Customer Reviews

Essentials of Systems Analysis and Design

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Because I'm a university faculty member in a Computer Science department and have taught classes containing the subject matter in this book, I received an unsolicited instructor's evaluation copy for review from the publisher.

Frankly, I find it impossible to take this book seriously, not because of its content (adequate) or its quality (looks really nice) or how well it fits my class (fairly closely). It's the PRICE!!!! Why make my students pay $160 for a paperback text when there are so many more (cheaper) possibilities out there? This book should be priced in the $40 range and no higher.

Publishers like Prentice Hall/Pearson should know better. As tuition and fees keep rising faster than a politician's income, we faculty members are doing everything we can to keep our students' costs down, and that means avoiding high-priced books like this....

I purchased this text for a college course,that I was required to take. Simply put this is one of the worst textbooks I have ever seen. The author does not clearly explain the concepts in the book, he uses the most vauge definitions I've ever seen. I reccomend to any students taking a course with this book,appeal to the proffeser to get a diffrent text, and to any proffesors considering using it for their course, please reconsider.

I was forced to use this book for a class. I find the text very unclear and hard to understand with quite a few errors. The layout of the pages is poor and the author seems to get lost in his/her own words. The problems found at the end of each chapter never give enough information to tell you what you are supposed to be doing and they often ask for information that is not found in the text. For what you get this book is extremely overpriced. I may even sell this book back.

This textbook is incomplete, inaccurate, and invalid as a tool for teaching students about current System Analysis and Design concepts. Beg your instructor to choose a different textbook.

I only purchased this book because I am taking a class in Systems Analysis through an online college. I must say that the content is OK but the delivery is horrible. This is, without doubt, the most boring book I have ever had the displeasure to read. I honestly was only able to read half of a chapter at a time. I have never read a book that made me this tired and the worst part is that after I was done I couldn't even begin to tell you what I just read. The good part is that the sides of the pages have key terms defined. This book could be the perfect cure for insomnia - I'm not kidding.

I teach from this book for an on-line college. I like the book because it gives a simplistic view of the Systems Development Life Cycle to those who have never been exposed to it. The book is well organized and follows the SDLC as the book progresses.

This is a good book to start with to understand Systems Analysis and Design. It gives the details of the processes software developers go through to implement a system or to change an existing system. A true appreciation for this process and the "whys" is not totally understood by the student. It is too bad that there isn't a way to bring a little hands on experience to the text in the classroom setting. The authors have not left anything out. Many times the information is presented more than once for the point of reinforcement and to perhaps go deeper. The student "does" get tired of the same 'furniture store' example used throughout the book. This scenario does not allow all aspects of SDLC to be applied, although the authors do force it. Perhaps the authors should have found 2 or 3 companies of different scale and cultures to show how to apply SDLC techniques or to show what the consequences of not using the SDLC method. This is a good book that must be updated as the software development industry changes.

This book is atrocious in its implementation of its text AND of its review questions at the end of the chapter. Many times there will be questions asked which no way of being answered given what is presented in the text. This book was a requirement for a college, otherwise it is useless as a learning tool.

There are some really good BASIC terms and methods introduced throughout the book however most is useless fluff. Why not condense to 20 pages and call the "Complete idiots Guide to Systems Analysis & Design ".

The other reviews of this text amaze me! Yes there are some errors, and some of the end-of-chapter exercises do require a little thought - that is probably why one reviewer couldn't answer them. It is a short concise, very straightfoward to use text, I use support material for the lectures and my own materials for the tutorials, but this book is very good at highlighting the key points. It is up to your lecturer to make it more interesting I'm afraid. Overall I think this is a very good Systems Analysis text for 1st year MIS students.