Week 12

WEEK 12 to me means the last lecture for this unit and a sad moment. After this i would be left with just one revision class and my exam before i end my journey.

It feels like it was just yesterday when i was beginning this unit and here i am at the closing stages of this unit..... I am getting sentimental now as i reflect back on the previous weeks i have gone through this unit..... but i guess that's the type of person I am.... who cherishes small memories of life...

Now moving on from my emotional moment to the actual lecture material...

Week 12 was titled - Design: System Interface

This lecture was again interesting for me because i did not see any complex diagrams.... by now my blog followers should know that i am not a big fan of diagrams.... : -)

This lecture taught us about relational databases and what technologies are there for databases. To name a few DB2, MySQL and Sybase. I was paying close attention to this because relational database was one part of assignment 2 and this is what i was looking for earlier.

Relational Model is a diagram where you convert your classes into tables and you need to identify primary keys and foreign keys. After that you need to figure out the appropriate data types and the relationships between these tables and use crow's notation. Luckily, i did database last semester so i was aware of the notation already.

Then i was taught about System interfaces. By definition, System Interface are inputs and outputs with minimal or no human interaction. Similarly system interface, system output and system controls does not require much human interaction.

Examples to help identify System Interfaces are:

1) Highly automated input devices
2) Inputs from other systems
3) Inputs from data in external databases
4) Outputs to external database
5) Outputs with minimal Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
6) Outputs with other systems
7) Real-time Connections

Another thing that caught my attention were some names of input devices that were used to avoid human entry and eliminate human errors. These input devices were:

1) Magnetic card strip readers
2) Bar-code readers
3) OCR readers and scanners
4) RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device)
5) Electronic pens & writing surfaces
6) Digitizers such as digital cameras & digital audio devices

To identify user and system inputs, Traditional Structured Models (such as DFD's & structure charts)and Object Oriented Models (such as System sequence diagrams and design class diagrams) can be used.

Output can be shown in the form of reports and there are 3 types of reports: Printed, Electronic Displays and turnaround documents. And these Reports can be formatted to avoid information overload and to ensure that the information is meaningful and presented in a professional manner with dates and page numbers.

Now a system interface needs some form of control and the types of control that system developers design and implement to protect the system and its data are: Integrity and Security

Integrity Controls are used to ensure only appropriate & correct business transaction occurs, ensure transactions are recorded & processed correctly, prevent any fraud, protect & safeguard assets such as (software, hardware and information)of organization.
Integrity control has 3 types: Input, Database and Output

Security Controls are used to protect assets of organization from all threats.

Data Security include methods such as encryption, decryption, symmetric key, asymmetric key and public key. There was also a concept of digital signatures and certificates being taught which i found quite interesting. For example, a term called Secure Hypertext Transport protocol( HTTPs )is basically what we see in the URL bar to indicate a web visitor has entered a secure website.

After this interesting lecture was another interesting tutorial....

Our Lecturer.... Mr. Yeap Boon Han made his final "Guest Appearance" in our tutorial classes by helping us with Week 12 and doing previous tutorials that were relevant to our assignment 2. He taught us about relational database models by drawing a sample diagram on the whiteboard and also told us about how to construct a design class model and how does a first-cut sequence diagram looks like. He also briefly told us about what was needed and the purpose of a user interface. And i found all these tips very useful for my assignment 2..

We were also showed how an actual system analysis and design report looks like by showing a THICK booklet of a Pharmacy System.... and it must have been close to 850 pages.

From that point I realized that a System Analyst job is no joke and involves a lot of work. Nonetheless, this experience has just made me more confident that pursuing a career in System Analysis and Design is challenging and worth it.

Now i proceed to do my remaining assignments for this week and i hope by now i have all that is required to do assignment 2... because i have not done much work on it yet.