System Analysis

So before anything happens to your system, it has to be analysed. This is the first stage of the SLC, analysis stage. To be clear & simple, system analysis means examining the existing system in detail.

There are four main & distinct ways to collect information:-

1. Examining of Paper Documents

2. Interview

3. Questionnaires 

4. Observation

The pros & cons of each can be seen from this table:-

 

Now, which is the most effective method? Well actually, we can't judge by their names or functions. Judging the effectiveness of any of these methods depends on the situation.

Like for instance, a receptionist may be too busy to interview, so in this case you'd go for observation. In a case of a manager, you would like to probe for more feedback, more info, more stuff. Therefore, an interview would fit the bill.

If you have a large number of people, like employees or customers, would you choose to observe or interview. If you chose either, then you made a mistake. You can't interview or observe hundreds of thousands employees, can you? No, therefore questionnaires are most suitable where you can copy a lot of those questionnaires and  send them to the workers.

Sometimes, none of the three methods above would give you an exact detail of a particular aspect. Let's say, the transaction details. The manager would not tell you those kind of details. For that, examining of papers is the method. You can refer to those papers to view all the transactions, the accounts, etc... .