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Fri, Oct 7, 11:30 - 11:55, Governors C Paper (refereed)

Recommended Citation: Helwig, J. Using a “Real” Systems Development Project to Enrich a Systems Analysis and Design Course. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2005, v 22 (Columbus OH): §2314. ISSN: 1542-7382. (A later version appears in Information Systems Education Journal 4(62). ISSN: 1545-679X.)

Using a “Real” Systems Development Project to Enrich a Systems Analysis and Design Course

Refereed

6 pages

Janet Helwig    [a1] [a2]
Department of Math and Computer Science
Dominican University    [u1] [u2]
River Forest, Illinois, USA    [c1] [c2]

Without a real problem to solve, a Systems Analysis and Design course typically covers systems development from a theoretical perspective, and emphasizes how to develop graphical models (e.g., use case diagrams, data flow diagrams, ERD’s, and UML diagrams) to document requirements and design. However, this course can provide a richer and more meaningful learning experience for students by providing them the opportunity to work as a team to build a real system for real users and thereby experience the “systems development process” – gathering and documenting requirements, designing, building, testing, and deploying. With semester time constraints, though, even a small project may prove unwieldy. Using an architected, rapid application development (ARAD) tool to speed development can help by delivering a well-engineered application architecture and generating much of the needed code. This paper explores the author’s experience teaching this course with a systems development project serving as the main learning activity, look at why providing a real project is invaluable for students, yet challenging for all invested parties, and also discuss how using a commercial ARAD tool enabled this approach.

Keywords: systems development project, teaching methods, Systems Analysis & Design, ARAD tool, application architecture

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