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GCE JAN 2011 : (A2 7) Investigating Systems

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Centre Number 71 Candidate Number ADVANCED General Certificate of Education January 2011 Applied Information and Communication Technology A6J11 Assessment Unit A2 7 assessing Unit 7: Investigating Systems [A6J11] THURSDAY 13 JANUARY, AFTERNOON TIME 2 hours. INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES Write your Centre Number and Candidate Number in the spaces provided at the top of this page. Answer all eleven questions. For Examiner s use only Marks Question available Marks 1 The total mark for this paper is 100. Quality of written communication will be assessed in questions 2, 5, 8 and 10. Figures in brackets printed down the right-hand side of pages indicate the marks awarded to each question or part question. This paper is accompanied by a Case Study. You must not use your own annotated copy of this Case Study. 111566 ADVICE TO CANDIDATES You are advised to take account of the marks for each part question in allocating the available examination time. 6403 2 7 3 6 4 4 5 18 6 12 7 8 8 16 9 INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES 5 10 10 11 11 3 Total 100 Remark 1 In the table below, identify with a tick ( ) five valid reasons for developing a computer based solution to resolve the problems at SQUEAKY CLEAN. Examiner Only Marks Remark REASON FOR DEVELOPING A NEW SYSTEM Loads of paperwork in use at SQUEAKY CLEAN. Harry, the secretary, does not like paperwork. A major objective is to provide a good quality service to customers. Terry and Fiona would like to extend the range of services that are offered. Terry and Fiona would like to take more holidays. A new system will improve the standard of cleaning provided. Customers find it difficult to renew their contracts. The number of clients is growing rapidly. [5] 6403 2 [Turn over 2 Following their decision to employ the services of ABSOLUTE ANSWERS, a project initiation meeting needs to be arranged. Examiner Only Marks Remark (a) The initial meeting should last for a maximum of one hour. Which of the following delegate lists would achieve the most productive outcome within this time? _______________________________________________________ [1] DELEGATE LIST 1 DELEGATE LIST 2 Manager of ABSOLUTE ANSWERS Terry Hamilton Caroline Smyth Terry Hamilton Fiona Duffy Caroline Smyth Harry James Manager of ABSOLUTE ANSWERS Programmer from ABSOLUTE ANSWERS Analyst from ABSOLUTE ANSWERS Two full time cleaners Driver (b) Provide a detailed justification for your choice. _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [6] 6403 3 [Turn over 3 Examiner Only A trainee analyst has been asked to work alongside James McKenna who is the senior analyst Marks Remark assigned to the project at SQUEAKY CLEAN. ABSOLUTE ANSWERS has a predefined list of information which must be available on completion of the project initiation phase. The trainee has been asked to suggest how the information should be obtained. The senior analyst will either agree or disagree with the suggested fact finding activity. Complete the following table: INFORMATION SUGGESTED SENIOR EXPLANATION OF DECISION NEEDED FACT FINDING ANALYST S ACTIVITY DECISION Define the Terms of Reference for the project. Interview Terry, Caroline and Harry individually. Operational requirements. DISAgREE AgREE Sample documentation. Ask only the cleaners for samples of the documents they complete. Organisation structure. Ask either Terry or Fiona for an organisation chart. These are the people who carry out the day-to-day activities within the business and as such are most aware of the requirements of a new system and the problems with the existing method of doing things. Daily office activities. There should only be one version of this structure which can be confirmed by the owners of the business. AgREE It is very important that the analysts get some first-hand knowledge of the business. Examiner Only Marks Remark [6] 6403 4 [Turn over 4 James has suggested to Terry that SQUEAKY CLEAN would benefit from the introduction of a simple network. Examiner Only Marks Remark In the table below, identify with a tick ( ) four valid reasons for introducing a local area network. REASONS FOR INTRODUCING A LOCAL AREA NETWORK Employees will be able to collaborate. Caroline can access client details from home. Useful hardware can be easily shared by all staff. SQUEAKY CLEAN can buy new machines of a lower specification. Centralised backup procedures can be implemented. All employees will have internet access. SQUEAKY CLEAN will appear more professional. Paperwork will be reduced. [4] 6403 5 [Turn over 5 The senior analyst has decided to extend the range of fact finding activities. He hopes to obtain information from all customers but realises that this will be a time consuming activity. He has identified the following activities as requirements for the analysis phase of the project at SQUEAKY CLEAN: Design questionnaire Observe Harry Compile analysis report Present findings Administer customer questionnaire Interview Harry Interview Caroline Review documents obtained during interviews Analyse questionnaire data The activities are not listed in any particular order. The gANTT chart shown below includes all of these activities: 6403 6 [Turn over (a) Using the information provided, complete the following table to show the predecessors and descriptions for all activities in the analysis phase. Activity Description A Predecessor Design questionnaire Examiner Only Marks Remark Duration (days) 2 B A 10 C 1 D 1 E Interview Harry E F 1 2 g 1 H Compile analysis report 2 I Present findings 1 [11] (b) What is the shortest time for completion of this project? _______________________________________________________ [1] 6403 7 [Turn over (c) Terry is concerned about the length of time being spent on the analysis phase. She is keen to get the new system up and running as quickly as possible. She has asked the senior analyst to outline some changes that could be made to the plan. Identify two possible changes and discuss the outcomes. Examiner Only Marks Remark _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [6] 6403 8 [Turn over 6 James is keen to involve the newly appointed junior analyst in the development of the data models. Following on from the context diagram, the analysts will now examine the main processes in detail. Examiner Only Marks Remark (a) What is the name of the next diagram that they will create? _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [1] (b) What component will appear on this diagram that does not appear on a context diagram? _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [1] (c) Suggest two problems that the analysts could encounter at this stage if the context diagram has not been properly created. Problem 1 _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [1] Problem 2 _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [1] 6403 9 [Turn over (d) When reviewing the first attempt at the diagram, James notices a few mistakes. Complete the following table to show the necessary corrections. COMPONENT Examiner Only Marks Remark CORRECTION [8] 6403 10 [Turn over 7 On completion of the investigation activities, the junior analyst has identified the following requirements for the new system at SQUEAKY CLEAN. Examiner Only Marks Remark She now needs to categorise them into inputs, outputs, files and processes. Complete the following table by inserting a tick ( ) indicating the category to which each item belongs: CATEGORIES REQUIREMENTS INPUT OUTPUT FILE PROCESS Client details Job enquiry form Staff Weekly task schedule Produce supplier order Create task schedule Client contracts Clients [8] 6403 11 [Turn over 8 The analysts at ABSOLUTE ANSWERS typically use a TOP DOWN approach to data analysis. For this reason, they will start by looking in detail at some of the requirements of the new system. Examiner Only Marks Remark A sample Task Schedule is shown below: Squeaky Clean Task Schedule: 24 th January 2011 (a) List 5 pieces of data from the above document that should be stored within a database. 1. ______________ 2. _______________ 3. ________________ 4. ______________ 5. _______________ [5] (b) Which items on the Task Schedule could be generated automatically by the database? _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [2] 6403 12 [Turn over The analysts have decided to create a JOB table to store details of the scheduled jobs. The structure of this part of the database is shown below. Examiner Only Marks Remark (c) (i) In addition to the pieces of data already listed, the analysts have decided to add Client No to the CLIENT table and Job Ref to the JOB table. Explain the purpose of these fields. _____________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ [1] (ii) A relationship must exist between these two tables. Explain how this relationship will be established. You should use database terminology in your answer. _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ [2] 6403 13 [Turn over The junior analyst has put together the following sample data file to demonstrate the contents of the JOB table. 6403 14 [Turn over (d) Analyse the sample data on the opposite page and explain the problems that the senior analyst has identified with this structure. Provide specific examples and suggest a solution. Examiner Only Marks Remark _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [6] 6403 15 [Turn over 9 The analysts and programmers who are employed by ABSOLUTE ANSWERS work very closely together. They follow an in-house procedure which calls for certain documentation to be completed at defined stages of the project. Examiner Only Marks Remark (a) Complete the following table to show when each document is produced, who produces it and for whom it is produced. DOCUMENT PHASE User guide Feasibility Study PRODUCED FOR Users Initiation or Investigation Test Log PRODUCED BY Analyst or Programmer Implementation Context Diagram [8] (b) give two reasons why documentation is so important within the system development lifecycle. Reason 1 _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [1] Reason 2 _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [1] 6403 16 [Turn over 10 The database will also have an INVOICE table, the proposed structure of which is shown below: Field Data Type/ Name Size Invoice No Auto number Invoice Date Client No Required? Comments Examiner Only Marks Remark Sample Data Yes Primary key 0041 Date/Time Yes 12/12/2010 Text, 4 Yes Short date format Foreign key links to CLIENT table C002 A series of test data has been tried out on the new system and the following records have been rejected from the system. (a) For each record, in the table below, explain why it has been rejected. Invoice No Invoice Date Client No Reason for rejection 10022 03/03/2011 C199 1OO23 28/11/2010 C001 10256 23/12/2010 C999 11230 12/23/2010 C190 1002A 03/03/2010 C199 [5] 6403 17 [Turn over (b) Within their initial documentation, ABSOLUTE ANSWERS stated that the final system will be completely error free. When asked to justify this, James explained that the system is constantly tested during the system development lifecycle. Examiner Only Marks Remark Discuss the various types of testing that the system will undergo and give examples of specific features that could be tested at each stage. Your answer should also make reference to the people involved and the relevant phase of the system lifecycle. _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ [6] 6403 18 [Turn over 11 Terry is concerned about whether the new system will be a success once it is implemented. give three reasons for the system not being a success for SQUEAKY CLEAN. Reason 1 ____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ [1] Reason 2 ____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ [1] Reason 3 ____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ [1] THIS IS THE END OF THE QUESTION PAPER 6403 19 Examiner Only Marks Remark Permission to reproduce all copyright material has been applied for. In some cases, efforts to contact copyright holders may have been unsuccessful and CCEA will be happy to rectify any omissions of acknowledgement in future if notified. 111566 6403 20 [Turn over Applied Information and Communication Technology Case Study Assessment Unit A2 7 assessing A6J11CSI ADVANCED General Certificate of Education January 2011 Unit 7: Investigating Systems [A6J11] THURSDAY 13 JANUARY, AFTERNOON You must use this clean copy of the Case Study in the examination and not your own annotated copy. 6403.02 Squeaky Clean Squeaky Clean is a thriving company formed three years ago by two solicitors, Terry Hamilton and Fiona Duffy. Tired of juggling the needs of their young families with busy professional lives, they realised that there was a definite market for cleaning services. Both had previously considered getting some domestic help at home, but found difficulty in getting help at the right time and at the right price. Aware that for many people, the cost of getting domestic help would be well outside the normal family budget, Terry and Fiona considered carefully how this kind of service could be made accessible to the public. It took quite a while to work everything out but with professional advice and their own legal knowledge, Terry and Fiona started a domestic cleaning company, Squeaky Clean . They agreed financial terms and conditions and Terry initially decided to manage the company on a full time basis while Fiona would currently retain her legal career. As well as being co-owner of the company, she would have responsibility for dealing with all contracts generated in the business as she is an expert in this particular aspect of the law. Squeaky Clean is fully committed to delivering an excellent service to the public. All staff are fully vetted; they are fully trained and must comply with all company rules regarding the conduct of their work. Apart from the directors, Terry and Fiona, Squeaky Clean currently employs a manager, a secretary and 20 full time staff including a driver. The company retains a bank of part time staff who can be called on if necessary. The company also owns a van for transporting equipment to particular jobs. Sometimes industrial cleaning machines are required and the van is used to deliver these to the premises on the night before and to collect them on the day after a scheduled job. A major objective for Terry and Fiona was to provide a good value quality service. Research into the provision of domestic cleaning services in the area, found little evidence of any kind of reasonable service. They did find advertisements for individuals charging over 20 an hour for very basic cleaning with no guarantee of any kind of quality control. However, there was no company at that time providing what they thought they could offer. Terry and Fiona realised that they had to come up with a range of options that would attract potential customers and create loyalty to the company. They decided to offer a range of contract options that would have different associated discounts. All services carry a minimum time of one hour. It would not be cost effective to place a member of staff at a location for any less time since travel time and transport must also be considered. These options include the following: Option 1 One off service Specific customer requirements are costed on an hourly basis based on a minimum time allocation of one hour with one cleaner present. Option 2 Four week contract Specific customer requirements are costed on an hourly basis based on a minimum time allocation of one hour each week over a four week period. The first week is charged at the full rate and then a discount of 5% is applied to the following three weeks. 6403.02 2 [Turn over Option 3 Twelve week (three month) contract Specific customer requirements are costed on an hourly basis based on a minimum time allocation of one hour each week over a twelve week period. The first week is charged at the full rate and then a discount of 5% is applied to the following three weeks. For the remaining eight weeks, a discount of 7% is applied. Option 4 Twenty six week (six month) contract Specific customer requirements are costed on an hourly basis based on a minimum time allocation of one hour each week over a twenty six week period. The first week is charged at the full rate and then a discount of 5% is applied to the following three weeks. For the next eight weeks, a discount of 7% is applied. For the remaining fourteen weeks, a discount of 10% is applied. Option 5 Fifty two week (one year) contract Specific customer requirements are costed on an hourly basis based on a minimum time allocation of one hour each week over a fifty two week period. The first week is charged at the full rate and then a discount of 5% is applied to the following three weeks. For the next eight weeks a discount of 7% is applied. For the next fourteen weeks, a discount of 10% is applied and for the remaining twenty six weeks, a discount of 12% is applied. All contracts must be renewed on expiry before any further service can be provided. Terry oversees the overall day to day running of the company. The secretary deals with all enquiries relating to new clients. He is required to get the new client to complete a job enquiry form. This form requests the client contact details and allows the client to select particular services that the company provides. This is mainly done by ticking boxes but there is space on the form for the client to add additional information regarding requirements. Terry and Fiona sometimes review these forms and get new ideas for extending their range of services. The secretary provides limited information to the client and then passes the job enquiry forms to the manager Caroline Smyth. Caroline visits every new client and assesses the job. This is a very time consuming activity and because of the growing number of clients, Caroline is sometimes not able to visit for up to two weeks. Some clients are unhappy with the delay and do not proceed with the enquiry and so potential customers are lost. Caroline defines the exact client requirements, recording them on a client requirement form and then costs the range of options available. Caroline prepares a costing summary form which is sent out to the client for consideration. She passes copies of all forms to Harry who sorts them in date order and files them. When the client provides a response to the costing, whether by calling in to the office or by telephone, Caroline will get the client contract drawn up. All contracts must be copied and posted to Fiona for approval before being sent out to the client. Fiona calls into the office once a week to indicate approval and sign new contracts. Once approved, the contract is sent to the client and should be signed and returned before any service can be supplied. Once the signed contract has been returned, they must be filed. The secretary, Harry James, is responsible for this. These procedures also apply to renewal of contracts. The whole process is very labour intensive and time consuming. It depends on Harry 6403.02 3 [Turn over getting everything done on time and because of the volume of work he has to do, this rarely happens. Clients are not pleased when they have to contact the office to see what is causing the delay. Sometimes because of other commitments, Fiona cannot visit the office and there can be a two week delay. Harry is aware that an increasing number of customers have said they will not be back. Renewal customers are particularly dissatisfied as they feel they have shown commitment to the company. Caroline also prepares task schedules for the cleaners. All cleaners must collect their task schedules for the following week on a Friday afternoon before 6pm. Every job has an associated task schedule. The cleaner must sign the task schedule , indicating that the work has been completed and return it to the office before 4.30pm on the following Friday. This signed document is used by Harry to record that the work has been done so that invoice information can be generated. It is also used to calculate wages for the part time staff as they are paid by the hour rather than at the weekly full time rate. Sometimes staff members forget to sign the task schedule. If Harry is not available to check the schedules on Friday afternoons, payment authorisation for part time staff who have not signed the forms is not allowed. This has caused a lot of problems as there will be a delay of one week in payment to the staff. The staff believe that this is unacceptable. The van driver is also given a weekly task schedule . He is responsible for checking the equipment before he delivers it and checking it after he collects it. Any damage must be recorded on a damage report form which is left in the office for Caroline who will decide if any action must be taken. This might include interviewing the staff involved or perhaps charging the client a breakage fee if the damage is their fault. This does not happen very often but if a client is considered responsible for damages, Caroline creates a damages demand which is sent to the client. A damages payment is expected within two weeks otherwise the normal demand procedures will follow. The company provides all cleaning material and equipment for the services they provide. Cleaners are supplied with their cleaning kit comprising a whole range of cleaning products and portable cleaning gear. They must request replacement products and cleaning gear on a cleaning kit request form when they submit their signed task schedule forms on a Friday. Replacement supplies are available for collection the following Friday and each cleaner is required to sign a cleaning kit receipt so that a record is kept of their stock usage. Harry is responsible for managing this process and must file the cleaning kit request forms and the cleaning kit receipts for audit purposes. Caroline reviews the cleaning kit request forms before Wednesday of each week. She is responsible for authorising replacement items for the cleaning staff. She monitors this very closely and will check the validity of the request by looking at the task schedules for the cleaner concerned. Harry is required to maintain stock items for the cleaning staff. He tries to check the stock at least once a fortnight. Harry must complete stock request forms for low stock items. These must be approved by Caroline before Harry creates stock orders for the suppliers. He has to issue these, ensure that the subsequent deliveries are accurate and the stock updated, record the supplier invoices and then make sure that the suppliers are paid. Sometimes stock items are not available 6403.02 4 [Turn over for staff simply because Harry has not been able to complete the whole stock ordering procedure within the required timescale. This is problematic for the cleaners who either try to provide materials themselves or ask the client. Some clients have complained to Caroline that they are not getting the full service they agreed in their contracts. Invoices for Option 1 clients are created on the Monday following the completion of the work. All other clients are invoiced monthly. Invoices are posted out to clients and payment is expected within one week. Clients may pay by cash in person or credit or debit card over the phone. The company has discontinued the practice of payment by cheque in line with most other organisations. There is a considerable amount of work involved in generating the invoices. As Harry is responsible for answering the phone, dealing with clients as well as a whole range of other tasks, he finds it hard to get suitable uninterrupted time to do this. Some days, he either comes in very early in the morning or stays on later at night. He is very worried and under pressure at present as he realises that he is at least two weeks behind in creating the invoices. Harry is also responsible for regularly checking that payment has been received for all invoices. With a growing number of clients, it is becoming impossible to keep up with this. He is also required to issue first, second and final reminders to clients. If a client fails to pay within two weeks of a final reminder, Harry is required to advise the manager who issues a discontinuation of service notice to the client. This notice also advises clients of the legal consequences of non payment. Terry and Fiona are sent copies of all discontinuation notices and deal with the legal aspects themselves. Harry has on occasion not recorded client payments. This has resulted in clients being sent out reminders. The business is very successful but the administrative processes are becoming totally unmanageable. The amount of paper generated is impossible to manage effectively. Caroline has proposed the appointment of at least two new staff to assist with all the work that must be done. She believes that Harry could be a great help to her in the assessment and costing of new jobs if he could be released from some of his office duties. She is also of the opinion that they could make good use of better computer facilities. At present, Caroline and Harry have standalone PCs and they have to share a printer. They have no Internet access and they have no means of sharing any data easily. They use basic application software and have no formal training at all. Caroline is concerned at the growing number of clients who want an instant response to their requests and who are dissatisfied with the time it takes to generate the responses they receive. She is very aware that clients are not happy with the invoicing system. She is concerned that any bad publicity arising out of poor administration could affect new business. Clients might well look elsewhere for services. 6403.02 5 [Turn over 6403.02 111567 8 [Turn over

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Additional Info : Gce Applied ICT January 2011 Assessment Unit A2 7 - Investigating Systems
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