Agenda

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Agenda

• Lecture
• Student evaluations
• Quiz review

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Exploring Information Systems
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An Information System

• Collects, stores and processes data
• Outputs information in usable forms
• Helps organizations be more productive
• Helps humans with decision making

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An organization is

• A group of people working toward a common set of
  goals
• Guided by processes and procedures
• An entity consisting of layers of bureaucracy or
  management

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How do information systems help the people in an
organization?

• An everyday, run-of-the-mill, routine problem is
  called a structured problem
• A semi-structured problem is less routine than a
  structured problem
• An unstructured problem requires human intuition
  as the basis for finding a solution
• An information systems ability to assist with
  problem solving and decision making depends on
  the data that it collects and then makes available

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Hierarchy of systems

• Office automation systems
• Help make daily tasks easier
• What we used in our labs
• Transaction processing systems
• Collect raw data in huge amounts

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What is a transaction processing system?
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Other types of systems

• Management information system
• Crunches TPS data to create information
• Answers management questions

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What is a management information system?
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Other types of systems

• Decision Support Systems
• Non-routine, semi-structured problems
• Helps people make decisions by directly
  manipulating data, analyzing data from external
  sources, generating statistical projections, and
  creating data models of various scenarios

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Whats a decision support system?
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Other types of systems

• Expert systems
• Help us non-experts with unstructured domain
  problems
• Using a technique called fuzzy logic, an expert
  system can deal with imprecise data by asking for
  a level of confidence
• TurboTax is an example

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What is an expert system?
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Is it possible to build an expert system without
an expert?

• An expert system begins with a set of facts and
  rules. But if the rules are not known, a
  computer can learn how to make decisions based
  on hundreds or thousands of lightning-fast trial
  and error attempts
• A neural network uses computer circuitry to
  simulate the way a brain might process
  information, learn, and remember

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Can an expert system deal with uncertainty?

• Using a technique called fuzzy logic, an expert
  system can deal with imprecise data by asking for
  a level of confidence

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Designing Information Systems

• SDLC method
• 5 rigid steps
• Prototyping
• Iterative process
• Rapid application development
• Write your own rules
• Combination of the processes

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What is a system development life cycle?
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What is a system development life cycle?
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SDLC

• Planning phase
• Figure out what you need
• Analysis phase
• Figure out what you have to work with
• Design phase
• Come up with several potential designs

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SDLC (continued)

• Implementation phase
• Put the system in place
• Maintenance phase
• The covers all the fixes and modifications
• Usually the longest phase of all

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Porters Model and Information Systems

• Focus on external threats
• Threats from new entrants
• Threats from substitute products/services
• Threats from existing competition
• Threats from buyers
• Threats from customers
• Use Information Systems to combat those threats

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What kinds of threats and opportunities can
affect an organization?
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Threat from new entrants
Existing competition
Bargaining power of customers
Bargaining power of suppliers
Threat from substitute products
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Planning Phase How does an information system
project begin?

• An information system project begins with a
  planning phase
• The goal of these activities is to create a
  Project Development Plan
• This planning document includes
• A short description of the project, including its
  scope
• A justification for the project
• A list of project team participants
• A schedule for the project, including an outline
  of its phases

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Planning phase

• Talk to the end-users
• Survey workers
• Interview other departments that may have similar
  needs or systems
• End result should be a thorough understanding of
  the problem

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How do different SDLCs affect project development?

• A methodology called rapid application
  development (RAD) proceeds with the project team
  creating a series of prototypes that users can
  evaluate
• Different SDLCs also affect the project schedule
• The tools for analyzing and designing an
  information system are directly related to the
  methodology

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Analysis phase

• Interview users to see how they currently do
  their job
• Break out plans/diagrams of your existing systems
• End result should be a thorough understanding of
  what gaps exist between what is needed, and what
  you have

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Analysis Phase What happens in the analysis
phase?

• The goal of the analysis phase is to produce a
  list of requirements for a new or revised
  information system

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Determine System Requirements How does the
project team determine what the new system should
do?

• System requirements are the criteria for
  successfully solving the problem or problems
  identified in an information system
• They also serve as an evaluation checklist at the
  end of the development project, so they are
  sometimes called success factors

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What marks the end of the analysis phase of the
SDLC?

• The analysis phase concludes when the project
  team produces a written report that documents its
  findings
• The System Requirements Report typically contains
  diagrams that illustrate what the new information
  system should do

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Design phase

• Paper designs
• Usually combines the talents of programmers,
  database people, network people and system
  analysts
• You may hire an outside firm to do this
• Final result should be several designs that you
  will go over with the users to determine the best
  design

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Identify Potential Solutions How does the
project team come up with solutions?

• There might be more than one way to solve the
  problems and meet the requirements identified in
  the analysis phase of the SDLC
• The project team should identify several
  potential hardware and software solutions by
  brainstorming and researching case studies on
  Web sites and in computer magazines

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What hardware alternatives are available?

• The project team should consider the pros and
  cons of different levels
• Level of automation and computerization
• Processing methodology
• Network technology

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What software alternatives are available?

• The project team might consider software
  alternatives, such as whether to construct the
  system from scratch, use an application
  development tool, or commercial software
• Creating an information system from scratch
  using a programming language can take many months
  or years
• An application development tool is essentially a
  type of software construction kit containing
  building blocks that can be assembled into a
  software product

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What software alternatives are available?

• Commercial software for an information system is
  usually a series of pre-programmed software
  modules, supplied by a software developer,
  consulting company, or value-added reseller (VAR)
• A turnkey system is essentially an information
  system in a box which consists of hardware and
  commercial software designed to offer a complete
  information system solution
• A turnkey system must be extensively evaluated to
  determine whether it can satisfy system
  requirements

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Develop Application Specifications What happens
after the project team selects a solution?

• Exactly what happens next in the system design
  phase depends on the type of solution selected
• If the project team selected a solution that
  requires custom programming, the teams systems
  analysts will create a set of application
  specifications

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Implementation Phase What happens during the
implementation phase?

• During the implementation phase of the SDLC, the
  project team supervises the tasks necessary to
  construct the new information system

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Implementation phase

• Purchase the hardware/software
• Probably have to get final justification
• Get it working in one location first
• Probably have to do extensive testing
• Then expand your implementation
• Direct cutover, phased cutover and parallel
  cutover methods are used
• Final result should be a working system

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Implementation Phase What happens during the
implementation phase?

• During the implementation phase of the SDLC, the
  project team supervises the tasks necessary to
  construct the new information system

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Test

• Unit
• System
• Integration
• Acceptance

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Convert

• Direct
• Parallel
• Phased
• Pilot

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Maintenance phase

• Fix all problems
• should there be problems given you did extensive
  testing during implementation?
• Make upgrades, or modifications as necessary or
  requested
• Alert management as to when this system should be
  removed in favor of a better one.
• Then start the process all over again.

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Maintenance Phase What happens during the
maintenance phase?

• The maintenance phase of the SDLC involves
  day-to-day operation of the system, making
  modifications to improve performance, and
  correcting problems
• The maintenance phase of the SDLC is the most
  expensive because it lasts until the system is
  retired

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When does the maintenance phase end?

• The maintenance phase continues until an
  information system is no longer cost effective,
  or until changes in the organization make the
  information system obsolete

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