Information Systems - University of Florida

[Pages:308]1

Information Systems

Information Systems

Richard T. Watson (editor) University of Georgia

Copyright ? 2007 by the Global Text Project

This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License 2

Table of Contents

Preface...............................................................................................................................................................7

1. Being a systems innovator......................................................................................................9

Being a systems innovator................................................................................................................................9 Systems innovators are designers...................................................................................................................12 Innovations are new answers to problems.....................................................................................................13 Innovations are also reactions to change.......................................................................................................13 Exciting times for systems innovators............................................................................................................14 General insights into human (and information) systems..............................................................................15 General implications for a systems innovator................................................................................................15 How can I innovate?.......................................................................................................................................16 What do innovations achieve?........................................................................................................................17 Innovations achieve new products and profits..............................................................................................18 Innovations increase effectiveness.................................................................................................................19

2. 2. Achieving Efficiency and Effectiveness through Systems...............................................23

Introduction....................................................................................................................................................23 What is an information system?.....................................................................................................................23 IT is not information system..........................................................................................................................24 The four components of an information system............................................................................................24 Effectiveness...................................................................................................................................................29

3. Achieving efficiency and effectiveness through systems design.........................................36

Introduction....................................................................................................................................................36 Development process: from idea to detailed instructions.............................................................................36 Issues..............................................................................................................................................................39 Overall development strategy.........................................................................................................................43 Requirements..................................................................................................................................................45 Architecture....................................................................................................................................................50 Design.............................................................................................................................................................52 Code................................................................................................................................................................58 Test..................................................................................................................................................................58 Maintain..........................................................................................................................................................64

4. Business process modeling and process management........................................................69

Understanding the key steps of process management...................................................................................69 What is a process and what are the different types of processes?.................................................................70 Process orientation as prerequisite for process management.......................................................................72 What is business process modeling and what is it good for?.........................................................................74 Modeling with ePK..........................................................................................................................................77 Software for process modeling and process support.....................................................................................79 Process analysis and the benchmarking of processes...................................................................................80 A roadmap to process management...............................................................................................................84

5. Information systems methodologies....................................................................................89

Introduction....................................................................................................................................................89 Selecting a methodology ................................................................................................................................95 Quality selection criteria of methodologies....................................................................................................97 Methodologies misuse....................................................................................................................................97

6. Implementing systems........................................................................................................101

Introduction..................................................................................................................................................101 Demand for Knowledge Harvesting.............................................................................................................102

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Formalizing the Knowledge Harvesting Process..........................................................................................102 Current Practices in Knowledge Harvesting................................................................................................104 Bridge Building.............................................................................................................................................107 Recommendations........................................................................................................................................108

7. How hardware and software contribute to efficiency and effectiveness...........................112

Hardware progress........................................................................................................................................113 Progress in electronic technology.................................................................................................................114 Progress in storage technology......................................................................................................................115 Progress in communication technology........................................................................................................117 Software progress.........................................................................................................................................120 Batch processing...........................................................................................................................................120 Time sharing..................................................................................................................................................121 Personal computers.......................................................................................................................................121 Local area networks......................................................................................................................................123 Wide area networks--the Internet................................................................................................................124 Open source software....................................................................................................................................125 User supplied content...................................................................................................................................125 Composite applications.................................................................................................................................127 Software as a service.....................................................................................................................................128 Mobile, portable and location-aware applications.......................................................................................129 The long tail...................................................................................................................................................131 Collaboration support applications..............................................................................................................132 Will the progress continue?..........................................................................................................................134 Bumps in the information technology road..................................................................................................135 Capacity to handle video traffic....................................................................................................................135 Data center capacity and electric power.......................................................................................................136 Inequity.........................................................................................................................................................136 Vested interests can impede progress...........................................................................................................137 Intellectual property restrictions..................................................................................................................138 Security and privacy......................................................................................................................................139

8. Utilizing data for efficiency and effectiveness....................................................................142

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................142 Organizational decision making ..................................................................................................................142 Decision making: systems view ....................................................................................................................145 Using data to improve decision making ......................................................................................................147

9. Managing data for efficiency...............................................................................................156

Introduction and Data Modeling..................................................................................................................156 The role of data management technologies in achieving organizational efficiencies..................................158 Representing reality through data management.........................................................................................160 What are data?...............................................................................................................................................161 Question .......................................................................................................................................................162 Questions.......................................................................................................................................................163 Information and meaning.............................................................................................................................163 Knowledge.....................................................................................................................................................164 Data versus reality.........................................................................................................................................164 Granularity....................................................................................................................................................166 Question........................................................................................................................................................167 Identity..........................................................................................................................................................167 Assigning values............................................................................................................................................175

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Derived data values.......................................................................................................................................176 Representing composite entities...................................................................................................................178 Relationships.................................................................................................................................................179 Meta-data.......................................................................................................................................................181

10. Opportunities in the network age.....................................................................................185

Introduction..................................................................................................................................................185 Traditional strategy and killer applications.................................................................................................186 The five new forces........................................................................................................................................187 How the new five forces work in industries and markets............................................................................192

11. Opportunities in business to business systems................................................................202

What is integration and why is it important?..............................................................................................202 History of B2B systems................................................................................................................................206 What is a B2B system?..................................................................................................................................207 B2B technologies..........................................................................................................................................208 Challenges for B2B adoption........................................................................................................................212 Buyer Issues..................................................................................................................................................214 Supplier issues ..............................................................................................................................................214 Opportunities: New business models enabled by B2B systems...................................................................215 Future of B2B systems..................................................................................................................................215

12. Opportunities in peer-to-peer systems ............................................................................219

P2P in its historical context .........................................................................................................................220 Peer-to-peer file sharing...............................................................................................................................223 Other P2P Internet applications: communication, commerce, and collaboration.....................................226 One-to-one P2P applications........................................................................................................................227 One-to-many P2P applications....................................................................................................................229 Many-to-many P2P applications..................................................................................................................230 P2P and the Law of the Double-Edged Sword.............................................................................................232

13. Opportunities for new organizational forms....................................................................236

What is an organization?..............................................................................................................................237 Management and the Division of Labour....................................................................................................239 What Do Managers Do?...............................................................................................................................240 Development of information and communication technology....................................................................242 An interim summary....................................................................................................................................244 New Models of Organization........................................................................................................................244 Critique and Conclusions.............................................................................................................................250

14. Information systems security...........................................................................................252

Background...................................................................................................................................................252 The Principles...............................................................................................................................................257 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................262

15. Avoiding information systems failures.............................................................................265

Managing the delivery of IS services: The role of IT infrastructure............................................................266 Defining information system failure: Confidentiality, integrity and availability........................................269 Potential causes of systems failure...............................................................................................................270 Mitigating risk: Reducing the probability of system failure.......................................................................272

16. Green IS: Building Sustainable Business Practices.........................................................290

Sustainability................................................................................................................................................290 The need for green IS and green IT..............................................................................................................291 The information drives ................................................................................................................................292

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A frameworks of sustainability options........................................................................................................295 Organizational perspectives.........................................................................................................................299 Three approaches to ecological thinking......................................................................................................301

17. Moving forward as a systems innovator...........................................................................304

Moving Forward as a Systems Innovator....................................................................................................304 The Promise of Information Technology.....................................................................................................304 The Promise of Business..............................................................................................................................305 The Challenges of Information Technology.................................................................................................306 Some Resources for Systems Innovators.....................................................................................................307

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Preface

The Global Text Project () was initiated in early 2006 to develop a series of free, open content, electronic textbooks. A description of the Global Text Project is available on the project's.

The impetus for developing the information systems text as one of the first in the series is based on:

? The worldwide community of IS academics is a closely-knit community. Individuals know each other and have a long history of cooperating with each other on a global scale. Creation of an open content textbook will require the cooperation of the worldwide community of faculty and their students, as well as practitioners.

? The IS community, of all academic communities, should be the one that is an early adopter of technology that holds the promise of being able to create a state-of-the-art textbook.

The Information Systems textbook created by the community will be best-in-class, up-to-date, and, perhaps most importantly, made available at no cost to students anywhere in the world, but particularly to students in the developing world.

The overall approach of the text

Introductory information systems textbooks often present the topic in somewhat of a vacuum. That is, they focus on information systems without really succeeding in showing how IS is integrated in organizations, how knowledge workers are supported, and how important IS is for an organization's success. Many undergraduate students do not understand why they are required to take an IS course since they are not IS majors. Many also expect the introductory course to focus on personal productivity software. This textbook will teach students how to exploit IS in a technology-rich environment. It will emphasize why, no matter what their major, information and communications technologies (ICT) are, and increasingly will be, a critical element in their personal success and the success of their organizations. In other words, they need to be introduced to concepts, principles, methods, and procedures that will be valuable to them for years to come in thinking about existing organization systems, proposing new systems, and working with IS professionals in implementing new systems.

Students need to understand systems and the systems concept, and they need to understand the role of ICT in enabling systems. Students will learn the characteristics of good systems (e.g., intuitive, likable, error-resistant, fast, flexible, and the like). Knowing the characteristics of good systems will permit students to demand welldesigned systems and to suggest how existing systems should be changed. Students need to understand the affordances, directions, and limits of hardware, software, and networks in both personal and organizational dimensions. They also need to appreciate that, as technical capabilities change and new ones arise, more opportunities to apply ICT for efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation are afforded. They need to understand the process for developing and implementing new or improved systems and the activities of IS professionals in this process.

The distinction between information systems and information technology

We distinguish clearly between information systems and information technology, a distinction that seems lacking too often as the terms are often used interchangeably. We define these terms as follows:

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? An information technology transmits, processes, or stores information. ? An information system is an integrated and cooperating set of software directed information technologies

supporting individual, group, organizational, or societal goals. In other words, IS applies IT to accomplish the assimilation, processing, storage, and dissemination of information. Thus, PDAs, cellular phones, music players, and digital cameras as information systems. These devices use multiple information technologies to create personal information systems. Similarly other information technologies, such as database, networks, and programming languages, are used to created organizational systems.

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