IB Computer Science - Unit 1.2 System Design Basics

• Environmental implications

  How computers affect the environment and how how eco friendly they are
• Economic implications

  How computers affect the economy and money
• Ethical implications

  How computers affect the society
• Moral implications

  How computers affect your moralities as a human
• Feedback system

  When the output of the system is used as an input that changes what the system does
• Voice recognition system

  Capabilities of a electronic device to understand spoken words
• Scheduling system

  The process of arranging, controlling, and optimizing work and workloads in a production process or manufacturing process
• Online payroll system


  Calculates the amount of money you own your employees based on the number of hours they worked, their hourly wage, and whether they took a vacation during that period of time
• Ticketing system


  May refer to public transportation ticketing systems, to theatre ticketing systems, etc. Or to help desk software that tracks customer request
• Accessibility


  Refers to the potential of a service, product, device or environment to serve and meet the needs of as many individuals as possible
• Ergonomics


  Refers to the design of safe and comfortable products, systems or processes, specifically for people
• Usability


  Refers to the potential of a product, application or website to accomplish user goals
• Design process


  The designers of the product may have to step back several times and reconsider choices they have made
• Software lifecycle

  A framework of designing tasks performed at each step in the software development
• Iteration


  Refers to the repetition of a set of instructions for a specific number of times or until the operations yield a desired result
• Prototype


  A working or non-working preliminary version of the final product or a simple version of the final system that is used as part of the design phase to demonstrate how the final product will work
• Modular language


  A language that supports modular programming
• Modularity (modular programming)


  The method or partitioning a computer program into separate sub-program
• Module


  A complete and independent part of a program or an algorithm
• Pseudocode

  An artificial language that is not directly related to any particular hardware and is used to describe algorithms
• Top-down design (stepwise refinement)

  "Stepwise refinement" is a software design and problem solving technique that involves the partition of a problem into smaller sub-problems
• Modular design

  The process of designing system modules individually and then combining the modules to form a solution to an overall problem
• Structure charts

  Describes functions and sub-functions of a system, as well as the relationships between modules of a computer program
• Data flow diagrams


  May usually be used to describe the problem to be solved (analysis) A DFD shows how data moves through a system and the data stores that the system uses . A DFD does not specify the type of the data storage and the type of data
• Flow chart


  Refers to the description of a data processing system, including the flow of data through any individual programs involved, but excluding the details of such programs
• Batch processing

  Data processing performed on data that have been composed and processed as a single unit (payroll)
• Real-time processing


  Data processing performed on-the-fly in which the generated data influences the actual process taking place (aircraft control)
• Online processing


  Data processing performed by a single processor though the use of equipment that it controls (airline reservation)
• Requirements specifications document


  This document defines the specific customer requirements of a computer system. It is included within the system analysis and may be later used to test the system, after implementation, in order to evaluate it
• Competitive advantage


  Organizational capabilities such as sense-making, decision-making, asset availability, and operations management are completely associated with effect implementation of an information system, which in turn positively affect organizational performance
• Hawthorne Effect


  Used to describe situations where workers better perform when they know that they are participating in an observation process
• Direct observations


  Involves spending time in different departments
• Questionnaires


  They are effective when the questions are carefully constructed so as to elicit unambiguous responses
• Interviews


  Is a direct face-to-face procedure that focuses on obtaining reliable and valid data in the form of verbal responses from a person or a group (stakeholders)
• Surveys


  Refers to a domain of applied statistics that focuses on taking samples from a population as well as improving on the various data collection techniques
• Stakeholder


  Individual teams, groups or organization that have an interest in the realization of a project or might be affected by the outcome of a project
• End-user


  A person who is going to use the product
• IT Addiction

  - Internet addiction: neglected real life, social media addiction- Gaming addiction: social desensitization, neglected education and personal development
• Digital Citizenship


  Covers appropriate behavior in a digital world. It includes using IT ethically, in a way that respect society the law and does not expose any person to threats, danger, or a contravention of their human rights
• Protocols

  These allow for compatibility, facilitate communication and interoperability