Course Overview

The Foundation in Systems Development course is aimed at anyone involved - either directly or indirectly - in systems development who wishes to gain an understanding of a broad range of systems development approaches and the tools and techniques used in the development of software solutions. Key course areas include:

• System development lifecycles and approaches
• Business analysis, requirements engineering and making a business case
• Systems modelling and specification techniques and CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) tools
• Systems design and architecture
• Quality assurance, testing and CAST (Computer Aided Software Testing) tools
• Implementation and changeover

Introduction to systems development

• The scope of systems development
• Systems development and other disciplines
• Offshoring and outsourcing of systems development work

Lifecycle types and their rationales

• Lifecycles – waterfall, 'V' model, incremental, evolutionary
• The Unified Process
• Adaptation and customisation of the lifecycles
• Roles and responsibilities in systems development
• Project lifecycles

Business analysis

• Definition of business analysis
• Business analysis in the systems development lifecycle
• Outcomes from business analysis

Requirements engineering

• Introduction to requirements engineering
• Requirements elicitation techniques
• Types of requirements
• Documenting requirements
• Prioritising requirements
• Managing requirements
• Analysing and validating requirements

Making a business case

• Assessing feasibility
• Elements of a business case
• Identifying, evaluating and selecting options
• Cost/benefit analysis
• Impact and risk analysis

Programming and development approaches

• Drivers affecting the choice of approach
• Approaches described: agile software development; object-oriented development; service-oriented development; open source development; Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solutions

Systems modelling and specification techniques

• Reasons for modelling
• Modelling from different perspectives - process, data and business rules
• Modelling dynamic behaviour
• Modelling the user interface
• Cross-referencing different modelling techniques
• Documentation and specification

Systems design

• Systems design in context
• Objectives and constraints of design
• Input design, data verification and data validation
• Input and output technologies
• Process and data design
• Code and security design

Systems architecture

• Types of architecture
• Stakeholders and roles in architecture
• Management of the architecture
• The tiered approach to IT systems development
• Service-oriented architecture and service-oriented development applications

Quality and Testing

• The definition of software quality
• Objectives, limitations and principles of testing
• Static and dynamic testing
• Confirmation and regression testing

Implementation and changeover

• File and data creation
• Data mapping and conversion
• Supporting documentation
• Training
• System implementation

Evaluation and maintenance

• Maintenance in the systems development lifecycle
• Metrics for evaluating a software project
• Post-implementation and post-project reviews
• Testing in the maintenance stage

Software support tools

• Configuration management tools
• Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools
• Computer aided software testing (CAST) tools