BCS Certificate in Systems Development Essentials

Candidates with special examination requirements should consult the BCS website for the Special Needs policy. Note that the BCS must be advised at least four weeks in advance of any special requirements. No prior knowledge of analysis techniques is expected.

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Please Note: This exam is currently Paper based only, therefore if you are sitting your course remotely, please reach out to your support team to advise of the options for taking your exam. If you are sitting the Course in person, your exam will take place at the end of the course.

At the end of this course you will be able to:

• Identify the tasks and disciplines required for systems development and the implementation of the development
• Describe the relationship between systems development and the wider term solution development
• Interpret the business requirements and produce systems requirements
• Describe the commonly used development lifecycles defined in the syllabus
• Select a particular development lifecycle based on specific characteristics
• Describe in detail one method that embraces one (or more) of these generic lifecycles
• Describe the structure, activities and deliverables of this method
• Identify the key roles and responsibilities within the chosen method and describe how these can be used to form teams
• Describe, interpret and quality assure the key models that the selected method uses for defining the process, static and event processes of the system
• Explain the differences between logical and physical models
• Make effective use of different methods of interpersonal communications
• Quality assure the systems requirements documentation and models
• Identify different architectures for systems development solutions
• Conduct a quality review
• Explain how CASE, CAST and Application Management tools might be used to support the chosen method

Systems Development Roles and Responsibilities

Identify the Actors/Roles and responsibilities within system development and implementation (for example, analysts, designers, developers, testers and technical architects). Characteristics of these roles. Team structure.

Architecture

Different levels of architecture – Enterprise, Business, Solution, Infrastructure (networks, databases) Inputs at Enterprise level. Inputs at Solution and Infrastructure level. Impacts of design decisions.

Systems Development Lifecycles

Waterfall. V Model. Incremental or phased delivery. Spiral or iterative. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Selection of an appropriate approach on defined characteristics.

Development Practices

Bespoke development. Evolutionary / Agile. Prototyping. Component based development. Software Package solutions (COTS Commercial off-the-shelf).

Methods

Structure and content of a chosen representative method (DSDM/Scrum). Describe and interpret three representative models (UML) from the method, showing at least: Process perspective, Data perspective, Event perspective. Explain how these models can be used to depict the logical and physical aspects of a system. Roles and team structures within the chosen method. Products within a chosen method.

Systems Investigation

Fact finding approaches: Workshops, Prototyping, Interviewing, Questionnaires (for usability or package selection for example), Scenario Analysis. Functional requirements definition. Non-functional requirements definition. Documenting system requirements. Human aspects of systems investigation and introducing change.

System Design, Implementation and Maintenance

Controls and security. Verification and validation. Interface design. Design principles and constraints (legal, ethical, financial). Different types of implementation. Sign off and deployment. Post implementation reviews. Different types of maintenance and support.

Quality Assurance

Definitions of quality. Requirements driven testing. Types of walkthrough and inspection. Post Project Reviews. Service Level Agreements.

CASE, CAST and application lifecycle tools

Software support for systems development. Features of CASE and CAST tools. Features of Application Lifecycle Management. Lifecycle coverage. Configuration and version control.

Case Study and Exercises

Throughout the course a case study and other exercises are used to reinforce and practise the topics discussed. A sample exam paper with marking scheme is also provided.