system analysis and design

This case study is to be used throughout this Session, to answer questions in set activities, which will be compiled into a report. Part A of this report, an “Initial Investigation” is to be submitted at the end of Week 6 (Thursday 17th August 2017). The final report (including your Part A adjusted after marker feedback) is to be submitted in Week 12 (Thursday 28th September 2017).
You should use all relevant parts of the case study to inform your answers for the report.

Make sure you read the entire case study before you start any of the tasks. There is information in the later sections that will help you with some of the things you need to do in the earlier parts. Don’t discount information as not being relevant because it falls later in the case study. During analysis and design information could be important at any stages regardless of when it was gathered.

Case Study Part 1

Good Health Clinic

Introduction

In 2010 cardiologists Tim Jones and Daniella Smith decided to combine their practices to form a new clinic. They wanted to concentrate on preventative medicine by helping patients maintain their health and fitness along with providing traditional medical care. A nutritionist, Tom Wilson, also joined the practice. In 2013, Mary Wu, joined the group as a physical therapist and the entire practice moved its offices to a location near a large shopping centre closer to the middle of the city.

Background

Currently the practice has 4 doctors, 3 registered nurses, 4 physical therapists and 6 office staff workers. All 4 doctors are partners in the business. The other members are employees under their various awards and are paid as employees. They are all permanent employees, not casual.

It currently has a customer base of 3,500 patients. About a 3^rd of the patients have private health insurance which covers them for wellness and health programs. The practice deals with around 10 private health insurers.

Julie Wilson, who has been with New Century since it first started, is the office manager. She supervises the office staff including Fred Brown who handles office payroll, basic accounts and income distributions to partners. Susan Jackson is responsible for maintenance of patient records. Most of the paperwork associated with insurer claims and accounts is handled by Lisa Forsythe. Jenny Robinson has primary responsibility for the appointment book including making reminder calls to patients and preparing daily appointment lists for the doctors and therapists. Carla Sims has the primary responsibilities for ordering and organising the clinic supplies and office supplies.

All 6 of the office staff have one or more primary responsibilities but they all help out whenever it’s necessary. In addition to their regular duties, all 6 office staff help out with preparing end of month accounts and reports.

Activity 1

Use the background information to create a short summary (one short paragraph) about the Good Health Clinic.
Create an organisation chart for the Good Health Clinic.
Use the information above to describe the area of the organisation under study (i.e. the business’ functions that will be handled by the new information system).
Add the background information, organisation chart, and business functions to your Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation.

There are examples of each of the things listed above in the text. However, make sure you do some other research. Use internet searches to find other examples and to look for examples that could use to help you construct the things you need.

Case Study Part 2

Issues

Julie Wilson recently asked for permission to employ an additional office clerk because she feels the current staff can no longer handle the increasing workload. The partners discussed the request during a recent meeting. They were not surprised that the office staff were feeling overwhelmed by the constantly increasing workload. Because the practice was busier and more profitable than it had ever been, they all agreed that the practice could afford to hire another office worker.

However, during the meeting, it was suggested that they could investigate the computerisation of the office systems. A computerised system could keep track of patients, appointments, charges, insurance claims processing, and accounts and reduce paperwork. All the partners were enthusiastic about the project and voted to follow-up on the suggestion.

Because no one on staff had any computer experience, Tim Jones and Daniella Smith decided to hire a consultant (you) to study the current office systems and recommend a course of action.

Activity 2

Either by yourself or with another class member, brainstorm all the functions that the Good Health Clinic might require. Keep it at a very high level.
Prepare a draft System Vision Document for the new information system for the Clinic. This system vision document will be revised when you find out more about the requirements for the system. An example system vision document can be seen in Figure 1.8 of your textbook (Figure 1.5 in the 6^th ed).
Add your system vision document to your report document in Part A: Initial Investigation.

You have been given a little information about what is required but there are a lot of gaps. You are expected to fill these gaps to work out details and additional information that is needed. This also gives you some latitude to explore health clinics and their operations as they apply to your background and experience. Make sure you explore other vision documents and know how they are worded and what needs to be expressed in them so that an organisations knows where it is headed and what it is trying to achieve.

Case Study Part 3

Fact Finding And System Requirements

The doctors, nurses and therapists provide services and perform various medical procedures. All procedures are coded according to the international Current Procedure Terminology (CTP) which is published by various medical associations. The procedure codes consist of 5 numeric digits and a 2 digit suffix (1234-12) and are used for all billing and medical claims.

There are 7 reports required at the practice that are generated from the office. The 1^st report is the daily appointment list for each provider. This list shows all scheduled appointment times, patient names and services to be performed including the procedure code and description. The 2^nd daily report is the call list that shows the patients who are to be reminded of their next day’s appointments. The call lust includes the patient name, telephone number, appointment time and provider name. The 3^rd report is the weekly provider report that lists each of the providers and the weekly charges generated, plus a month-to-date (MTD) and year-to-date (YTD) summary.

The 4^th report is the statement – a pre-printed form that is produced monthly and handed to patients as they leave the clinic. Statement header information includes the statement date, patient name and address, procedure charges, procedure provider, payment due and any outstanding payments owing. The bottom section of the statement includes details of procedures and their individual charges. Each procedure is listed on a separate line with a separate cost that are totalled for each statement. The statement also shows the totals of any refunds received from a private insurer which is deducted from the amount outstanding. Some patients are given the option to pay their accounts in instalments. The statements list any instalments paid as well.

The associates also require 2 insurance reports: the weekly insurance company report and the monthly claim status summary. Some insurers can take up to 60 days to remit funds to the practice after a claim has been submitted by the practice.

In addition to these 6 reports, the office staff would also like to be able to print mailing labels and appointment cards to send to patients when it’s time to remind them of their next appointment. They would also like a system that will generate emails and/or texts to patients as reminders or just for general information.

Alternatives And Strategies

At the end of the fact finding and analysis, it’s time to prepare a systems requirement document and give a presentation to the associates. The proposed system’s advantages were established during the fact finding. The benefits that are expected to result from the system are smoother operation, better efficiency and more user-friendly procedures for staff and patients.

It’s also time to examine the costs and benefits to determine the economic feasibility of several alternatives. If the practice decides to go ahead with the development process, the main options are to develop the system in-house or purchase a vertical package and configure it to manage the practice’s specific needs.

The current workload requires at least 3 hours of overtime for each office staff member per week. Some weeks the office staff spend up to 12 hours overtime catching up on various tasks. As well, based on current projections, it will also be necessary to add another full-time office staff member within 6 months. Neither the overtime nor the new position will be needed if the new system is implemented. However, the current manual system also causes an average of 3 errors per day and each error takes about 20 minutes to correct. The new system should eliminate these errors.

It’s been estimated that the project can be completed in 12 weeks working full-time. The consulting rate, which the practice has agreed to, is $240 per hour. If the new system is designed from scratch you can expect to spend around $3000 for a commercial DBMS system. After the system is implemented and the staff have been trained, they should be able to handle routine system maintenance tasks without the assistance of a consultant.

As an alternative to in-house development, a vertical software package is available for about $10,000. The vendor has terms requiring an initial payment of $3,000 following by a 2^nd annual payment of $4,000 and a final annual payment of $3,000. If the practice decides to purchase this package it will take around 4 weeks to install, configure and test. The vendor provides free support during the 1^st year but then the practice must sign a technical support agreement at an annual cost of $2500. Although the package has most of the features that the practice wants, the reports are all pre-configured and altering them would be difficult and expensive.

Regardless of which option is required there would be approximately 10 hours of training required which would be delivered by an external person at a cost of $250 per hour. The practice also expects that there will be ongoing support needed for each option over the 1^st 3 months of installation. This would be to deal with any problems and general trouble shooting that would be an additional cost. The general housekeeping functions of each system, backup, maintenance, updates and so on could all be handled by one of the office staff members but is estimated to require around 4 hours per week. It is expected that there would be a useful life of around 5 years for each system. It is expected that installation of hardware and software would be $10,000 for each system. This includes cabling and incidental hardware including multi-function printers.

Activity 3

Create a table, listing all tasks separately, with their duration;
Identify all dependencies, and indicate what predecessor tasks are required;
Construct a Gantt chart in Microsoft Project or other project management software;
Identify the PERT/CPM chart in the software, and identify the critical path;
Determine the overall duration of the project;
Take clear screenshots of the Gantt chart and PERT/CPM chart and paste into your Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation under Project Management.
Include the overall duration and critical path in your report.

You will have to think outside the square here and make sure that you cover the tasks needed. As well, you need to make sure that the tasks are at an appropriate level of detail to enable you to make an informed and professional decision about how long the project will take. Obviously there will be tasks that you will have to list at this early stage that you might not have to do or that depend on what direction the project will take. For example, the tasks needed if you implement an off-the-shelf package are different to the tasks needed if the system is developed in-house. Perhaps you need more than one project plan OR can you put multiple paths in a single plan?

Case Study Part 4

As an analyst working on the development of the new system, it is your role to ensure that the project is feasible. Some of the reasons that projects fail are: incomplete requirements, lack of executive support, lack of technical support, poor project planning and lack of required resources. At this stage, you decide to do an initial project feasibility analysis, to see whether Good Health Clinic should continue with its plan for the new information system.

Activity 4

What are the risks associated with this project? Create a list of up to 10 risks and their likelihood of happening (see Study Guide topic 4, activity 4.6 for an example of how this should be set out).
Define the anticipated benefits of the new system. This should include both tangible and intangible benefits. Wherever possible, translate the intangible benefits into anticipated tangible benefits.
Define the expected costs of the new system. Look at the examples given in workshop activities for some examples of expense categories. It is ok to give estimates at this point.
Use two or more cost-benefit analysis techniques to decide whether to proceed with the project.
Identify any assumptions and interpretations that you are making with respect to the information that you have been given, that you are estimating, and that you are projecting (into the future).
Create a new section in Part A of your report: Risk and Cost Benefit Analysis. Insert your work from above, and give a clear indication as to whether it is feasible to continue with the project.
Does the proposed system present a strong business case? Why or why not? Include a recommendation as to whether the system should proceed, as the final part of your preliminary report. The Preliminary Investigation part of your Report can now be submitted.

Most of the stuff you need here is in the text and you work on during tutorials. Look carefully at how the ‘risks’ are worded and how the costs and benefits are laid out in a ‘good’ feasibility plan. Always use ‘good’ examples as your template and don’t forget to look for these. GOOGLE examples so get a good feel for ‘best practice’.

Case Study Part 5

You have a list of tasks to do, which include interviewing staff with various job roles. This is part of the investigation, where fact-finding is conducted to find out more about the requirements for the proposed system.

Activity 5

What fact-finding techniques, apart from interviews, would you recommend to find out the requirements for the new system?
Identify at least two staff members with different primary job roles of interest to this project.
Develop a list of questions for an interview with each staff member. Identify the time anticipated for the interview. Review your topic on creating interview questions, and make sure you include suitable question types.
Include the interview plans in the Appendices for your Report.
Include the recommendations for other fact-finding techniques, in your Report.

The questions and information you need to ask need to extend further than simply asking about design options. You need to get information that helps you plan the entire project from start to finish. For example, you will need to find out whether all current patient information and records are to put onto the new system. This will lead to other questions about numbers of records, format etc. Part of the project then needs to include options for getting that information onto the system – will it be straight data entry or can things be scanned? How long would it take someone to enter the information if it’s straight data entry? So – questions and information raise more questions and result in more information.

Case Study Part 6

During requirements modelling for the new system, you met with the office staff and the partners. Things were moving very quickly, and positively. Assume you conducted a series of interviews, reviewed processes, observed business operations, analysed the payment processes, and studied a sample of the reports. The objective was to develop a list of system requirements for the proposed system. You found the following information about the system inputs and outputs.

Output Design

The recommendation for a new computer system has been approved by the practice’s associates. A key step in the development of the system design is specification of the system’s outputs. The following outputs need to be designed.

Report Title	Report Contents
Daily appointment list for each provider	provider name, patient name, patient telephone numbers, appointment time, procedure name
Weekly provider report	provider number, provider name, patient number, date procedure performed, procedure code, procedure description, procedure fee, sub-totals by provider, grand total
Patient statements	patient number, patient name, patient address, date procedure performed, procedure number, procedure description, provider name, procedure fee, sub-totals, instalments paid, amount outstanding, insurer parts paid, grand total owing/paid
Mailing labels	patient name, patient address

Input Design

Now that the outputs have been determined it is time to consider the inputs to the system and the design of the interfaces to capture the information needed.

Database Design

After completing the input and output design you now have to give consideration to the design of the database. The information shown on the inputs and outputs must be able to be entered and stored in a database for retrieval.

System Architecture

Assuming the input and output specifications and database design has been accepted by the associates, you will now need to examine the hardware requirements for the system. The office system will require a server and 4 workstations in the office and a further 8 workstations for the doctors and therapists. There will need to be a backup system and processes to ensure the integrity of the systems data. A multi-function laser printer and a colour laser printer are also required.

Activity 6

Write down a list of the main functions needed to be handled by the new system.
What are the roles that will be interacting with the system?
Using all the information that you know about the Clinic’s business operations so far, create a use-case diagram for the new system.
Select four use-cases and write a brief use-case description for them.
Pick one of these use-cases and write a full use-case description for it. Use an activity diagram in the full description.
Include the following in your report:
- the use-case diagram;
- the brief use-case descriptions;
- the full use-case description, including your activity diagram.

The functions you document here will need to show the specific things you have decided on during your analysis. Make sure that you use the correct symbols on each diagram and adhere to the standards required for each of them.

Case Study Part 7

You have been preparing the System Requirement report for the partners. From your investigation so far, you are leaning towards a recommendation for either in-house development or outsourcing options for the new system. You are not sure that a commercial software package would meet all the Clinic’s needs.

Based on your research, you felt that it would be premature to select a development strategy at this time. Instead, you recommended to the partners that an in-house team should develop a design prototype, using a relational database as a model. You said that the prototype would have two main objectives:

it would represent a user-approved model of the new system, and
it would identify all system entities and the relationships between them.

You explained that it would be better to design the basic system first, and then address other issues, including Web enhancements and implementation options. You proposed a three-step plan:

data design
user interface design, and
application architecture.

You explained that systems analysts refer to this as the system design phase of a development project. The partners agreed with your recommendation, and asked you to go forward with the plan.

Activity 7

Review the Good Health Clinic’s fact-finding summary and all other information you have about the required system. Be willing to critically analyse this for duplications and inconsistencies.
Draw an ERD with crows-foot cardinality notation. Assume that system entities include patients, practitioners (doctors, therapist and nurses), procedures, costs, appointments, dates, times etc….
Design tables – making sure each table only refers to one “thing”. As you create the database design, identify primary and foreign keys by underlining primary keys, and making foreign keys italic.
If you add primary keys which use codes – for example a code for the procedureID, then identify the format of these codes.
Create suitable sample data to populate the fields for at least three records in each table.
Include the following in your report:
- The ERD you have completed;
- The database design (schemas);
- Formats of codes used;
- Sample data for each table.

You are going to have to demonstrate some initiative to develop the tables, data items, keys etc. The project narrative has provided you with some information but left information out that you would be expected to define as an analyst. GOOGLE examples of customer invoices, medical procedures and their associated information, appointment schedules, doctor information, etc. All of this will help you to design the tables and data items.

MAKE SURE that you follow the formatting standards listed above!

Case Study Part 8

You need to make sure that you have sufficient models to understand the new system. In reviewing the models (use-cases diagrams, including activity diagrams) you have realised that you have not included a system sequence diagram for any of the use cases.

After creating this, you are ready to review the options for a new system, and make a recommendation to the partners.

Activity 8

Create a system sequence diagram for one of the use cases identified in Activity 6.
Add this system sequence diagram to your report in the appropriate area.
Search online for any potential commercial software packages that could be suitable. Identify two packages, and compare their features and their suitability to be used as the new system.
Present at least three options for the new system in your report. One of these must be in-house development, and two of the others may be the commercial packages in (3) above.
Review your feasibility analysis for the new system. Taking all options into consideration, make a recommendation for the new system, in your “Conclusion and Recommendations” section.

Final Steps

You have completed the content of your report, and now need to make sure that it is presented professionally, as it will be shown to the partners and staff at the Good Health Clinic.

Activity 9

Ensure your report is professionally presented. This means it should include:

a title page, with the name of the Report, and the analyst’s name (your name);
an executive summary;
a table of contents, with page numbers;
page numbers on all pages except the title page;
Headings, sub-headings, dot-points and numbering where necessary. Headings should be numbered or the structure should otherwise be easily identified;
Appendices where necessary;
Formatting and whitespace (space where there is no text or pictures) used appropriately – be willing to start each new section on a new page;
Page orientation used appropriately. For example, if you have an ERD that will show better in landscape orientation than portrait orientation , set a Section break (Page Layout > Breaks) before this page, set the page to landscape and then set another Section break to start the new page in portrait again.

Hand in your report via the Assignment Link on MySCU.

Sample to help with Assignment 2

5.3 Veritable Vegetables Order management System use case diagram (all actors)

Diagram produced using Microsoft Visio Professional 2013

5.2 Use-Case Description (Brief)

Use case	Brief use case description
Create / Update customer (5.2.1)	Actor enters new customer account data, and the system assigns ID Key, creates a customer record Actor selects existing customer and updates record details
Inventory of current produce (5.2.2)	Actor selects produce name, enters available stock, harvest information, system assigns Farm location Actor selects produce name assigns price/Kg Actor enters selects produce name, and the system retrieves and displays harvest information, Farm location, stock level, price/kg
Customer Order (5.2.3)	Actor enters Customer ID, system displays Customer details, last order, delivery location, previous special instructions Actor fills /updates shopping trolley from Inventory of current produce, system returns order total, request confirmation of payment option, delivery location, special instructions
Harvest Forecast (5.2.4)	Actor enters new produce name, and the system assigns ID Key, creates a produce record Actor selects existing produce name and updates anticipated supply record details Actor selects existing produce name and assigns price/Kg

5.3 Use-Case Description (Full)

Fully developed use case description for Customer Order:

Use case name:	5.2.3 Create Customer Order.
Scenario:	5.2.3.1 Existing Customer starts new Order Online.
Triggering event:	An Existing Customer wants to make a new order online.
Brief description:	Customer enters Customer ID, system displays Customer details, last order, delivery location, previous special instructions Customer fills /updates shopping trolley from Inventory of current produce, system returns order total, request confirmation of payment option, delivery location, special instructions
Actor:	Customer.
Related use cases:	Might be invoked by Fulfilment use case.
Stakeholders:	Business Managers, Sales staff, Accounting staff, Order Fulfillment staff.
Preconditions:	Inventory of current produce subsystem must be available Produce pricing subsystem must be available Create / Update customer subsystem must be available Customer order subsystem must be available
Postconditions:	Shopping basket items confirmed & accepted Sale Total confirmed & accepted Delivery location confirmed Special delivery instructions confirmed Payment option confirmed Order details sent to Fulfilment subsystem
Flow of activities:	Actor	System
	1. Customer initiates online order by entering Customer ID and pressing new order button	1.1 Displays Customer details, last order, delivery location, previous special instructions.
		1.2 System prompts customer to re-select items from last shopping basket and /or add/delete items
	2. Customer selects Inventory of current produce	2.1 System displays Inventory of current produce and Product pricing
		2.2 System prompts “Add items to shopping basket”
	3. Customer makes selection of item(s) & quantity	3.1 System displays Order and pricing with total
		3.2 System prompts for confirmation of Order completion or continue shopping
	4. If order complete, Customer selects Checkout	4.1 System prompts for confirmation of Payment option
	5. Customer selects payment option	5.1 System records payment option
		5.2 System prompts for confirmation of Delivery location
	6. Customer selects delivery location	6.1 System records delivery instructions
		6.2 System prompts for Special delivery instructions
	7 Customer notes special instructions	7.1 System records Special delivery instructions
		7.2 Prompts Order process complete
	8. Customer confirms order completed	8.1 System passes order to Fulfilment subsystem
Activity diagram	Diagram produced using Microsoft Visio Professional 2013
Exception conditions:	1.1 Customer ID not found. 3.2 No items selected (empty basket).

5.4 System Sequence Diagram (Use Case – Scenario 5.2.3.1)

Diagram produced using Microsoft Visio Professional 2013