Course Overview

This course prepares participants to sit the one-hour, multiple-choice examination leading to the Foundation Certificate in Systems Development which is part of the BCS Professional Certification portfolio (ISEB). This certificate is a specialist module for the Diploma in Solution Development.

Course Content

1. Introduction to systems development
   • What is systems development
   • The scope of systems development
   • Systems development and other disciplines
   • Offshoring and outsourcing of systems development work
2. Lifecycle types and their rationales
   • Systems development lifecycles in concept
   • Lifecycles – waterfall, ‘V’ model, incremental development model, evolutionary development model
   • The Unified Process
   • Systems development lifecycles compared
   • Adaptation and customisation of the lifecycles
   • Roles and responsibilities in systems development
   • Project lifecycles
   • The project manager in systems development
   • Terms of reference
3. Business analysis
   • Business analysis defined
   • Business analysis in the systems development lifecycle
   • Outcomes from business analysis
4. Requirements engineering
   • Introduction to requirements engineering and its key areas
   • Requirements elicitation techniques
   • Types of requirements
   • Prioritising requirements
   • Managing requirements
   • Analysing and validating requirements
5. Making a business case
   • Introduction – the role of a business case
   • Assessing feasibility
   • Elements of a business case
   • Identifying, evaluating and selecting options
   • Cost/benefit analysis
   • Impact and risk analysis
6. 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
7. Systems modelling and specification techniques
   • Reasons for modelling; modelling from different perspectives
   • Modelling process and business rules
   • Modelling static data
   • Modelling dynamic behaviour
   • Modelling the user interface
   • Cross-referencing different modelling techniques
   • Documentation and specification
8. Systems design
   • Systems design in context
   • Objectives and constraints of design
   • Input design
   • Input technology
   • Output technology
   • Process design
   • Data design
   • Code design
   • Security design
9. Systems architecture
   • What is systems architecture? Types of architecture
   • Stakeholders and roles in architecture
   • Management of the architecture
   • The tiered approach to an IT systems development
   • Service-oriented architecture and service-oriented development applications
10. Implementation and changeover
    • File and data creation
    • Supporting documentation
    • Training
    • System implementation
11. Systems development and delivery: evaluation and maintenance
    • Maintenance in the systems development lifecycle
    • Metrics for evaluating a software project
    • Post-project review
    • Testing in the maintenance stage
12. Software support tools
    • Configuration management tools
    • Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools
    • Computer aided software testing (CAST) tools
    • Advantages and disadvantages of computerised support tools