Volume 4

8 pages 401 K bytes

Teaching Systems Analysis and Design: Bringing the Real World into the Classroom Brady Chen Fitchburg State College Fitchburg, MA 01420 USA

Abstract: The Systems Analysis and Design (SA&D) and Systems Design and Implementations (SD&I) are two capstone courses for students in the major of computer information systems in the department of computer science at Fitchburg State College (FSC). These two courses cover a core set of skills that students need to learn to develop systems. Along with the materials covered in the courses, there is a running project, sometimes called a case. Most likely, the running project is a simulated one and the data is made up. Students who take the courses are supposed to get training in the design and implementations of a system. The author has been teaching SA&D and SD&I for three consecutive years at the computer science department in FSC. In the first two years, the courses were taught with traditional approach, i.e., teaching the courses with simulated project. Last year, a new approach was tried. It combined the classroom teaching with a real project from the FSC IT department. In this paper, the author presents the experiences on teaching SA&D and SD&I with the real project and compares the new approach with the traditional one. Some issues related to the new approach are discussed.

Keywords: SDLC, systems analysis, SA&D, SD&I, CASE tools

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Recommended Citation: Chen (2006). Teaching Systems Analysis and Design: Bringing the Real World into the Classroom. Information Systems Education Journal, 4 (84). http://isedj.org/4/84/. ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2005: §2363. ISSN: 1542-7382.)