mis session 15

7/29/2019 MIS Session 15

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MIS Session 15

Building and Managing Information

Systems


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Structural organizational change enabled by IT

1. Automation

Increase efficiency, replace manual tasks

2. Rationalization

Streamline standard operating procedures. CIMB Group, Malaysia

3. Business process reengineering (BPR)

Analyze, simplify, and redesign business processes Eg. Ford Motorcompanys invoiceless processing

4. Paradigm shifts

Rethink nature of business, define new business model, change nature

of organization Eg. Schneider National

Systems as Planned

Organizational Change


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Organizational Change Carries Risks and

Rewards

The most common forms of organizational change are automation and rationalization. These

relatively slow-moving and slow-changing strategies present modest returns but little risk.

Faster and more comprehensive changesuch as reengineering and paradigm shiftscarries

high rewards but offers substantial chances of failure.


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Overview of Systems Development

Systems development: Activities that go into producing aninformation system solution to an organizational problem oropportunity

Systems analysis

Systems design

Programming

Testing

Conversion

Production and maintenance


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The Systems Development Process

Building a system can be broken down into six core activities.


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Systems analysis

Analysis of problem that will be solved by system

Defining the problem and identifying causes

Specifying solutions

Systems proposal report identifies and examines alternative solutions

Identifying information requirements

Includes feasibility study

Is solution feasible from financial, technical, organizational standpoint

Is solution a good investment?

Is required technology, skill available?


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System analysis (cont.)

Establishing information requirements

Who needs what information, where, when, and how

Define objectives of new/modified system

Detail the functions new system must perform

Faulty requirements analysis is leading cause of systems

failure and high systems development cost

Systems analysis


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Systems design

Describe system specifications that will deliver

functions identified during systems analysis

Should address all managerial, organizational, and

technological components of system solution Role of end users

User information requirements drive system building

Users must have sufficient control over design process to ensure that

system reflects their business priorities and information needs Insufficient user involvement in design effort is major cause of system

failure


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Programming:

System specifications from design stage are translated intosoftware program code

Software may be purchased, leased, or outsourced instead

Testing

To ensuresystem produces right results

Unit testing: Tests each program in system separately

System testing: Tests functioning of system as a whole

Acceptance testing: Makes suresystem is ready to be usedin production setting


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Conversion

Process of changing from old system to new system

Four main strategies

1. Parallel strategy

2. Direct cutover

3. Pilot study

4. Phased approach

Requires end-user training

Finalization of detailed documentation showing how system works from technical

and end-user standpoint


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Production and maintenance

System reviewed to determine if any revisionsneeded

May prepare formal postimplementation audit

document Maintenance Changes in hardware, software, documentation, or procedures to a

production system to correct errors, meet new requirements, or improveprocessing efficiency

20% debugging, emergency work

20% changes to hardware, software, data, reporting

60% of work: User enhancements, improving documentation, recoding forgreater processing efficiency


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Summary of Systems Development

Activities

CORE ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION

Systems analysis Identify problem(s)

Specify solutions

Establish information requirements

Systems design Create design specifications

Programming Translate design specifications into code

Testing Unit test

Systems test

Acceptance test

Conversion Plan conversion

Prepare documentation

Train users and technical staff

Production and maintenance Operate the system

Evaluate the system

Modify the system


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Most prominent methodologies for modeling and designing systems:

Structured methodologies

Object-oriented development

Structured methodologies

Structured: Techniques are step-by-step, progressive

Process-oriented: Focusing on modeling processes oractions that manipulate data

Separate data from processes


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Uses object as basic unit of systems analysis and

design

Object: Combines data and the specific processes that operate on those data

Data encapsulated in object can be accessed and modified only by

operations, or methods, associated with that object

Object-oriented modeling based on concepts of

class and inheritance Objects belong to a certain class and have features of that class

May inherit structures and behaviors of a more general, ancestor class


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Class and Inheritance


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More iterative and incremental than traditionalstructured development

Systems analysis: Interactions between system and users analyzed to identifyobjects

Design phase: Describes how objects will behave and interact; grouped intoclasses, subclasses and hierarchies

Implementation: Some classes may be reused from existing library of classes,others created or inherited

Because objects are reusable, object-orienteddevelopment can potentially reduce time and cost ofdevelopment


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Alternative Systems-Building Methods

Traditional systems life-cycle

Follows waterfall approach: Tasks in one stage finishbefore another stage begins

Can be costly, time-consuming, and inflexible

Prototyping

Building experimental system rapidly and inexpensively forend users to evaluate

Often used for end-user interface design

May not undergo full testing or documentation

End-user development

Uses fourth-generation languages to allow end-users todevelop systems with little or no help from technical specialists


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Application software packages

Save time and money

Outsourcing

Allows organization flexibility in IT needs

Hidden costs, e.g.

Identifying and selecting vendor

Transitioning to vendor

Opening up proprietary business processes to thirdparty

Alternative Systems-Building Methods


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Application Development for the Digital

Firm

Rapid application development (RAD)

Joint application design (JAD)

Agile development

Component-based development

Web services


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Managing Global Systems


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Challenges and obstacles to global business systems

General cultural challenges

Cultural particularism

Regionalism, nationalism, language differences

Social expectations:

Brand-name expectations, work hours

Political laws

Transborder data flow

Transborder data and privacy laws, commercial regulations

International Information Systems


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Challenges and obstacles to global business systems (cont.)

Specific challenges

Standards

Different EDI, e-mail, telecommunication standards

Reliability

Phone networks not uniformly reliable

Speed

Different data transfer speeds, many slower than U.S.

Personnel Shortages of skilled consultants


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BUSINESS

FUNCTION

DOMESTIC

EXPORTER

MULTINATIONAL FRANCHISER TRANSNATIONAL

Production Centralized Dispersed Coordinated Coordinated

Finance/

Accounting

Centralized Centralized Centralized Coordinated

Sales/

Marketing

Mixed Dispersed Coordinated Coordinated

HumanResources Centralized Centralized Coordinated Coordinated

Strategic

Management

Centralized Centralized Centralized Coordinated

Global Business Strategy and Structure


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Global systems to fit the strategy

Configuration, management, and development of systems tend

to follow global strategy chosen

Four main types of systems configuration

Centralized: Systems development and operation occur totally atdomestic home base

Duplicated: Development occurs at home base but operations

are handed over to autonomous units in foreign locations

Decentralized: Each foreign unit designs own solutions and

systems

Networked: Development and operations occur in coordinated

fashion across all units


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The large Xs show the dominant patterns, and the small Xs show the emerging

patterns. For instance, domestic exporters rely predominantly on centralized systems,

but there is continual pressure and some development of decentralized systems in

local marketing regions.

Global Strategy and Systems Configurations

mis session 15

Documents