.
•Hiring an external vendor, developer, or service provider
•Specialized knowledge exploitation/Domain knowledge
•May reduce costs or add value
•Risks include possibly
»Losing confidential information
»Losing control over future development
»Losing learning opportunities
Introduction
•The analysis phase of the systems development process helps analysts know
what must be done to solve the problem but has not yet determined how to do
it.
•This unit takes a much closer look at the system design phase that help analysts
how to solve a problem.
–Analysis is concerned with doing the right thing.
•Design is concerned with doing the things right.
–Thus, whereas system analysis emphasized the business problem,
•System design focuses on the technical or implementation concerns of the
system.
Introduction
•Information systems design is defined as those tasks that focus on the
specification of a detailed computer or manual based solution.
•It is also called physical design.
•During design the analyst’s focus shifts from the logical to the physical.
•Processes are converted to manual procedures or computer programs.
•Data elements are grouped to form physical data structures, screens, reports,
files, and databases.
•The hardware components that support the programs and the data are
defined.
• A system test plan is developed.
• The logical model often suggests several alternative physical designs, and
part of the analyst’s responsibility in selecting the best alternative.
Introduction
•Software analysis and design involves basic
activities; which includes
–developing and evaluating alternatives design,
–designating the system in terms of the building
blocks and completing the general design report.
Developing and Evaluating Design Alternatives

•Centralized Design – in this types of design all the

processing will be undertaken centrally.
•Data entry and retrieval could be under taken from the
user department using terminals to the central facility.
•Multi-user computer usually a mainframe that hosts all
the data, process, and interface components of
information system.
Cont..
•Centralized system design has advantages and disadvantages.
•Disadvantages:
–Lack of accountability
–Delays
–Higher costs when you have geographically dispersed departments or
users.
•Advantage
–Cost effectiveness
–Coordination and control
–Establishing and maintaining standards
–Improved used support
–Reduced personnel to operate the processing
Cont…
Decentralized Design :In this case there are separate facilities for each of the
user departments which can be used to develop the alternative designs.
•The size of each facility is determined by the processing
requirements of the department it serves.
•Small departments usually requires small facility and vice versa.
•Since each department have its own hardware and software
equipments so there is limited connection with the head office like
centralized design approach,
•Decentralized approach also have its own merits and demerits.
Cont..
•The main advantages are:
–This system is better able to meet departmental information needs.
–It helps to match hardware and software to local departmental needs.
–Use less sophisticated and less expensive hardware and software and
other communication equipments.
•Disadvantages/Problems
–Difficult to obtain consolidated company wide management information
because each unit or department has its own key data and information
stored on its own computer.
–Duplication of hardware, software, data and personnel to run the
facilities in the operation system.
Cont…
Distributed Design: Distributed design is the combination of centralized and
decentralized systems which exploits the advantages of both, while minimizing
the weakness of both systems.
•In this design system, users can use their own processing facilities by
themselves and can access the larger system for common applications
and databases.
•The figure below shows how departments interact each other and
with the centralized processing system.
Cont…
•Advantage:
–high degree of user involvement
–corporate processing needs
–fewer personnel requirement
–less coordinating problem
–cost allocation
•Disadvantages
–Network data traffic can cause congestion that actually slows
performance.
–Data security and integrity can also be more easily compromised in this
system.
Designing the System in terms of its Building Blocks

•The main building blocks of systems design are:

–output design
–user interface design
–code design
– file and data base design
–input design
–method and procedure design
–process design
–control design
–specifying hardware
Output Design
•Output is information delivered to the users through the information system.
•The output of information system must be clear, precise and informative.
•All other design is performed at the end to have output.
•Output must be designed based on the requirements or purpose which are
identified in the analysis phase.
• The main objectives of output design are:
Output Design
•To fit the user. The output should be easy to use and useful for their job. It
should be designed to serve many if not all users.
•End users must find outputs easy to use and useful to their job.
•This requires:
–making the output simple to read and interpret. It should have title,
section, headings, column headings, legends etc.
–making the output acceptable by the user.
Output Design
•There are three flavors of distributed systems architecture which are
implemented in different distributed information system architectures
described in the previous section.
•File server computing
•Client/server architectures
•Interest-based/network computing architectures
Types of output Design
There are different types of output design. Some of them are:
•Designating printed output
•Designing screen output
•Form Design
Input Design

•The quality of systems input determines the quality of systems output.

Information is the function of data and processing. Therefore, in this design
phase, the following issues should be considered:
–Collection of data itself
–Data entry and
–Data validation
•The design elements are: input form design, design input screens and
records, design methods and procedures for getting the data in to the
computer. The objectives of input design are effectiveness, accuracy,
consistency, simplicity, and attractiveness.
Input Design
•When we design input we have to ask the following questions or we have to
ask the following questions or we have to consider the following points:
–What sort of program run? Will it be undertaken?
•The decision to be made at this point is to use simple batch inputs versus on-
line inputs.
• In batch processing, transactions are accumulated into batch processing;
transactions are accumulated into batches for periodic processing.
•The batch inputs are processed to update databases and produce
appropriate outputs.
Input Design

•Majority of systems have slowly evolved from batch processing to on-line or

real-time processing.
•On-line inputs and outputs provide for a more conversational dialogue
between the user and computer applications.
•They also provide near immediate feedback in response to transactions,
problems, and inquiries.
•In today’s fast-paced economy, most business transactions and inquires are
best processed as soon as possible.
•Errors are identified and corrected more quickly because there is no time
lapse between data entry and input.
Input Design

•Furthermore, on-line methods permit greater human interaction in decision-

making.
–Is it possible to input data directly by machine, by using bar code
readers or magnetic ink character readers?
–What volume of data input needed?
–Will data need to be transcribed from its original source before it is
input?
–Is some part of the data already entered in to the system?
–How should the accuracy of the data be ensured?
User Interface Design
•The communication between the user and the computer takes place in the
monitor (screen).
•This dialog should be designed properly.
•The following are ways through which end users communicate with the
computer.
–Using question and answer technique
–Using natural language
–Selecting an option from a menu
–Using hot buttons like space, delete
–Filling screen based forms
–Graphical user interface (GUI)
File and Database Design
•There are two approaches to the storage of data in a computer-based
system.
•The first approach is to store the data in individual files each unique to a
particular application.
•The second is to build databases, which is a collection of interrelated files
intended for use in many different applications.
File and Database Design
•There are two approaches to the storage of data in a computer-based
system.
•The first approach is to store the data in individual files each unique to a
particular application.
•The second is to build databases, which is a collection of interrelated files
intended for use in many different applications.
Code Design
The purpose of a code design is to identify an item more precisely and
consistently than a written description.
A code in a computer based system that helps to save storage space and
time.
Code design is closely related with the design of documents.

Designers should remember the following points when designing a coding

system.
The code should be easy to use
The code should be designed to avoid errors such as duplication of codes of
different items.
The code must be flexible to allow for change
The code must allow expansion and easy to validate
The code should be easy for user to remember.
Code Design
There are different coding systems. The common ones are:
Sequence Codes. This involves allocation of numbers to items in a
straightforward numerical sequence.
For example, 001, 002, 003 etc may be used as a code to represent chair,
table, bookcase etc respectively.
Group classification code/block-codes/. This system provides a separate
sequence for each group of items.
For example, from 1000 – 1999 may be used as a code to different types of
chairs, 2000 – 3999 may be given to bookcases.
Code Design
Faceted Coding.
This coding approach extends the principle of group classification by having
each digit represent some characteristics of the item. For example in the code
012 “1” may stand for chair and 2 for table. Facet code contains a lot of
information about items and this would allow more sophisticated processing
to be performed.
Mnemonic Codes
Mnemonic codes uses a mixture of alphabetical and numerical characters to
signify characteristics of items. Example, Mgmt 221 describes a management
course known as mathematics for management where first number “2” tell us
the course is a second year course for regular students. You can also take your
ID.No as an example for mnemonic code.
Form Design
Careful design of documents is an essential ingredient of an effective system.
They should be designed in such a manner so that they provide an effective
means of transmitting information.
There are many costs associated with the use of documentation and efficient
document design will cause additional costs to the business such as cost of
printing and handling.
Form Design
The following could serve as a hint to design a document.
Determine the purpose of the document.
Determine the data content of the document.
Decide data order.
Select type of paper which could be influenced by the length of time
the form will be kept, number of times it will be handled, how it will be
handled, environmental exposure, method.
Decide the size of the document.
Determine the color, spacing, captions, instructions, windows,
numbering, title, etc.
User Interface Design
The communication between the user and the computer takes place in the
monitor (screen).
This dialog should be designed properly. The following are ways through
which end users communicate with the computer.
Using question and answer technique
Using natural language
Selecting an option from a menu
Using hot buttons like space, delete
Filling screen based forms
Graphical user interface (GUI)