INFO 503

Introduction to Information Systems Analysis Foundations and Building Blocks

INFO 503 Glenn Booker Lecture #1 1

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 that’s a very different approach (see INFO 620) • Yes, the text is quite repetitive INFO 503 Lecture #1 2

Syllabus

• All course materials are on my web site http://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/~gbooker/doc-review.doc

) INFO 503 Lecture #1 3

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 .) INFO 503 Lecture #1 4

My Biases

• DOD and FAA background, so I apologize for the TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms) – Speak up if I use one you don’t know • Use a Systems Engineering approach; information systems are a special case • Mostly work with long-lived systems, so maintenance issues get extra attention INFO 503 Lecture #1 5

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 6

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 7

Information System Applications

• Information system applications include – Transaction processing systems (TPS) to handle 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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 8

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!

INFO 503 Lecture #1 9

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 10

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 11

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, and remote users INFO 503 Lecture #1 12

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 13

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) INFO 503 Lecture #1 14

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 15

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 16

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 system’s life INFO 503 Lecture #1 17

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 problem’s causes and effects, and determine what requirements are needed INFO 503 Lecture #1 6 th p. 37 (p. 10) and (4 th ) edition 18

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 19

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 20

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 p. 41 (n/a) • 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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 21

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 22

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 23

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 24

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) INFO 503 Lecture #1 25

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 26

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 27

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 Institute’s (SEI’s) Capability Maturity Model Integration ( CMMI ) INFO 503 Lecture #1 28

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 29

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 30

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 31

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 32

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 33

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.

INFO 503 Lecture #1 34

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 35

p. 64 (49)

Building Blocks

• 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) INFO 503 Lecture #1 36

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?) INFO 503 Lecture #1 37

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” INFO 503 Lecture #1 38

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 39

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.) INFO 503 Lecture #1 40

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 41

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) INFO 503 Lecture #1 42

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 43

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 44

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 45

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 system’s inputs and outputs?

– Are there any legal or regulatory concerns?

INFO 503 Lecture #1 46

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” INFO 503 Lecture #1 47

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 what’s currently possible through state transition diagrams (e.g. typing ‘f’ versus ‘Alt–f’) INFO 503 Lecture #1 48

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 49

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?

INFO 503 Lecture #1 50

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 51

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) INFO 503 Lecture #1 52

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 INFO 503 Lecture #1 53