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  Ch 13 - Building Info Systems

1. Systems as Planned Organizational Change    (p483)

   1. Systems Development and Organizational Change
      Types of IT-enabled organizational changes:

      1. Automation - uses IT to assist employees with performing existing tasks more efficiently.
         Example - giving bank tellers access to customer deposit records.

      2. Rationalization of procedures - streamlines existing workflows.
         Example - opening case - PC Connection - managers streamlined the fulfillment process and eliminated 90% of the manual work for purchase orders.

      3. Business Process Reengineering - reorganizes workflows.
         Example - JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo - reduced mortgage processing cost from $3000 to $1000, and approval time from 6 to 1 week.  Fig 13-2, p486.

      4. Paradigm Shift - defines a new business model.  See Ch1 outline III.B.2.
         Apple transformed the old business model of physically distributing records and CDs to a new model of downloading music with iTunes.
          

2. Overview of the Systems Development Process     (p489)

   1. Systems Development - the process of producing an information system solution to an organizational problem or opportunity.

   2. Systems Development consists of (Fig 13-3, p490):

      1. Systems Analysis

         1. Identify problems and/or opportunities (includes an Organizational Impact Analysis, see Ch14, Items IV.A.3, IV.B.2).

         2. Establish user information requirements

         3. Conduct feasibility study by identifying costs and benefits of alternative solutions

         4. User selects best alternative.

      2. Systems Design - specifies (Table 13-1, p491):

         1. Output - content, timing, medium

         2. Input - data items, origins, flow

         3. User interfaces

         4. Database design

         5. Processing - to transform input to output

         6. Controls - input limits, check digits, passwords, ...

         7. Security - access controls, backup procedures

      3. Programming - accomplished by coding, software packages, Software as a Service (SaaS), or outsourcing.  See Ch 5 IV.E Software Outsourcing.

      4. Testing

      5. Conversion

      6. Production and Maintenance

   3. End user involvement in the entire Systems Development process is critical to the success of the information system (p491).
       

3. Alternative Systems-building Approaches     (p501)

   1. Several approaches to building info systems have evolved because info systems differ in their size and complexity.

   2. System-building Approaches are:

      1. Traditional Systems Life Cycle - building a system in formal stages (defined in section II.B above) that must be completed sequentially with a formal division of labor between end-users and IT specialists.  Used for large complex systems.

      2. Prototyping - building an info system in an iterative fashion (Fig 13-8, p503) with an informal give-and-take relationship between end-users and IT specialists so that end-users can better determine info requirements.  Used for Decision-Support Systems, and Executive Support Systems.

      3. End-user Development - building an info systems by end-users with little or no assistance from IT specialists. Made possible by Fourth-generation Languages, such as Microsoft Access, see Table 13-3, p504.  Used when appropriate fourth-generation language exists.
                                   (This page was last edited on January 17, 2010 .)