3.1 PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

System development, a process consisting of two
major steps of system analysis and design, start when
management or sometimes system development personnel
feel that a new system or an improvement in the existing
system is required. The system development life cycle is
classically thought of as the set of activities that analysts,
designers and users carry out to develop and implement an
information system. The system development life cycle
consists of the following activities: and maintenance
A request to take assistance from information
system can be made for many reasons, but in each case
someone in the organization initiates the request is made,
the first system activity the preliminary investigation
begins. This activity has three parts:
1) Request clarification
2) Feasibility study
3) Request approval
Request clarification: Many requests from
employees and users in the organizations are not clearly
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defined, therefore it becomes necessary that project
request must be examined and clarified properly before
considering systems investigation.[6]
3.2 SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
The systems development life cycle (SDLC)
describes a set of steps that produces a new computer
information system. The SDLC is a problem-solving
process. Each step in the process delineates a number of
activities. Performing these activities in the order
prescribed by the SDLC will bring about a solution to the
business situation. The SDLC process consists of the
following phases:
1. Preliminary investigation—the problem is
defined and investigated.
2. Requirements definition—the specifics of the
current system as well as the requirements of the
proposed new system are studied and defined.
3. Systems design—a general design is developed
with the purpose of planning for the construction
of the new system.
4. Systems development—the new system is
created.
5. System installation—the current operation is
converted to run on the new system.
6. Systems evaluation and monitoring—the newly
operational system is evaluated and monitored for
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the purpose of enhancing its performance and
adding value to its functions.
7. Looping back from a later phase to an earlier one
may occur if the need arises.
Each phase has a distinct set of unique
development activities. Some of these activities may span
more than one phase. The management activity tends to be
similar among all phases.
The SDLC is not standardized and may be unique
to a given organization. In other words, the names and
number of phases may differ from one SDLC to the next.
However, the SDLC discussed here is, to a large extent,
representative of what is typically adopted by
organizations.
At each phase certain activities are performed; the
results of these activities are documented in a report
identified with that phase. Management reviews the
results of the phase and determines if the project is to
proceed to the next phase.
The first two phases of the SDLC process
constitute the systems-analysis function of a business
situation. The following discussion will concentrate on
phase one (Preliminary Investigation) and phase two
(Requirements Definition) of the outlined SDLC process.
3.2.1 Defining a System
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A collection of components that work together to
realize some objective forms a system. Basically there
are three major components in every system, namely
input, processing and output.
In a system the different components are
connected with each other and they are interdependent.
For example, human body represents a complete natural
system. We are also bound by many national systems
such as political system, economic system, educational
system and so forth. The objective of the system
demands that some output is produced as a result of
processing the suitable inputs.
3.2.2 System Life Cycle
System life cycle is an organizational process of
developing and maintaining systems. It helps in
establishing a system project plan, because it gives
overall list of processes and sub-processes required for
developing a system.
System development life cycle means combination
of various activities. In other words we can say that
various activities put together are referred as system
development life cycle. In the System Analysis and
Design terminology, the system development life cycle
means software development life cycle.
Following are the different phases of software
development cycle:

3.2.3 The Different Phases Of Software
Development Life Cycle Are Shown Below.
The goal of system analysis is to determine where
the problem is in an attempt to fix the system. This step
involves breaking down the system in different pieces to
analyze the situation, analyzing project goals, breaking