BLANTYRE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Students Name

Registration Number
Lecture

:
:

Program
Information Technology
Course

: Bachelors of
: System Analysis and

Design
Year

: 2rd

Semester

: 2rd
Assignment 1

Due Date

31 /8 /2012

Question 1 . What is a system?

A system is a collection of components thats connected to each other and work together to
achieve a common goal.
Question 2 .Mention any 3 reasons why System development projects are initiated?
System development projects are initiated for many reasons, including the need to solve
problems with the existing system, to exploit opportunities to gain competitive advantage and to
address change in the market or external environment (Stair, 2008)
Question 3. Phases of system development project and role played by system analyst
In order for a system to be developed and implemented they are several phases
that are undertaken the first phase is planning, this phase involves understanding why a n
information system should be belt, it also gives the project team a clue on how they will go about
the project, they are two steps involved in the planning phase, the first step is planning initiation,
this step is all about checking how the system will help the company competitive advantage. The
second step is project management, in this step a work plan is created, this helps the project team
control and direct the project through the entire process (Mumba, 2012)
The second phase is analysis, this phase answers the questions who will use the system, what is
the system going to be doing, where and when it will be used. The analysis phase also has three
steps which are; Analysis strategy, it guides the project teams efforts and includes analysis of the
system. The other step in this phase is Requirement gathering , this step is where the analysis
made helps in developing a concept and the final step in this phase is system proposal , where
the proposal is presented to the system sponsor who will decide whether the project should
continue to move forward (Mumba, 2012)
Design is a third phases in the system development project, this phase is where you decide how
the system will operate, it also has a number of steps such as design strategy, and this step helps
to tell whether the system will be developed by the company or outside the company. Another

step in this phase is Architecture design, it describes hardware and software infrastructure to be
used (Mumba, 2012)
Last phase of SDLC is implementation, this is when the system is either developed or purchased,
this phase consists of three steps where the first step is when the system is developed then tested
to make sure it performs as developed. After the system has been developed the next step is
installation, preparing to support the installed system, and the final step in implementation phase
is support plan (Mumba, 2012) .The implementation phase involves training users, installation of
the system in production setting and hand over of ownership of the software or application from
the project team to the performing organization.
During system development, a system analyst play a vital role, he helps the organization to
understand the challenges before them to make to make this transition and to ensure that the
needs and expectations of the client are represented correctly in the final solution (Anon., 2012)

REFERENCE
Bibliography
Anon., 2012. slideshare. [Online]
Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/infinityrulz/roles-responsibilities-of-system-analyst
[Accessed 30 August 2012].
Mumba, T., 2012. Bachelor of Information Technology. In: System Analysis and Design. s.l.:s.n.
Stair, R. M., 2008. Principals of Information Systems. 8th ed. s.l.:s.n.