MANG6119

Introduction to Information
Systems

Dr. Thanos Papadopoulos

Lecturer in Knowledge and Information Systems Management
School of Management
University of Southampton
Topics to discuss
 Information Systems Development Process

 Networks and Connectivity

 Success and Failure in Information Systems

 “Soft Issues” in Information Systems

 Overview of e-business and e-commerce

 The role of Knowledge and Knowledge Management

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Information Systems

 What?

 When?

 Which?

 How?
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Information Systems
Development: an overview
 Systems’ Development Process

Existing
Systems
User Client

Problem Method

Developer

Desired
System
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IS Development: Methodologies

 What is a ‘methodology’?

 Distinguish ‘methodology’ from ‘method’ and

‘approach’

 Why might methodologies for IS development be

important?

 Why might methodologies for IS development not be

used in practice?

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 Systems Development Life Cycle
(SDLC)
 Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC): set of general
categories that show the major
steps, over time, of an information
systems development project
 No universal, standardised version
of the SDLC, but has two distinct
meanings
 An SDLC can be a general
conceptual framework for all the
activities involved in systems
development or acquisition
 An SDLC can also be a very
structured and formalized design
and development process
 Oldest ‘approach’ for building
information systems
 Still used today for complex
medium/large system projects
Traditional methodology for developing
an IS that partitions the systems
development process into a number of
formal stages that must be completed
sequentially with a very formal division
of labour between end users and
information systems specialists
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An 8-stage SDLC (waterfall)

Technologies, economics, organizational factors, legal, ethical and

other constraints

What the system needs to do and how it will accomplish these functions

Make or buy?

Parallel conversion, direct cutover, phased/modular

Bug fixing and

change
accommodation

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Alternatives to conventional
SDLCs
Alternatives:
 Prototyping
 Rapid application
development
 Agile development
 Object-oriented
development
 Component-based
development
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Questions

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Networks and Connectivity:
an overview
Devices….

 …communicate with a network

 Laptops, PDAs, cell and smartphones, wikis, intranets,

and extranets, GPSs, POS terminals, and RFID

 Easier and more productive communication

 Always-connected business environment

 Lifestyle?

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Creative Connectivity:
Presenting the iPhone…and iPad

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Executive Connectivity and
Productivity: BlackBerry®

BlackBerry Bold
9700

Business-friendly software make

handhelds more attractive and
cost-justifiable to managers &
road warriors.

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 Information on Internet Bulletin Boards,
Newsgroups, and Social Networking Sites

More than 3 billion mobile handsets

Social networking via mobile
phones is shrinking the world to
the size of a small screen
in use in the world (1 for every 2
people on the planet)
Powerful force for changes in
business and collaboration as well as
politics and societies have emerged
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However…. any problems???

 Derogatory information about you anonymously

 Recruitment purposes?

 ???

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Questions

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E-Business and E-Commerce:
an overview
Click-&-mortar vs brick-&-mortar
organisations

More shoppers proceed to

checkout online…………

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E-commerce function…

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Online Advertisers, Marketers &
Students

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Company-sponsored Socially
Oriented Sites

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Application Programming
Interface - Examples

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A framework for E-commerce

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E-commerce support services
(Based on S.Y. Choi et al., 1997, p. 18.)

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E-Credit

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An Example:
Mobile phone as e-wallet

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Benefits of E-commerce

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Limitations of E-commerce

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Questions

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IS implementation Success
Factors
 Concepts (1)
 Measurement Aspects

 Expectations Management
 Budget Control
 Deadline Maintenance

=
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 Concepts (2)

What How Require_ Business

ments Cases

System Plan Selection/Development

Project Conceptual Conversion

Prototype Training Start Up
Work Plan Model Interfaces

Implementation 33
The IT/IS adoption process

(Source: Drawn by C. Pollard.)

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The four P’s of implementation

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 The Project Manager (1)

 Manages an ad hoc group of people

 No formal symbols of authority

 Competition with other (line) managers

 Must manage professionals each being

an expert in his discipline

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 The Project Manager (2)
 Risk Detector

 Team spirited

 Business Process knowledge

 Technical knowledge

 Not a mere manager, but often a leader: …not only

doing things right, he does the right thing…

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Top Management Commitment

 Representation of all the

areas implied

 Leadership: continuously
communicate the objectives
and transmit confidence

 Fix of priorities and resources

 Be alert through the project

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 … and final users commitment
 From the application selection phase
….
Through the validation of the model
and prototype
….
Till the test phase

 Maintain adequate bilateral

communication

 Users must feel owners of new

systems

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 Elaborate a good plan

 Stable boundary

 Intermediate milestones

 Review and acceptance

procedures

 Make sure of their

understanding and assumption

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 Qualified Team
 Inside:
 Dedicate your best people/’We do not
engage the available’
 Full-time dedication outside daily
environment.
 Participation of “Process leaders”
 Everyone is a project manager

 Outside: 1 to 1 at all levels. Provide

project and application expertise
 Objective: get a UNIQUE team
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Respect deadlines

 Project Cycle

 Maximum deadline

 Maintain deadlines even

by sacrificing any non-
critical requirements

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Risk issues
 Number and location of users

 Quantity and quality of areas implied

 Simultaneous start-up

 Modifications to the standard

application

 Invalid data origin

 Resistance to change culture

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Some ‘well-known’ sources of
failure
 Lack of Project Strategy
 Project is not tightly coupled to business processes
 Scope is not defined in detail (or poorly managed)
 The business unit role is ill defined
 The project team is weak (or changes continuously)
 Resources are robbed to handle emergencies
 Lack of review on project plans: The ´wallpaper´
syndrome
 Absence of criteria for project ending and
termination
 Lack of professionalism

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Information Systems Failures
Nike_Rebounds_How_and_Why_Nike_Recov
ered_from_Its_Supply_Chain_Disaster

Project Management: AT&T Wireless Self-

Destructs

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 Common sense for success
 Clear, agreed and documented requirements

 Adoption of a methodology that everyone understands

 Issue (and not status) oriented project management

 Management commitment: They do decide, they do facilitate!

 Project management culture and mentality: This is a project not every

day operations

 Well balanced theory and practice: Methodologies along with experience

 Clear project organisational structure

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Questions

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Change Management
&
Organisational Transformation
 Conceptualising Change
Management (1)
 Structured approach: from current to desired
state
 Used to:
 Avoid user resistance and overcome scepticism to
business & system changes

 Address different stakeholder agendas

 Involves negotiation and targets at reaching

consensus
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Conceptualising Change
Management (2)

 Patrick Dixon1 talks about change

management…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_kZl15houUc&feature=PlayList&p=72727
29093383292&index=0&playnext=1

(ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive)

1

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Stakeholders may…
 …withhold resources

 …purposely identify wrong people to work on

project

 …raise continual objections to requirements

 …change project requirements

 …expand size & complexity of project.

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Lewin’s three-stage change
process

Structured technique to
effectively transition groups or
organisations through change.

Provides a framework for

managing the people side of
change.

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Kotter on Organisational
Transformation
 Establish sense of urgency
 Form powerful guiding coalition
 Create and communicate vision
 Empower others to act on vision
 Plan for & create short-term wins
 Consolidate improvements & produce more change
 Institutionalise new approaches

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 Principles of Change Management
(1)
 Address human side of change systematically. Adapt
often as circumstances change

 Start at the top. Top managers must show full support

 Involve every layer. Change occurs at all levels of the

organisation

 Make the formal case. Need for change will be

challenged

 Create ownership. Leaders must be willing to accept

responsibility for achieving the change
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 Principles of Change Management
(2)
 Communicate the message. Provide the right information
at the right time to the right people through multiple
channels

 Assess the cultural landscape. Core cultural values,

behaviours, & perceptions must be addressed up front, in
regard to readiness for change, identify conflict areas &
define factors that can impact resistance

 Prepare for unexpected. No matter how well planned, there

will be surprises

 Speak to the individual. Real change only occurs at the

individual level
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Questions

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The role of Knowledge
From Data…to Wisdom!

Messages representing an
DATA observable object or event

Human significance associated with an

INFORMATION observable object

Theoretical or practical knowledge

KNOWLEDGE
of a subject

WISDOM
Experience and knowledge
applied with judgement

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What is Knowledge?
Knowledge and skills give a firm a competitive
advantage because it is through this set of
knowledge and skills that a firm is able to innovate
new products/processes/services, or improve
existing ones more efficiently and/or effectively. The
raison d’être of a firm is to continuously create
knowledge.’ (Irujiro Nonaka et al.,2000: p. 1)

“Knowledge is the only meaningful resource”

(Peter Drucker, 1993: p. 54)
Information that is contextual, relevant & actionable 59
 Types of
Organisational Knowledge
 Explicit (Leaky) Knowledge
 Know-what that can be expressed formally using a system
of symbols, and can therefore be easily communicated or
diffused. Explicit knowledge may be object-based or rule-
based
 Objective, rational, and technical

 Tacit (Sticky) Knowledge

 The know-how used by organisational members to perform
their work and to make sense of their worlds. Tacit
knowledge is hard to verbalize because it is expressed
through action-based skills and cannot be reduced to rules
and recipes
 Subjective, cognitive, and experiential learning
 Highly personalised, difficult to formalise
 “We know more than we can tell” (Polanyi, 1966: p. 111)
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What is Knowledge Management?

Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak (1998):

Knowledge management is concerned with the

exploitation and development of the knowledge
assets of an organisation with a view to furthering
the organisation’s objectives. The knowledge to be
managed includes both explicit, documented
knowledge, and tacit, subjective knowledge.

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The knowledge management
system cycle

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 Social conditions for knowledge-
sharing
 Shared practices
 People doing the same kind of work, solving the same kinds of
problems
 Shared identity
 Feeling part of the same group – we are on the same side
 Trust & reciprocity
 People are not competing against each other – favours are returned
 Social networks
 People are connected socially not just through the organisation – a
community
 Dialogic basis of knowledge
 Conversation not codification
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 Approaches to KM
Cognitive approach Community approach
 Knowledge resides in the heads of 
individuals
 knowledge is objectively defined as 
concepts and facts
 knowledge is captured as text ; IT
plays a critical role
 aim of KM is to codify and capture
explicit knowledge
 primary gains are better recycling
of knowledge
 dominant metaphor is the human
memory
 critical success factor is technology
Knowledge constructed by
interaction in social networks
knowledge is created/applied
through social communities - ICTs
play an enabling role.
 aim of KM is to encourage
knowledge sharing among
individuals and groups
 gains of KM are creation of
innovative practices and products
 dominant metaphor is the human
community
 critical success factor is trust
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 Knowledge Management
Systems
 Store structured and
unstructured
documents

 Locate employee
expertise

 Search for
information

 Disseminate
knowledge

 Use data from

enterprise
applications and
other key corporate
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systems
Expert location system of AskMe
Corporation

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KM and e-learning (SimMAGIC)

(Courtesy of HamStar Technology LTD.)

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Questions

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Impacts of Information Systems
 Features of information systems
in 2010

Source: Nakamoto, H., and M. Komeichi, “IT Roadmap toward 2010,” Nomura Research Institute, March 1, 2006, Figure 5, 70
p. 7.
Turban et al., 2009
Enterprise 2.0:
How it can benefit you?
 Began as a way to collaborate using blogs, or comment
forums, within companies, or between, & with partners or
customers

 Builds business intelligence. KM becomes more

decentralized

 Provides users with critical customer information instantly

 Real-time, secure access to business performance

information on mobile devices

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Presence, Location & Privacy

 Social networking capability such as IM on facebook

enables users to know when friends are online.

 iPhone built-in location awareness capabilities expand

the concept to exact physical location

 Many privacy & legal issues arise when harm results

from so much awareness & connectivity

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But…
How about the impacts of
Information and Connectivity???

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Information Overload and Quality

 Huge amounts of data can be collected almost

instantly

 Possible to penetrate virtually every barrier

 Intelligent software to process data

 Exponential increase in speed

 Lots of relevant & important data may be omitted

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Spam

 Indiscriminately broadcasting unsolicited messages via

e-mail & over Internet

 Costs: U.S. businesses $42 billion in 2008; worldwide

$140 billion in 2008

 Lowers productivity by employees who have to deal

with these unwanted messages

 Anti-green as it wastes computing power

 Profitable to originators
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Impacts of IT on structure, authority,
power, and Job content

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 Dehumanisation & Other
Psychological Impacts

 Loss of identity

 Depression - loneliness

 Damage social, moral & cognitive

development of school-age children

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Impacts on Health & Safety

 Job stress  demand for increased productivity.

Managers must provide training, redistribute
workload & add employees

 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome may become increasingly

common, but may be diminished with ergonomically
well designed equipment

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Impact of IT on Workers

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Questions

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