6. Design

Now that the business analyst has a clear idea of how the system should work, this next phase is when the system is designed.

Here are some of the decisions that are taken during the design phase:

• The screen layout is designed

• The error messages are written

• The way that you will navigate from one page to another is defined

• The menu buttons are chosen

• The font style, size and colour are picked

• How data will be dealt with is specified

• What documents can be printed out

• The hardware will be needed

It is during this phase that the requirements specification and the systems specification are written.

The requirements specification details how the system will work, how data will flow through it and what it will look like to the user.

The system specification details the hardware and software that will be needed to run the system.