FSDEV Exam Format | FSDEV Course Contents | FSDEV Course Outline | FSDEV Exam Syllabus | FSDEV Exam Objectives

One hour 'closed book' with 40 multiple choice questions

Pass mark is 65% (26/40)


Specific learning objectives

A comprehensive range of topics are covered, including:

Introduction to systems development

Life cycle 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



Introduction to Systems Development (5%, K2) 7

2. Lifecycle types and their rationales (10%, K2) 7

3. Business Analysis (5%, K2) 8

4. Requirements Engineering (10%, K2) 8

5. Making a Business Case (10%, K3) 9

6. Programming and Development Approaches (10%, K2) 10

7. Systems Modelling and Specification Techniques (10%, K2) 10

8. Systems Design (10%, K2) 11

9. System Architecture (5%, K2) 12

10. Quality and Testing (10%, K2) 13

11. Implementation and Changeover (5%, K2) 14

12. Evaluation and Maintenance (5%, K2) 15

13. Software Support Tools (5%, K2)



This BCS Foundation Certificate in Systems Development is designed for anyone involved in
or affected by the development of IS/IT systems: this extends to Business and Systems
Analysts, Designers, Developers, Testers and other users and practitioners who want an
understanding of the coverage of Systems Development. Candidates will be able to
demonstrate an understanding of the principles systems development and delivery,
including, life cycle approaches, architecture, business analysis, requirements engineering,
systems modelling, design, development, testing, implementation and communication
between the various roles involved in systems development and delivery.

This exam sits below the range of BCS modular Certificates in Systems Development and
the BCS Diploma in Solution Development. It can be used to provide a foundation in the
subject for specialists in other disciplines.

A pass in this Certificate is an optional requirement of the BCS International Diploma in
Systems Development, for candidates wishing to follow that certification pathway later.



Specific Learning Objectives

A comprehensive range of topics are covered, including:

 Introduction to Systems Development

 Life Cycle 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



Syllabus

For each top-level area of the syllabus a percentage and K level is identified. The
percentage is the exam coverage of that area, and the K level identifies the maximum level
of knowledge that may be examined for that area.

1. Introduction to Systems Development (5%, K2)

The objective is to understand the scope of systems development work and its relationship to other associated disciplines.

1.1 What is systems development

1.2 The scope of systems development

1.3 Relationship with other disciplines such as project management, programming, testing, service management, change and configuration management

2. Lifecycle types and their rationales (10%, K2)

The objective is to understand the range of systems development lifecycles, their application, advantages and disadvantages.
2.1 Systems Development Lifecycles

 Waterfall model

 V model

 Incremental model

 Spiral model

 Unified Process

2.2 For each lifecycle

 Principles and rationale

 Structure and stages

 Advantages

 Disadvantages

 Selection criteria

 Team roles and responsibilities

2.3 Adaptation and customisation of the lifecycles

2.4 Project management and the lifecycles

 Responsibilities of project managers in systems development

 Difference between project life cycles and systems development life cycles



3. Business Analysis (5%, K2)

The objective is to understand the objectives, activities and deliverables of business analysis

work.

3.1 Definition of Business Analysis

3.2 Holistic discipline

 Focus on business problems and opportunities

 Bridge between business and IT

3.3 Place of Business Analysis in the development lifecycle

 Feasibility study

 Requirements analysis

 User acceptance testing

 Implementation

 Post-implementation review/benefits realisation

3.4 Outcomes from Business Analysis

 People change

 Process change

 IT/IS change

 Organisation change

4. Requirements Engineering (10%, K2)

The objective is to understand the core activities of the requirements engineering approach

and the techniques used to define, document and manage requirements.

4.1 Key areas of Requirements Engineering

 Requirements elicitation

 Requirements analysis

 Requirements negotiation

 Requirements documentation

 Requirements validation

4.2 Techniques for requirements elicitation

 Workshops

 Interviews

 Observation

 Questionnaires

 Scenarios

 Prototyping

 Document analysis

4.3 For each elicitation technique

 Purpose of the technique

 Advantages

 Disadvantages

4.4 Types of requirements

 Functional

 Non-functional

4.5 Prioritising requirements

 Reasons for prioritisation

 Approach to prioritisation

4.6 Managing requirements

 Recording requirements documentation

 Change control

 Version control

 Traceability

 CASE tools

4.7 Analysing and validating requirements

 Feasibility checking

 Ensuring the consistency and correctness of the requirements

 The validation process and roles

 Responsibilities of the reviewers

5. Making a Business Case (10%, K3)

The objective is to understand the purpose of producing a business case and the structure and contents of a business case.

5.1 Feasibility checking

 Business feasibility

 Technical feasibility

 Financial feasibility

5.2 Elements of a business case

 Background and context to the business case

 Options

 Costs and benefits for each option

 Impacts of each option

 Risks of each option

 Recommended actions

5.3 Identifying, evaluating and selecting options

5.4 Principles of cost/benefit analysis

5.5 Principles of impact and risk analysis

6. Programming and Development Approaches (10%, K2)

The objective is to appreciate the different approaches to programming and development of software solutions and identify the key features of each.

6.1 Types of development approaches (these are not necessarily mutually-exclusive)

 Agile Approaches

 Extreme programming

 Iterative and incremental approaches (Dynamic Systems

Development Method)

 Exploratory/empirical approaches (Scrum, Adaptive Systems

Development, Crystal, Lean Development)

 Feature driven development

 Test driven development

 Procedural

 Waterfall lifecycle

 Structured Programming

 Object-Oriented approaches

 Service Oriented

 On Demand Software

 Application Service Provider (ASP)

 Open source development

 Commercial off-the-shelf packages (COTS)

7. Systems Modelling and Specification Techniques (10%, K2)

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.

7.1 Reasons for modelling

 To aid communication between actors

 As a basis for rigorous development

 To provide a standard approach

 To ensure consistency across the development

 To assist in the identification of re-use

 To compare the current situation with the required

7.2 Modelling from different perspectives

 Examples of models

 Modelling perspectives of ‘Why; What; How; When; Who; Where

 Modelling static data (top down and bottom up)

 Modelling process and business rules

 Modelling dynamic behaviour

 Modelling user interface

7.3 Cross-referencing different modelling perspectives

 Cross-referencing process and data (e.g. CRUD)

 Cross-referencing process and objectives

 Cross-referencing user roles and processes

7.4 Documentation and specification

 Importance of documentation

 Documentation configuration management and version control

 Keeping documentation up to date

8. Systems Design (10%, K2)

The objective is to recognise the fundamental objectives and principles of good systems design.

8.1 The location of systems design in the systems development lifecycle

8.2 The objectives and constraints of systems design

 Objectives reflect many of the software qualities also identified in section

10. They include the need to deliver required functionality, reliability, maintainability, flexibility, expandability, usability, efficiency, re-usability, testability and adherence to standards

 Constraints on design include budget, time, skills available, influence of current (legacy) systems, target hardware and software platforms and internal politics

8.3 Input design, input technologies and their application

 Keyboard input considerations including data validation and data

verification requirements

 Existence check

 Range check

 Format check

 Cross-field (consistency) check

 Cost, time and accuracy advantages of direct data input

 Direct data input technologies including signals, voice, scanning, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR), Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), bar codes, swipe cards and mouse

 Application of direct data input technologies within given scenarios

8.4 Output technologies and their application (screen and form design is covered in the interface design and usability section of the syllabus)

 Output design technologies including different types of screens, printers and digital media, public display screens (for example, at bus stops) and mobile telephones

 Application of output design technologies within given scenarios

8.5 The objectives and principles of process design

 Stepwise refinement – the process of the elaboration of requirements

 Expressing processes through the constructs of sequence, condition and repetition

 Modularity and the principles of coupling and cohesion

 The principles of abstraction, encapsulation and generalisation

8.6 The objectives and principles of data design

 The aims and principles (but not conduct) of normalisation

 File organisation methods: serial, sequential, index-sequential and random

 File access methods: searches, indexes and algorithms

 Principles of hierarchical, network, relational and object-oriented database

management systems

8.7 The design of codes

 Factors affecting the design of a successful code, including uniqueness, stability, expandability and length

 The principles of facetted codes

 The use and definition of check digits

8.8 The scope and principles of security design

 Physical security of the computer environment

 Logical security measures such as passwords

 Firewalls, anti-virus software and spy-ware

 The function and content of audit trails

 Principles of the Computer Misuse Act

 Principles of the Data Protection Act

9. System Architecture (5%, K2)

The objective is to recognise the importance of a well-developed architecture as an integral

part of good system development.

9.1 Types of architecture

 Enterprise architecture and IT architecture

 Systems and application architecture

 Data architecture

9.2 Objectives and principles of systems architectures

 What is an IT architecture?

 Why is an architecture important?

 Underlying principles of architectures

9.3 Stakeholders and roles in architecture

 Customers and sponsors

 Service and product providers

 Designers and developers

 IT architect

9.4 Management of the architecture

 Monitoring compliance

 Handling change

 Evolution of architecture

9.5 The tiered architecture approach to IT system development

 The components of an IT architecture

 Interface, process and data layers

9.6 Service Oriented Architecture and Service Oriented Development Applications

 Services and technologies

 Examples of services

10. Quality and Testing (10%, K2)

The objective is to recognise the role of testing through the lifecycle.

10.1 The definition of software quality

 The need to meet robustness and reliability requirements

 The need to meet functional requirements

 The need to meet non-functional requirements, particularly usability

 The need for inherent software product qualities such as maintainability,

flexibility and efficiency

10.2 The objectives and limitations of testing

 The causes of software defects and the distinction between errors, faults

and failures

 The distinction between static and dynamic testing

 General testing principles

 Testing shows the presence of defects

 Exhaustive testing is impossible

 The principle and benefits of early testing

 The recognition of defect clustering

10.3 The structure and purpose of the static test stages of the V model

 Requirements

 Functional Specification

 Design Specification

 Module specification

10.4 The purpose and content of the dynamic test stages of the V model

 Component (unit) testing

 Component integration testing

 System testing

 Functional testing

 Non-functional testing

 User acceptance testing

10.5 Static testing

 Reviews and the test process

 Informal review

 Walkthrough

 Technical review

 Inspection

10.6 Dynamic testing

 Specification-based or black-box techniques

 Structure-based or white-box techniques

 Experience-based techniques

10.7 Re-testing (confirmation testing)

10.8 Regression testing

 Definition and scope of regression testing

 Opportunities for automating regression testing

11. Implementation and Changeover (5%, K2)

The objective is to recognise the importance of careful implementation.

11.1 The task of file and data conversion

 Technical feasibility of converting data

 Alternatives to automatically converting data, such as printing data out and re-entering it

11.2 The principles and problems of data mapping

 The principles of data mapping

 Common problems in data mapping, such as field type incompatibility, field

length differences, different field structures and absence of required fields in the current system

 Approaches to dealing with different field structures (for example, converting from one address field to three address line fields) and issues arising from populating newly defined fields with valid data

11.3 Plan, test and undertake data conversion

 Plan the steps and the timing of data conversion

 Write and test the data conversion programs

 The possible role of an automated test comparator in the testing process

 Undertake the actual conversion of live data

11.4 The role of supporting documentation, including user manuals

 The role and structure of an online help facility

 The role and structure of a printed user guide or user manual

 The role and structure of printed operational manuals

 The role and structure of technical documentation designed to allow the continuing support of the delivered software

11.5 Approaches to training

 Conventional lectures and workshops

 Remote mechanisms, such as web-casts and tele-conferencing

 Computer-based training (CBT) and e-learning initiatives

11.6 Define training needs and evaluate training effectiveness

 Identify current and proposed competencies

 Define an appropriate strategy, using approaches to training (11.5), to support the gaining of proposed competencies

 Assess the effectiveness of training in supporting these proposed competencies through post-course questionnaires and tests
11.7 Systems implementation

 The principles of direct changeover/conversion

 The advantages and disadvantages of direct changeover/conversion within a given scenario

 The principles of parallel running

 The advantages and disadvantages of parallel running within a given scenario

 The principles of pilot running

 The advantages and disadvantages of pilot running within a given scenario

12. Evaluation and Maintenance (5%, K2)

The objective is to recognise the need to evaluate a delivered system and to enhance it through subsequent maintenance.

12.1 The location of maintenance in the systems development life cycle

 Maintenance in abbreviated waterfall and V models

 The explicit reference to maintenance in the b model

 Maintenance in an iterative environment

12.2 The range of metrics which might be used to evaluate a delivered software product

 Characteristics of good metrics (for example, quantifiable, relevant, easy to collect)

 Metrics associated with the business objectives of the project (for example, concerned with improving profitability of the organisation)

 Metrics associated with the functional fit of the delivered software product (for example, number of corrective maintenance changes raised after implementation)