• Assessment item 3
Active Engagement in Systems Analysis Work
Value: 30%
Length: Approx 2,000 words
Submission method options
Alternative submission method
Task
You are required to analyse the effectiveness of the Virgin Australia Online Air Ticketing system. To do this you are required to employ at least two data gathering techniques, one of which must be observation. You will need to research the existing online ticketing system and other information you can find about the airline. You also need to observe how at least three (3) users interact with the system. You need to script two or more scenarios for each of these users, and then observe their interaction. For instance, two possible scenarios might be as follows:
(A) You want to travel to the Melbourne next Friday. Before reserving your seat, you want to be sure that you can finish packing without rushing it, and reach the airport on time. You therefore want to find out when your flight is departing on that day.
(B) You friend is arriving today from Brisbane and you want to check what time the flight will arrive so you can pick them up. Check the arrival time and details for a specific flight number.
Amongst the information sought are answers to the following questions.
Questions you need to address are:
1. What are the major business objectives and processes (operations) that the airline company carries out?
2. List the information systems and subsystems that are used to support their portal and describe how they are related to the overall business objectives and processes. If the exact Information System cannot be identified then use the generic terms for the appropriate Information Systems (an example of a generic name is Supply Chain Management system).
3. Detail the scenarios you developed and how the users you observed interacted with the system when carrying out the tasks of those scenarios.
4. Recommend improvements to the system and describe the analytic consequences. For instance, not all airlines provide systems for online check-in. If the company were to add such functionality, what do the analysts need to consider?
5. Describe the stakeholders involved. Who are they? Why do analysts need to consider their interests?
6. Discuss, in detail, the data collection techniques you used to answer the above questions. Describe how other data collection techniques could be used to gather further information.
Rationale
This assignment is intended to develop and test your ability to research the role of information systems in solving business problems. Using some data gathering techniques you will also learn about the role of the system analyst in the development of information systems.