Benefits of Structured Analysis - P3

Explain the benefits of Structured Analysis

Structured analysis is an organised method of systems analysis that makes use of graphical diagrams to develop and present system specifications to users in a way that makes them clear and easy to understand. The diagrams explain the steps that need to occur and the data that is needed to meet the design requirements of the system. There are some very important steps involved in structured analysis:

• Studying the current system and evaluating all of its issues
• Modelling this system
• Modelling the new system around these issues, in order to fix them
•  Modelling the new physical environment
• Evaluating any alternatives that there may be
• Choosing the best system approach
• Creating the graphical specifications

By using a structured approach of systems analysis, both the systems analysts and the users/clients should find many benefits. For example, software that has been properly designed and set up. If analysis and design has been performed using a structured model then all the requirements should be understood by the analysts/designers, therefore the finished product should meet all the initial requirements. By having this high quality software there should be an increase of productivity within the company, as it should be able to serve all the functions it is needed for efficiently without encountering any issues.

A structured approach can reduce the risk of over-run, this includes both time and budget. If the specifications of a system are clearly presented and understood by everyone then the entire development cycle should be completed well within the time allocated for the project, without going over the budget, while still meeting all the requirements. This could be particularly important when your company has acquired another company, because you are scaling up the size of your IT systems, it is important to make sure that you can design them within the time without spending too much of the money for the project.

Projects that are making use of structured analysis are likely to be well-managed. This means that regular check-ups or monitoring of progress will take place to evaluate how successful the analysis and design has been so far, and how far along the project is compared to where it should be (is it ahead or behind.) Regular meetings would be held, in which goals and targets are set (for example, the system needs to be implemented within a certain amount of time and be able to perform basic functions without too much of our budget being spent.) Lastly, a thorough review of the entire project takes place once it has been completed. By having this organised and well-managed project that has successfully been implemented, the company will able to expand on what they do, as they have these new systems that are capable of doing so much more for them, such as setting up online sales. The completion of this project will give staff the experience needed to make it much easier for them to manage new projects in the future; these will also be very successful and help them to expand the business.

Designing systems that are maintainable is a benefit of using a structured analysis method. Maintainable systems are systems that can be modified and updated over a series of time. This means any issues that occur in the system can be removed quickly, without causing too much of a disruption in the system. The code of the system can be modified easily as well.  By designing the system so that this maintenance is so easy to perform, there would be an increase in productivity within the company, as there wouldn't be as much of a delay whenever the systems required maintenance. To make this happen, the requirements for the system will need to be carefully analysed and understood by everyone, when implementing the features that make the system maintainable, evaluation and testing needs to take place to make sure that the system meets these requirements.

Resilient systems are systems that have been designed in order to adapt to change. By using a structured approach to systems analysis, this can be planned for properly in the design stage. By thinking about possible changes that could occur within the business or with technology (new hardware/software being designed), these systems can be designed to accommodate any changes that may happen during the lifetime of the system. Technical documentation would need to be produced that clearly describes how the system can be modified to suit changes, it is important when designing these systems to make sure that they are robust enough, meaning that they are unlikely to fail as new functionality will be added to the system after it has been implemented.  By being able to design resilient systems using structured analysis, the company will be meeting certain legal requirements. By law, certain rules and regulations need to be followed by all companies For example, “All businesses that operate online must send out confirmation that a transaction has taken place.” It is important to make sure that these systems have been designed to be resilient in order to be able to easily adapt and follow these procedures when required to.