Assessment Task – Tutorial Questions
Unit Code: HS2011
Unit Name: Systems Analysis & Design
Assignment: Tutorial Questions Assignment 2
Due: 11:30pm 19th June 2020
Length: 1000 – 1500 words
Weighting: 20%
Purpose: This assignment is designed to assess your level of knowledge of the key topics covered in this unit
Unit Learning Outcomes Assessed:
1. Explain and apply systems analysis and design concepts, principles, methodologies and tools to analyse, design and implement business solutions.
2. Explain and apply process modelling, logical and data modelling tools in the development of information systems
3. Explain and evaluate system implementation and post implementation systems requirements
4. Analyse business scenarios to generate requirement specifications and design possible solutions to satisfy business requirements.
5. Apply problem solving and object oriented design skills to build a simple systems prototype
7. Review and describe the major legal and ethical issues with respect to systems analysis and design
Description: Each week students were provided with three tutorial questions of varying degrees of difficulty. These tutorial questions are available in the Tutorial Folder for each week on Blackboard. The Interactive Tutorials are designed to assist students with the process, skills and knowledge to answer the provided tutorial questions. Your task is to answer a selection of tutorial questions for weeks 6 to 10 inclusive and submit these answers in a single document.
The questions to be answered are:
Week 6 (Question 3) (10 Marks)
Develop an activity diagram based on the following narrative. Note any ambiguities or questions that you have as you develop the model. If you need to make assumptions, also note them.
The shipping department receives all shipments on outstanding purchase orders. When the clerk in the shipping department receives a shipment, he or she finds the outstanding purchase order for those items. The clerk then sends multiple copies of the shipment packing slip. One copy goes to Purchasing, and the department updates its records to indicate that the purchase order has been fulfilled. Another copy goes to Accounting so a payment can be made. A third copy goes to the requesting in- house customer so he or she can receive the shipment.
After payment is made, the accounting department sends a notification to Purchasing. After the customer receives and accepts the goods, he or she sends notification to Purchasing. When Purchasing receives these other verifications, it closes the purchase order as fulfilled and paid.
Week 7 (Question 2) (10 Marks)
Answer the following:
a. What is the automation boundary on a use case diagram, and how is it represented?
b. How many actors can be related to a use case on a use case diagram?
c. Why might a systems analyst draw many different use case diagrams when reviewing use cases with end users?
d. What is the «includes» relationship between two use cases?
Week 8 (Question 2) (10 Marks)
Compare/contrast business process and flow of activities for a use case. Explain how an activity diagram can be used to model both.
Week 9 (case study) (10 Marks)
New Century Wellness Group
New Century Wellness Group offers a holistic approach to healthcare with an emphasis on preventive medicine as well as traditional medical care. In your role as an IT consultant, you will help New Century develop a new information system.
Background
New Century Wellness Group is interested in a new information system to support its business and health information management needs. The new system would replace a mix of paper-based and fragmented computer systems. Dr. Jones had previously asked you to work with him as a systems analyst and help the group develop an information system that will support current operations and future growth. You will explore the possibility of a business support system for the scheduling, billing, accounting, and payroll functions of the practice as well as a system to support the clinical applications of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), and a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS).
At your next meeting, Dr. Jones explains what the practice partners have in mind in more detail. They are looking for a medical practice software solution that allows each office worker to conduct their job more efficiently. He explains to you what systems they are looking for from the perspective of a patient who comes into the office.
Lisa Sung schedules a patient’s appointment and the patient comes into the office for the first time. On this appointment, an EMR is started for the patient that includes the patient’s demographic information, medical history, and insurance information. A patient may be coming in to see any one of the healthcare providers, including a physician, nurse practitioner, physical therapists, or the nutritionist. These providers would enter any orders or prescriptions into the EMR with the CPOE system. The Providers who use the EMR and CPOE system are supported by the CDSS. Patients often schedule a follow-up appointment before leaving the practice office.
After a patient’s visit, Susan Gifford, who maintains the patient medical records, reviews the records to ensure they are complete. Carla Herrera orders any supplies needed to replace items used by the patient. Tammy Alipio begins billing the patient’s insurance provider for services that were rendered to the patient. Tom Capaletti follows up on the billing to ensure the practice is getting paid for all claims. Dr. Jones also tells you that the system should also include modules to support Fred Brown and Corinne Summers in HR and payroll. You explain to Dr. Jones that you would like to conduct a preliminary investigation that will give you the information you need to make recommendations about what system they should pursue. Dr. Jones agrees to your investigation and you set a follow-up appointment in one month.
After reading the provided case study, answer the following questions:
1. Provide one sample questions to determine whether a project has technical feasibility.
2. Provide one sample questions to determine whether a project has operational feasibility.
3. Provide one sample questions to determine whether a project has economic feasibility.
4. Provide one sample questions to determine whether a project has schedule feasibility.
Week 10 (Question 2) (10 Marks)
New Century Wellness Group
New Century Wellness Group offers a holistic approach to healthcare with an emphasis on preventive medicine as well as traditional medical care. In your role as an IT consultant, you will help New Century develop a new information system.
Background
Based on your earlier recommendations, New Century decided to continue the systems development process for a new information system. Now, at the end of the systems analysis phase, you are ready to prepare a system requirements document and give a presentation to the New Century associates. Many of the proposed system’s advantages were described during the fact-finding process.
Those include smoother operation, better efficiency, and more user-friendly procedures for patients and New Century staff. You also must examine tangible costs and benefits to determine the economic feasibility of several alternatives. If New Century decides to go ahead with the development process, the main options are to develop the system in-house or purchase a vertical package and configure it to meet New Century’s needs. You have studied those choices and put together some preliminary figures. You know that New Century’s current workload requires six hours of office staff overtime per week at a base rate of $15 per hour. In addition, based on current projections, New Century will need to add another fulltime clerical position in about six months. Neither the overtime nor the additional job will be needed if New Century implements the new system. The current manual system also causes an average of three errors per day, and each error takes about 20 minutes to correct. The new system should eliminate those errors.
You estimate that by working full-time you could complete the project in about 12 weeks. Your consulting rate, which New Century agreed to, is $35 per hour. If you design the new system as a database application, you can expect to spend about $2,500 for a networked commercial package. After the system is operational and the staff is trained, New Century should be able to handle routine maintenance tasks without your assistance. As an alternative to in-house development, a vertical software package is available for about $12,000.
The vendor offers a lease-purchase package of $4,000 down, followed by two annual instalments of $4,000 each. If New Century buys the package, it would take you about four weeks to install, configure, and test it, working full-time. The vendor provides free support during the first year of operation, but then New Century must sign a technical support agreement at an annual cost of $600. Although the package contains many of the features that New Century wants, most of the reports are pre-designed and it would be difficult to modify their layouts. No matter which approach is selected, New Century probably will need you to provide about 10 hours of initial training and support each week for the first three months of operation. After the new system is operational, it will need routine maintenance, file backups, and updating.
These tasks will require about four hours per week and can be performed by a clinic staff member. In both cases, the necessary hardware and network installation will cost about $12,500. In your view, the useful life of the system will be about five years, including the year in which the system becomes operational.
You are scheduled to deliver a presentation to New Century next week, and you will submit a system requirements document at that time. To prepare yourself, you reviewed the skills described in Part A of the Systems Analyst’s Toolkit, and you listed tips to remember, as follows:
Presentation Tips:
• Use suitable visual aids.
• Use presentation software, if possible.
• Distribute handouts before, during, or after the presentation.
• Follow the guidelines in Part A of the Systems Analyst’s Toolkit.
• Keep your presentation to 30 minutes, including 5 minutes for questions.
System Requirements Document Tips:
• Follow the guidelines in Part A of the Systems Analyst’s Toolkit.
• Include charts, graphs, or other helpful visual information in the document. Also include other material to help the audience understand the new system and decide on the next step.
• Spell check and carefully proofread the entire document.
• For readability, try to keep the Flesch Reading Ease score above 60, and aim for a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 8.0 to 9.0.
After reading the provided case study, answer the following question:
What are the pros and cons of in-house development versus purchasing a system?
Submission Directions:
The assignment has to be submitted via Blackboard. Each student will be permitted one submission to Blackboard only. Each student needs to ensure that the document submitted is the correct one.
Academic Integrity
Academic honesty is highly valued at Holmes Institute. Students must always submit work that represents their original words or ideas. If any words or ideas used in a class posting or assignment submission do not represent the student’s original words or ideas, the student must cite all relevant sources and make clear the extent to which such sources were used. Written assignments that include material similar to course reading materials or other sources should include a citation including source, author, and page number.
In addition, written assignments that are similar or identical to those of another student in the class is also a violation of the Holmes Institute’s Academic Conduct and Integrity Policy. The consequence for a violation of this policy can incur a range of penalties varying from a 50% penalty through to suspension of enrolment. The penalty would be dependent on the extent of academic misconduct and the student’s history of academic misconduct issues.
All assessments will be automatically submitted to Self-Assign to assess their originality.
Further Information:
For further information and additional learning resources, students should refer to their Discussion Board for the unit.