Course Introduction and The Systems Development Environment
“This unit will introduce you to information systems analysis and design, the complex organizational process whereby computer-based information systems are developed and maintained. You will learn about how systems analysis and design in organizations has changed over the past several decades. You will also learn about the basic framework that guides systems analysis and design—the systems development life cycle (SDLC), with its five major phases: planning, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. The SDLC life cycle has had its share of criticism, and other frameworks have been developed to address the life cycle’s problems. These approaches include computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools and the Agile Methodologies, the most famous of which is eXtreme Programming. We will also briefly introduce object-oriented analysis and design, an approach that is becoming more and more popular. All of these approaches share the underlying idea of iteration, as manifested in the systems development life cycle and the analysis–design–code–test cycle of the Agile Methodologies.
An IT systems auditor must be aware of the process for evaluating and obtaining software to meet an organization’s needs. You can obtain application (and system) software from information technology services firms, packaged software providers, vendors of enterprise-wide solution software, cloud computing vendors, and open-source software providers, as well as from internal systems development resources, including the reuse of existing software components. You can even hire an organization to handle all of your systems development needs, which is called outsourcing. You must understand the criteria used when choosing among off-the-shelf software products. These criteria include cost, functionality, vendor support, vendor viability, flexibility, documentation, response time, and ease of installation. Requests for proposals are one way you can collect more information about system software, its performance, and its costs.”
Valacich, J. S., & George, J. F. (2017). Modern systems analysis and design (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Activities
- Read:
- Chapter 1 & 2, Modern Systems Analysis and Design
- CISA Review Manual Sections
- 3.5 Business Application Development
- 3.5.1 Traditional SDLC Approach
- 3.5.2 Phase-3A Software Selection and Acquisition
- 3.8 Development Methods
- 3.11 System Development Tools and Productivity Aids
- Participate in this week’s class and online discussions
- Complete WA-1.1 – Written Assignment 1
Objectives
- Define
- Information Systems
- Information Systems Analysis and Design
- Describe
- The information systems development life cycle (SDLC)
- Agile Methodologies and eXtreme Programming
- Six different sources of Software
- How to evaluate off-the-shelf software
- Explain
- Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools
- Object-oriented analysis and design and the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
- Outsourcing
- Reuse and its role in software development
Topics
- Approaches to Systems Analysis and Design
- Developing Information Systems
- The SDLC
- Agile Methodologies
- Object-Oriented Analysis and Design
- Systems Acquisition
- Validating Purchased Software Information
- Reuse
CISA Topics
- Governance – Objectives, Risks and Controls
- Projects, Programs and Portfolios
- Role of Audit and Assurance
- Role of Information in the Organization (infrastructure, applications and data as investments and competitive differentiator)
- Business Application Development
- Traditional SDLC Approach
- Development Methods
- System Development Tools and Productivity Aids