System Analysis and Design Report: Cloud-Based Solutions Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of system analysis and design, specifically tailored for Headspace, a healthcare organization aiming to build a modern information system. The report begins by outlining non-functional requirements, including system qualities like application availability, interoperability, and scalability, as well as system and user interface requirements. It then reviews cloud-based solutions, highlighting their benefits such as minimal capital cost and disaster recovery, while also acknowledging drawbacks like environmental and data security limitations. The core of the report discusses the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), comparing predictive and adaptive approaches, including their advantages and disadvantages. The report recommends a suitable approach for Headspace, considering the project's specific needs. The report also provides insights into system constraints, such as deployment environment and economic factors, which influence the development process. Overall, the report offers a comprehensive overview of the critical aspects of system design and cloud solutions relevant to Headspace's healthcare information system project.

Running Head: SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Assignment 3
[Student Name Here]
[Institution’s Name Here]
[Professor’s Name Here]
[Date Here]

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN 2
Table of Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................3
Non-functional requirements.................................................................................3
System qualities......................................................................................................4
System interface.....................................................................................................5
User interface (UI) requirements............................................................................6
System constraints..................................................................................................6
A review of the cloud-based solutions....................................................................7
Benefits of cloud solutions.....................................................................................7
Drawbacks/weaknesses..........................................................................................8
Software development life cycle (SDLC)...............................................................9
Predictive SDLC....................................................................................................9
Advantages of the method.................................................................................10
Disadvantages...................................................................................................10
Adaptive SDLC approach.................................................................................10
Advantages of the method.................................................................................11
Disadvantages...................................................................................................11
Recommendation...................................................................................................12
Conclusion..............................................................................................................12
References...............................................................................................................13

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN 3
Introduction
In any given day, there is always a significant amount of data generated by the healthcare
industry. This data is very important as it determines the decision made by the institutions
involved, an outcome that also includes the diagnosis and treatments given to the patients.
Moreover, the same data is used in making managerial decisions that aim to improve the services
of the institution. Similarly, Headspace, a healthcare organization aims to build a modern
information system to capture the data of patients most of who are young people with mental
illnesses. Now, the system will mainly store patient’s stories, data that will determine the
treatments given to the patients. Therefore, a large storage facility is needed to support this
functionality as the content will continuously increase with time (Pattnaik, 2017).
Now, cloud-based solutions are been sort out as a desirable alternative to this requirement as
they offer extended IT resources at affordable prices. In essence, the organization will lease the
computational infrastructure from a service provider to store and process the data. In the process,
the organization will increase its overall service availability and accessibility. In addition to this,
the organization will be able to minimize its overall expenditures since most of the resource
needed will be acquired based on the immediate demands (Bisong & Rahman, 2011). In light of
these objectives, this report offers an in-depth analysis of the cloud solutions where the various
aspects of the technology are highlighted. The report also discusses the various non-functional
requirements of the system including its development process.
Non-functional requirements
In software development, non-functional requirements represent the systematic elements of
building quality systems based on the needs of the users. In essence, the system must reflect
some envisioned qualities characteristics such as performance, security, reliability and usability.

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However, developing these qualities is not as easy as enacting the functional requirements of the
systems, because they are not solely based on the technical aspects of the software packages
(Chung, Yu, & Mylopoulos, 2017). In essence, non-functional requirements are usually
determined by the interaction between the end user and the proposed system. Furthermore, their
determination is often subjective to certain conditions which intensify their definition.
Nevertheless, their presence must be reflected in a system and in most cases must be outlined as
soft goals that will depend on the trade-off of various functionalities.
System qualities
A quality system must have increased maintainability and reliability outcomes both during its
development time as well as its execution time. Furthermore, as stated above its performance
must be consistent based on an adequate usability, where all the requirements of the end users
are met while continuously engaging the end user (Ebert, 2011). Therefore, the system qualities
will represent the general characteristics that will determine the run-time behaviour, system
experience and the system design. In this case, they represent different areas of system concern
that have a potential to impact the package at wider layers and operation tiers. For the Headspace
system, the following characteristics will be necessary:
 Application availability – this attribute represents the duration of time that the system is
available to the user offering the different functionalities and operations. While its an
abstract factor, its measurement is done using percentages of the overall downtimes at a
given period of time.
 Interoperability – this represents the ability of an application to perform different
functionalities including communicating with other external systems for the successful

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN 5
interchange of operations with external entities. Now, this will be a crucial factor to the
Headspace project which will interact with a cloud resource.
 Scalability – on an account of the patient’s stories, the system’s infrastructure,
particularly, the storage will require an adjustable infrastructure that will regularly meet
the needs of the institution. Moreover, the system must be able to handle the rapid
changes in the overall functional load.
 Supportability – finally, to improve the reliability and usability of the system, the
application will require to poses some troubleshooting elements that will be used to
resolve operational issues. The same elements will be crucial in resolving security
problems (Microsoft, 2017).
System interface
Software packages constitute a wide variety of functionalities that are usually represented as
various inputs and outputs. In each component, an input will stem from another element’s output,
an outcome that will constitute different operational subsections. Moreover, for a cross-platform
system such as the Headspace system, a variety of information from different elements will be
used. In essence, the collection of these inputs and outputs will define the system’s interface
where definite boundaries are given (Salustri, 2015). These boundaries require the following
attributes (requirements):
 High response time – consider the feedback that the system gives to the users, it must be
within a reasonable time to avoid performance frustrations. Moreover, the same response
must be desirable as per the user’s needs. This requirement will ensure a seamless
interaction of the various components of the application.

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 Concurrency – secondly, the system’s elements, for instance, the database instance
(cloud) and analyser should interact seamlessly with minimal conflicts. Again, this
attribute will promote the usability of the system having developed a favourable
performance (Chung, Nixon, & Yu).
User interface (UI) requirements
Similar to the other interfaces, the UI represents the boundary between the system itself and the
end user. Now, unlike the system interface that may require a technical background to analyze,
the UI will be frequently judged by the user based on their levels of satisfaction (Clark & Petrini,
2011). Therefore, the UI must possess the following attributes.
 Familiarity and simplicity – the user’s ability to interact with the system will depend on
the design of the interface which should be familiar to the functionalities and
environment of the system. In this case, the application elements such as icons and
buttons should be easily located.
 Clarity – perhaps the most significant attribute of the UI, where the user must figure out
the general proceedings of the system with ease. In all, the end users should not be
frustrated while using the application.
 Finally, responsive – again, the UI requires a fast response to users’ requests by having
minimal lag instances (Usabilitypost, 2017).
System constraints
There are factors or attributes of a system that will restrict the overall freedom of the system by
limiting its different functionalities. These factors will represent the system’s constraints as they
will deter of the application functionalities. Furthermore, unlike the other non-functional

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requirements, they are global in nature as they will affect all development processes of the
system (Ambler, 2014). In this case, the project may face the following constraints:
 Deployment environment – a cloud resource is proposed and although it represents a
favourable operation environment, it defines a new operational paradigm that will limit
various functionalities.
 Economic constraints – resources such as time and budget will restrict the development
process which will affect some system functionalities (Ebert, 2011).
A review of the cloud-based solutions
Most information systems have always been implemented on on-premise equipment owing to the
conveniences of physically accessed infrastructures i.e. security and improved data management.
However, the recent growth of cloud solutions has started to shift this outcome as organizations
try to increase the availability of their facilities. In essence, cloud solutions, unlike on-premise
equipment, will require fewer resources from the system’s owners as they are leased from
service providers (HA & Guled). Furthermore, the users will have minimal cost expenditures as
they will have minimal back-end functionalities i.e. support and management. However, at the
same time, these resources will often represent a security risk owing to the operating
environment. In all, the Headspace project is likely to have the following strengths and
weaknesses after incorporating cloud services into its system.
Benefits of cloud solutions
1. Minimal capital cost – with cloud solutions, a variety of computational resources can be
accessed and used to offer a wide range of services. These resources are not implemented
by the end user but by the service provider. Moreover, the end user can scale the capacity

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of these resources based on the immediate demands while only paying for the relevant
services and durations.
2. Usability and availability – cloud facilities especially storage enable the users to
adequately store data in a variety of locations. The same experience is given by the
overall infrastructure which is accessible from any location and at any given time.
3. Disaster recovery – another considerable benefit that is usually facilitated by the service
provider’s resources which are often in different locations. Therefore, in case of a failure
in one location, a backup in a different service centre takes over the roles. This outcome
is different in on-premise systems as they are localized in specific locations (Fesak,
2012).
Drawbacks/weaknesses
1. Environmental security limitation – the general concentration of resources in a single
online platform represents a serious security threat. Moreover, because of their size and
functional significance, they are often the target of attacks as they offer a wide range of
resources to intruders.
2. Data security – While cloud facilities may offer adequate storage facilities to host data,
their utilization will require the user to transfer a considerable amount of their control to
service providers. This control allows service providers to be able to access and manage
confidential information which affects the security of the data involved.
3. Record retention limitations - another significant drawback of cloud solutions that are
caused by its inability to retain extensive records owing to its operational structure. In
most cases, cloud facilities will continuously erase old archives in an attempt to conserve
storage space. This outcome limits the users in case they require old information (Romes,
2013).

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Software development life cycle (SDLC)
There are various methods that are used to design and develop software systems. These methods
define the models of SDLC where a variety of systemic operations are logically executed. Now,
while the definition and operations of SDLC may seem obvious to the end users, their existence
is as result of the complexity of developing information systems. In essence, a wide range of
factors and considerations are determined before implementing systems which necessitates the
need for eloquent development structures to implement software packages. Furthermore, various
systems will have different requirements and functionalities and thus will require different
development procedures (ISTQB, 2017).
In all, SDLC will represent the procedures of developing and deploying software solutions to end
users where a wide variety of requirements are given. In this project, two general SDLC
approaches are considered and are outlined below.
Predictive SDLC
This approach follows a conventional structure of system development which has a predictable
procedure that encompasses all the system requirements. In all, a consistent a structure defines
the approach where various implementation phases are executed sequentially with minimal
system variations. Now, to meet this operational requirement, the predictive approach will
assume all the system’s requirements including the end user’s functionalities. Furthermore, it
will outline a logical and sequential procedure for developing the system (CIOCouncil, 2012).
However, its most notable feature will be its inability to respond to changes where every new
and subsequent requirement after the start of the development process will require a complete
restart of the design process.

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A good example of this approach is the waterfall design model which uses a sequential pattern to
execute projects. In the model, the developers will execute a development phase independently
without overlapping the sequential plan.
Advantages of the method
i. The method is easy to understand because of its simple structure that is defined before the
start of the implementation process. Moreover, it requires constant documentation of the
processes involved which further simplifies the process.
ii. Secondly, its predictability requirements enable the users and developers to determine the
implementation timelines before the process start.
 The approach also uses minimal resources because of its conventional structure that
defines all the system’s requirements (Balaji, 2012).
Disadvantages
i. Because of it sequential structure, the development process will require the completion of
each subsequent phase before proceeding to the next. This requirement demands a lot of
time, an outcome that limits its application in time-sensitive systems.
ii. Moreover, the same execution requirement causes the approach to produce poorly
structured systems because developers will rush the development phases so as to meet the
set deadlines.
iii. Finally, the approach does not accommodate any changes during the development
process, an outcome that affects its overall functionalities (Balaji, 2012).
Adaptive SDLC approach
A modern approach to system development as it follows an agile and adaptable procedure to
system implementation. Now, unlike the predictive approach that predicts and assumes all the
requirements of the application, the adaptive method will define a versatile model that will

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provide room for system variations. Therefore, any changes during the development process will
be accommodated in the final design of the solution. Furthermore, the method will also focus on
the user’s requirement, a design attribute that will increase its satisfaction levels (Devi, 2013)..
Nevertheless, the method starts like any other SDLC approach where all the system requirements
are defined including the user’ preferences and functionalities. From this general step, the
method will then segment the development process into various phases which will have different
design functionalities. Now, these phases are then executed simultaneously having established
their unique requirements. This implementation process will result in multiple sub-systems
which are then combined to form the final solutions using iterative techniques.
Advantages of the method
i. The adaptive method is extremely flexible owing to its ability to accommodate any
design requirements.
ii. Secondly, its user-centered design process facilitates the development of efficient
systems that are able to meet the end user’s requirements. This approach also increases
the user’s satisfaction levels as their requirements are usually guaranteed.
iii. It is also time efficient because all the design phases are executed concurrently based on
their individual requirements.
Disadvantages
i. Because of the specialization exhibited by the development phases, the method requires a
lot of resources.
ii. In addition this, the method also makes it difficult to predict the development timelines as
it has to accommodate all the changes given by the end users (Balaji, 2012).

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Recommendation
Although the predictive approach represents a simple structure of implementing systems, its
extensive limitations affect its overall suitability. For one, it will require the developers to
assume all the requirements and preferences of users based on their initial assessments.
Therefore, unlike the adaptive method, it will focus on the functional requirements of the system
i.e. the tools and capabilities, an outcome that does not guarantee the user’s satisfaction.
Secondly, its deployment structure will not accommodate changes, a limitation that will affect its
application in modern applications that require agile infrastructures (CIOCouncil, 2012). On the
other hand, its counterpart, the adaptive method will meet all the users’ requirements because it
will outline an agile and flexible implementation structure. Moreover, the adaptive approach will
follow a user-centred procedure that will guarantee the user’s satisfaction. In all, the adaptive
approach will ensure that all the requirements of the Headspace project are met, which makes it
the method of choice.
Conclusion
This report has highlighted the benefits of cloud-based solutions which in general increases the
availability and accessibility of IT resources. This technology also minimizes the overall cost of
deploying solutions as the end user leases most of the resources needed. Now, the Headspace
project requires these benefits in order to improve its service delivery systems which at the
moment are backlogged with a lot of data. Furthermore, with the system, the organization will be
able to improve the treatments that are given to its mental patients as they require a complete
review of users’ personal experiences i.e. stories. Therefore, with the integration of cloud
solutions, the Headspace system will meet the overall requirements of the institution of
increasing its service delivery systems