Compare the corporate culture of three leading IT companies and show how their statement of values could attract (or repel) systems analysts from joining their organization.
> Is the requirement “The system shall respond within 2 seconds” a functional or non-functional requirement?
> Why is traceability important in tool support for requirements engineering?
> What is a system requirement and what are the three challenges it presents to the systems analyst?
> List the basic tasks in a risk management plan.
> What is a significant advantage of project management software?
> What are the two main ways project status is reported to management?
> What is a structured walk-through?
> How might CASE tools be used to document the design of a data dictionary?
> Why is the critical path important?
> What are the three main task patterns types? Provide an example of each.
> Explain the differences between a Gantt chart and a PERT/CPM chart.
> Write the script for a one-minute explanation of basic project management concepts.
> Explain Brooks’ law.
> Draw a project triangle that shows the relationship among project cost, scope, and time.
> What are the five steps of a preliminary investigation?
> List seven questions the systems analyst should consider when assessing project priorities.
> Define operational, economic, technical, and schedule feasibility.
> Describe the role of the systems review committee in processing systems requests.
> What is the relationship between system requirements and context diagrams?
> Discuss how a company’s financial status can affect systems projects.
> Explain the two main factors affecting systems requests.
> What are the six main reasons for systems requests?
> List five questions the business case should answer.
> Describe how CASE tools can support strategic planning.
> List the four factors involved in a SWOT analysis.
> Why should a systems analyst be interested in strategic planning?
> Describe social networking, forums, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, webinars, mailing lists, web-based discussion groups, chat rooms, and IM.
> What do Venn diagrams display, and why is the information valuable?
> What is Boolean logic? Provide three examples using everyday terms:
> What are sponsored links?
> When might it be appropriate to violate the “no crossed lines” guideline in DFDs?
> What is a spider or crawler?
> How would you assess the quality of Internet research results?
> How would you plan an Internet research strategy?
> What is a web browser?
> How can Internet communication channels be used in Internet research?
> Are the Internet and the World Wide Web one and the same?
> What is a framework?
> What are the possible disadvantages of using an IDE?
> What is an application life cycle management (ALM) solution?
> What is an integrated development environment?
> How would you convince management that following a four-model approach is wise?
> What is a development environment?
> What are forward and reverse engineering tools, and how are they used?
> Define a repository and explain its role in the systems development process.
> Explain the difference between procedural and non-procedural languages.
> What are three trends in CASE tool evolution?
> Define CASE, CASE tools, and a CASE environment.
> Why should you have a strategic plan to improve your communication skills?
> Explore the Critical Thinking Community website at criticalthinking.org. Identify three important topics currently being discussed, and describe your findings.
> Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is one of the leading methods used by systems analysts to develop information systems. Cameo Systems Modeler is one of the leading tools supporting MBSE. Research magazine articles and the web to learn more about th
> Traceability is an important requirements attribute. It’s one of the things that should be checked when performing V&V of the system requirements. Describe how you would manually check traceability for an existing system and list a few features of a CASE
> Visit three websites to learn more about agile system development. Prepare a list of the sites you visited and a summary of the results.
> Contact three people at your school who use information systems. List their positions, the information they need, the systems they use, and the business functions they perform.
> Setup your own Facebook page to reflect your professional activities as a systems analyst. Remember that this is a business-oriented web presence, which should describe your career, not your personal life.
> Perform research on the web to learn more about blogs. Then write a practical, step-by-step guide for users who want to set up blogs of their own.
> Use LinkedIn to find out more about systems analysis interest groups. If there is a local group in your area, consider attending one of their meetings and writing a report on the experience.
> Will the search phrase commercial television return the same results as the phrase television commercial? Experiment with a search engine and explain the results you obtain.
> Use a search engine and enter the following words: presidential candidates in 2020. Run the search and notice how many results appear. Now place quotation marks around the phrase and run the search again. Explain the difference in the results.
> Suppose you are studying two hardware lease proposals. Option 1 costs $4,000 but requires that the entire amount be paid in advance. Option 2 costs $5,000, but the payments can be made $1,000 now and $1,000 per year for the next four years. If you do an
> Using the same facts as in Project 2, what is the ROI for this project?
> Assume the following facts: • A project will cost $45,000 to develop. • When the system becomes operational after a one-year development period, operational costs will be $9,000 during each year of the system’s five-year useful life. • The system will p
> Research the Internet, magazines, or textbooks to find examples of visual aids, including a bar chart, pie chart, line chart, table, diagram, and bulleted list. How effective was each example?
> Prepare a presentation explaining the four chargeback methods.
> Explore the TCO calculator shown in Figure C-1 that Amazon.com provides for estimating value in migrating to the cloud using their AWS infrastructure for a hypothetical product. Comment on the usefulness of such a tool to the systems analyst.
> Try out the Heroku cloud-based platform by developing and deploying a simple application of your choosing. Write a report comparing your experiences with this style of development versus a more traditional approach using tools such as Microsoft Visual St
> Create a presentation explaining the benefits of using an ALM CASE tool in a project.
> Search the Internet for a simple, user-friendly CASE tool that you would recommend for your school’s computer lab. Visit the vendor’s site and learn all you can about the product. Write a brief report that describes your experience.
> Search the Internet and locate an example of a screen generator. Visit the vendor’s site and learn all you can about the product. Write a brief report that describes your experience.
> Visit www.visual-paradigm.com. Locate and download the Community Edition, which is free, or a 30-day trial edition. Experiment with the program and write a brief report that describes your experience.
> View at least three examples of public speaking. You can investigate TV network news broadcasts, C-SPAN, or any other source. Describe each speaker’s gestures, expressions, voice levels, inflections, timing, eye contact, and effectiveness. Draft a strate
> As a training manual writer, choose a simple hardware or software task and write a two- or three-paragraph description of how to perform the task. Then use your word processing software to check the readability statistics. Try to keep the Flesch Reading
> Using Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or another program, prepare a presentation on “How to Prepare an Effective Slide Presentation.” Assume that your audience is familiar with presentation soft- ware but has no formal training.
> A group meeting sometimes is suggested as a useful compromise between interviews and questionnaires. In a group meeting, a systems analyst meets with a number of users at one time. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of group meetings.
> The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White is a popular reference manual for proper English usage. The book identifies many words and phrases that are commonly misused, including between and among, affect and effect, different from and
> Attend a presentation by a colleague at work, or watch a presentation online, and attempt to answer the five communication questions about the presentation: why, who, what, when, and how.
> How do you decide if a car should be repaired or replaced? Develop an assessment framework to aid this decision process. Is the framework also applicable to software systems?
> Using the Internet, locate a software package designed to automate version control. List the key features and describe your findings in a brief memo.
> Security breaches are in the news all the time. Document a recent hack involving the theft of employee information or customer data. Suggest ways the attack could have been avoided.
> Visit the IT department at your school or at a local company and find out whether performance measurements are used. Write a brief report describing your findings.
> Develop a process for managing change requests and design a form to handle a generic change request. The process should include a contingency plan for changes that must be resolved immediately.
> Create an online training module using one of the systems discussed in this chapter, such as Udemy or lynda.com, on the topic of managing systems implementations.
> Design a generic post-implementation evaluation form. The form should consist of questions that you could use to evaluate any information system. The form should evaluate the training received and any problems associated with the program.
> Which system changeover method would you recommend for an air traffic control system upgrade? Explain your answer.
> Agile methods use rapid development cycles to iteratively produce running versions of the system. How would these shorter cycles affect the ability of the analyst to manage system requirements?
> In this chapter, you learned about the importance of testing. Design a generic test plan that describes the testing for an imaginary system.
> Using the material in this chapter and your own Internet research, prepare a presentation on the pros and cons of agile development methods.
> Examine the role wireless networks are having in the developing world. Why are some places bypassing LANs and physical cabling altogether and moving to a wireless system architecture? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?
> Perform research on the Internet to learn about emerging trends in wireless networking and typical costs involved in the installation of a wireless LAN.
> Perform research on the Internet to identify a service provider that offers web-based business solutions, and write a report describing the firm and its services.
> Prepare a 10-minute talk explaining Web 2.0 and cloud computing to a college class. Using the text and your own Internet research, briefly describe the five most important points you will include in your presentation.
> Visit the IT department at your school or a local company to learn about the network they use. Describe the network and draw a sketch of the configuration.
> Search the Internet to find information about date formats. Determine whether the date format used in the United States is the most common format.
> Use Microsoft Access or similar database software to create a DBMS for the imaginary company called TopText Publishing, which is described in Case in Point 9.1. Add several sample records to each table and report to the class on your progress.
> Cludadwy Chairs sells a patented seat that spectators can take to youth soccer games. The seat folds so it is small enough to fit in the glove box of most vehicles. The company operates a factory in Kansas and also contracts its manufacturing projects to
> JAD requires strong interpersonal and communication skills on the part of the systems analyst. Are those skills different from the ones that an analyst needs when conducting one-to-one interviews? Explain your answer.
> Visit the bookstore at your school or in your area. Interview the manager or store employees to learn more about the business and the entities that are involved in bookstore operations. Remember that an entity is a person, a place, a thing, or an event t
> Consider an automobile dealership with three locations. Data fields exist for stock number, vehicle identification number, make, model, year, color, and invoice cost. Identify the possible candidate keys, the likely primary key, a probable foreign key, a
> Explore the emerging area of wearable computing, such as the Apple Watch, and comment on the impact of these devices on user interface design
> Suggest at least two good examples and two bad examples of source document design.
