Travelling Salesperson

Northern College Diploma Philip Bird Information Systems Philip Bird

An Information System Problem

The aim is to experience first hand some of the difficulties in solving an Information Systems problem.

Organise into small groups.

Find the duration of the trip from A to G, in Durrs, using the 7 information sheets.

Information Systems Philip Bird

A Solution?

Distance

1 lap 1 map

Time

1 burr 1 curr 40d C 10 maps 5 naps 10 currs 10 durrs 60d 90d 57d B A 50d 75d D 93d 75d G

Total is 695 durrs

45d E F 50d 60d Information Systems Philip Bird

Points to Note

Did you know what was required?

 There is a danger in misinterpreting the problem and following the correct instructions. Why bother converting into miles/seconds? This example has fairly simple instructions.

What information is relevant?

 There is a lot of information given, some of it is unnecessary and confusing. How do you decide what is important? In this example there is a definitive solution to work towards – this is not the case in many IS problems and all information is present in this example! Hindsight is wonderful!

Information Systems Philip Bird

Points to Note

How did you cope with the jargon?

 Computer Science doesn’t have any unfamiliar terms!

What methodology did you adopt?

 Spend time trying to organise how to solve problem. This solution only required route and table of distance. We will use a technique called SSADM.

How well did the group work?

 Did anyone take charge? How was information shared? In real systems people are often uncooperative.

Information Systems Philip Bird

Information Systems Philip Bird