Bus system analysis

Assignment for Chapter 3

You are a Systems Analyst hired by zippy freight company, a regional trucking firm which operates 25 small and medium size trucks.  Loads and routes are determined by a dispatcher using index cards .  She has been doing this job for 25 years, and prides herself on being able to get loads to their destination efficiently.  The drivers all respect her knowledge.

The company owner has hired you because he wants to expand the company to 50 trucks within the next 12 months.  He fears that with double the number of trucks, the dispatcher will not be able to keep up.  Your job is to find the best technology solution for scheduling truck deliveries.  Many such programs are available, so you have been able to find one that appears to be a good match.  It will cost $125,000 for the hardware and software.

Respond to each of the following questions with a brief answer, based on what you have learned so far.

1.  Do you see any issues with Technical, Organizational, or economic feasibility?  What are they?

2. If the owner does not think that he can come up with the $125,000 can you suggest any other options for getting the functionality he needs?  What are they?

Assignment for Chapter 4

There is a problem set of 15 problems for chapter 4 on pages 125 to 127 of your book .  In a Word document, prepare responses to problems 4 and 5.   You only need to do three questions instead of six ofr each one though.  Submit to this link by Wednesday of next week before noon.  

First Assignment for Chapter 7

Use Microsoft Word or the drawing application of your choice to create a context diagram for a hypothetical system design.  Show at least two external entities and at least two data flows connecting the context diagram to each entity.  

Accompany this with a description in your words addressing the following:  1)  What functionality and what organization does the design apply to?  2)  What information does each of the external entities put into or take out of the system?  3)  What data elements are included in each data flow?

Example of #3:  The data flow named "Student Biodata" contains the following elements:  Gender (M/F), Date of Birth (date), Years of Education (integer), and Marital Status (Marrried/Not Married). 

Chapter 8 Assignment

Look around your house, apartment, or dorm room.  Pick an object that you might want to store information about for some reason.  Perhaps you would be in business to sell, repair, or collect it.  Now think of six attributes of that object that you would want to store which would be useful in describing it to potential buyers, owners, or collectors.  Create a word table with the following headings:  Element Name, Description, Data Type, Data Rules.  List your six attributes, making an appropriate entry in each column.  The data rules could be simple, such as 'Non-Negative' if you are storing the weight of something.  If by its nature a data element has only a few values (such as 'operating system' for a computer) you could enter 'pick from lookup table' as a data rule.  In this case, show your lookup table as a one-column table below your main table and include some representative values.  Due before noon next Wednesday.