Which tools are used in system analysis and details about it?

In our previous article, we have explained the importance and benefits of system analysis. Now, in this article, we are going to have a look at various tools used in the system analysis. Once again we will remember the Wikipedia definition for system analysis, “the process of studying a procedure or business in order to identify its goals and purposes and create systems and procedures that will achieve them in an efficient way.”

Objectives of the System Analysis

  1. System analysis helps in identifying the conflicting objectives between or in the sub-systems.
  2. It helps in understanding or producing the inter-compatibility and purpose of sub-systems.
  3. SA provides a clear pathway in the understanding of the complex structures.
  4. SA assists in installing each sub-system in its proper perspective and context, in result, the system will achieve its whole objectives with the least available resources.
  5. SA defines the clear functional requirements of a sub-system (components) and its correlated sub-systems.

Thus systems analysis is one of the important techniques that provide a systematic and broader outlook to understanding, examining and creating or modifying the system to meet specific objectives. System analysis and design is an interactive and creative process.

The reasons for initiating or conducting systems analysis are:

  1. SA helps in defining the scope and coverage of the system with boundaries of functional, people, departments involved in the system. And, It also helps in identifying the inputs and the outputs of the various sub-systems in the complex system.
  2. The SA helps the designer by providing a clear idea about the system(Whether it is deterministic or probabilistic). Such an understanding of the system is essential prior to initiating the design of the system to ensure the architectural design of the complex system.
  3. Nowadays, most of the organization perform the SA to investigate (by analyzing the sense of participation) the acceptance of the people to their new products or services. And also it helps in reducing or minimizing the people’s resistance to the new development and ensures the objective engagement to the new system.
  4. Many times, The system Analysis, acts as an interface to the other systems to activate or promote some changes in the other system. And also helps in understanding the roles of users or people in the existing systems. SA ensures that modifications or changes made should not affect the functioning or the objectives of the other systems.
  5. The analysis of the system helps to authenticate the feasibility from various angles. The system should meet the technical, economic and operational feasibility.
  6. The analysis of the system helps the management in evaluating or defining the resource requirements in terms of hardware and software. Hence, if any additional resources are required, this would indicate an investment and return on that (ROI).

Tools and Techniques of System Analysis:

1. Grid Charts:

Grid charts are used to represent the relationship between two sets of factors in a tabular method. A grid chart analysis is helpful in eradicating unnecessary reports or unnecessary data items from reports. It can also be used for identifying the responsibilities of various managers for a particular sub-system. Grid chart can be very effectively used to trace the flow of various transactions and reports in the organization.

2. System Flow Chart:

A system flowchart is a pictorial or diagrammatic representation of the logical flow of operations and information of an organization. It depicts the clear relationship between input processing and output considering the entire system. A set of standard symbols are commonly used for the construction of system flow charts.

3. Decision Tree:

Some decisions involve a series of steps. The outcome of the first decision guides the second; the third decision depends on the outcome of the second, and so on. In such type of situations of decision making uncertainty surrounds each step, so we face uncertainty, piled on uncertainty.

Decision trees are the model to deal with such kind of problems. They are also very important in decision making in a probabilistic situation where various opinions (or alternatives) can be drawn (as if they are the branches of a tree) and the final outcomes can be understood.

4. Simulation:

The simulation model describes the operation of the system in terms of individual events, components of the system. Mainly, it involves the development of a model which is mostly mathematical in nature rather than directly describing the behavior of the overall system.

In particular, the system is divided into elements whose behavior is predicted in terms of probability distributions.

The inter-relationships between the elements also are built into the model. Thus, simulation provides a means of dividing the model building job into smaller component parts and then combining these parts in their natural order and allowing the computer to present the effect of their interaction on each other.

Simulation is nothing more or less than the technique of performing sampling experiments on the model of the system. The experiments are done on the model rather than on the real system itself only because the experiments on the real system would be too inconvenient, expensive and time-consuming.

5. Decision Tables:

Decision tables are a graphical method of representing a sequence of logical decisions. It is prepared in a tabular form. It lists all possible conditions and associated set of actions. A decision table consists of the four parts-condition stub, condition entries, action stub, and action entries.