Question
1 [10 marks]
|
Mr.
Chan is going to set up a small trading computer. He needs two computers
to help him to do simple business documentation, storing customer and
product information. |
||
|
(a) |
Suggest
THREE kinds of application software that Mr. Chan needs to install for the
mentioned business functions. |
[6
marks] |
|
(b) |
If
Mr. Chan wants his computers able to connect to the Internet via existing
telephone network, what a device does he needs to have and why? |
[4
marks] |
a) The three kinds of application software are Word Processing, Database Applications, and Spreadsheet Analysis.
Word Processing can help him for doing simple business documentation. This application can be used to create, edit, and print out his business document. Usually it always provides the following features: checking spelling, creating tables, inserting formulas, creating graphics, etc. It can be installed in personal computer.
Database Applications help him for storing customer and product information. The applications are used for storing, manipulating and retrieving data. It helps to produce reports and documents with a large amount of data. A database can also be a front end to another application (e.g. spreadsheet).
Spreadsheet Analysis helps for both business functions. It helps to prepare budgets, forecast profits, analyze insurance programs, summarize income tax data and analyze investments. It also involves numbers and calculations. It has features including graphics, limited database capabilities, statistical analysis, built-in business functions, etc.
b) He needs to have modem. If a typical telephone line is used to transfer data, it only can accommodate an analog signal. However, computer generates a digital signal. So a special device is required to convert the digital signal to an analog signal, and vice versa.
A modem can translate data from digital to analog (modulation) and translate data from analog to digital (demodulation). Thus modem should be used.
Question
2 [10 marks]
|
The
vice-president of a financial company is considering various approaches of
system development, which include traditional one, prototyping, and
end-user development for the following project.
：The
development of a system using multi-media and expert system techniques for
customer relationship officers to cater various kinds of customer
requests. The system has to provide intelligent financial advices
according to specific situations of each customer. The customer
relationship officers do not have any experiences in using this kind of
expert systems and do not know what the system can provide in order to
help them improving their customer services.； |
|
|
Which
approach will you suggest? Explain why. |
[10
marks] |
ANS
The Prototyping will be suggested and it may be used the operational prototype.
The customer relationship officers can try the system and provide constructive feedback during development, that that means the customer relationship officers do not need to know how to use the system before and they can learn and change the system to suit their needs.
This also enables early detection of errors and omissions. Then even there is an error the customer relationship officers need not have the experience to mend it and still can operate the system.
The prototypical reports and input
screens are used as models for the actual system, which may be developed suing
an end-user programming language such as SAS, Focus, or Visual Basic. The system
allows using the multi-media.
Question
3 [15 marks]
|
(a) |
Create
a fully labeled E-R diagram according to the following rules. Indicate the
nature of relationship in your diagram. A
painter paints many paintings. Each
painting is painted by one (and only one) painter. A
painting is placed in a gallery. A
painter is represented by the corresponding painter number, name, and
phone number. A
painting is represented by the corresponding painting number, title, and
price. A
gallery is represented by the corresponding gallery number, gallery rate,
owner・s name, and owner・s phone number. |
[10
marks] |
|
(b) |
Based
on the E-R diagram you have drawn in (a), represent the entities and the
relationship in tables and indicate the primary key of each table. |
[5
marks] |
a)
b)
|
Painter number * |
Name |
Phone number |
Painting number |
Painting
table
|
|
Title |
Price |
Gallery number |
Gallery
table
|
|
Gallery rate |
Owner・s name |
Owner・s phone number |
*: Primary key
Question
4 [15 marks]
|
The personnel department of a manufacturing company faces a problem of
locating an employee with certain characteristics. For example, they might want to locate the names of
employees with college degrees in electrical engineering and the ability
to speak Spanish. These
employees would become candidates for a specific job opening requiring
these capabilities. It would be literally impossible to search through the
hardcopies of personnel records manually to locate employees with such
characteristics. To
solve this problem, they would like to set up a computer-based information
system so that personnel managers could obtain the relevant information. |
||
|
(a) |
Suggest
the input data and 3 system capabilities of the proposed system. |
[5
marks] |
|
(c) |
Suggest
a system development approach for the proposed system. Give pros and cons
of your suggestion. |
[10
marks] |
a) The input data are including: the name of the employee,
the educational level of the employee,
the studying subject of the employee,
the using languages of the employee.
The system capabilities: college degree, electrical engineering Spanish.
c) The suggested development approach is Traditional System Development Life Cycle. Since we know the problem and know how to solve it we can use this system development approach.
Pros: Formal review at the end of each phase allows maximum management control.
This approach creates considerable system documentation.
Formal documentation ensures that system requirements can be traced back to stated business needs.
It produces many intermediate products that can be reviewed to see whether they meet the users・ needs and conform to standards.
Cons: Users get a system that meets the needs as understood by the developers; this may not be what was really needed.
Documentation is expensive and time-consuming to create. It is also difficult to keep current.
Often, user needs go unstated or are misunderstood.
Users cannot easily review intermediate products and evaluate whether a particular product (e.g., data flow diagram) meets their business requirements.
