Hele-Mai

Hele-MaiHaav:
Haav:
CSC230,
CSC230,
Spring’03
Spring’03

Solving Business Problems:

Systems Approach
 Objectives:
 Describe each of the steps of the systems approach
to problem solving

 Use the systems approach, the systems development

cycle, and a model of information systems
components as problem-solving frameworks to help
you to propose IS solutions to simple business
problems
 SYSTEM

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

FEEDBACK
FUNCTIONS OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM

ENVIRONMENT
Customers Suppliers

ORGANIZATION
INFORMATION SYSTEM

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

FEEDBACK

Regulatory Stockholders Competitors

Agencies
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

ORGANIZATIONS TECHNOLOGY

INFORMATIO
N
SYSTEMS

MANAGEMENT
 APPROACHES TO INFO SYSTEMS

TECHNICAL APPROACHES
COMPUTER
OPERATIONS
SCIENCE
RESEARCH
MANAGEMENT
SCIENCE
MIS
SOCIOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGY POLITICAL
SCIENCE
BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES
 SYSTEM INTERDEPENDENCE

INTERDEPENDENCE
HARDWARE

BUSINESS SOFTWARE DATABASE

Strategy
Rules TELE-
Procedures COMMUNICATIONS

ORGANIZATION INFORMATION SYSTEM

 Information
need

Any Manager

Management
Transaction Data Information
Data Transaction Management
System
Processing Data information
System

Business Data
Transaction Data Database snapshots Problem
Decision
information and Read-only
Support
messages data
System
Decision Any
Any Business Data Decision Maker
support
User Warehouse or
information
Executive
Office
Captured
Communications Information Executive
data Data
between users System inquiry
and within groups
Executive
Read-only
Information
Data data Executive
System
Shared information
data
Personal
data Personal
Information
System
Expert
Problem
System

Personal
information Personal Rules
data Any
Relevant
Any User
Solution
User
Personal Expertise
Files & Database
Databases

Different types of IS in organization

 The Systems Approach

The systems approach to problem solving

uses a systems orientation to define
problems and opportunities and develop
solutions
Problem-Solving Approach

 A methodology is, first and foremost, a problem-solving

approach to building systems.

 The classical problem-solving approach is as follows:

 Study and understand the problem (opportunity, and/or directive) and its
system context.
 Define the requirements of a suitable solution.

 Identify candidate solutions and select the ``best'' solution.

 Design and/or implement the solution.

 Observe and evaluate the solution's impact, and refine the solution

accordingly.
Defining a problem in a systems
context
• A problem
– a basic condition that is causing undesirable
results

• Symptoms
– are signals of an underlying problem

Separate symptoms from problems!

 In the business world all you see are
symptoms

How to see unstructured problems and

solve them?

Models and systems approach help you.

 Systems context
The business organization or process in which
a problem arises could be viewed as a
system of
• input,
• processing
• output
• feedback and
• control components
Symptom: Sales are declining
Problem: Salespersons are loosing orders, because they cannot get
info on product prices and availability
 Techniques to examine business
problems:
• Identification business objects, how they are
related , and analyzing the data that is
needed by end users

• Focusing on business processes and

activities
Modeling objects:
Object-oriented Analysis
Account

Number
Name
Client...
Open account
Close account

Savings Account Checking Account

Modeling objects:
Event-driven Approach
When some business event occurs, an object
function is called or property is modified

Benefits of OOA: changes are made only to

needed classes of objects
Analyzing Systems:
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Example: Rolling Thunder Bicycles
 UML in One Sentence
The UML is a graphical language for
• visualizing
• specifying
• constructing
• documenting
artifacts of a software-intensive system.
The UML addresses the specification of all
important analysis, design, and
implementation decisions.
 Structural Diagrams
Used to visualize, specify, construct,
document static aspects of system
• class diagram
• package diagram [not standard UML]
• object diagram
• component diagram
• deployment diagram
Common Uses of Class Diagrams
• to model vocabulary of the system, in terms
of which abstractions are part of the system
and which fall outside its boundaries
• to model simple collaborations (societies of
elements that work together to provide
cooperative behavior)
• to model logical database schema (blueprint
for conceptual design of database)
 Class
• A class is a description of a set of objects that
share the same attributes, operations,
relationships, and semantics.
• An attribute is a named property of a class
that describes a range of values that instances
of the property may hold.
• An operation is a service that can be
requested from an object to affect behavior.
Class Notation
Name

Attributes

Operations
 Relationships
connections between classes
• dependency
• generalization
• association
 Dependency
A dependency is a “using” relationship within
which the change in the specification of one
class may affect another class that uses it.
Example: one class uses another in operation
Window
Event
handleEvent()
 Generalization
A generalization is a “kind of” or “is a”
relationship between a general thing
(superclass or parent) and a more specific
thing (subclass or child).
Shape

Circle Rectangle
 Association
An association is a structural relationship
within which classes or objects are connected
to each other. (An association between objects
is called a link.)

Person Company
 Association Adornments
• name
• role
• multiplicity
• aggregation
• composition
 Association Name

describes nature of relationship:

works for
Person Company

can also show direction to read name:

works for
Person Company
 Behavioral Diagrams
Used to visualize, specify, construct,
document dynamic aspects of system
• use case diagram
• sequence diagram
• collaboration diagram
• statechart diagram
• activity diagram
 Use Case and Actor
• A use case is a sequence of actions,
including variants, that a system performs
to yield an observable result of value to an
actor.
• An actor is a coherent set of roles that
human and/or non-human users of use cases
play when interacting with those use cases.
 Flows of Events
• The main flow of events (basic course of
action) describes the “sunny-day” scenario.
• Each exceptional flow of events (alternate
course of action) describes a variant, such
as an error condition or an infrequently
occurring path.
Use Case Diagram shows primary business processes in
organization

Simple Use Case Diagram

Do
Trade
Entry
Generate
Reports

Update
Portfolio
Info
Analyzing Systems:
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Example: Rolling Thunder Bicycles

worker
employee Product
Assembly Management

Order Entry Purchases

Retail
store manufacturer
Accounting
customer
 Collaboration Diagram
A collaboration diagram is an interaction
diagram that emphasizes the organization of
the objects that participate in the interaction.
A path is a link between objects, perhaps with
a stereotype such as «local» attached.
Sequence numbers indicate the time ordering
of messages, to one or more levels.
Analyzing Systems:
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Example: Rolling Thunder Bicycles
Class Diagram. It displays the classes, their properties, and the
associations or relationships among the classes
 Analyzing Systems:
STRUCTURED ANALYSIS

• DEFINES SYSTEM INPUTS, PROCESSES,

OUTPUTS
• PARTITIONS SYSTEM INTO SUBSYSTEMS
OR MODULES
• LOGICAL, GRAPHICAL MODEL OF
INFORMATION FLOW
• DATA FLOW DIAGRAM: Graphical display of
component processes, flow of data
Analyzing Systems:
Process Analysis
Example: Rolling Thunder Bicycles
Process Diagram. It describe how individual processes interact
with each other

Input Process Output

Data flow diagram is a process-oriented technique used for

investigating IS. It is designed to show how system is divided
into smaller parts and highlight the flow of data between
those parts
SYMBOLS FOR DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS (DFD):

DATA FLOW
Feedback & control

PROCESS

SOURCE
OR SINK

FILE
DATA FLOW DIAGRAM:

GENERATE
BALANCE
GENERATE
BILL
CUSTOMER PAYMENT
FILE FILE

GENERATE
REPORT
CUSTOMER

 MANAGER
 STRUCTURED
ANALYSIS
• DATA DICTIONARY: Controlled definitions of
descriptions of all data, such as variable names &
types of data
• PROCESS SPECIFICATIONS: Describes logic
of processes at module level
 Developing and evaluating
alternative solutions
Where do alternative solutions come from?

 Experience (previous solutions)

 Advice of others
 Your intuition and creativity
 Simulation of processes (e.g. what-if analysis using
Excel; decision support systems )
 “doing nothing” approach
 Evaluation of solutions
Goal:
– to determine how well each alternative solution
meets your business and personal requirements

• Develop evaluation criteria for evaluation

of solutions.
• Criteria may be ranked
 Selecting the best solution
• As alternative solutions have been
evaluated using the same criteria, it is
possible to compare the solutions and find
the best which meets your requirements.

– You can have other reasons for not choosing

the best one or rejecting all the solutions.
– Develop additional solutions.
“Doing nothing” can be selected
as the best solution
 Designing and implementing
solutions
Develop design specification and an implementation plan
• Design specification
– description of characteristics and capabilities of
the people, hardware, software, and data resources
and information systems activities needed by a
new system
• Implementation plan
– specifies the resources, activities, and timing
needed for implementation.
 A solution can fail!

• The results of implementing a solution

could be monitored and evaluated
• This is post-implementation review process.
If the implemented solution does not
help the firm and does not meet their
system objectives, then the systems
approach assumes you’ll cycle back to a
previous step and make another attempt
to find a workable solution.
 SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

• SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
• SYSTEM DESIGN
• PROGRAMMING
• TESTING
• CONVERSION
• PRODUCTION & MAINTENANCE