Open book home work

This is an open-book individual exam comprised of 5 questions.

Guidelines:

• Please keep the full text of the question as part of your answering sheet.
• Be as clear and objective as you can in all questions and be sure you are answering what is asked.
• Justify all your numerical answers and answer all the questions using your own words. Show all your work, including how you found your answer (this is very important and essential to have your answer graded appropriately!).

Note: Do not post multiple files. The exam should be posted and submitted in one file.

Problem I – (40 points)

Part A: Your systems analysis team is close to completing a system for Meecham Feeds. Roger is quite confident that the programs that he has written for Meecham’s inventory system will perform as necessary, because they are similar to programs he has done before. Your team has been very busy and would ideally like to begin full systems testing as soon as possible.

Two of your junior team members have proposed the following:

a)Skip desk checking of the programs (because similar programs were checked in other installations; Roger has agreed). (10 points)

b)Do link testing with large amounts of data to prove that the system will work. (10 points)

c)Do full systems testing with large amounts of live data to show that the system is working. (10 points)

Respond to each of the three steps in their proposed test schedule. Use a paragraph to explain your response.

Part B: Mr. Bruce Schnieder, the owner of A&A Office Supplies Company, had contacted you for your advices on a new information system installed recently at his company to help improving his company inventory tasks. He told you that the team that came to install the system does not have any evaluation mechanism and he also mentioned to you that some of his employees had complained about the new system’s inputs and outputs. Since he wants to obtain the inventory result of this quarter, he would like to delay or skip the new system evaluation and use the new system for inventory right away. Given the above conditions, he would like to have your advices on his decision and on the evaluation of his new system.

a)In a paragraph, explain to Mr. Schnieder about problems that can occur when a system is not evaluated systematically? (5 points)

b)Devise a checklist or form that helps Mr. Schnieder’s employees evaluate the utilities of the new information system. Suggest a second way to evaluate the information system, if any. Please be specific and explain your answers. (5 points)

Problem II – (40 points)

Cherry Jones owns a homeopathic medicine company called Faithhealers. She sells vitamins and other relatively nonperishable products for those who want choices regarding alternative medicine. Cherry is developing a new system that would require her staff to be retrained.

• Construct a PERT diagram for her and identify the critical path. (10 points)
• If Cherry could find away to save time on the “write use cases” phase, how would it help? (30 points)

Description Task Must Follow Time

Interview Executives A None 6

Interview staff in orders fulfillment B None 3

Design input prototype C B 2

Design output pro-type D A,C 3

Write use cases E A,C 4

Record staff reactions to prototypes F D 2

Develop system G E,F 5

Write up training manual H B,G 3

Train staff working in order fulfillment I H 2

Problem III- (40 points)

The problem is that the orders are not easily placed to the European plant, which is compounded whenever demand for the products increases dramatically. The company is looking for a systems solution that will address the problem and the solution should stress collaboration, flexibility, adaptability, and access.

One of your systems analyst team members proposed the following simple network solution that is to create an intranet that links the U.S. distributors with the European headquarters.

As a systems analyst, would you approve this proposal? (The diagram is the proposal)

Please explain the reasons why you support or do not support this proposal. …need to offer some modifications to improve it.

Problem IV – (40 points)

All Pets Clinic Pharmacy has offered to give you a free lifetime supply of medicine if you design its database.

Given the rising cost of veterinarian care, you agree.

The following is the information you gathered:

• Pets are identified by a code #, and their names, addresses, and ages must be recorded
• Veterinarians are identified by an SSN. For each veterinarian, the name. specialty, and years of experience must be recorded.
• Each pharmaceutical company is identified by name and has a phone number
• For each medication, the trade name and formula must be recorded. Each medication is sold by a given pharmaceutical company, and the trade name identifies a medication uniquely from among the products of that company. Each pharmacy has a name, address, and phone number
• Pharmaceutical companies have long-term contracts with pharmacies. A pharmaceutical company can contract with several pharmacies, and a pharmacy can contract with several pharmaceutical companies. For each contract, you have to store a start date, an end date, and the text of the contract.
• Pharmacies appoint a supervisor for each contract. There must always be a supervisor for each contract, but the contract supervisor can change over the lifetime of the contract.
• Each pharmacy sells several medications and has a price for each. A medication could be sold at several pharmacies, and the price could vary from one pharmacy to another.
• Each medication has a date and a quantity associated with it. You can assume that, if a veterinarian prescribes the same medication for the same pet more than once, only the last such medication needs to be stored.

Note: Draw an ER diagram that captures the preceding information.

1. How would your design change if each medication must be sold at a fixed price by the pharmacies? (Requirement: Provide a written explanation) (20pts.)
2. How would your design change if the design requirements change as follows: If a veterinarian prescribes the same medication for the same pet more than once, several such prescriptions may have to be stored? (Requirement: Provide a written explanation) 20pts.

Problem V – (40 points)

Consider a school advising system in which a faculty advisor can advise many students, each of whom can register for one or many courses. The following is an example of an un-normalized STUDENT table for three students.

STUDENT

Perform the normalization process to convert the above un-normalized table to:

1. First normal form (1NF).

2. Second normal form (2NF).

3. Third normal form (3NF).

Please show all your work. Please show each step along the way and identify primary keys, if any, in each table in each step.