Introduction to Information Systems Analysis Foundations and Building Blocks

1
Introduction to InformationSystems
AnalysisFoundations and Building Blocks

• INFO 503
• Glenn Booker

2
Syllabus

• This class focuses on understanding the ways in
  which the concept for a product can be turned
  into requirements and a design
• Best to reach me by e-mail phone if urgent
• Will cover most of textbook will not cover
  object-oriented methods since thats a very
  different approach (see INFO 620)
• Yes, the text is quite repetitive

3
Syllabus

• All course materials are on my web
  sitehttp//users.snip.net/gbooker/
• Be sure to read the General Course Information
  and Document Review Notes (http//users.snip.net/
  gbooker/general.htm) and (http//users.snip.net/g
  booker/doc-review.doc)

4
Why So Many Military Sources?

• They have vast experience with the development
  and acquisition of complex software and systems
• Which was paid for with tax dollars, so
• Many of their lessons learned are freely
  available!
• (Under References, look for SEI, INCOSE, and
  STSC.)

5
My Biases

• DOD and FAA background, so I apologize for the
  TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms)
• Speak up if I use one you dont know
• Use a Systems Engineering approach information
  systems are a special case
• Mostly work with long-lived systems, so
  maintenance issues get extra attention

6
Soundstage Entertainment Club

• is a case study which is followed throughout the
  textbook
• It will not generally be discussed in class
• FAST Framework for the Application of System
  Techniques, (p. 80) is a term for the system
  analysis and design approach used by the text it
  is a condensed version of a typical systems
  development method

7
Information Systems

• Information systems are systems which use
  computer, database and/or data processing
  technology to store and analyze data
• A systems analyst supports development and
  maintenance of some system
• Development consists of several types of
  activities, including analysis and design of the
  system

8
Information System Applications

• Information system applications include
• Transaction processing systems (TPS) tohandle
  orders, payments, reservations, or other
  transactions
• Management and executive information systems (MIS
  EIS) produce reports to help run the business
• Decision support systems (DSS) help make
  decisions or refine business rules

9
Stakeholders

• Stakeholders are the people who affect the
  development and creation of your system
• Note that a given person could fulfill many
  stakeholder roles, or they may be so far
  separated that they never meet!

10
Types of Stakeholders

• General types of stakeholders include
• System Owners
• System Users
• System Designers
• System Builders
• System Analysts
• Each of these may include many more specific roles

11
System Owners

• The System Owner (a.k.a. sponsor) provides the
  money for a system to be developed
• They generally make the final decisions about the
  scope and future of the system
• Often technically ill informed

12
System Users

• The System User (a.k.a. end user) is the person
  who actually uses the product or system on a
  day-to-day basis to do their job
• Users may be internal (within your organization)
  or external (outside)
• Include support professional staff, managers,
  customers, suppliers, andremote users

13
System Users

• Often the User (client or customer) is the person
  who controls the detailed requirements for a
  system
• Warning The text often assumes the System User
  knows a lot about the detailed data requirements
  - may or may not be true
• If not, the System Designer must fill in

14
System Designers

• System designers are the people who design the
  system (duh!)
• Often includes many technical specialties, such
  as database administrators, network designers,
  web architects, graphic artists, security
  experts, and experts in your business environment
  (a.k.a. Subject Matter Experts)

15
System Builders

• System Builders are the people who create the
  system designed by the Designers
• Includes the most technically specific experts,
  such as application, systems, and database
  programmers, network and security
  administrators, and system integrators

16
System Analysts

• Main role is problem solving to fix an existing
  system or create a new one
• Uses the system development life cycle to manage
  and control the solution of problems
• Helps bridge the gaps among the other
  stakeholders who affect creation of a system

17
System Development Life Cycle

• The System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a
  structured series of activities used to produce a
  system which is ready for operational or
  production use
• Development is followed by the support or
  maintenance phase, which is hopefully the longest
  phase of the systems life

18
System Development Life Cycle

• Any development life cycle generally includes
  five major activities
• Initiation - to establish the scope of the
  problem, and develop the strategy and goals for
  solving the problem
• Analysis - to determine the problems causes and
  effects, and determine what requirements are
  needed

p. 37 (p. 10) 6th and (4th) edition
19
System Development Life Cycle

• Design - the architecture and structure which the
  solution should have to solve the problem the
  best way
• Implementation - create the solution, using
  software tools, source code, hardware, etc.
• Support and Improvement - find and fix existing
  problems in the operational system, and add new
  features

20
Software Life Cycle

• The system development life cycle is similar to
  the classic Waterfall software development life
  cycle
• Life cycle phases are concept development,
  requirements analysis, high and low level design,
  coding, testing, and implementation
• This course mostly covers requirements analysis,
  high- and low-level design

21
Sequential versus Iterative

• System development can be done in one pass
  through the life cycle (like the waterfall), or
  an iterative approach can be used
• An iterative life cycle defines requirements and
  high level design, then does design and implement
  many times, adding more and more to the system
  each time

p. 41 (n/a)
22
Information Systems Architecture

• Contains three goal-oriented perspectives
• Knowledge improve the Data which is stored or
  manipulated by the system
• Processes improve how people use the system
• Communications, which improve the Interfaces with
  people or other systems, and the effects of
  Geography on data distribution

23
Information Systems Architecture

• These three goals are met by the Builders of the
  system with three technologies
• Database technologies to manage the data
• Software technologies to implement the processes
• Interface technologies to support communications

24
Information Services

• Information services may be located in a
  centralized organization used throughout a
  company, or it may be decentralized to support
  unique needs of each group within an organization
• Services may be outsourced - obtained from a
  third party, or obtained from consultants for
  each project which needs them

25
Information Services

• In extreme cases, a software solution provider
  may be used to support a massive software
  implementation (e.g. Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft,
  etc.)
• Online services may provide business-to-business
  (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, or may
  provide product marketing (advertising)

26
Business Process Redesign

• Business Process Redesign (BPR) is the deliberate
  examination of business activities (processes) to
  reduce costs and make sure every step adds value
  to the product, whenever possible
• Tends to produce radical changes in an
  organization

27
Continuous Process Improvement

• Focuses on making lots of small or incremental
  changes to business processes in order to keep
  improving quality, productivity, etc.
• Goal is to keep improving process maturity and
  product quality forever

28
Process Maturity Models

• Quality standards and goals are often embodied in
  process maturity standards, to guide
  organizations process improvement efforts
• The primary software standard is the Software
  Engineering Institutes (SEIs) Capability
  Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)

29
ISO 9000

• The ISO 9000 standards define a quality system
  which affects most aspects of a business
• Focused on manufacturing environment, but also
  applies to software development
• Need ISO 9000 certification for doing business
  with the European Union

30
Globalization

• The Internet has brought global markets even
  closer together
• This affects system requirements such as
• Language translation
• Character sets to express those languages
• Currency exchange (got Euro?)
• Environmental aspects such as time zones
• Available labor markets

31
Technology Influences

• Other technology trends have influenced
  information systems recently
• Placement of seemingly everything on a web page
  (and the expectation that information system
  interfaces will be web-based)
• Emergence of e-commerce and e-business
• Security and privacy concerns
• Freedom through wireless networking

32
Refine Stakeholder Perspectives

• System Owners determine the scope of the system
  including its purpose, vision, goals, objectives,
  costs, and benefits
• May be technologically illiterate
• Generally think in terms of development time and
  money (both development and maintenance costs),
  and how they are offset by the benefits of the
  system

33
Refine Stakeholder Perspectives

• System Users help determine its requirements
  they only care what it does, not how it can do so
  (as a system user, do you care how a light switch
  works?)
• Help define products and processes for data
  input, validation, storage, and reporting
• Concerned about system interface and ease of use

34
Refine Stakeholder Perspectives

• System Designers determine how the system will
  meet the requirements, including the types of
  technology to be used, and its high and low level
  structure
• Tend to specialize their expertise database,
  software engineering, system integration,
  networking, process improvement, etc.

35
Refine Stakeholder Perspectives

• System Builders create the system by writing
  code, testing it, and delivering the finished
  product
• This type of activity is not covered by this
  course, and includes network design, programming,
  etc.
• Changes most quickly with technology

36
Building Blocks
p. 64 (49)

• Now that the stakeholders have been defined, we
  look at their relationships to the building
  blocks of the system
• Knowledge (Data)
• Process
• Communications (Interface and Geography)

37
Building Blocks

• The Geography aspect is downplayed in version 6
  of the text
• Think of the Geography aspect as the effect of
  the physical scale of the system (e.g. time
  zones, internationalization) and networking among
  parts of a distributed system (how much data do I
  need to send from site A to site B every day?)

38
Knowledge Building Blocks

• The System Owners only care about data in the
  broadest form of information
• Owners want to know the state of business
  resources, such as money, inventory, sales,
  facilities, etc.
• Owners express their concerns in simple
  statements about their business model, such as
  CUSTOMERS are in SALES REGIONS

39
Knowledge Building Blocks

• System Users want to know how to use the system
  to perform routine functions, such as placing an
  order or generating an inventory report
• They may know a lot about the data requirements
  in terms of relationships, including how a legacy
  system was used and could be improved upon

40
Knowledge Building Blocks

• System Designers translate requirements into the
  files and tables which will be used to capture
  and manipulate them
• This is expressed as a database schema, which may
  be limited by the type of database tool used
  (Access, Oracle, DB2, etc.)

41
Knowledge Building Blocks

• System Builders write the gory details which make
  it all happen in some sort of language (SQL,
  COBOL, Ada, C-, Visual Basic, etc.)
• Primitive systems had to use flat file
  technology, such as ISAM or FileMaker Pro,
  similar to using a spreadsheet

42
Process Building Blocks

• System Owners are interested in business
  functions
• Most information systems are function-based, such
  as finance, personnel, sales, etc.
• Recent trends are to blend these systems into one
  really big system, like ERP (Enterprise Resource
  Planning)

43
Process Building Blocks

• System Users care about their business processes
  from the most practical perspective when I get
  an order over the phone, I click on the Enter
  Invoice button and fill in the customer
  information
• These processes are defined in policies,
  processes, and procedures, which are often
  defined by higher levels of management

44
Process Building Blocks

• System Designers take the business processes, and
  show how they will be implemented and automated
• This results in application schema, which shows
  how the entire system will work via flowcharts,
  state diagrams, and/or structure charts

45
Process Building Blocks

• System Builders write applications which
  implement the processes
• Applications result from writing source code,
  compiling it to produce object files, and
  linking the object files to produce an executable
  application
• Prototyping may be used to generate a quick model
  of the desired application

46
Communications Building Blocks

• System Owners are concerned about large scale
  interfaces
• How does this system relate to other systems in
  this organization?
• How does the customer relate to this system?
• How does it relate to external systems?
• What are the systems inputs and outputs?
• Are there any legal or regulatory concerns?

47
Communications Building Blocks

• System Users are very concerned about the
  interface to themselves! (A.k.a. the
  human-computer interface or HCI)
• Use of a graphical user interface (GUI) is
  expected
• User interface should follow common standards for
  look and feel

48
Communications Building Blocks

• System Designers must bridge the gap between the
  user interfaces and the system-level interfaces
• They plan how the user will be able to navigate
  in the application
• And keep track of whats currently possible
  through state transition diagrams (e.g. typing
  f versus Altf)

49
Communications Building Blocks

• System Builders create the user interfaces,
  possibly using a graphical development tool like
  Visual Basic or PowerBuilder
• Middleware, such as ODBC (Open Database
  Connectivity), is often used for system-level
  interfaces, such as communicating between
  database programs

50
Geography Building Blocks

• System Owners often think in terms of operating
  locations
• Where is it most effective to operate this
  system? Labor rates, tax laws, and customs may
  affect the answer.
• How distributed will this system be?
• How will sites be affected by this system?

51
Geography Building Blocks

• System Users tend to know a lot about the system
  requirements for their location or organization
• Be sure to get input from all kinds of System
  Users!
• Communication requirements may come from
  geographic considerations

52
Geography Building Blocks

• System Designers need to define the network
  configuration (topology) which will best serve
  this system
• Also need to consider how the processing work is
  divided geographically, and how the inputs and
  outputs will get to those locations (kind of like
  traffic flow)

53
Geography Building Blocks

• System Builders implement the means for
  communication across the network
• May use various protocols to express information
  from each network (TCP/IP, IPX, etc.)
• May need to consider how the system responds when
  part of it is not available