SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

C H A P T E R

17 SYSTEMS
OPERATION
AND SUPPORT

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Chapter Seventeen Systems Operation and Support

• Define systems operations and support.
• Describe the relative roles of a repository, program library, and
database in systems operations and support.
• Differentiate between maintenance, recovery, technical support, and
enhancement as system support activities.
• Describe the tasks required to maintain programs in response to bugs.
• Describe the role of benchmarking in system maintenance.
• Describe the systems analyst’s role in system recovery.
• Describe forms of technical support that a systems analyst provides
for the user community.
• Describe the tasks that should be and may be performed in system
enhancement, and the relationship between the enhancement and
original systems development process.
• Describe the role of reengineering in systems enhancement. Describe
three types of reengineering.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Chapter Map

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Support versus Operation

An operational system is frequently called a

production system.

Systems support is the on-going Systems operation is the day-to-

technical support for users, as
well as the maintenance required
to fix any errors, omissions, or
new requirements that may arise.
day, week-to-week, month-to-
month, and year-to-year
execution of an information
system’s business processes and
application programs.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

The Context of Systems Operation and Support

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Systems Development, Operation, and Support

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Three Important Data Stores

• The repository is a data store(s) of accumulated

system knowledge—system models, detailed
specifications, and any other documentation
accumulated during systems development.

• The program library is a data store(s) of all

application programs.

• The business data is all those data stores of the actual

business data created and maintained by the
production application programs.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Systems Support Activities

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Support Activities

• Program maintenance corrects “bugs” or errors that

slipped through the system development process.

• System recovery is the restoration of the system and

data after a system failure.

• Technical support is any assistance provided to users

in response to inexperience or unanticipated situations.

• System enhancement is the improvement of the

system to handle new business problems, new
technical problems, or new technology requirements.
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Causes of “Bugs”

• Poorly validated requirements.

• Poorly communicated requirements.

• Misinterpreted requirements.

• Incorrectly implemented requirements or designs.

• Simple misuse of the programs.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Maintenance Objectives

• To make predictable changes to existing programs to

correct errors.

• To preserve those aspects of the programs that were

correct, and to avoid “ripple effects” of changes that
may adversely affect the correctly functioning aspects.

• To avoid, as much as possible, the degradation of

system performance.

• To complete the task as quickly as possible without

sacrificing quality and reliability of the system.
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Maintenance Tasks

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Maintenance Tasks

1. Validate the problem.

2. Benchmark the program.
1. A test script is a repository of test cases to be
executed against all program revisions.
3. Study and debug the program to fix:
1. Poor program structure.
2. Unstructured (or poorly structured) logic.
3. Prior maintenance (so-called “ripple” effects.)
4. Dead code.
5. Poor or inadequate documentation.
4. Test the program.
1. Version control is a process whereby a librarian
program keeps track of changes made to programs to
facilitate backtracking.
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Types of Testing

• Unit testing (essential) ensures that the stand-alone

program fixes the bug without undesirable side effects
to the program.

• System testing (essential) ensures that the entire

application, of which the modified and unit tested
program was a part, still works as a complete system.

• Regression testing (recommended) extrapolates the

impact of the changes on system performance
(throughput and response time) by analyzing before-
and-after performance against the test script.
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Recovery Activities

• Direct: Client-side (end-user) recovery and/or

instruction directly from the systems analyst.
• Indirect: Server-side recovery through a system
administrator.
• Indirect: Database recovery and rollback through a
database administrator.
• Indirect: Network recovery or fix through a network
administrator.
• Indirect: Technical or vendor assistance to correct a
hardware problem.
• Direct: Detection of a software bug (which triggers
systems maintenance).
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Enhancement Triggers

• New business problems

• New business requirements

• New technology requirements (inclusive of hardware

and software upgrades)

• New design requirements

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Enhancement Activities

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 5th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

System Enhancement Tasks

1. Analyze enhancement request.

2. If appropriate, make the quick fix.
1. e.g., report writing
3. Recover the existing physical system:
1. Database recovery and restructuring
2. Program analysis, recovery, and restructuring
1.Software metrics are mathematically proven measurements
of software quality and productivity.
1. Measurement of control flow knots (complexity of logic)
2. Measurement of cycle complexity
2.Code reorganization of modularity and/or logic
3.Code conversion from one language to another
4.Code slicing to create reusable software components or
objects
4. (Repeat appropriate phases and tasks of the original
development methodology
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