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Introduction Chapter 9 is the last of the three chapters on systems design. It builds on the material in chapter 6 on development strategies, where we talked about the pluses and minuses of web versus desktop applications and the "Software as Service" model. The chapter doesn't go in depth on any particular design techniques. It's more of a series of explanations of important concepts in corporate IT. The first part of the chapter, pages 400 to 404, jumps around a bit but gives some useful background. If you've never heard terms like "ERP" or "legacy system" then you need to know what they mean. Page 404-414 are all about different kinds of architecture for networked applications. Some of the discussion is a little dated, but it is important to understand ideas like client server, middle ware and the "three tier" model. Supplement this part of the chapter with the other assigned reading. Pages 418-420 explain batch processing versus online processing -- I hope you already know what these mean! The discussion of networking stuff from pages 420-426 is a bit dated and somewhat garbled, so as you have another course on this still I wouldn't worry too much about it. The end of the chapter returns briefly to the system development life cycle, outling items fot the "System Design Specification" that would be produced by the end of this phase. The textbook does not explain any method for drawing a system architecture diagram, so in class I will introduce you to the one you will use for the projects. This is inspired by the UML Deployment Diagram, but focuses on architecture rather than objects. (UML Deployment Diagrams are discussed in http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/deploymentDiagram.htm). The format is described on the Project page and in detail in the Project Hints. In class I will also be demonstrating the architecture of a web based system. Preparation and Discussion Questions
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