Systems Development Foundation

• Professionals interested in the development of IS / IT systems
• Business Analysts
• System Analysts
• Designers
• Developers
• Testers

Foundation Certificate in Systems Development course material will be provided.

Candidates can achieve this certification after passing the following exam(s).

• FSDEV: BCS Foundation Certificate in Systems Development

The certification exam can be registered and attempted within 3 months of course/module completion at Logitrain training centre on weekdays during business hours (excludes public holidays).

• Introduction to Systems Development
• Lifecycle types and their rationales
• Business Analysis
• Requirements Engineering
• Making a Business Case
• Programming and Development Approaches
• Systems Modelling and Specification Techniques
• Systems Design
• System Architecture
• Quality and Testing
• Implementation and Changeover
• Evaluation and Maintenance
• Software Support Tools

This course is likely to add to the employment-related skills of the participants. The skills developed are likely to be used in the course of being an employee or working in a business.

• The objective is to understand the scope of systems development work and its relationship to other associated disciplines
• The objective is to understand the range of systems development lifecycles, their application, advantages and disadvantages
• Systems Development Lifecycles: Waterfall model; V model; Incremental model; Spiral model; Unified Process
• For each lifecycle: Principles and rationale; Structure and stages; Advantages; Disadvantages; Selection criteria; Team roles and responsibilities
• Adaptation and customisation of the lifecycles
• Project management and the lifecycles: Responsibilities of project managers in systems development; Difference between project life cycles and systems development life cycles
• The objective is to understand the objectives, activities and deliverables of business analysis work
• Holistic discipline: Focus on business problems and opportunities; Bridge between business and IT
• Place of Business Analysis in the development lifecycle: Feasibility study; Requirements analysis; User acceptance testing; Implementation; Post-implementation review/benefits realisation
• Outcomes from Business Analysis: People change; Process change; IT/IS change; Organisation change
• The objective is to understand the core activities of the requirements engineering approach and the techniques used to define, document and manage requirements
• Key areas of Requirements Engineering: Requirements elicitation; Requirements analysis; Requirements negotiation; Requirements documentation; Requirements validation
• Techniques for requirements elicitation: Workshops; Interviews; Observation; Questionnaires; Scenarios; Prototyping; Document analysis
• For each elicitation technique: Purpose of the technique; Advantages and Disadvantages
• Types of requirements: Functional & Non-functional
• Prioritising requirements
• Managing requirements
• Analysing and validating requirements
• The objective is to understand the purpose of producing a business case and the structure and contents of a business case.
• Feasibility checking
• Elements of a business case
• Identifying, evaluating and selecting options
• Principles of cost/benefit analysis
• Principles of impact and risk analysis
• The objective is to appreciate the different approaches to programming and development of software solutions and identify the key features of each.
• Types of development approaches: Agile Approaches; Procedural; Object-Oriented approaches; Service Oriented; Open source development; Commercial off-the-shelf packages (COTS)
• The objective is to understand the importance of modelling and documentation in the systems development process, to identify the different types models and be aware of the various perspectives they address
• Reasons for modelling
• Modelling from different perspectives
• Cross-referencing different modelling perspectives
• Documentation and specification
• The objective is to recognise the fundamental objectives and principles of good systems design
• The location of systems design in the systems development lifecycle
• The objectives and constraints of systems design
• Input design, input technologies and their application
• Output technologies and their application
• The objectives and principles of process design
• The objectives and principles of data design
• The design of codes
• The scope and principles of security design
• The objective is to recognise the importance of a well-developed architecture as an integral part of good system development
• Types of architecture
• Objectives and principles of systems architectures
• Stakeholders and roles in architecture
• Management of the architecture
• The tiered architecture approach to IT system development
• Service Oriented Architecture and Service Oriented Development Applications
• The objective is to recognise the role of testing through the lifecycle.
• The definition of software quality
• The objectives and limitations of testing
• The structure and purpose of the static test stages of the V model
• The purpose and content of the dynamic test stages of the V model
• Static testing; Dynamic testing; Re-testing (confirmation testing); Regression testing.
• The objective is to recognise the importance of careful implementation.
• The task of file and data conversion
• The principles and problems of data mapping
• The objective is to recognise the need to evaluate a delivered system and to enhance it through subsequent maintenance
• The location of maintenance in the systems development life cycle
• The range of metrics which might be used to evaluate a delivered software product
• The objective is to appreciate the wide range of software support tools, which support IT development
• Computer Aided Software Engineering tools (CASE)
• Computer Aided Software Testing tools (CAST)
• Configuration Management tools (CM)