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2019 Subject Guide PDF
2019 Subject Guide PDF
systems
T. Cornford with M. Shaikh
IS1060
2019
Undergraduate study in
Economics, Management,
Finance and the Social Sciences
This subject guide is for a 100 course offered as part of the University of London
undergraduate study in Economics, Management, Finance and the Social Sciences. This is
equivalent to Level 4 within the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ). For more information, see: london.ac.uk/
This guide was prepared for the University of London by Dr Tony Cornford, Associate Professor
of Information Systems, Department of Management, London School of Economics (Retired)
It is a revision and elaboration of the previous version developed jointly with Dr Maha Shaikh,
Senior Lecturer of Digital Innovation, Department of Digital Humanities, Kings College London
This is one of a series of subject guides published by the University. We regret that due
to pressure of work the authors are unable to enter into any correspondence relating to,
or arising from, the guide. If you have any comments on this subject guide, favourable or
unfavourable, please use the form at the back of this guide.
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The University of London asserts copyright over all material in this subject guide except where
otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form,
or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher. We make every effort to
respect copyright. If you think we have inadvertently used your copyright material, please let
us know.
Contents
Contents
Section 1: Introduction............................................................................................ 1
Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................... 3
1.1 Route map to the guide........................................................................................... 3
1.2 Introduction to the subject area............................................................................... 7
1.3 Sociotechnical approach to Information Systems.................................................... 10
1.4 Syllabus................................................................................................................ 11
1.5 Aims of the course................................................................................................. 12
1.6 Learning outcomes for the course.......................................................................... 12
1.7 Overview of learning resources.............................................................................. 13
1.8 Examination advice............................................................................................... 18
1.9 Glossary of abbreviations....................................................................................... 20
Chapter 2: Coursework.......................................................................................... 23
2.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 23
2.2 Introducing the projects......................................................................................... 24
2.3 General rules for submission of assignments.......................................................... 26
2.4 Reminder of learning outcomes............................................................................. 26
Chapter 3: A short history of information systems............................................... 27
3.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 27
3.2 Information systems today..................................................................................... 27
3.3 A very simple model of basic computer hardware................................................... 29
3.4 A brief history of computers and networks............................................................. 30
3.5 Modern taxonomy of computers............................................................................ 32
3.6 Client server computing......................................................................................... 33
3.7 Overview of chapter.............................................................................................. 34
3.8 Reminder of learning outcomes............................................................................. 34
3.9 Test your knowledge and understanding................................................................ 35
Section 2: Concepts underlying information systems........................................... 37
Chapter 4: Information and data........................................................................... 39
4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 39
4.2 What is information?............................................................................................. 40
4.3 The value and cost of information.......................................................................... 42
4.4 Data and information............................................................................................ 45
4.5 Overview of chapter.............................................................................................. 46
4.6 Reminder of learning outcomes............................................................................. 47
4.7 Test your knowledge and understanding................................................................ 47
Chapter 5: The ‘systems’ of information systems.................................................. 49
5.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 49
5.2 Systems................................................................................................................. 49
5.3 Information systems as systems............................................................................. 52
5.4 Overview of chapter.............................................................................................. 53
5.5 Reminder of learning outcomes............................................................................. 53
5.6 Test your knowledge and understanding................................................................ 53
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
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Contents
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
iv
Section 1: Introduction
Section 1: Introduction
The first section of this subject guide comprises Chapters 1 and 2 and
introduces the course and the subject guide.
Chapter 1 presents a general discussion of the course and its various parts
and introduces you to the learning resources that are available. Chapter 2
introduces the project work required as a part of the overall course. This
project work provides 25 per cent of your overall mark.
Chapter 2 is placed at the start of the guide because we want you to be
thinking about your project work from the very start. However, we do
advise that you wait until you are further into your period of study before
you decide on the specific project you will work on – certainly until you
have covered a good proportion of the syllabus. More detail on the exact
specification of the two elements of the work and how they are to be
tackled are given in Chapters 16, 18 and 19 of the subject guide. There is
also further material available on the virtual learning environment (VLE)
for this course.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Notes
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction
and writing short reports that document this work. Further details are
given in Chapters 18 and 19.
• Section 2, comprising Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, considers Concepts
underlying information systems. In these chapters you will
be introduced to a bit of history of the subject and the concepts of
technology, data, information and systems that lie at its core (hence
information systems). We will go on to discuss further some of the
key technologies used in information systems relating to data and
software.
• Section 3, comprising Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, considers
Information systems in organisations. In these chapters we will
address core concepts and models used in the academic literature of
the subject as well as by those who manage information systems and
those who work in the industries that support information systems.
The final chapter in this section invites you to engage with people who
manage information systems to understand how they see their role in
organisations.
• Section 4, comprising Chapters 13,14, 15,16 and 17, turns to
Information systems development. Here we look at the work
needed to identify new information needs and establish a project to
construct a new information system and successfully set it to work
within an organisation.
• Section 5, comprising Chapters 18 and 19, addresses the coursework
assignments, with a chapter each on the database assignment and
the spreadsheet assignment.
• The final section is a single chapter – Chapter 20 – which gives a
reflective overview of the subject. The purpose of this is to help
you to tie together the various parts of the course and increase your
overall understanding.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Structure
People Technology
Task
Figure 1.1: Leavitt’s diamond: the basis for a sociotechnical view of information
systems.
Leavitt’s diamond expresses what we call a sociotechnical view of
information systems. That is, information systems are in part social (about
people and human organisations) and in part technical (technology as
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.4 Syllabus
Information systems concepts: Information and data. Capture of data,
storage, processing and display. Information systems in organisations,
the digital economy. Introduction to systems ideas and their application
to information handling activities. The sociotechnical character of
information systems.
Information systems within organisations: The roles and
functions of information systems within organisations including providing
management information, supporting e-commerce, supporting knowledge
work and undertaking transaction processing. Use of information by
various types of people and as applied to various types of task. New
models of organising. Information systems management roles and
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
one or two people to fulfil all such tasks, who may not be professionals in
matters of information systems.
In contrast, the course IS1181 Digital infrastructures for business
takes the perspective of the digital technologies and services that these
people can draw on in order to develop and run information systems.
Its emphasis is on the kinds of digital services that are delivered via
digital networks (e.g. the internet, mobile phones, social media, etc.).
Furthermore, many such services are also delivered to, and used by,
individuals too, so it is not just the needs or interests of organisations we
are concerned with in IS1181 Digital infrastructures for business,
but mine and yours as well.
At the outset take some time to become familiar with the structure of
Laudon and Laudon (2018) and the way information is organised within
each chapter. Note, in particular, the frequent use of case studies at the
start, within and at the end of chapters. You will see that each chapter’s
brief introductory case study has a summary diagram highlighting
management, technology and organisation solutions that have been found
to respond to business challenges, and have thus led to some innovation in
information systems and thus to business solutions.
At the end of each chapter there is a summary of the key ideas discussed
in the chapter as well as review questions, key terms and ideas for further
work. Once you understand the structure of the book, you will be better
able to monitor your developing understanding of the subject and to
evaluate your progress.
The second principal text, within which most topics and useful contrasting
treatments of topics can be found, is:
Beynon-Davies, P. Business information systems. (London: Palgrave, 2013) second
edition [ISBN 9781137265807].
For some topics Beynon-Davies offers a deeper and more thorough
treatment, including topics related to computer technology and systems
development activities. This book is also helpful in supporting your
practical assignments.
Neither of the books listed above provides, on its own, a full coverage of
the whole subject. Indeed, as you are studying for a university degree,
we assume that you will be using multiple sources and will base your
understanding on as wide a reading base as possible.
The following text is relevant to the coursework element of this course
also a useful resource to back-up understanding of other topics:
Curtis, G. and D. Cobham Business information systems: analysis, design and
practice. (London: Prentice Hall, 2008) 6th edition [ISBN 9780273713821].
It is always preferable that you have access to the latest editions of these
books. The world of information systems and information technology
changes rapidly, as does our understanding of what is important and
relevant in developing and managing information systems. If you are using
this subject guide a couple of years after its publication, and new editions
of the books mentioned have been produced, please use the new editions.
Note that Laudon and Laudon (2018) and Beynon-Davies (2013) are the
fifteenth and second editions respectively, and new editions come out quite
often. When new editions are produced, their titles may differ slightly, so
do not be confused by this.
Detailed reading references in this subject guide refer to the editions of
the set textbooks referred to above. If new editions of one or more of these
textbooks have been published by the time you study this course, use the
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Chapter 1: Introduction
detailed chapter and section headings and the index to identify or confirm
the relevant reading sections. You can also check the VLE for updated
guidance on readings.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Internet resources
The assessed coursework does not require you to make any particular
use of the internet. It is almost impossible, however, to have any
understanding of what computers and networks do for us, for governments
and for businesses (or will do in the future), without some experience
of the internet. This would usually mean some experience of using the
world wide web − searching for and locating information resources of
various types − as well as experience of using email and other methods of
communication, such as Facebook, Twitter, chat rooms or net meetings.
Since this subject guide will remain in print for some time, and as the
internet is constantly evolving and updating, it is not helpful to list a large
number of websites here. However, a few sites are worth noting:
www.datamation.com/
The site of the American magazine, Datamation. A good source of material
on contemporary information systems topics.
www.informationweek.co.uk/
The site of the UK weekly publication Information Week. A good source of
news about ICT and information systems.
www.computerweekly.com/ and www.computing.co.uk
The sites of the two most prominent UK weekly computing trade papers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikipedia is the largest web-based encyclopedia and is available in a
number of languages. It is often a useful resource to check up on a concept
or to get a second opinion about something. It is not, however, a substitute
for a good textbook and you certainly should not believe everything you
read there.
Unless otherwise stated, all websites in this subject guide were accessed in
December 2018. We cannot guarantee that they will stay current and you
may need to perform an internet search to find the relevant pages.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Notes
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Chapter 2: Coursework
Chapter 2: Coursework
2.1 Introduction
This chapter provides an introduction to the coursework required for this
course. It lays out the general aims of the work, the approach you should
take and the basics of preparing and presenting your work.
Databases
Curtis, G. and D. Cobham Business information systems: analysis, design and
practice. (London: Prentice Hall, 2008) 6th edition [ISBN 9780273713821]
Chapter 13, Section 13.2.
Laudon, K.C. and J.P. Laudon Management information systems: managing the
digital firm. Global edition. (Boston; London: Pearson, 2018) 15th edition
[ISBN 9781292211756] Chapter 6, Section 6.2.
Spreadsheets
Curtis, G. and D. Cobham Business information systems: analysis, design and
practice. (London: Prentice Hall, 2008) 6th edition [ISBN 9780273713821]
Chapter 7, Section 7.2.
Laudon, K.C. and J.P. Laudon Management information systems: managing the
digital firm. Global edition. (Boston; London: Pearson, 2018) 15th edition
[ISBN 9781292211756] Chapter 12, Sections 12.1 and 12.2.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
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Chapter 2: Coursework
The exact choice of project is up to you, and you will need to work
carefully on identifying and developing your project ideas. Projects are
intended to be individual works, so they must be different to those of any
other student with whom you are studying. Make sure that your chosen
project areas are distinct and in an area with which you are familiar
and interested. Thus our recommendation is that your projects should
be developed out of some experience or interest that you have or some
application that you believe is needed in the world around you. It should
not be just a textbook exercise.
In both database and spreadsheet projects the Examiners want to see
evidence of the originality of the topic chosen as the basis for the work
and for the data used. In our experience as Examiners we have seen too
many students taking boring, abstract and over simple topics as the basis
of their work, or just replicating work based on some standard textbook
example. There is nothing wrong with reading textbooks on databases or
spreadsheet modelling, or exploring examples provided with your software
– indeed this is a good idea – but you must then go beyond any examples
you have studied and create your own projects based on your own chosen
application area.
For the database project, there are two central requirements – first, a
carefully developed class diagram to show those aspects of the world that
your databases will store data about. The second is a normalised data
model that serves as the design that you will implement in software. The
class diagram is the result of analysis work – you studying the world. The
data model, which leads on from the class diagram, is the result of design
work – taking the class diagram as its starting point. If the data model
is well executed, with entities identified, relations clearly expressed and
attributes specified, then the rest of the project – its implementation using
the software – will follow smoothly. In preparing the data model you must
show evidence that you have explicitly considered issues of normalisation.
Further details of class diagrams, data models and normalisation are
covered in Chapter 16 of this subject guide.
For the spreadsheet project, it is less easy to identify a specific or linked set
of fundamental requirements. To achieve a good mark, you need to select
an appropriate problem to tackle – one that has a reasonable quantity of
data and an underlying computational model that you can implement.
The best projects draw on real data that relate to some area that you
really understand or have researched. Weak projects are based on made-
up data or examples from books that provide models that are too simple
or too generic. Remember too, good spreadsheets are designed according
to sound principles. You thus need to give careful consideration to who
the user is, what they want, how the spreadsheet is structured, how it
looks on the screen and on the page, and the clear separation of input
data (independent variables) from formulas and parameters, intermediate
results and final output (dependent variables). Equally, you should choose
graphs and charts so as to provide particular and useful information to the
user and not just generate them for the sake of showing off every feature
of the spreadsheet package. For example, pie charts are easy to produce,
but are you sure that a pie chart is relevant in providing the user of your
spreadsheet with what they want or need?
It is also important for you to understand that the written report is what
the examiners mark. They do not receive any database or spreadsheet files
to run on a computer. Examiners do not expect any accompanying data of
program files with the project work, and if you submit files, they will not
be looked at. What examiners do expect to receive, printed on paper, is a
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
coherent account of the problem you tackled, the approach you used and
key details of how you analysed, designed and implemented your solution.
Any accompanying printouts, screenshots, database tables should only be
provided to support the written report and should be carefully chosen and
referred to in the report. If you just rely on lots of ‘printouts’ and fail to
write a coherent report, the examiners cannot give you many marks.
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Chapter 3: A short history of information systems
3.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we present an overview of the evolution of the subject of
information systems, with a particular focus on recent innovations that
have changed the way information systems are developed and used in
business organisations.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
you know there must be an answer, because when you switch on your
computer or phone, it does spring into life after a short time. That answer
is contained in a further form of memory – the ROM (read only memory).
ROM is another form of chip memory, but one that will permanently hold
the data that is written into it. A computer will have some small program
permanently stored within itself, one that is able to initiate the reading
of further programs from the secondary storage devices (e.g. discs on a
PC or, perhaps, chip memory). This is often referred to as the bootstrap
ROM, since it ‘pulls the computer up by its bootstraps’. This is where the
everyday expression to ‘boot’ or ‘reboot’ the computer derives from.
The description we have provided here of computer hardware is very brief
and somewhat minimal. This is not, after all, the main focus of this course.
However, you need to understand these few basic ideas of how a computer
works logically and schematically if you are to follow the wider discussions
when we come to explain how computers are used and their consequences
in the world.
Activity 3.1
1. From these global IT companies – Apple, Google, Baidu, Lenovo, IBM, Intel, Microsoft,
Oracle, Samsung, Acer, Arm, Lenovo, SAS and SAP – choose three to investigate. Use
the various company websites as the main basis for your research. For each company,
explain:
the primary expertise that each holds
the business model (or models) they use to generate revenues and make profits
(e.g. what they sell and to whom, and how).
The second 30-year period, from about 1980, was different. From the mid-
1990s computers began getting smaller and smaller and more and more
powerful, and communications networking became cheaper, faster, more
reliable and, increasingly, wireless (for short distances). The combination
of these two broad trends – smaller, more powerful computers and faster,
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Chapter 3: A short history of information systems
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Chapter 3: A short history of information systems
Activity 3.2
Conduct online research into the benefits that businesses might accrue by integrating
mobile devices like smartphones into their business information systems and the kinds of
changes these may lead to. Consider this from the perspective of the organisation itself,
its employees and teams that work in the business, and then from the perspective of the
firm’s customers and suppliers. Note: a Google search for ‘mobile technology for business’
came up with a number of magazine and newspaper articles on this theme (as well as
some adverts for consultancy companies, which you can ignore).
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Chapter 3: A short history of information systems
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Notes
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Section 2: Concepts underlying information systems
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Notes
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Chapter 4: Information and data
4.1 Introduction
This chapter explores ‘information’ and ‘data’. These are two fundamental
concepts underlying the use of information systems. It then links these to
the concepts of knowledge work and knowledge workers.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
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Chapter 4: Information and data
Activity 4.1
1. Contrast the definition of information given above with that given in Laudon and
Laudon (2018), Beynon-Davies (2013) and in other textbooks. How similar are they,
what are the common themes?
2. Review the definition of knowledge work found in Laudon and Laudon (2018),
Chapter 11. What kinds of tasks do knowledge workers perform in organisations?
What kind of a lower threshold would you establish to differentiate a knowledge
worker from any other employee?
Activity 4.2
1. Why do people pay for information – for example, when they buy a textbook, novel or
daily newspaper? Is there any information that you believe should always be available
for free to all, or perhaps to citizens of a particular country? Should, for example, all
personal tax records be made public online, as is done in some Nordic countries?
2. Why do we speak today about our society as an ‘information society’? What do you
understand as the primary characteristics of an information society? Is it just about
the use of computers and networks or the acquisition and processing of data, or does
it signify more?
3. Provide, in your own words, a definition of the concept of a knowledge worker.
Give four carefully chosen and contrasting examples of a knowledge worker and
explain how each of these people works with information and suggest what formal
information systems they might use.
Above we suggest that information has some value and that it is therefore
worthwhile spending resources to improve the availability of information
and its quality. The value of information may be based on a number of
characteristics – whether the information is:
• reliable and accurate
• accessible
• up-to-date or timely
• conveniently presented
• at an appropriate level of detail
• reduces our uncertainty
• exclusive
• pleases (e.g. in the sense of a story, a cartoon or a song evokes a direct
response from the receiver)
• enables some other valued task.
In general, the cost of producing and delivering information will be
significant. An organisation will need to use various types of resources,
including people and technology, to produce, manage and distribute
information. In this way too, our approach to information systems is ‘socio-
technical’ – a combination of concern and consideration for people (what
they do and what they want) and concern for the technologies.
Activity 4.3
Review Section 1.3 in Curtis and Cobham (2008) on the value of information. Explain
the links between the ‘three contemporary approaches to information systems’ presented
by Laudon and Laudon (2018) in Chapter 1 and the ways in which we might value
information.
for a limited period of time only. Patents are very important in research-
intensive industries (e.g. knowledge industries) such as the pharmaceutical
industry, whose economics are based on undertaking costly research into
new drugs with the potential for then exploiting them exclusively in the
market for the period of time they can claim patent protection. When
patents run out, anybody can use the ideas that were patented. Patents can
also be sold, licensed and traded, another example of information having
monetary value.
Activity 4.4
Before you continue working your way through this chapter of the subject guide, read
Chapter 6 of Avgerou and Cornford (1998), which has a longer discussion of information
as a theoretical theme in information systems.
at the right level of detail. They should not cause information overload.
This is easy to say, but can be far harder to do. How many times have you
looked at a website desperate for a particular item of information and
cursed the designer who seemed to think that putting more and more
information on the site would please more people!
Activity 4.5
1. Think of an example in your own life when you suffer from information overload.
What do you do about it?
2. Look at a selection of information presentations that you use in your everyday life,
for example, a bus timetable, a film listing, a Facebook page, your college timetable
or the contents page of this subject guide. Are these sources of information as well
presented and useful to you as they could be? Can you suggest some improvements?
Activity 4.6
1. Look through various textbooks and reference sources (e.g. Wikipedia, a dictionary)
and make a collection of their different definitions of information. How much variety
is there to be found? Do you prefer some definitions to others?
2. A recent report ‘Science as an Open Enterprise’, published in June 2012 by the Royal
Society (available at: http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/science-public-enterprise/
report/) offered the following definitions of data, information and knowledge:
Data: Numbers, characters or images that designate an attribute of a phenomenon
Information: Data becomes information when they are combined together in ways
that have the potential to reveal patterns in the phenomenon.
Knowledge: Information yields knowledge when it supports non-trivial, true claims
about a phenomenon.
This is a report written by scientists and reflects the way that they see the concepts
we have discussed here. Do you see their definitions as fully compatible with the
discussion here? To what extent do their definitions reflect the fact that they are
scientists? How does this contrast with our status as ‘managers’ or ‘social scientists’?
(Note that we do not suggest that you read this report. But it is always good practice
to cite the sources you use when writing.)
3. Does a knowledge worker’s knowledge come mostly in the form of knowledge of (i)
some kind of theory, (ii) some facts about the world, or (iii) does it come in the form
of practice and experience? Use examples of particular kinds of knowledge worker to
explain your answer.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Notes
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Chapter 5: The ‘systems’ of information systems
5.1 Introduction
In this chapter we explore the concept of a ‘system’ which is fundamental
to how we talk about, design and manage information activities in
organisations.
5.2 Systems
We speak throughout this course about information systems, by which we
mean purposive uses of ICTs by businesses or any other kind of organisation
to provide needed information to allow it to operate. But what does the
word ‘system’ mean or imply? As we show here the idea of a ‘system’ is a
useful and helpful way to think about what ICT can do. In particular the
concept of an information system is different to an approach that simply
looks at computers as exclusively technical devices or as direct and obvious
routes to solving individual and isolated information-handling needs.
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Activity 5.1
Before working through this next section, read Section 1.1, Chapter 1 of Laudon and
Laudon (2018) and Chapter 2 of Beynon-Davies (2013).
If you have time, you could also look at Chapter 1 and 6 of Avgerou and Cornford
(1998).
Activity 5.2
Consider an air-conditioning system. Its main components are a compressor unit, a fan,
ducting and a thermostat that senses the temperature and controls the compressor,
turning it on or off. Explain this system in terms of it being an open or closed system, the
inputs and outputs involved and the control process or feedback that steers the system.
What would you see as the ‘purpose’ of the system? What does it strive to achieve? How
does the output of the system change the environment and thus the input?
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Chapter 5: The ‘systems’ of information systems
Input
System Boundary
Feedback
Output
Activity 5.3
1. Would you consider the economic system of your country as an open system or a
closed system? What are the reasons for your answer?
2. Taking the online store Amazon as a system embedded in an environment of
potential purchasers (of course, it is more than that), explain, with an example, how
the control or feedback might work. First consider what the inputs and outputs are
and what the purpose of the system is. Then try to show how information on outputs
can ensure more or better inputs.
Hint: If outputs are books shipped to people, how can we use that data to improve the
number of inputs (e.g. orders)?
Activity 5.4
Review the distinction made in Laudon and Laudon (2018) between a formal information
system and an informal information system. How important are informal information
systems, are they purposive in the same way as formal systems?
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Chapter 5: The ‘systems’ of information systems
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IS1060 Introduction to information systems
Notes
54
Chapter 6: Managing data with technologies
6.1 Introduction
Data is central to all aspects of information systems, both in the overall
theory and understanding, and in the real world where they are used. In
today’s world and even more in tomorrow’s we potentially have a great
deal of data to capture and use. Of course there are some concerns about
this, concerns about personal privacy, about monopoly suppliers, about
fake or manipulated data. We might also worry about relying too much on
what is easily captured, losing sight of other aspects of the world that are
not so easy to resolve into digital data.
Activity 6.1
Read the opening section of Chapter 4 of Laudon and Laudon (2018), ‘The dark side of
big data’.
In your opinion what are the three main ethical issues that big data raises? Briefly justify
your answers with examples.
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Chapter 6: Managing data with technologies
Business understands that any and all of this data is potentially useful; to
the trucking company, the senders of the goods, the people expecting a
delivery and the maintenance engineers from the company that runs the
truck and the design engineers at the company that built the truck– and
probably lots of other people too. For example the data on speed or weather
might be useful to a company running a service like Google Maps if it can
show congestion on the road – and this company may pay for such data.
Some of the data will be used in ‘real-time’ and perhaps then discarded,
but much of the data will be collected and added to other similar data
from other trucks and elsewhere and can be analysed in the future for
multiple purposes.
One common way to think of big data is in terms of the 4 Big Vs:
• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety
• Veracity
or even a fifth V for Value.
Activity 6.2
Research online the concepts behind the 4 (or5) Vs of big data.
In what ways do each of the Vs change the way that information systems work and what
we expect them to do for an organisation?
To use big data organisations need to start learning and applying various
new analytical tools and techniques, including statistics and forecasting
to help provide new services that are able to inform decision making by
humans (e.g. Google Maps using traffic data to show congestion on roads
to drivers in real time so they can make decisions about their route). Big
data may also be used to drive automated forms of decision making that
use AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies. For example, extensive data
bases of patient data with X-rays and MRI scans, as well as treatments
and outcomes, can drive new diagnostic systems to support doctors. The
technology behind this (i.e. using big data on past events and outcomes to
drive intelligent algorithms) is known as ‘Machine Learning’. To read more
about this see a medical example on the website of the company ‘Deep
Mind’ at https://deepmind.com/blog/moorfields-major-milestone/
Activity 6.3
A warehouse stores information on 3,000 products. Each product description comprises
about 500 characters of text plus a photo of about two megabytes. How much cloud
storage space will need to be allocated (and paid for) to store this information? Express
your answer in megabytes and kilobytes.
Could you store a copy of this database on your phone or on your laptop?
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Example
The customer accounts system of Multinational Bank has a database
of customer account details, that is, records containing data on
individual customers. Among the data that is stored are:
•• name
•• customer number
•• date of first opening an account
•• address
•• telephone number
•• email address.
The data is used whenever a person is contacted in any way. In
practice, these records will need to be accessed in any order,
depending on which customer a bank employee wishes to contact
(called ‘random access’). The customer number field has a special
status as the key field, because the customer number allows the
correct record to be uniquely identified and retrieved. The file is
stored in a data centre and a bank employee can directly read any
record or search the file. This is coordinated by database management
system software (DBMS) that takes care of the details of the storage
and retrieval of these records.
exactly data is stored, accessed and retrieved for any given application.
Still, if big data gets really big technical limits do start to have an impact.
In any case, as you will see in undertaking your database assignment,
designing databases is itself a complex task that needs to be carefully
approached (see Chapters 16 and 18 of this guide).
As mentioned above, in the early years of computers each application
(program) had its own separate files to store relevant data. This may
have made it easier to develop each individual application, but it may
also have caused longer term problems. As data needs to be used by
different applications storing it many times is wasteful and will lead to
inconsistencies and errors, it has therefore become standard in business
to approach data storage using a database approach rather than a
file-based approach.
The principle behind the database approach is to store data in an
integrated and coordinated manner, so that many users or application
programs can share it. As a principle, items of data should be stored
only once. This will allow control of information to be improved,
inconsistencies to be avoided and security to be carefully managed. On
the negative side, a database approach requires careful design and active
management and if done poorly, it may allow data errors to propagate
among every application that uses the database. If your bank stores your
email address just once and it is not entered correctly, and all applications
use that single record when they want to contact you, then you will not
get emails from the bank.
When designing a database (a task you undertake as part of your
coursework – see Chapters 16 and 18), the data about the world and how
it works that you want to store has to be carefully assessed and the way
it is stored carefully designed to take into account the needs of all the
various users and their various requirements. Design is also important
to ensure that as data is updated (added to, deleted, changed, etc.), the
overall database still remains consistent.
As a simple example of this kind of problem of updating (which is one
we will return to in Chapter 16) if a company deletes a customer from
their database because the customer has gone out of business, they should
probably also delete any unfulfilled future orders from this customer. But
should they delete all the orders that have been supplied in the past or
all the payments that have been made? Almost certainly not if they want
the accounts to add up at the end of the year and the stock records to be
accurate. You can see from this that designing databases and managing
data is a hard task – one that is undertaken by a particular kind of IT
professional, the database designer and database manager.
A database management system (DBMS) – a specific kind of software -
supports the database approach. This software takes care of the details of
storage of data and provides the user or the application programs with a
simple interface through which they can request items of data and return
them for storage. Such interfaces are provided for programs to use as they
run and for individual users who wish to extract some information directly
from a database on an ad hoc basis – a query language, an example of
which is SQL (Structured Query Language).
Various models have been used to structure data in databases, including
the network model, hierarchical model and object model. For this syllabus,
we only consider the relational model for design of a database, although
we do use an object oriented style of diagramming for undertaking the
analysis – see Chapters 16 and 18 for more detail.
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Activity 6.4
In London there are over 30 major hospitals. If they all agreed to develop a single
coordinated database of patient records that they could share, which architecture would
you suggest: centralised, distributed, or replicated?
Justify your answer. But note that there is no ‘right’ answer here – just a difficult decision
that IS professionals will need to explain to the users of the system in terms of trade-offs.
Perhaps the users can then decide?
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Activity 6.5
Cloud services are usually categorised as being ‘public’ or ‘private’, and in terms of SaaS,
IaaS, PaaS. For each of these concepts prepare a brief definition and give two relevant
examples.
Increased use of cloud computing (e.g. public cloud services) may also
have some benefits in terms of global and local environmental impact.
For example, it has been reported that data centres use more than 1.5 per
cent of all electrical power in the world (see Beynon-Davies Chapter 11,
section 11.8). If cloud computer centres are located where clean cheap
hydroelectricity is generated, and data and work are sent to them using
the internet, then we may save the pollution caused by running computers
on expensive electricity that is generated using carbon fuels (e.g. oil, gas,
coal). As with most issues associated with global warming, greenhouse
gasses and CO2 levels, the potential for green computing is a contentious
issue with many different viewpoints.
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Notes
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Chapter 7: Information systems infrastructure: software and services
7.1 Introduction
7.1.1 Aims of the chapter
The aims of this chapter are to introduce and explore the role of the
technical infrastructure in information systems, including software and
networks. These, together with computer hardware, are the underpinning
technical resources that information systems are built upon.
Activity 7.1
Go to the website of the software company SAP at www.SAP.com. This is one of the
largest business software companies in the world.
Make a list of the types of organisation they target in their marketing, and the main
business areas and tasks they offer software for. At the time of writing you can find this
information under the ‘Industries’ and ‘Products’ tabs on their website. If they reorganise
the website there will certainly be similar information available.
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Chapter 7: Information systems infrastructure: software and services
Activity 7.3
Research the types of business in your country that have been leaders in offering their
products or services over the internet. Are any targeted to overseas clients? Which are
most successful? Why do you think that is? Are there any obvious missing types of
business – why do you think this may be? There may be some cultural or developmental
explanations for lack of take-up (e.g. desire to bargain and haggle, or lack of credit cards
or the desire to keep transactions ‘informal’).
What are the most successful e-government services available in your country? What do
you think lies behind this success? What benefits do both people and government bodies
obtain from these services? Do they both obtain benefits equally?
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Section 3: Information systems in organisations
In this section we discuss core concepts and models used in the academic
literature of information systems, by those who manage information
systems and by those who work in industries that support information
systems. In the final chapter you are asked to engage with people who
manage information systems to understand how they see their role in
organisations.
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Chapter 8: What do information systems do?
8.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we address a simple question, ‘For what purposes do
organisations develop and use information systems?’ In other words, and
using the vocabulary of Leavitt’s diamond, what is the ‘task’ they help to
accomplish?
This includes a consideration of a business’s needs and the kinds of
tasks information system can support and thus the ways in which they
contribute to the overall purpose of an organisation. This chapter revisits
some topics from earlier chapters, but here we have a rather different
focus – not on the technology per se, but on the organisation itself and its
goals.
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Chapter 8: What do information systems do?
Activity 8.1
Review the various classes of information systems described in Section 2.2, Chapter 2
and sections 9.3 and 9.4 in Chapter 9 of Laudon and Laudon (2018). Make a careful list
of the various types of systems described, their functions and the organisational purpose
they serve. Then contrast this list with the way that Beynon-Davies describes systems in
Chapter 8.
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me. For example, when I book a train ticket over the internet and pay
with my credit card I am initiating a transaction and doing the data entry
work as well. I am the customer as well as the system ‘user’ and the train
company is happy that I do some work for them (data entry) which in the
past one of their employees might have done.
Transaction processing systems often exhibit strong ‘economies of scale’.
That is, bigger systems with bigger computers handling larger volumes
of data may be more efficient and/or cheaper per transaction than
a number of smaller systems doing the same work. This provides one
argument in favour of large data-processing centres or integrated systems,
as well as for cloud-based services (SaaS). On the other hand, it can at
times be more effective (if not as efficient) to process data locally,
closer to the original point of input or closer to the user of the output.
program available that analyses this data, summarises it and lets them
explore ‘what if’ scenarios: ‘What if their cash flow went down by 10
per cent? Could they still pay the loan?’ In this way, the program (quite
probably based on a spreadsheet package) can support and aid the
manager in making decisions about loans.
This is also an example of information systems supporting knowledge
workers, that is helping a person to make their own informed decisions
and exercise their own judgement. The task is not automated because it is
not really able to be, and this kind of decision needs some expert human
involvement to deal with the complex combinations of information that
need to be assessed in order to make a decision. These are what are often
called ‘semi-structured’ decisions in contrast to a ‘structured decision’
which is suitable to be fully automated.
8.3 E-commerce
A very important set of information systems for many organisations today
are those that support electronic commerce (or e-commerce). This is a broad
term to cover all manner of transactions between a customer and a seller
made using digital systems. Customers and sellers may be individuals or very
small businesses, medium or large businesses or government bodies. At their
core e-commerce systems are doing a similar job to transaction processing
systems – facilitation and keeping records of transactions and processing
basic business activities – but they are different in that they reach out beyond
the organisation and offer a direct interface with the customer or client.
We can classify e-commerce as composed of distinct types (see Laudon and
Laudon (2018) Section 10.2):
• B2B business to business (e.g. trade between a motor manufacturer
and a tyre manufacturer)
• B2C business to consumer (e.g. you or me buying books from an
online bookstore), or
• C2C consumer to consumer (e.g. if I buy a second-hand bike from you
on eBay).
Governments also uses similar technology to provide services to citizens or
businesses, which could be G2C or G2B. There are also some examples of
G2G e-commerce, such as between government bodies and across national
borders.
After e-commerce has come m-commerce (m for mobile), which are
similar systems but are aimed at mobile devices and at people on the
move. For example, to buy a cinema ticket in London you may well use an
m-commerce system in an app as you book a ticket late in the day from
your phone as you leave work. Researchers in some markets find that
in the B2C sector a majority of transactions are now made from mobile
devices and apps rather than computer browsers.
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Chapter 8: What do information systems do?
Activity 8.2
Based on an online search, prepare a brief explanation of the concept of Business Process
Automation (BPA). Illustrated your work with a few examples.
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Chapter 9: Enterprise scale: architecture and information systems
9.1 Introduction
In this chapter we look at information systems that support the core
cross business functions of an organisation – what we call ‘enterprise
systems’ or ‘enterprise applications’. These are the information systems
that hold the organisation together and help them to achieve high levels
of operational performance and customer satisfaction. Being central to
how the organisation works and how it interacts with its customers and
suppliers, they also represent the potential for poor levels of performance
and dissatisfaction. For this reason, if no other, enterprise systems need
careful attention and management.
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Chapter 9: Enterprise scale: architecture and information systems
Activity 9.1
Using resources from the web, research and write a brief report (250 words) that offers
a reasoned definition of supply chain management, and lists four or five core areas that
SCM software can support and integrate.
You will find that the websites of major software companies can help you here (e.g. www.
oracle.com). But remember that they are offering their own marketing message, so you
must be a bit careful to get beyond their hype.
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Chapter 9: Enterprise scale: architecture and information systems
can be controversial if CRM activity starts to collect and use too much or
inappropriate data about customers, or to apply too much analysis.
Activity 9.2
CRM was one of the earliest large enterprise systems applications that were provided as
a cloud service (SaaS). The pioneer provider for this was the company salesforce.com.
Based on the Salesforce website, or that of another provider, write your own 200-word
introduction to CRM which clearly outlines the scope of such systems.
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Chapter 10: Governance of information systems
10.1 Introduction
Governance, in the context of information systems, concerns how an
organisation manages and controls its information systems including the
data they process and the tasks they perform. It is about setting up the
structure of the IS department and the rules under which things are done
and the relationship of IT specialists to users. The approach to governance
should reflect the organisation’s goals as well as its values and aspirations.
Governance also needs to ensure respect the law of the land, particularly
on matters such as how data is collected and used.
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others or having weak security systems that allow personal data to be stolen
(being hacked.) It has thus been a requirement for a number of years in
many countries that personal data collection and use is regulated by law.
For example, all Member States of the European Union have had to have
national laws based on the European Directive on Data Protection 1998 to
control how personal information may be collected and used. In Britain,
until recently, this has been expressed in the Data Protection Act of 1998,
which requires holders of personal data, with some exceptions, to register
with a government office (the Information Commissioners Office: www.
ico.gov.uk) and to comply with certain core principles when collecting
and handling personal data. In 2018 a new EU-wide regime called GDPR
(General Data Protection Regulation) came into force. This is discussed
further in the section below.
Most countries have some laws and regulations relating to what personal
data a company or other organisation can hold and what it can do with it,
but these will differ greatly in their approach, detailed requirements and
levels of enforcement. Many countries also have rules about not sending
personal data outside the country (i.e. outside the legal regime) unless it
is to a destination where equivalent levels of protection are in place – so
called ‘safe harbour agreements’.
The USA has generally less stringent regulations on personal data than
found in Europe, and addresses sensitive areas (such as education, health,
etc.) in separate specific legislation. For more on this, see Table 4.3 in
Chapter 4 of Laudon and Laudon (2018). It is a useful exercise for you
to collect such information for your own country. Is the law where you
live based more on the European comprehensive view or is it by specific
area as we see in the USA? Who is tasked with supervision of adherence
to the regulations, what are the penalties for breaking these rules? More
generally, you should understand in your local context the reasons behind
the establishment of data protection legislation in various forms and the
threats that inappropriate use of personal information may pose.
Data Controllers are responsible for compliance with the principles and must be able to
demonstrate this to data subjects and the regulator.
Source – UK Information Commissioners Office, 2018 http://ico.org.uk
Organisations must:
•• audit all the data they hold and know where it comes from
•• have a reason to hold the data, and be clear that it is legal.
•• know where and how data is stored, and who it is shared with
•• document how data is processed.
Organisations must report data breaches (loss of data, hacking attacks etc.) to the relevant
authorities and affected people soon after the event.
(Excerpted and edited from the UK Information Commissioner website http://ico.org.uk)
The GDPR also boosts the rights of individuals to know what data is held
about them and what it is used for. In certain circumstances people can ask
for data to be deleted. This comes under the general category of ‘subject
access rights’.
If you do not live in Europe, the GDPR is still important to you because
many international companies that operate around the world have stated
their intention to adhere to this standard in their operations. Thus GDPR
may come to be seen as a global standard in this area. Certainly, big
multinational companies cannot confidently run their global business and
comply with many different legal frameworks so they are keen to establish
a common set of data governance policies that meet the needs of the major
markets they operate in.
Activity 10.1
Search the UK information commissioner’s website: www.ico.gov.uk
•• Find the information on the right to be forgotten (known as the right of erasure).
How important do you believe this right is?
•• Look up the information on ‘privacy enhancing technologies’. Do you believe that
technology can solve the problem of data privacy, given that technology has created
it in the first place?
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Activity 10.2
1. Find examples of computer crime that has taken place in your country. What laws are
used to prosecute people who commit such crimes?
2. To prevent simple computer crimes and secure systems and their data we often use
a login procedure with some combination of passwords or pin numbers, and perhaps
also a code texted to a designated mobile phone. Suggest three good principles to
be applied when setting up a login process, including how passwords, pin numbers
and access codes are set and changed, how they are used and managed, and what a
good secure software should do in various circumstances.
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Chapter 11: Information systems from a societal perspective
11.1 Introduction
This chapter looks at the consequences of information systems and digital
technologies in a wider social and economic perspective. The chapter
suggests some of the criteria we might use to assess the benefits and risks
of information systems, and indicates some of the main issues that are
contemporary topics of debate including economic and social concerns.
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suggests some of the criteria we may use to assess the benefits and risks
of information systems, and indicates some of the main issues that are
contemporary topics of debate including economic and social concerns.
Activity 11.1
Using the five moral dimensions of the information age framework, and looking at the
three levels of analysis (individual, society, polity), sketch out some response to the
question ‘Can we, should we, or must we, try to control how children use social media?’
The main emphasis of your answer should focus on the ‘should we?’ part.
It is easy to suggest ways to exercise control (‘can we?’), but perhaps
harder to say why we should do it. Just because ‘Something should be
done!’ does not mean that doing anything is justifiable.
In framing your answer you might also look at the ‘Candidate ethical
principles’ given in Chapter 4 of Laudon and Laudon (2018) at the end of
Section 4.2
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Chapter 11: Information systems from a societal perspective
Activity 11.2
Are there any efforts in your own country to use technology to improve the
communication between citizens and government bodies. What are the arguments used
for pursuing such policies?
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Chapter 11: Information systems from a societal perspective
Activity 11.3
Find examples of jobs in your country that have been reduced in number or relocated by
the advent of computers and communications systems. Can you find counter-examples
of new jobs that have been created as a result of new information and communication
technologies?
Activity 11.4
Looking around you, and seeing the lives that you, your family and your friends live,
prepare a short ‘score card’ for information systems that lists with examples the five main
advantages or benefits that information systems and digital technologies bring, and the
similarly the five main disadvantages, risks or threats.
On this basis, and using your score card data as evidence, write a half page ‘Manifesto for
tomorrow’s information systems’.
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Chapter 12: Practical study of information systems
12.1 Introduction
In this chapter we will discuss applying and testing your knowledge about
information systems out in the world.
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It may be that you fear that arranging any such direct contact with people
who manage information systems is not possible. Don’t worry. You will be
surprised how willing such people are to talk about what they do! But if
all attempts fail, we suggest that as an alternative you take time to review
in some detail two or three of the case studies that are given in Laudon
and Laudon (2018) and Beynon-Davies (2013). For example, the case of
EasyJet in Chapter 5 or Uber in Chapter 10 of Laudon and Laudon (2018),
and the case of London Ambulance in Beynon-Davies (2013), Chapter 13.
In each case do some more online follow up.
Remember the goal is for you to get a feel for the kind of real-world issues
and concerns that information systems managers face in their day-to-day
jobs. In the examination for this course you may have the opportunity to
use such information from visits or from case studies to illustrate your
answers with powerful examples.
When you do talk to people and study real systems, you will discover
that most medium or large sized organisations have a number of distinct
areas of activity that are supported by separate information systems. In a
commercial business, this may include activities in such areas as:
• production planning
• production control
• product development
• marketing
• sales
• accounting
• payroll
• personnel, and so on.
In a hospital, it may be such areas as:
• scheduling operating theatres
• managing patient admissions
• keeping online medical records
• controlling the issue of drugs.
In a hotel, it could include:
• reservations
• room assignment
• scheduling staff
• keeping track of client accounts (lodging, food, bar bills, etc.).
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For the main systems identified you can then go on to ask more detailed
questions:
• What is the main type of data gathered, processed and stored?
• How is the data stored (in a file, a local database or a shared database,
in the Cloud)?
• For each system, who are the main users, who puts data into the
systems and who makes use of it subsequently?
• Has the advent of new systems had a significant impact on the
organisation and how things are done? Have jobs been lost or gained?
Have the required skills altered? Has the management structure
changed?
• In what ways, and to what extent, does the system support the
organisation’s overall strategy? Is it possible to envisage new systems
that would have a significant or different strategic role in the future?
• Draw a use case and class diagram – see Chapter 16 of this guide
– showing the main actors and processes and the classes of things
in the world about which data is stored and accessed. Where does
the data processed originate, where is it stored, where and how is it
transformed?
• Who designed the system, wrote the programs, designed the reports
and determined what data should be stored in the system? Was it
formally planned or did it emerge over time? Was the planning (to
whatever extent) done within the organisation or by consultants?
• If software packages were bought from outside vendors, did the ways
of working for this organisation have to change to fit the package?
• Are there any specific external constraints on how the system
operates? (For example, an accounting system may have to meet
certain legal requirements; there may be government reporting
requirements and a system that stores information about people will
have to conform to data protection legislation.)
• Does the system require any particular security measures? Are there a
limited number of authorised users? If so, how are others kept away?
• What would happen if the system were to fail? Is there a back-up
procedure? Are safety copies made of the stored data? Could the
organisation function without the particular system? If so, for how
long – minutes, hours, days or months?
Each of the systems you identify might be seen as constituting a system in
its own right – people with information needs in their jobs are matched
with technology to support them. Alternatively, the distinct areas may
be seen as subsystems that contribute to the overall achievements of the
business or organisation. In this sense, the concept of an information
system is very flexible, and this flexibility makes it useful. If a system
can be broken down into subsystems, which can themselves be analysed
and studied as systems, the basic approach can be applied at a variety
of appropriate levels, for example, at the enterprise level, but also at the
department or individual worker level.
To take an example, at first glance the sales order-processing activity of a
business could be seen as a single enterprise system and its interactions
with other aspects of the business and with customers could be analysed.
Thereafter, individual tasks comprising the sales activity, such as taking
orders, checking availability in the warehouse, arranging shipment, issuing
invoices or receiving payments, might be worked on individually, with
each being considered as an information system in its own right.
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Section 4: Information systems development
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Notes
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Chapter 13: Approaches to the development of information systems
13.1 Introduction
This section is about systems development – the work needed to create
and set to work a new information system. At the outset we need to
distinguish information systems development from software engineering
– that is from programming and software development activity. While
software engineering is concerned with the standards, techniques and
practices for the construction of high-quality software, our topic of
information system development covers a broader range of issues
more focused on the organisation, business processes, the users and their
work practices, as well as the interests of other relevant parties, and the
wider business environment. As you should see at once, this suggests
strongly a sociotechnical perspective.
Of course one part of information system development may well be
concerned with the production or tailoring of software, and to do this well
we may rely on software engineering knowledge. However, developing
software is not the main focus of most organisations when a need for a
new information system is identified.
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Activity 13.1
Find details of recent information systems projects in your country or elsewhere that has
failed in some way to meet the criteria listed above.
Often such failed projects are written about in newspapers or business magazines. Public
sector organisations are often identified with such cases – although this my just reflect
the wider public scrutiny they receive when compared to private sector companies.
Meeting all these criteria for success is never easy in a project of any scale.
Quite often systems development projects fail to deliver on one or more of
these criteria and are written off as a waste of time and money – a failed
project. To try to improve the prospects for success many concepts, models
and recommendations for achieving successful systems development are
given in books and training materials. These set out guidelines for good
practice in developing and managing information systems, including for
preparing the specification of what is needed (systems analysis) and for
managing the complex project that will deliver this.
In addition a large number of tools and techniques have been developed
over the years for various specific tasks required in the work of developing
a new information system. By a tool or technique we mean some
formalism, modelling style or sequence of actions that help to achieve
some task. For example, a tool may be a type of diagram that helps people
communicate ideas (e.g. a use case diagram) or a set of steps to take in
refining an outline design to make a more detailed one (e.g. normalisation
of a database design).
In this chapter we focus on the broad choices available for providing
the technical parts of a new information system – broadly the software
component and associated hardware architectures – what is sometimes
referred to as the information technology infrastructure. In the following
chapters of this section we consider some of the other aspects that may
affect the success or failure of a development project – such as how projects
themselves are organised and the process they follow, how systems are
specified, and how they are introduced into the organisation itself.
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Chapter 13: Approaches to the development of information systems
Activity 13.2
It would be useful at this point if you look up the definition of a project online. What are
the specific characteristics that are associated with something being called a project?
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Activity 13.3
Research and write two brief paragraphs describing what is meant by 1) customisation
and 2) configuration of a software product.
Then contrast the two concepts and explain the benefits and problems of either
approach. Structure your answer from two perspectives. First a company considering
using a package for an enterprise system and second from the perspective of a company
developing and selling packaged enterprise software.
Despite the reliance COTSS there will be times when organisations will
make decisions not to rely on packages but to develop and program their
own systems. The criteria that they use to make this decision can include
questions of their technical skills and capabilities (can they do it?), the
availability of suitable packages (is there any alternative?), the time scale
they are working to (how quickly do they need it?). One situation where
it may make sense to write your own software is where something really
new or innovative is wanted that does not yet exist. Or perhaps a smaller
extra element can be bespoke developed and work with or alongside a
COTSS product – as apps are added to a phone. But even then it may
make sense to outsource the development work to a specialist rather than
take it on in-house.
It is important to understand that choosing to use COTSS for an
organisation’s information systems does not remove the bulk of the
tasks needed for systems development (see the next chapter). Packaged
software – beyond the simplest examples – is never a simple case of
insert the disk, load the software and off you go! That may work for a
computer game, smart-phone app, or a word processor, but it won’t for an
accounting system, e-commerce portal, payroll or logistics system (think,
for example, of the sociotechnical issues in each case). So we should see
COTTS as representing a slightly different approach to development work,
but still representing real work and a real project, rather than as a short
cut that minimises the development work and moves straight to a new
working system.
Indeed, when using a COTSS approach there will need to be extra
emphasis in some areas, such as on choosing which package to purchase
and implement, and who to contract to help in doing this, as well as all the
legal and contractual arrangements for supply, service and upgrades. There
may also be an extra need to focus on training and change management if,
as is often the case, the chosen package will impose new ways of working
on staff in the organisation (see Chapter 17).
Activity 13.4
Compare the business functions available in the open source software from Odoo
www.odoo.com/ with those available from SAP www.sap.com
One of these products is free to download, one costs large sums of money. How can that
be possible?
If you were a senior manager of a big company which of these do you think you would
want to use, when and why?
If you look at the websites of various open source software products (e.g.
those named above – Firefox, Apache, Linux) you will see that they usually
speak of themselves as supported by a community. That is, as a group of
people and organisations who collaborate and cooperate to develop and
support software in some area that they are interested in or for which they
have a need. Big IT companies, such as Microsoft, IBM or Hewlett Packard,
participate in open source communities, alongside individuals and a range
of other smaller companies.
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We also need to understand that open source software is not really ‘given
away for free’, it is distributed under a license (licenses come in many
versions) that says more or less, that you are free to use the software,
modify it and pass it on to others, but you may not yourself sell it. There
are various forms of open license the best known (and most restrictive on
how the software can be used) being the General Public License – GPL –
see http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license .
13.4 Outsourcing
The more traditional approach to reducing the burden of developing and
running new information systems is to pay somebody else to do it for
you. This is generally known as outsourcing. There are many specialist
companies, large and small, that will undertake to develop new systems
for you, help you to implement them in your organisation, and/or will
then run them on a continuing basis. And they do this, of course, for a fee.
Many government and public sector information systems in the UK and the
USA are outsourced to big service companies, often known collectively as
‘system integrators - SI’. These companies have large and experienced staff
and their own data centres where they manage online systems and store
their clients’ data. In other countries there may be less of such outsourcing
of IS in the public sector, but it is still a popular option for business firms;
for example in energy, banking and finance, transport and manufacturing.
Activity 13.5
Find out if government bodies in your own country (national government, city government
etc.) outsource any of the development and operations of public facing information
systems. For example, online tax returns, issue of passports and driving licenses, collecting
parking fines, payment of pensions.
Create a list of key arguments as to why this may be an appropriate policy for
governments to take, or why it may not be.
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work, nor entering into a long-term contract. This option is just to rent the
‘service’ that you need from a cloud service provider – an approach known
as ‘software as a service’ – SaaS’.
In a case like running a payroll for a large or a small company it may
well today be best just to send the names and work hours, bank details
and rates of pay etc. of your employees over the internet to a specialist
company once a month and let them do the work to ensure that salaries
are paid. If the business grows or shrinks it can buy more or less payroll
services, and perhaps can switch its supplier if it is not happy with the
service after a few months. A payroll service might extend further to offer
support for all HR (Human Resources) activities, for example recruitment
websites, hiring, promotions, training, professional development,
disciplinary procedures, retirement etc. – each of which might even be
served by a different SaaS supplier (but that would get really complex to
manage!). Still in principle a set of small specialist service providers could
be chosen over a single big integrated service offering.
You have already met SalesForce.com in an activity in Chapter 9 of this
guide. A decade or more ago this company was an early SaaS pioneer for
business users www.salesforce.com. Today, almost every standard business
activity is available ‘as a service’. For example, Google docs (docs.google.
com) provides desktop computing (word-processing, presentations and
spreadsheets) on demand and via your browser as does Microsoft with
their Office 365.
Activity 13.6
If a large company adopts SaaS for most of its business computing needs, what tasks, if
any, do you think may still need to be undertaken by an in-house IS department as new
systems are identified and developed?
Are there any tasks that cannot be contracted out, one way or another? Are there any
tasks that should never be contracted out?
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14.1 Introduction
Whatever the overall approach to infrastructure used to develop new
information systems (see discussion in the previous chapter), some
form of project will almost always need to be established when a new
information system is to be developed. We say ‘almost always’ because an
exception is where a new system emerges slowly over time as numerous
individual people make small changes or additions. Similarly, with modern
technology and platforms such as Facebook or SalesForce, or even a simple
spreadsheet, a very small effort may produce a very useful system almost
instantly. But in such cases the system may not always be very robust, long
lived, large scale or particularly fit for the purpose they serve.
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Activity 14.1
Draw up a table of the equivalent life cycle stages as described in Laudon and Laudon
(2018), in Beynon-Davies (2013), in this guide and in one other textbook or web
resource. Align similar stages and show when one version provides a more detailed
breakdown of the work.
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14.2.3 Analysis
Following a go-ahead decision we then perform detailed exploration of
the area in question. Depending on the approach adopted (see Chapter
13) analysis may be very detailed (e.g. if the systems is being developed
in-house and is very much customised to the particular company’s needs),
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or rather less so (e.g. if a package is being adopted and some basic work
is needed to fit the company’s ways of working to the functions provide by
the packaged software).
In any case, the analysis stage is concerned with the identification of the
general characteristics of the environment under study and developing
a logical model of the new system, which can be revised, adapted and
extended to meet the specific requirements of the users in terms of
new and/or amended information processing – that is, to meet people’s
information requirements.
Analysis usually starts with looking in some detail at the current situation
and current information handling – what is called the ‘current physical’
system. From this, an abstract view of what is currently done can be
established – the ‘current logical’ system. From there, a ‘new logical’
system, which includes features expected in the new system, can be
developed as a paper specification. In analysis that is probably as far
as we would go – the ‘new physical’ system is the work of design and
construction phases. In modern analysis practices the most emphasis
is placed on establishing the ‘new logical’ model. Work on the ‘current
logical’ can be quite schematics and sketchy – just enough to understand
what must change.
Class diagrams and data analysis (discussed in Chapter 16) is an important
part of this stage, and most modern approaches to information systems
analysis recommend that class diagrams, data analysis and data modelling
should form a significant part of analysis work.
Many diagrams, mapping techniques and tools have been developed to
support the analysis task. Over 30 years ago a set of tools and practices
known as structured systems analysis were developed, and they have
remained widely used up to today. They include:
• data flow diagrams to capture the information handling processes
• a data dictionary to catalogue all the data items flowing between these
processes
• a data model that ‘sketches’ the relations among data elements (like
the ER models you develop for the database coursework)
• mini-specifications detailing the procedural elements of the system
(e.g. what is to be programmed on the computer).
In the past 15+ years or so an alternative approach has been developed
and become dominant, known as object oriented systems analysis. This too
is supported by a set of tools and techniques, the best known of which is a
set of diagram types and modelling approaches known as UML (standing
for unified modelling language). We use two UML diagrams in this course,
and they are introduced in Chapter 16 below. These are:
• use case diagram: to show which people and other information
systems interact with a proposed new system, and what the new
system does for them
• class diagram: to show the classes of things in the world the new
system needs to know about and for which data will need to be stored.
Whether we are using structured systems analysis or object oriented
modelling, the tools are used together to provide complementary views of
the system that combine to give a coherent model (e.g. future logical). The
output of analysis is then a system specification (e.g. a statement of what
the new system should do, and for whom). It is not principally about how
in technical terms this is to be achieved. This specification is then used
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as the input to system design. In a colloquial sense, we could say that the
result of analysis activity should allow us to say to the technical experts,
‘Make me one like this’, as we hand over a set of outline specifications.
Their job is then to do a technical design and actually build the system (or
at least its technical parts).
14.2.4 Design
The design stage involves establishing a full specification for the new
system in explicitly technical terms – establishing all the details of how
things are to be done. We can briefly define the difference between this
stage and the previous one as being between saying what is needed, and
then how it will be provided. This stage may need various decisions to be
made about which parts of the new system are to run on a computer, and
exactly how, and which are to be handled by the human participants. Once
again, alternatives have to be evaluated.
Design then moves on to a detailed specification of the various
components identified, including but not limited to:
• design of programs (functional descriptions)
• design of user interfaces – screens, forms etc.
• database design.
The technical environment of the system also needs to be described. For
example:
• hardware and software requirements
• communication and networking arrangements
• database and capacity planning (how big is the data? how fast is the
outputs needed? at what speed is the usage and data growing?)
Design work will extend well beyond the design of programs and
include for example the design of documentation and training materials
to accompany the system. New jobs may have to be designed, new
responsibilities allocated, etc. Indeed, even if a new system is wholly based
on COTTS or SaaS, there will be plenty that still needs to be designed.
14.2.5 Construction
The construction stage involves the actual development of the various
items required for the new system. The specifications developed in the
design stage are the basis for developing these components. Among the
principal items are computer programs or configurations of software,
but computers themselves may have to be purchased and set up. Items
such as forms, reports and training manuals need to be produced and
probably security procedures and back-up services established. At all times
during the construction stage, these various items will need to be tested
– individually and then working together (what is known as unit and
integration testing).
14.2.6 Changeover
Changeover or conversion is about putting a new system to work. The
most critical period for most information systems projects is the day they
are first used seriously. Before that day comes, hardware and software will
need to be installed, staff will need to be trained and data converted to
new formats. Training is often identified as a critical part of a successful
changeover. It may proceed in a variety of formats:
• Comprehensive training: all the users receive full and detailed tuition
on all the features and levels of use of the system.
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Activity 14.2
Considering the various development tasks (life cycle phases) we have set out so far in
this chapter, identify for each one the two most significant risks it poses to achieving a
successful outcome for a project.
For example it may be that the largest risk in analysis is not speaking to the right people,
or in implementation/changeover in providing poor training – but these are just examples
and they may not reflect your understanding.
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Activity 14.3
1. The life cycle model can be used in many types of IS development, but will probably
be adapted according to the project and the approach. Suggest how phases might be
different for the following types of project:
development and implementation of an enterprise wide standard business
package across the 25 operating companies of a multinational engineering
corporation
development and implementation of the same package using a SaaS provider in
a single government department with just one main location and 35 users of the
system
development and implementation of specialised in-house developed software as
part of an innovative e-business project within a start-up budget airline.
2. If you were developing some specific software together with a small group of
enthusiastic users using a prototyping approach without the benefit of the life cycle
show how you would undertake something equivalent to each of the life cycle stage?
3. Do you think that users doing ‘what they want’ using desktop tools such as a
spreadsheet, a database, Facebook or Dropbox need any of the structure found in the
life cycle? (Do you need any of it when doing your projects for this course?)
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Chapter 15: Organising systems development
15.1 Introduction
The previous two chapters have discussed a number of questions about
our general approach to sourcing information systems and a generic
model of system development activity in a project more or less following
the life cycle model. In this chapter we look in more detail at alternative
organising principles that we might use when setting up a project and
the tools and techniques that can support them. The chapter ends with a
discussion of the various professional roles that people take within systems
development activities.
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Example
A new sales oriented system is being developed to allow sales staff of MultiNational Bank
to offer up-to-date investment advice to their clients. The key question to be asked when
designing this system is not what to put in the database, but how to let the sales staff
search it so it can help them in their work. A small prototype version of the system is built
and various different user interfaces tried out. On the basis of these experiments with
prototype systems the developers may be able to determine the best interface to use in
the full-scale system.
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Example
The dispatch department of MultiNational Bank is responsible for transferring all manner
of items from the main data centre to the various branches. One day, computers will
handle everything (?), but in the meantime, lots of paper, forms, manuals and brochures
have to be shipped back and forth.
The manager who organises the dispatch of the vans and couriers needs a computer
system to help his staff do this work. The basic requirement is for a system that contains
information on regular delivery schedules and that can help in drawing up a weekly
rota. This, however, is just the start of what could be achieved. The system could then be
developed to record the actual dispatch of items, inform the recipient branches to expect
them and keep track of the performance of the various carriers that are used. The system
could also allow one-off or special deliveries to be slotted into the schedule with minimal
disruption.
The management team has 20 more ideas for how the system could be developed further
and grow.
The best approach to development in such a case may not be to design one system – it
might very soon get out of hand – but to start with some simple functions. On the basis
of use, the next steps to be taken would be worked out with the users to reflect their
priorities. In this way, the system can evolve over time. The maintenance phase of the
system lifecycle, particularly adaptive maintenance, is one version of evolution, but the
evolutionary approach makes this type of ongoing change, adaptation and improvement
the goal, rather than a necessary evil.
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Activity 15.1
Search on YouTube for introductory video training on agile methods and in particular
the SCRUM method of agile project management. Are you convinced by the arguments
presented in favour of using the SCRUM method?
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Chapter 16: Modelling techniques for analysis and design
16.1 Introduction
Systems development according to the life cycle model introduced in
Chapter 14 and as discussed through alternative perspectives in Chapter
15 almost always includes the key activity of analysis. Once the broad
direction of a project has been established special effort is needed to
explore needs, understand constraints and then plan and document a new
system in both its business processes and its main technical elements.
This must be done so that, in later activities, designers are appropriately
briefed. The designers’ work is to move on from the what and why
aspects that analysts consider to the how, and then to provide the
required detail so that a new system can be built (programmed,
configured, new jobs and roles established, databases established etc.) In
this chapter we look at this analysis activity in terms of very simple object
oriented analysis practices and we introduce tools that you will use in your
project work as it develops through scoping and analysis to design.
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Some UML tutorials on YouTube include those below, but there are many
more out there.
Use case: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zid-MVo7M-E
Class diagram: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI6lqHOVHic
Curtis, G. and D. Cobham Business information systems: analysis,
design and practice. (London: Prentice Hall, 2008) sixth edition
[ISBN 9780273713821] Chapter 16.
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These two diagrams are a part of the Unified Modelling Language (UML),
a modern standard for documenting systems analysis work as well as
systems design. UML has been established by an influential industry
body the Object Management Group (OMG) as an open standard.
Being an open standard means that UML is freely available to be used
by anyone with no licence fees to pay – just as open source software is
freely available without fees. As its name implies, UML is a language –
for building models of information systems – and it provides modelling
methods appropriate for developing new information systems from an
idea through to implementing an operational system. As a modelling
language UML includes model elements (fundamental concepts), notations
(visual versions of model elements) and guidelines (idioms of usage or
recommendations).
UML is not a specified process for development activity or some other
version of the life cycle. Another way to say this is that it is not a
‘methodology’ – a methodology being a tightly coupled and prescriptive
process for how to develop systems. So we can and will use elements
of UML for all kinds of development work and in support of all kinds
of development approaches. What UML does, as a language, is allow
developers and other people to express and communicate ideas about
a new system, often using diagrams and pictures, but it is up to the
developers, managers and users to determine what needs to be expressed,
and what the right sequence of activities is for developing models and
moving forward towards a new information system.
For the purposes of this course we are going to introduce and use only
a small subset of UML. If you take further courses in this area you will
learn more UML, principally in the course IS2182 Innovating digital
systems and services. The two elements of UML we consider here are
as follows:
1. Use case diagram: used to capture users’ overall requirements. A use
case diagram defines the boundary of the system under analysis and
identifies actors (people, and perhaps other information systems) who
participate with the (technical) system, and the ‘things that they want
to get done’.
2. Class diagram: used to capture the static structure of a proposed
system in terms of classes (types of relevant objects or ‘things’) and
their relationships one to another.
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Prescribe
medicines
Doctor
Administer
medicines
Nurse Review
medicines
Supply
Pharmacist medicines
Figure 16.1: A simple use case diagram showing an electronic prescribing (eP)
system for a hospital to support the giving of medicines to patients.
The phrase ‘use case’ may not sound quite right in English on first hearing.
It comes from a Swedish author (Jacobson). Perhaps it sounds better
in Swedish. The phrase and the concept has however caught on and is
widely used to convey the notion of ‘the case of somebody (an actor)
using a system to do something useful’, which is a very appropriate way to
document systems requirements during early phases of systems analysis,
in particular functional requirements. Remember that a functional
requirement is one that will need a specific implementation in software. So
a use case says that ‘this actor/these actors will use (e.g. be involved with)
the information system to help achieve this task/these tasks’.
The notation is very simple. A stick figure stands for the (human) actor.
An oval represents a whole and complete task the systems will do (the use
case itself) and this is given a short and imperative name (book course,
enter order, check credit, administer medicines). In the example above the
four use cases all relate to medicines being given to patients in a hospital
and the activities of various actors. We have also chosen to add two
borders on this diagram. Symbolically at least the outer diagram shows the
boundary of the information system, and the inner one the boundary of
the technical, programmed, computer systems – but such boundaries are
not really needed unless they really help to explain the context.
All actors shown on a diagram must be related to at least one use case,
and all use cases on a diagram must have at least one actor associated with
them. An actor sends a message to or otherwise stimulates a use case, or the
use case sends a message to the actor, and this provokes some response.
Each use case (oval) in the diagram should be a whole operation from the
perspective of the actors involved, and provide some value to the actors.
The most common error in developing a use case diagram is to break it
down into too fine a detail at first. Remember, this is intended to provide
a high level and user-oriented depiction of what a system can do – not
contain any internal design detail.
A large system may require many use case diagrams each showing
some distinct subset of functional requirements. In general there is a
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Bake an iced
Cook cake
Once we have found relevant actors we can start to express their needs in
terms of broad functionality – the use cases they need to do their tasks.
Use cases are there to get things done, to process or retrieve information,
or to monitor activity and report on events. By asking these types of
question we will be starting to think about the possible shape of a future
system.
Figure 16.1 is an example of a use case diagram of an everyday activity
familiar to most of us from TV and films if not real life, giving medicines to
a patient in hospital. Information systems are increasingly used to support
this activity, often described as Electronic Prescribing (eP) systems. Three
actors are shown in Figure 16.1: the Doctor who prescribes medicines,
the Nurse who administers them to a patient and the Pharmacist who
supplies the medicines and also reviews and checks the prescription. Each
of these roles (people) will interact with the computer. Each has to get
something done to fulfil the overall purpose of the system, which is to
provide safe, timely and appropriate medicines to patients.
You may think that a patient should be shown as one of the actors –
indeed perhaps they should – but in most such systems the patient does
not directly interact with the computer system. We certainly could
imagine a case where they would, for example, need to confirm they have
received their medicines, receive an email or a text message to confirm the
prescription and to review their own medicine’s history. Mothers may want
to know what inoculations (medicines) their children have had, or on
leaving hospital another doctor may want to review the record. With that
in mind try to add to the above diagram a Patient actor and one or more
suitable use cases.
As it is shown here there are four use cases (ovals) in the diagram – that
is four ‘chunks of functionality’ that we think we want the software to
incorporate to support the work processes of these medical staff. You should
be able to appreciate that the very simplicity of the diagram is its strength.
For example, you could have a good discussion with nurses, doctors
and pharmacists about this diagram, probably everybody would quickly
understand it, and they could probably identify a few more use cases and
tell you a lot of extra detail about each use case (e.g. the how part).
‘How’ is important of course, but the use case diagram is not intended to
say much about how things are done, just what is done. For example, we
may feel that there is an implied sequence of events here: probably in the
rough order prescribe, check, supply, administer. But the use case diagram
does not concern itself with this. At the start of a development effort it is
important not to add too much detail or too much sequence – that can
come later. Indeed UML has other specific diagrams (tools) to capture the
sequence of events and the messages that would link together these use
cases and actors – for example the object-sequence diagram – but we do
not consider this diagram type in this course.
Activity 16.1
The TOPCAR limousine company is working to develop a new information system to
support corporate credit accounts. So far they have come up with this loose textual
description of the systems.
A client company can make a request for a credit account, in which case one or more
credit checks are made. If these are positive, a credit account is set up on file.
Thereafter, an authorised person from such a company can phone up a dispatch clerk
and request a booking, or make a booking using a smart phone app. When this happens,
availability of a taxi at the requested time is checked, as is the credit status of the client
company. If these two checks are successful a booking is made.
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After the customer has used the taxi, the driver sends in a record of the work, including
the time and the distance. The cost of the booking is calculated and added to the account.
At the end of the month accounts are sent to client companies for settlement.
Sketch a use case diagram for this system. First identify the actors, then the ‘chunks of
functionality’ that these people interact with. Try to restrict your diagram to five or less
use cases. Remember, in a use case diagram you are not expected to be concerned with
sequences of events, and the individual use cases should have no associations between
them other than perhaps <<uses>> and <<extends>>.
Remember too that this is an exercise in simplification and communication. You
will need to leave out some of the detail while capturing the basic functionality that is
needed. This is never easy, not in exercises nor in real life systems development work.
motor cars. The class diagram is concerned with broad types of things (e.g.
cars) rather than specific examples (e.g. my VW Golf, which is an object
rather than a class). Nevertheless it is usual to use the singular name when
naming a class (e.g. order not orders, student not students, prescription
not prescriptions etc.). A class diagram is used among other things as the
basis for database development including for your project for this course.
When we build analysis models, we are, at least initially, trying to build
a model of the environment within which a system will operate, and
with which it has to maintain some level of correspondence. Thus if we
have customers or patients, or medicines or doctors out there in the
world, we will probably want to model or represent them within our new
information system. In this way, we identify the object classes (or just
classes) and use them to build a ‘map’ or model of the domain. Later on
in the development process we will shift our view towards software and
detailed processes by which things happen (e.g. design). But for now, in
analysis, it is the problem domain that we focus on.
The graphical depiction of a class in a class diagram is a box with up to
three compartments. At the top we name the object (singular noun), in
the middle we describe the attributes (data values) that the object should
retain. At the bottom we can add the operations or functions, the things
that the object can do, or the events that it can respond to. This third level
is the basis for a fully blown object oriented analysis and design process,
but we will not develop this aspect in this course.
Identifying relevant classes and giving them a name, at least initially, is
quite easy. Think of the electronic prescribing system discussed above.
What are the types of ‘things’ that we want to collect and hold data about?
Patients, prescriptions, medicines, for a start, plus perhaps administration
events such as when medicines are given, checks done by pharmacists, and
deliveries of stock to the ward. We probably also need to store information
about the actors – doctors, nurses and pharmacists so as to record who
does what or who is authorised to do what.
To keep it simple we will focus here on the prescribing activity itself. One
way to think about a prescription is as an order written by a doctor for
some medicines (one or more) to be given to the patient – perhaps once or
perhaps regularly for so many days. This structure, of an order for various
items for a customer (e.g. patient), is very common in all sorts of business
situations, and is the most common example of a class model/data model
found in textbooks. (See for example Laudon and Laudon (2018) Figure
6.11). Below (Figure 16.3) is our version of this general model written
using UML notation – and then the model adapted for the specific case of
prescriptions.
For the moment let’s take the classes as given. We want to concentrate
on the associations between classes. Note also that the class boxes are
very simple. This is because we have not, as yet, defined any Attributes
(or Operations). In the very early stages of analysis we do not need to do
this, once again, keep it simple. There is plenty of ‘analysis information’
contained in the diagram already in the associations between classes. In
our new proposed system we will be able to ‘follow’ these associations so,
for example, a prescription can be ‘linked’ to a particular patient, or we
might need to answer a query such as ‘List all the patient who are taking
medicine X.’
In the diagrams below we interpret these associations in specific ways.
Thus they say that there is a relationship between a Customer and an
Order such that a Customer can have 0 or more orders (0…n). Each
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0..n 1..* 1
Patient Prescription Item Medicine
1 0..*
Figure 16.3 Two examples of a class diagram using the same pattern.
These two diagrams here and the others in this chapter were drawn using
SaaS software freely available at https://yuml.me/
The script used to produce the first diagram was as below.
// Order Order Line Class Diagram
[Customer]1--0..n[Order]
[Order]++--1..*[Line Item]
[Line Item]0..*--1[Product]
This class diagram shows the overall structure of the data that a
system will need to store, shown in terms of different classes and their
associations. This provides a useful notation and simple but powerful ideas
to work with. Using them on a real problem should convince you.
table of Patients may have a layout as shown in Table 16.1; adding more
Patients would mean adding more rows.
Patient
Patient No+
1..*
Patient Name
Prescription
Age 1
Gender
Alergy
Doing data analysis and building a data model for a real information
system generally will require consideration of more than one class as
we have seen. In this example, we have identified another three classes:
Prescription, Item and Medicine. This leads to another three relations:
Prescription(Prescription Number#, Patient Number, Date, Doctor
issuing etc. )
Item(Item Number#, Prescription Number, Medicine number, Dose,
Frequency etc.)
Medicine(Medicine Number#, Name, Unit Size etc.)
What is the relation between Patient, Prescription, and Item? Well, it is
expressed in the class diagram and in the relations above. In the relations
we can see that all underlined attributes link us to another class. When
the database is working as part of the information system we need to be
able to make and maintain these relationships. As shown above, we do
this by using the key of one relation as an attribute in another. When a
key attribute occurs in another relation it is known as a ‘foreign key’. So
Medicine Number and Prescription Number are shown as attributes of the
class Item, and each is underlined to indicate each is a foreign key – the
link to Prescription and Medicine.
Activity 16.2
Take this simple example of an association; Footballers and Football clubs. (Assume for
the moment that a player can only play for one club.)
First draw the appropriate class diagram and show the multiplicity of the association.
Then, assuming that each resulting relation has a key (say Club Number# and Player
Number#), how would you represent this association? For example, which relation (Club
or Player) would contain a foreign key and what would it be?
Then move on to a situation where a player can play for more than one club. Can you
1) redraw your class diagram showing the appropriate association and 2) show how the
keys might be used in the relations? [Note that this can get tricky and could puzzle you.]
Activity 16.3
With that in mind, consider the appropriate relationships in the following cases and
highlight any issues or questions that may arise:
•• husbands and wives – (think of the English king Henry VIII)
•• mothers and children
•• books and authors
•• cars and drivers
•• cinemas and films
•• films and actors
•• films and directors.
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This poses a problem when we come to database design and the use of
foreign keys. Similarly, one-to-one relations may be a bit suspect, because
they may suggest that the two entities are one and the same. This is not
always the case though. A one-to-one relation between two entities might
represent a situation in time – as in drivers to cars.
So far, this section has approached data modelling through a simple
example and by appealing to a common sense understanding of the way
the world is organised and how we can represent it. In the situation of
developing a data model for a new information system (including when
working on your project), the sequence needs to be a bit more formalised:
• Identify and name classes of things about which data will be stored.
• Identify and name the association among the classes.
• Draw a class diagram.
• Identify the attributes of each entity (example of a class) and select the
key attribute(s). This may require creation of a specific new attribute/
number.
• Ensure that the identified associations could be supported through the
keys (e.g. the key of one relation could be the attribute of the other – a
foreign key).
16.5.1 Normalisation
At this stage, we may seem to be finished and, indeed, a class diagram
alone may be adequate to fulfil most needs of the analysis phase of
systems development, but there is one further important step we must
undertake when we move to design – that is normalisation.
This is a process by which we make sure that the database we are
designing will contain all the information we want, that the data will
be accessible to us, and that the data is stored as far as possible with
minimum redundancy and to support easy and reliable updating. In
particular, this is to ensure that each piece of information is stored as far as
possible only once in the database. This will make updating far easier and
more error free.
Normalisation is important for you as you study for this course, because
you may get exam questions about it, but also because your database
project is expected to include a set of normalised relations.
The ideas behind normalisation are quite simple:
All entities (e.g. examples of a particular class) must contain the same
number of attributes – this is called the first normal form. This rule
excludes variable repeating groups. Consider the following example:
if students can study a variable number of subjects; this might imply a
relation with a variable number of fields. For example, assume that a
student could attend as many subjects as they wished:
Student(Student number#, Student name, Address, Subject1, Subject2,
Subject3…Subject*)
This is not in first normal form because some students would have two
subject fields, some five etc.
To put it another way, we have a N:M relationship between Student and
Subject (one student can take many subjects, one subject can have many
students), but that is not allowed in the database if it is to meet first
normal form. The solution is to add an extra class (e.g. a new relation),
called Course, to ‘link’ a student to as many subjects as they like, and at
the same time allow a subject to be linked to as many students as needed.
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This kind of relation is called a ‘linker’. The relation Course can have as
many rows for any one student as needed, each representing a selected
Subject.
The resulting set of relations are then:
Student(Student number#, Student name, Address)
Subject(Subject number#, Subject name,…)
Course(Student number#, Subject number#…)
This third relation is the link between Student and Subject.
Each entity (row) in Course represents an individual student taking a
particular subject; further attributes such as individual attendance or mark
achieved could be added here. In this way, the many-to-many relation of
Students to Subjects is made into two one-to-many relations via a linker
entity Course – Student to Course and Course to Subject.
The second and third normal forms are a bit more tricky. They scan be
summarised by saying that ‘Any attribute in a relation must provide a fact
about the key, the whole key and nothing but the key’. We break this down
a bit further.
Second normal form is violated if a non-key field is a fact about a subset of
a key. In this example, ‘Lecture hours’ is a fact about the subject – only one
part of a composite key. Exam mark is however fine if it is related to the
specific student and course.
Course(Student number#, Subject number#, Exam mark,
Lecture hours)
If the above design was adhered to, the lecture hours would be repeated
many times and any change to be made would require many updates
to the database in the Course relation. Also, if there were no students
taking a particular subject – perhaps temporarily, for example, during the
vacation – then there would be no place to store the lecture hours data.
The answer is simple, move Lecture Hours to be an attribute of Course.
In general it may be that an attribute is moved to another relation, or
perhaps a new relation needs to be created.
The third normal form is violated if a non-key field is a fact about another
non-key field, as in:
Teacher(Staff number#, Name, Department, Building)
Building may be a fact about the teacher (‘where their office is’ would be
OK) or about the department (where the department office is would not
be OK). A better design is:
Teacher(Staff number#, Department)
Department(Department#, Office location)
Normalisation is important principally so as to ensure that information is
stored only once and that inconsistencies do not occur in a database when
data is added, changed or deleted.
The set of relations resulting for a college database after some
normalisation might be:
Student(Student number#, Name, Address, Staff number (of tutor))
Course(Student number#, Subject number#, Exam mark)
Subject(Subject number#, Lecture hours)
Teacher(Staff number#, Teacher name, Subject, Department)
Department(Department#, Location)
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Note how the relations we need to record and use are supported by using
the key or keys of one relation as non-key attributes of another. Even so,
this example still leaves problems to think about: consider the relation
Teacher – is it in third normal form? Are we sure that each Teacher has
only one subject, and it is a subject related to the department? As an
exercise, normalise (e.g. redesign) the model to solve these problems and
then draw the appropriate class diagram.
Finally, once you have worked through from an initial class diagram to a
set of normalised relations, it should be easy to draw a final class diagram
and to implement the design using a database package. The only step
remaining is to determine the exact form in which each field will be stored
(e.g. as integers, real numbers, character strings, dates, etc.).
Activity 16.4
The TOPCAR limousine company is developing a database to be used as part of a real
time dispatch system. The intention is that customers can make online bookings or sets of
bookings for cars, requesting a particular type of vehicle (small car, large car, minibus), or
a particular driver. Some customers have credit accounts with the company, some do not.
i. Suggest candidate classes for this database, justifying your choices.
ii. Identify and name the associations between the classes, indicating their multiplicity.
iii. Draw the initial class diagram.
iv. Design the relevant relations with key attributes.
v. Identify and resolve any issues of normalisation you can see.
vi. Redraw a final class diagram
vii. Show how identified association can be supported through suitable keys.
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Chapter 17: Organisational change
17.1 Introduction
This final chapter in this section of the guide returns to the sociotechnical
theme of change. In almost all cases the aim in systems development is
to make a difference and that means bringing about some change in the
organisation that sponsors development or benefits its wider environment.
But such change is not always easy to achieve even if the technical
elements of a new systems and its design are well conceived.
Activity 17.1
Consider each of the phases of an information systems development project as given in
Chapter 15.
For each phase suggest two or three things that might be done to help positive change
occur.
If a project is run using a prototyping approach, or using agile methods would this make
a good outcome for change more likely?
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Activity 17.2
Using the list of criteria given above, assess the potential to deliver successful information
systems of:
a. a large structured development project using packaged software
b. a small prototyping based project for technical specialists, and
c. end-user computing.
Suggest three measurable criteria that could be used to assess the success of a new
information system, for example a new library catalogue system in your college. The
measures should be as objective as you can imagine, and not rely just on people’s opinions.
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Chapter 18: Database assignment
18.1 Introduction
The database assignment asks you to demonstrate an understanding of the
basics of analysis and design for databases as well as to provide evidence
of the use of the main features of a database package.
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Enter Weeks
Schedule
Release Schedule
Online
Web Editor
Film Lookup
Cinema Lookup
Add to Basket
User
Book Tickets
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Taking the project forward you must limit it in scale and focus on the
database aspect. This could be achieved by just including the aspects that
relate to the Web Editor (e.g. just the ‘vet and edit schedule’ aspect as data
input to the database) and the ‘User’ (e.g. just the ‘lookup’ and ‘add to
basket’ aspects as output from the database).
Once you have prepared the use case diagram and have made choices of
the core functionality you will prototype (e.g. selected use cases), you can
turn to thinking about the data needed, its structure and how it will be
searched. At first sight this suggests two classes of things about which this
information system will store data – various films and various cinemas
– and of course the association between them. An association is the link
between things of one class and things of another in UML diagrams we use
to prepare analysis and design for these systems. Sometimes we express
the idea of an ‘association’ using the word ‘relationship’, but when doing
analysis (e.g. thinking about the problem and the real world) we should
stick to the word ‘association’.
For example, if 2001: a space odyssey – a classic film from 1968 by Stanley
Kubrick, and in part about AI and a computer called HAL (one letter back
in the alphabet from IBM?) – is showing at five particular cinemas, then
these five cinemas would be ‘associated’ with the film. So one film can
be associated with a number of cinemas, and equally a single cinema can
show a number of films.
If the database can store or remember this association, then a user of the
database will be able to receive an answer to their query about ‘Where is
2001: a space odyssey showing?’ But, just knowing where is not enough.
They will also want to know when. This will lead us to add another class
of relevant ‘things in the world’ to store data about – which we might call
a showing or screening. We then need to reflect these three classes in a
UML class diagram.
Below are two simple examples of such class diagrams with the second
one showing some of the attributes (data items) that we would want to
store for items of each of the three classes. In these diagrams each box
represents a class of things we want to keep data about, and the line
linking boxes an association.
0..*
Film Cinema
0..*1
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Film
Showing Cinema
Title
Director
0..* 1 name
Day
Length 1 Time 0..1 phone no
Rating address
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Chapter 18: Database assignment
6. Designs for data input screens and reports and queries produced.
7. Very brief description of how the system is operated and the
commands used to undertake each task. (Note: it is assumed that this
is done by using interactive commands of the database package, not by
any programming.)
8. Examples of the input screens and output reports produced.
The total report should be about six pages of carefully laid out text, figures
and diagrams, with an absolute maximum of eight sides of text including
all examples of printouts or other necessary computer-generated reports.
Reports must be permanently bound (for example, well stapled, not
secured by paper clips or slipped as loose pages into plastic binders). Each
page should be numbered and should have your student number on it.
The report must be produced with the aid of a word processor and you
are expected to insert relevant diagrams or screen shots into the text.
Diagrams should either be prepared using a computer package, or perhaps
done by hand and scanned in to the document if you are a talented artist.
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Chapter 19: Spreadsheet assignment
19.1 Introduction
The aim of the spreadsheet assignment is to demonstrate an
understanding of the basics of analysis and design for simple numerical
models in a spreadsheet as well as to provide evidence of the use of some
mathematical and data management features of such a package.
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Activity 19.2
When choosing a graph as the output from a spreadsheet suggest the type of data that
would be suitable for display using:
1. a pie chart
2. a bar chart or histogram
3. an x/y plot or scatter plot.
Two example assignments are given below. These are intended to illustrate
the type of problem that you are expected to tackle. As with the database
project you must choose your own spreadsheet problems from the world
around you – from your college or business or something associated with
some hobby or pastime. Economic data, exchange rates, share prices,
demographic data or even the weather report may provide appropriate
data. Suitable problems are those that require you to summarise or model
numerical data (say up to 80 raw data points), to show a result or a trend,
to permit some ‘what-if?’ questions to be asked, and to produce from this a
printed report and a graphic chart.
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Figure 19.2 Use case diagram for Fuel Load spreadsheet example.
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The use case diagram above shows some of the aspects that need to be addressed, in
particular the Race Planner’s role in optimising the fuel load at the start, and the Team
Manager’s role in updating and changing decisions in real time using a ‘What if’ kind of
analysis.
This example is probably of no interest to most readers, but to a car racing fanatic it is a
fascinating and a welcome challenge. Your task is to find something as interesting to you
to serve as the basis of your spreadsheet.
Example 2
Develop a spreadsheet to analyse the tax position of an employed person in your
country. This will need you to do some research into the exact details of the tax rules
of your country and will include issues of income tax as well as health and other social
insurances, pension contributions, etc. The circumstances of an individual – for example,
married or with children – will also generally affect the amount of income taken in tax, as
may other characteristics, such as age or outstanding student loans.
The spreadsheet can be used to generate a table and chart showing the marginal tax rate
that applies at various levels of income – that is the percentage of the last $ or £ taken in
tax and other deductions as income rises.
The model may also answer questions such as, ‘How much do I need to earn gross to take
home a given net amount?’ This is an example of goal seeking. You might also use such a
model to inform a politician about the marginal tax rate that various individuals face and
as a way to model new and perhaps fairer policies.
2. What spreadsheet chart would you use for the following situations?
Justify your choice:
to show monthly rainfall data over three years
numbers in a country’s population within age groups and by
gender
movement in Gold price in US$ over five years
the relationship between GDP per head and road accidents per
100,000 population in European countries
the proportion of the government’s overall annual budget allocated
to education, defence, healthcare and infrastructure.
3. Sketch a paper model for the following situations:
a. Calculating body mass index (BMI). Weight data may come in
pounds, grams or stones and pounds. Height data in inches,
centimetres or feet and inches. (You can find the BMI formula
online if need be.).
b. To work out the cost per student of a class trip to a musical
show (You can think of this as a decision support system to help
calculate the cost of participation according to what is planned).
This is to include tickets, hire of a bus, insurance and meals. The
cost will depend on the number of students who choose to go; for
example, bus hire is fixed for n = 1 to 50 while every 10th ticket
is free from the theatre after you get to 15 people. And meals are
similarly open to discounts if numbers are larger.
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Section 6: Reflections on information systems
In this section we reflect back on the topics studied in the course, and take
an overview of how we understand information systems as both a core
part of modern organisations and as an area for detailed academic study.
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Chapter 20: Perspectives on information systems
20.1 Introduction
The previous chapters in this guide have introduced the themes of the
syllabus and provided you with guidance and support for your study of
the various topics and areas by reading, researching and discussing. In this
final chapter we step back to take an overview of the subject and to reflect
on some of the main interlinking themes that have been introduced. This
chapter is for this reason rather different from those that have gone before.
The intention is to encourage you to develop your own overall perspective
on the subject as you come to the end of your study, prepare for your
exams, and perhaps contemplate choosing some further information
systems courses or even a career in this area.
You need to develop your own overview perspective for two reasons.
First, for you to become a confident expert in information systems you
need to develop your own high-level ‘map’ of the subject as much as you
need to gather specific and detailed knowledge of particular topics. The
overview is what lets you make sensible judgements, see tensions and
contradictions, or imagine solutions to problems.
The second reason is more close to hand. When you answer examination
questions you will often need to combine areas of knowledge from
different parts of the syllabus. An acceptable answer may be mostly about
one topic, but a really good answer will often draw on and echo other
ideas or themes. In this way, with the advantage of your own good high-
level view of the subject, the examination answers you write will develop
more persuasive arguments and you will be able to demonstrate a deeper
and more integrated kind of knowledge.
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still need people even if they can be aided by digital technologies and data
resources. But how long will this remain true you may ask? The answer is
we do not know and opinions or respected experts are sharply divided.
Still, so far our focus in information systems is, for the most part, on the
ways that we can add this technology, with these characteristics, to human
organisations to help them achieve their goals. Technologies are thus
placed into a social setting and expected to work with and for people.
We need therefore to take interest not just in the technology but in the
relationships between people and technology – hence the emphasis we
place on the sociotechnical approach. When we adopt this view we can ask
questions about what people want or need in their lives (e.g. doing their
jobs at work, living their live outside work), and how technology might be
able to provide this. But different people will want different things so the
process of finding ways to satisfy all is complex – sometimes impossible.
Still, ideas like participation, user involvement, prototyping, or job (re)
design are important aspects of achieving successful information systems
that fit into our world.
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