Systems Analysis and Design: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

You Will Learn How To

Analyse user requirements and design robust, change-tolerant software using UML
Select the right software architecture for your evolving business needs
Design a robust core of stored information for new or existing legacy requirements
Control complex behaviour for effective decision making and user interaction
Adopt a development process that ensures robust database and Web-enabled systems
Achieve optimum quality systems through UML techniques and supporting CASE tools

Course Benefits

In today's rapidly moving business environment, competitive advantage is achieved through the speedy delivery of responsive software that can adapt to evolving technology and changing user expectations. Controlling and managing such software depends on three critical elements: standards, architecture and process. This comprehensive introduction provides you with the knowledge and skills to effectively utilise these elements, delivering robust, future-proof software, particularly within database and Web-enabled environments.

Who Should Attend

Systems analysts, business analysts and anyone involved in managing, specifying or designing products for business intelligence, database, Web-enabled, knowledge management, or user interaction software.

Hands-On Training

Exercises and an evolving case study provide experience building "future-proof" software designs and include:

Deciding the best migration strategy for legacy systems
Establishing behavioural scope with UML use case diagrams
Refining information structure for database design
Describing control behaviour with a UML state chart
Detailing control flow with UML activity diagrams
Expanding a UML class diagram to show structure of the user interface
Incorporating best practice into the software specification.

Course Content

Introduction and Overview

Drawing diagrams to help us ask the right questions
Dissecting UML 2 features
An enterprise architecture: Information, Behaviour, Presentation
Designing new or refining existing Web-enabled systems
Exploring the Unified Process and the V-Model

Creating the Information Structure

Analysing information requirements

Translating the business needs
Structuring data with simplified UML class diagrams
Establishing multiple or optional links
Generalising and simplifying
Connecting to legacy data systems

Achieving the best practice in data design

Reducing redundancy with normalisation
Developing the ontology
Translating a data model to a relational database
Managing data in a multitier Web-enabled environment
Assessing design trade-offs

Formulating a physical data model

Customising application and user views
Partitioning data using packages
Guaranteeing consistency and completeness
The pros and cons of indexing with B-Trees
Leveraging SQL Query Optimizers

Developing the Behaviour Model

Analysing behaviour requirements

Scoping business behaviour with UML use case diagrams
Realising a use case with a UML activity diagram
Checking completeness and consistency
Trading data complexity for control complexity

Determining best practice for application design

Recognising UML stereotypes: process, boundary and entity
Monitoring behaviour with UML communication diagrams
Defining control using UML state charts
Classifying stereotype responsibilities in SOAs
Allocating behaviour in a Web-enabled environment

Forming the application architecture

Managing application complexity
Coupling and cohesion
Creating congruent designs
Matching process and data structure
Measuring cyclomatic complexity

Presenting Component Objects to Users

Object-modelling techniques for analysis

Assessing the benefits of an OO approach
Mapping out structure at the user interface with detailed UML class diagrams
Achieving consistency between UML class and communication diagrams
Benefiting from inheritance as a consequence of generalisation
Delegation arising from aggregation

Benefiting from best practice in component design

Extending use case diagrams for user interface design
Generalising actors and use cases
Detailing mandatory reusable functionality with <<include>>
Describing optional functionality using <<extend>>
Improving the design of user interfaces: prototyping and polymorphism

Finalising the detailed use case

Reusing knowledge with design patterns
Model Driven Architectures
Knowledge management

Achieving Optimum-Quality Results

Profiling the organisation

Choosing appropriate personnel
Matching the development approach to the organisational culture
Nurturing the analyst's skill set
Positioning UML within the overall software development process

Selecting the right software

Database solutions: Sybase, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL
Exchanging data with XML
Benefiting from Web technologies

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