Authour: Rob M.

Article Title:  DILEMMA BETWEEN THE STRUCTURED AND OBJECT-ORIENTED APPROACHES TO SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN.

Journal Title: The Journal of Computer Information Systems.  Vol. 46,  Iss. 3,  p. 32-42 (11 pp.) (Online, Proquest)

 This article stats with  explaining and defining the two approaches to systems development and then builds to compare and contrast the two approaches to systems development. Using separate headings the article very clearly identifies the differences between the two approaches.

Author: Shelly G.B, Cashman T.J, Rosenblatt H.J

Textbook: Systems Analysis and Design

Publisher:  Course technology, Thompson Learning inc.,

 This books gave me a brief and essential understanding of the two approaches to system development by clearly defining them. It elaborated on the traditional and object oriented approaches to systems development all through out the book making it very simple and understandable.

 The structured analysis has the following data and process modelling tools 1) Data flow diagrams that show the movement of the data through an information system but it does not logic of the programme or the steps involved in processing. A set of DFD’S show what a system does and how it does it.  2) Data dictionaries store the details that were with in the DFD’S. It is a central storehouse of the information of the systems data. 3) structured English is process description tool that is used to describe logical processes clearly and accurately. 4) Decision table shows the logical structure with all the possible combinations of conditions and the resulting actions. 5) Decision tree graphically represents the conditions, actions and rules found in the decision table. The following are the techniques and notations used inside UML of the object oriented approach1) Use cases that shows the functional requirements of the system or the “what” of the system. 2) Class diagrams that show the static structure of the data and the processes that act on the data. 3) state diagrams which show how objects change their states in response to the events as a dynamic model. 4) Sequence diagrams, which represent interaction between objects as dynamic models. Structured analysis is a one-dimensional waterfall model and object oriented approach is two-dimensional. Structured analysis uses process models to represent a system graphically as it concentrates on the processes that change the data in to useful information and is called a process centred technique and it follows a top down model. The object oriented approach views the system as a bottom top approach to systems development, in this approach the description of the system is done through a set of business processes it performs and also the object classes that the processes deal with. The object oriented approach to systems development uses models or set of diagrams to represent various views and functionalities and is usually called as the Unified modelling language (UML). The traditional approach to systems development is time consuming, expensive and inflexible.

Process Name: Customer Information System

Process Number: 1

Purpose:

The purpose of this process is to give the customer all the information that he requires to get his subscription processed like the type of subscriptions that SBP offers and the cost of different kinds of subscriptions and also to collect all the details from the customer like the subscriber name, gender, subscriber organization, organization address, magazine name, subscriber type, email address, billing address and store them in the customer data base. This process will help SBP to retrieve information about their customers basing on minute details like their name or subscription type and also to easily update the details of the existing customers by just getting their old information from the customer database. This process mainly aims at collecting all the precise information that SBP needs about their subscribers and to store it in a secured manner so that they can refer to the details for future purposes or can update the details with out a lot of strain.

Input data flows:

1. Customer Details: Receives all the details from the customers like the subscriber name, gender, subscriber organization, organization address, magazine name, subscriber type, email address, billing address.

1. Updated Customer Details: It regularly gets updated customer details like changes in customer details or subscription types from the customer data base to provide the customer with their updated details for  cross checking and confirming.

1. Posting Details: The customer information system also receives posting details from the subscriber list management system. These details include information about the date when the magazines got posted to the customer, how many copies got posted, what addresses have the magazines got posted and also how many types and copies of magazines got posted to a customer. This information will keep SBP updated and ready to answer customer queries regarding the dates when the magazines got dispatched and the date when probably will they receive the magazine. It will also help SBP to track down any wrongly delivered posts. This keeps SBP updated with information to track down its mailed magazine copies and the expense it is getting on this mailing process of the business.

Output data flows:

1. Subscription details to customer: After the customer has subscribed the customer information system would send the customer with his subscription details like the subscription type he has chose, the amount that he will be paying for his subscription, the magazines he subscribed for.

1. Subscription details of customers to the accounts and finance system: The customer information system sends details of the customers and the type of subscriptions they are on and the costs of their subscriptions to the accounts and finance system so that the accounts receivable department would prepare bills and send them to the customers basing on the information they have received.

1. Customer details to customer database: All the information that the customer information system receives about the subscribers will be sent to the customer data base to get stored so that SBP  cam get back to it in future references.

Process description:

This process gives the customer all the information that he requires to get his subscription processed like the type of subscriptions that SBP offers and the cost of different kinds of subscriptions and also to collect all the details from the customer like the subscriber name, gender, subscriber organization, organization address, magazine name, subscriber type, email address, billing address and store them in the customer data base. This process will help SBP to retrieve information about their customers basing on minute details like their name or subscription type and also to easily update the details of the existing customers by just getting their old information from the customer database. This process mainly aims at collecting all the precise information that SBP needs about their subscribers and to store it in a secured manner so that they can refer to the details for future purposes or can update the details with out a lot of strain.

Process name: Subscription list management system

Process Number: 2

Purpose:

The purpose of this process is to manage the subscriber list by getting updated information on the subscriber list and sending it to the posting department for the published magazines to get dispatched to the respective subscribers of every magazine of that issue and to keep SBP’s staff updated about the posting details of the magazines which it would receive from the posting department.

Input data flows:

1. Subscriber list: The subscriber list management system would get information on the updated subscriber list from the customer database. This posting list information of subscribers is sent to the posting department for them to post the published magazines following the data of the customers available from the subscriber list information.

1. Posting Information: The posting department updates the subscriber list management system with the posting details like the day on which it posted and how many customers did it post, which the system would sent to the customer information system for it to update the customers with this information when asked.

1. Publishing details: The publishing system updates the subscriber list management system with the printing and publishing details like the number of copies of each magazine that got printed and published for that issue based on the information that it receives from the customer data base about the number of subscribers for each magazine for that issue. The subscriber list system will have this information for referring and cross checking the posting details and posting information for magazines published in that issue.

Output data flows:

1. Posting list: The subscriber list management system updates the posting department with the posting list. The posting department following the posting list will dispatch the magazines to the customers.

1. Posting details to the Customer Information system: The subscriber list management system will send the posting details to the customer information system for it to respond to the customer queries about the magazine dispatch.

Process description:

In this process there is information exchange about the subscriber list from the customer database which makes the subscriber list management system to give out the posting list to the posting department to dispatch magazines to the customers and the posting department in return updates the subscriber list management system with the posting details which it in turn updates the customer information system. The subscriber list system also receives information about the number of copies of each magazines got printed for that issue from the publishing department, this information gives an opportunity to the subscriber list system to cross check the posting details and details about the number of copies of each magazine being posted. 

What textbooks, journals and/or websites might be useful to search for articles about Comparing and contrasting the traditional and object-oriented approaches to systems development?

Acedamic journals, textbooks written and published by reliable sources, scholory articles and websites with reliable information published or posted by reliable source with references could be used to search for articles about comparing and contrasting the traditional and object oriented approaches to systems development.

The search criteria through all the  above means would be to look for articles that would help me compare and contrast the traditional and object oriented approaches to systems development.

These are the following problems with the small business press subscriber list:

1) As the management of the subscriber list is outsourced the processes involved in updating the subscriber list has become a time consuming process.
2)Out of the four magazines the small business press pulishes, it is not able to caluculate the accurate number of subscribers for each magazine.
3)The subscriber list is also unable to provide specific information about the type of subscription, that is if the subscriber is paying for his subscription or if he is receiving a free copy(complementory) of it to review. As a result more than one copy of the same issue is being mailed to the same subscriber. Another similar problem is the subscriber list failing to sort the perticular magazine the subscriber has subscribed for. As a result more than one magazine is being mailed to the same subscriber.
4) As a result of the subscriber lists failure to not list out the people and organizations who are paying for the subscription, SBP is unable to caluculate the amount of money that it would receive from subscriptions in the next three years.

What information do you need to find out about the Small Business Press subscriber list to develop a detailed understanding of the current system?

The information we need about the SBP subscriber list for a detailed understanding of its current system is to know who manages the subscriber list, on what basis is the subscriber list categorised, how to access the subscriber list, how to update the subscriber list, how to access the subscriber list for any specific information that we require and how to understand the operation of the current system which is b eing used to manage the subscriber list.