CSCI 308 Systems Analysis

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Systems AnalysisCSCI 308

• Instructor Stan Schuyler
• Lecture 1 Welcome, Getting Started, etc.

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Outline for Getting Started

• Course Systems Analysis
• Course Requirements and PLAN
• Course Description, Administration and Policy
• First Exposure to Systems Analysis
• Who AM I?
• WHO ARE YOU?
• Syllabus-Schedule/Homework
• Parting Thoughts

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Systems Analysis?

• This course is about
• Ambiguity and how to understand it!
• Observations, terminology and meaning
• Formulating Questions
• Methods, Techniques and the Discipline of
  Discovery
• Describing what you observe, infer, know, and how
  you know in writing
• And if you think you know what the above
  sentences meant, you are probably mistaken.
• Administration and Policy

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Key Skills and Disciplines

• Perceiving (reading) and Describing (writing)
• What is observed!
• Rather than What you are conditioned to observe!
• Reading
• Managing and Eliminating Ambiguity
• Questioning
• Analysis
• Decomposition
• Relationship Identification (correlation)
• Causation (Inference)
• Resolve ambiguity
• Synthesis

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Tell Me About Stan Schuyler

• It all depends !

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Our First Systems Analysis Example

• What does Tell me about mean?
• Explain how tell me about operates!
• Explain why tell me about is meaningful!
• Who is sending the information? (Actor/Agent)
• What information is selected? (meaningful facts)
• When is it conveyed? (time, sequence)
• Where is it conveyed? (place, context)
• How is it conveyed? (method, e.g. language, )
• Why is it conveyed? (intended purpose)
• What is received and learned? (understanding)

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What is unusual about this image?
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What do you see?
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Do the lines appear straight or curved?
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Characterize the age of the person you see.
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What do you observe in this classroom?

• Are there different answers from different
  people?
• Why are there different answers?
• How can we understand (explain) these
  observations? (How? and Why?)
• What Question or questions need to be
  formulated to understand this phenomenon?

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A Simple Processing Model
(place, context)
Actor/Agent
(intended purpose)
(meaningful facts)
(method, e.g. language, )
Input
Process
Output
A Simple Process Control Model
Where does understanding fit in this picture?
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Our Second Systems Analysis Example

• Who is receiving the information? (Actor/Agent)
• What information is perceived? (what has meaning
  to the receiver)
• Is When conveyed important? (time, sequence)
• Is Where conveyed important? (place, context)
• How is it conveyed? (method, e.g. language, )
• Why is it conveyed? (expected purpose)
• What is the interpretation? (understanding)
• How does the sender know?

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A Communication System Model
Sender
Receiver
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But what does this tell you about ?

• We started with the objective
• Tell me about Stan Schuyler
• Then the subjects were sequentially changed
• How does Tell me about operate? Mean?
• Then a list of questions who, what, when,
  where, how, and why?
• A visual illusion! Your Observations!
• How would you explain the observations?
• A simple sender process model!
• What about the receive process?
• A simple communication model!

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What do you Understand About ?

• What have you learned about me? Write it down!
• If in your mind you think you learned something
  about Who Stan Schuyler is
• And you cant express it - then you really do not
  know it!
• If you cant describe it (in writing), you did
  not gain knowledge.
• And you wrote something about illusions,
  perception, process models or communication
  models
• then you did not answer the question!
• If in your mind you think I did not learn
  anything about who Stan Schuyler is!
• And you wrote that down then you learned
  something!
• About your ability to observe and interpret!
• And you did not write that down then you
  learned nothing!

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An Information Communication System?
Genetics
Culture
Beliefs
Knowledge
Expectations
Language
Message A
Message A
Message A
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So Do you Know Who I am?

• Depending on your
• predisposition
• cultural upbringing
• expectations, and
• ...
• Each of you will decide who I am and perceive me
  differently from what I intended!!!
• Conclusion
• I am not who I think I am!
• I am who you think I am!

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And You Are?

• By gosh that used to frustrate me!
• I am not frustrated by this lack of influence
  anymore because
• I now realize, that like you, I get to decide who
  you are too!

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Focal Point

• It is all about the questions!
• The question process is necessary for the answer
  process to operate effectively.
• Just asking the right question, or
• searching for the right question,
• opens the door for locating answers.

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Instructor Student Relationship

• YOU may think to yourself that
• YOU are my CUSTOMER!
• And you are HOWEVER, I think to myself that
• YOU ARE MY PRODUCT!
• And that I am Quality Control!
• I intend to produce High Quality Product!
• Product that is out of spec. is scrapped!

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So What?

• Why did I tell you what I told you about me?
• Why did I tell you in the manner I told you?
• Who am I now in your mind?
• Can you write it down?

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Preparing for the Next Class

• Syllabus-Schedule/Homework
• Class Website
• http//users.edinboro.edu/sschuyler
• SA Course Notebooks
• Class Summary Assignments
• lastname_SumAssign_nnnA.doc
• lastname_SumAssign_2A.doc

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Preparing for the Next Class

• Start your Notebooks!
• Assignment 2A Class 1 Summary
• Questions to begin pondering (do not assume you
  know these concepts until you have written their
  descriptions down in your own words).
• What is a System?
• What is Data?
• What is Information?
• What is Knowledge?
• What is Information Technology?
• What is an Information System?
• An Information Management System?
• A Knowledge Management System?

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So, WHO (what) ARE YOU?

• Or should I say Who will I think you are ?

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Next Class

• Read the CS 308 Syllabus-Assignments