THE BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY THE BCS PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATIONS BCS Level 4 Certificate in IT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Wednesday 7th October 2009 - Afternoon Time: TWO hours

Section A and Section B each carry 50% of the marks. You are advised to spend about 1 hour on Section A (30 minutes per question) and 1 hour on Section B (12 minutes per question).

Answer the Section A questions you attempt in Answer Book A Answer the Section B questions you attempt in Answer Book B
The marks given in brackets are indicative of the weight given to each part of the question.

Calculators are NOT allowed in this examination. SECTION A Answer TWO questions out of FOUR in Answer Book A. Each question carries 30 marks.

A1.

A new database has to be constructed due to the merger of several local colleges. One part of the database will be designed to deal with the results of student assignments. The college offers several three-year degree courses. Each year contains eight modules, three core modules plus five option modules. There are ten option modules each year. In year 1 students register for an individual degree and choose five option modules, however there are some restrictions for example the student cannot choose both Business Networking and Networking. The student can choose to study an extra on-line module. All modules whether core or option have one module leader who is a senior tutor and up to three other tutors. A tutor may teach more than one module but will only teach one group for a module. When a student chooses a module he/she is allocated to a tutor group. There are up to four tutor groups per module. The tutor for each group marks the students assignment and will store the marks on the database. a) Construct an entity relationship model (logical data model) for the above case study. Identify the primary keys and the relationships between each entity and show how you resolve many to many relationships. Show any assumptions you may have made. (15 marks) There are several terms used when building an entity relationship model. Explain what is meant by the following giving appropriate examples from the above case study: i) ii) iii) An involuted relationship An intersection entity Optionality (9 marks) c) Briefly describe the main functions of a database. (6 marks)
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b)

A2.

a)

There are several different approaches to analysing and developing an information system. Briefly describe the main features of each of the following: i) ii) iii) iv) Soft system methodology Waterfall method Prototyping Object oriented development (16 marks)

b)

Using any system as an example, describe the use of the following: i) ii) iii) Data flow diagram Rich picture Entity life history (9 marks)

c)

Briefly describe the main features of a CASE tool. (5 marks)

A3.

a)

Describe how information flows within an organisation using an example with which you are familiar. You should indicate the three levels of management information and typical software associated with each level, providing the type of information required at each level. (12 marks) You have been asked to investigate several different versions of project management software and recommend which one would help your IT department control the development of a large project. Identify the functions that should be provided. (10 marks) Using the system development life cycle as an example, draw a PERT chart and a Gantt chart and describe the typical use of each method. (8 marks)

b)

c)

A4.

a)

You are the IT Manager for a large international company. The system auditor has asked for a report detailing your disaster recovery strategy. Draft a report detailing what documentation would be required in order to recover from a fire which has destroyed the offices that contain all the computers dealing with business systems. Include measures you would take to ensure that this would not happen. (10 marks)

b)

Testing is often seen as the final stages of the system development project. Draft a testing strategy that could be adopted by a team throughout the development process. (10 marks) There are several ways to implement the changeover from an old to a new system. Describe THREE techniques giving examples, advantages and disadvantages of each. (10 marks)

c)

SECTION B Answer FIVE questions out of EIGHT in Answer Book B. Each question carries 12 marks.

B5.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of three different types of multimedia that could be used to enhance a web site. (12 marks)

B6.

A questionnaire is a basic technique for gathering large amounts of data that could be used to gather information on how users spend their time on the internet. a) Identify three types of questions, with examples, that could be asked. (6 marks) b) Briefly explain the design features of an on-line questionnaire. (6 marks)

B7.

You are employed as a consultant for a food transport company which intends to design and build a new computer system to manage its fleet of vehicles. The majority of vehicles carry fresh food and have inbuilt sensors which link directly back to the central computer system. If the temperature in the vehicle is too high (i.e. the food has been spoilt) the vehicle is recalled. Suggest a suitable, perhaps hybrid, methodology to aid the development of the above scenario. (12 marks)

B8.

a)

Discuss what features an application development environment (ADE) such as Visual Basic has that could aid the developer in creating quality, error free code. (7 marks) Discuss what you consider to be good naming conventions when designing a database table (5 marks)

b)

B9.

a)

Outline the stages of normalisation which results in the data being in 3NF. (3 marks) Using an example of your choice, show the stages discussed in a) (9 marks)

b)

B10.

Outline the stages of Rapid Application Development (RAD). For each stage, state how the user is involved and the potential deliverables from each stage. (12 marks)

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B11.

a)

State six rules that you would consider to be essential for any password policy. (6 marks) How would you test your recommendations of a)? (6 marks)

b)

B12.

You are a consultant working for an online questionnaire company. The companys primary business is conducting surveys for marketing companies to ensure that any advertising is having its maximum effect. Outline the guidance you would give to the online questionnaire company to ensure that the design of the screens, data input and navigation would aid any potential user of this web site. (12 marks)