UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DIPLOMA IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY/ DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
DIT203 DBIT205 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
DATE: AUGUST 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE
a) List and explain people involved in system development. [4 Marks]
b) Describe FIVE characteristics of a general system. [5 Marks]
c) Sunnyside Health Centre has three GPs (General Practitioners), a practice nurse and a
receptionist. Patients who want to see a GP or the nurse must make an appointment via the
receptionist who uses a diary to find a suitable slot when the GP is free. Any Patient can
see any Doctor. Twice a day (morning and afternoon surgery) the receptionist needs to
copy the list of all patients due from the book onto an individual list for each GP. The
receptionist gives the list, along with the patients’ notes to the GP at the beginning of the
surgery. In addition, the practice keeps track of the drugs prescribed to each patient and
issues prescriptions for the patients.
The practice also wants to keep information about drugs suppliers. Each supplier may
supply many types of drug, however, only one supplier supplies each drug i.e. only neolabs
supply co-proxomol and only APS supply amitriptylene etc.
Required: draw an ERD diagram. [5 Marks]
d) You have been in the system development team, the system is complete and it is time to
implement. As the lead project person explain to the stakeholders different implementation
strategies that you can undertake giving advantages and disadvantages of each. [8 Marks]
e) What is the importance of the skills that a system analyst should possess? [5 Marks]
f) Define the term system and differentiate OPEN and CLOSED systems. [3 Marks]
QUESTION TWO
a) Describe the steps of waterfall model. [5 Marks]
b) Explain the advantages of prototyping as a system implementation Methodology.
[5 Marks]
c) Explain FOUR data collection methods that you can make use of if you were involved in
a system analysis process clearly stating their advantages and disadvantages of each.
[8 Marks]
d) Define the term information system. [2 Marks]
QUESTION THREE
a) Describe SIX methods of user training that a system analyst can use before the full
release of the system. [6 Marks]
b) Define the following terms as used in Entity relation diagrams.
i. Relationship. [2Marks]
ii. Cardinality. [2 Marks]
c) System design is a very important aspect of system development which should be done
properly to ensure user comfort and avoid user fatigue. Describe FIVE features that a
good system design should exhibit. [5 Marks]
d) Explain FIVE reasons why system documentation is important. [5 Marks]
QUESTION FOUR
a) Structured walkthrough is the review of the system at the end of the development by a
group of relevant and competent persons. Outline FIVE problems associated with
structured walkthroughs. [5 Marks]
b) Give your expert remedy to the problems identified in question (a) above. [5 Marks]
c) Outline FIVE factors you can use to determine the success of an information system.
[5 Marks]
d) Describe FIVE principal causes of information systems failure. [5 Marks]
QUESTION FIVE
a) In the late 1970s, IT professionals began to consider why so many information systems
developments had gone wrong and failed to live up to their promises and, mostly, they
reached a similar conclusion: projects went wrong initially during the analysis phase and
efforts to improve the situation later were usually a waste of time and even more money.
Most of these authorities agreed that there was a need for new methods of analysis and
design. In your own view of systems analysis and design explain the FIVE advantages and
FIVE drawbacks of the structured approaches to systems development.
[10 Marks]
b) At KCAU a student who passes the examinations and completes the course work and
project satisfactorily is awarded a pass. If the course work and the project are
unsatisfactory, the student is asked to resubmit the unsatisfactory work, as long as the
exams have been passed. A student who fails the examinations is deemed to have failed
the whole course unless both the course work and the project are satisfactory, in which case
the student is allowed to re-sit the examinations.
Required: Draw a decision table. [5 Marks]
c) Outline FIVE reasons as to why systems should be evaluated. [5 Marks]
