Project Milestone

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Project Milestone 2

• Due Date Monday, Sept. 20, 1999
• The Group Contract that specifies
• the roles and responsibilities of each group
  member
• the criteria and form you will use to "grade"
  each group member
• Each group member must sign the contract.

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Chapter 2 (continued)

• Information Systems Building Blocks
• Sept. 8

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A Framework For Information Systems Architecture
RECAP

• What is an Information Systems Architecture?
• An information systems architecture provides a
  unifying framework into which various people with
  different perspectives can organize and view the
  fundamental building blocks of information
  systems.
• Stakeholders have different views of the system
  and each has something at stake in determining
  the success of the system.
• Stakeholders can be broadly classified into four
  groups
• System Owners
• System Users
• System Designers
• System Builders

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I. System Owners

• Main business sponsor, pays for system
• Must get buy-in from System Owners
• High level view of business
• Cost-Benefit, ROI, Performance
• Dont care about technology

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II. System Users

• Use and directly benefit from system
• Define the
• problems
• opportunities
• requirements
• business constraints
• Focus on mechanics, not costs

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Types of System Users

• Internal Users
• Clerical Service
• Technical Professional
• Management
• Remote Mobile Users
• Sales, Technical support, Telecommuters
• External Users
• Other businesses, suppliers, customers

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III. System Designers

• Translate business requirements into technical
  solutions
• Have specialized expertise in
• Business
• Technology
• View system in terms of
• Data, Process, Interface, Geography

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IV. System Builders

• Application programmers (coders)
• If-Then-Else logic
• Case statements
• Must work with all other technology experts

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Building Blocks - Expanding The Information
System Framework

• There are at least four distinct focuses in a
  system.
• DATA - the raw material used to create useful
  information.
• PROCESSES - the activities (including management)
  that carry out the mission of the business.
• INTERFACES - how the system interacts with people
  and other systems
• GEOGRAPHY - where the data is captured and
  stored where the processes happen where the
  interfaces happen.

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Framework for Analysis Design

• These 4 Technology Components are the IS Building
  Blocks
• Very oversimplified views
• Different views must be synchronized to avoid
  inconsistencies incompatibilities

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I. Data

• Data vs. Information
• Primary vehicle is Database Technology
• Each stakeholder has a different view

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System Owners view of Data

• System owner not interested in Data
• Focus on Business Resources
• essential to mission
• must be managed and controlled
• Entities defined in business terms
• Relationships between entities
• Objectives, goals, constraints

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System Users view of Data

• These people know the data the best
• But, unaware of other uses of data
• Have keen experience with
• entities customers, events
• attributes differentiation
• rules of relations, data specs, etc.

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System Designers view of Data

• Translate requirements in computer files and
  databases for the IS
• data structures, tables, records, fields
• users, owners do not speak this language!
• Communication Tools
• Entity-Relation diagrams, data dictionary
• Goals
• represent users needs views

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System Builders view of Data

• Are closest to the database technology
• Extremely precise
• Types of databases
• Relational (RDBMS)
• Hierarchical
• Flat-Files
• Mechanisms to access these file types

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II. Process

• Perform the work in a system
• Work can be performed by
• people
• machines
• Processes occur
• repetitively
• less frequently
• Ultimate goal automate appropriate processes
  with software

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System Owners view of Process

• Interested in the big picture, business functions
• Goal match IS to business functions
• Historically function-centered islands
• Today cross-functional (BPR TQM)

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System Users view of Process

• Processes, Data Flows, Data Stores, Policies
• Limitation see their process in term of how it
  currently works
• SA must help prioritize, fit into the bigger
  picture
• Helps you understand what you are designing

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System Designers view of Process

• Constrained by technology
• What processes to automate, and how
• Tools structure charts, flow charts, state
  models
• Goals
• fulfill the business process requirements
• provide enough detail to communicate

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System Builders view of Process

• Represents business processes with a programming
  language
• inputs, outputs, logic, control, etc.
• May involve application programming
• Prototyping

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III. Interfaces

• Must provide effective and efficient interaction
  with
• systems users HCI - menus, commands
• other information systems EDI, parameters
• Windows 95, VCR

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System Owners view of Interfaces

• The big picture (again)
• What business units, customers, external
  businesses?
• What are key inputs/outputs?
• What regulations, policies constrain the
  interface? (encryption)
• Tools Context Diagrams

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System Users view of Interfaces

• System users most interested in interface
• Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• ?, Macintosh, Windows
• System users view as a Prototype
• Focus is on form and content, consistency

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System Designers view of Interfaces

• Difficult to distinguish from users view
• GUI tradeoff for users designers
• Focus consistency, intuitiveness, clutter
• Keyless interfaces bar codes, OCR
• Tools State Transition Diagram
• Hurdles designing interfaces which
• dont generate changes for legacy eq.
• dont compromise superior technology
• invisible to end user

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System Builders view of Interfaces

• Responsible for constructing, installing, testing
  implementing 2 interfaces
• Tools graphical languages such as VB, VC,
  Delphi, Powerbuilder
• Connection to legacy systems
• Middleware (for incompatible systems)
• Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

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VI. Geography

• Goal enable people, systems computers to work
  together
• Factors driving distributed computing
• pace of business, accuracy is increasing
• reach of business is expanding
• complexity of business is increasing
• Client/Server, Distributed computing

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System Owners view of Geography

• Networking no longer technology, its a business
  reality
• What business functions are performed at which
  locations?
• centralize
• decentralize
• duplicate data
• Telecommuters

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System Users view of Geography

• Knows the geography the best because they deal
  with it every day
• Can identify locations forgotten by others
• What communication patterns exist?
• Both electronic and traditional!
• Tools flowcharting to describe communication -
  not the LAN, etc.

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System Designers view of Geography

• Technical model that describes computing centers,
  computers, and network hardware necessary
• Must be aware of not only current project, but
  other projects
• Goal prepare specs for
• meeting business network requirements
• provide detail and consistency for builders

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System Builders view of Geography

• Main focus is telecommunications
• Must know
• IP addresses
• communication protocols
• bandwidth, line speed
• Must conform to standards
• Netware, Win NT Server, Exchange Server

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Summary

• A Review of Fundamentals of Information Systems
• A Framework For Information Systems Architecture
• Perspectives - The People Side of Information
  Systems
• Building Blocks - Expanding The Information
  System Framework