Information Systems:

1
Information Systems

• A Player in the Unfolding Drama of Business

2
Business is a Set of Processes
Processes engage in activities and interact with
one another over time towards a goal
3
So Business Is also a Set of Behaviors
4
These Behaviors Are Familiar
Hmmm, what is IS the behavior of?
People
Customers
?????
Materials
Money
Obligation
These behaviors are descriptive of a businesss
resources
5
What????
IDEAS!
Hmmm, what is IS the behavior of?
Info Sys
6
Yes, Ideas

• Or more reasonably, images
• Information systems exist only to enhance the
  fantasy lives of managers!

7
Fantasy Lives?

• Yes, managers must imagine how a business is
  running, i.e., form an image, a model, a shortcut
  expression, verbalization, picture or thought.
• In short, a fantasy. But an accurate one!

8
What Happens
Not exactly the kind of fantasy life you had in
mind, eh?
Managers view this world and experience emotional
states
Confusion Disillusion Stress Anxiety
The real world is chaotic, disorderly, partly
hidden from view or analysis, and intent on its
own path
9
What IS Does
Information systems help create a useful image of
the real world for managers
Information System Lens
The real world is chaotic, disorderly, partly
hidden from view or analysis, and intent on its
own path
10
Of Course There are Limits

• What the lens does
• Process design
• Whose interests the lens represents
• System planning
• How the manager uses/trusts the lens
• Training, strategy
• How the lens is managed
• Operations, outsourcing, security

11
Fantasy
or Nightmare?
IS is the product of human imagination In the
service of human imagination In the context of
human imagination It is no miracle or the agent
of the devil It is not the property of IT people
or the vendors It lives and dies with how
managers feel about it It is also a consumer
product..