CSUN Information Systems
Systems Analysis & Design
http://www.csun.edu/~dn58412/IS431/IS431_SP16.htm
IS 431: Lecture 1
System
Development
Environment :
Participants
and Context
1
System Development
Environment:
Participants and Context
 Information system applications - WHAT
 Information systems and their stakeholders - WHO
 Role of systems analysts -WHEN-WHY
 Knowledge and skill set for system analysts - HOW
 IS Building Blocks
 Contemporary business and technology trends in
information systems development
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Information Systems Vs.
Information Technology
 Information System (IS): People, data, processes,
and information technology that interact to collect,
process, store, and provide as output the information
needed to support and improve operational, tactical,
and strategic activities of an organization (business).
 Information Technology (IT): A combination of
computer technology (hardware and software) with
telecommunications technology (data, image, and
voice networks)
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From Facts to Knowledge
 Data – raw facts about people, places, events, and things
that are of importance in an organization.
 Information – data that has been processed or reorganized
into a more meaningful form for someone.
 Knowledge – data and information that is further refined
based on the facts, truths, beliefs, judgments, experiences,
and expertise of the recipient.
 Wisdom – when to apply a certain knowledge
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Decision-Making in
an Organization
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Decision-Making Levels
of an Organization
 Executive Level
– Long-term decisions (Strategies)
– Unstructured decisions (Competitions)
 Managerial Level
– Decisions covering weeks and months (Tactics)
– Semi-structured decisions (Effectiveness)
 Operational Level
– Day-to-day decisions (Operations)
– Structured decisions (Efficiency)
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Information Systems in
Organization
STRATEGIC
EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
TACTICAL
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS
OPERATIONAL
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VALUE CHAIN
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Information System
in Context
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Types of
Information Systems
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Transaction Processing Systems
Management Information Systems
Executive Information Systems
Decision Support Systems
Expert Systems
Functional Area Information Systems (Accounting, HR,
Sales, Production …)
Office Automation Systems (Personal Productivity
Software)
Collaboration Systems (Groupware)
Enterprise Systems
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Front- and Back-Office
Information Systems
 Front-office information systems support business
functions that extend out to the organization’s customers (or
constituents).
– Marketing
– Sales
– Customer management
 Back-office information systems support internal business
operations of an organization, aw well as reach out to
suppliers (of materials, equipment, supplies, and services).
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Human resources
Financial management
Manufacturing
Inventory control
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A Federation of
Information Systems
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Information System
Applications
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Stakeholders of a System
 Stakeholder: any person who has an interest in an
existing or proposed information system.
Stakeholders can be technical or nontechnical
workers. They may also include both internal and
external workers.
 Information workers are those workers whose jobs
involve the creation, collection, processing,
distribution, and use of information.
 Knowledge workers are a subset of information
workers whose responsibilities are based on a
specialized body of knowledge.
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Perspectives on an
Information System
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System Owners
 System owners – an information system’s sponsors
and executives advocate, usually responsible for
funding the project of developing, operating, and
maintaining the information system. They define the
SCOPE of a system: what business problem to be
solved
– They view the system in term of cost/benefit to solve
business problem
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System Users
 System users – use or are affected by an
information system on a regular basis – capturing,
validating, entering, responding to, storing, and
exchanging data and information. They define the
REQUIREMENTS of the system.
– Internal users
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Clerical and service workers
Technical and professional staff
Supervisors, middle managers, and executive managers
Remote and mobile users (internal but disconnected)
– External users
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System Designers and
System Builders
 System designers translate system users’ business
requirements and constraints into technical solution:
computer databases, inputs, outputs, networks, and
software meeting the system users’ requirements.
Their activities relate to the DESIGN of a system
 System builders constructs information systems
based on the design specifications from the system
designers. Their activities relate to building the
COMPONENTS of the system.
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Systems Analysts
 Systems analysts study the problems and needs of
an organization to determine how people, data,
processes, and information technology can best
accomplish improvements for the business. They
are FACILITATORS of the system development
project.
• A programmer/analyst (or analyst/programmer)
includes the responsibilities of both the computer
programmer and the systems analyst.
• A business analyst focuses on only the nontechnical
aspects of systems analysis and design.
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The Systems Analyst as
a Problem-Solver
 What “problems” to solve: (Project Definition)
– True problem situations, either real or anticipated, that require
corrective action
– Opportunities to improve a situation despite the absence of
complaints
– Directives to change a situation regardless of whether anyone has
complained about the current situation
 Why: (Project Justification)
– Efficient: Do thing right (Operational)
– Effective: Do right thing (Tactical)
– Competitive: Do thing differently (Strategic)
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Systems Analysts At Work
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Systems Analysts At Work
 In traditional businesses
– Working in traditional information services organizations
(permanent project teams)
– Working in contemporary information services
organizations (dynamic project teams)
 In outsourcing businesses
– Contracted to traditional businesses
 In consulting businesses
– Contracted to traditional businesses
 In application software businesses
– Building software products for traditional businesses
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Systems Analyst as a
Facilitator
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Systems Analyst as a
Facilitator
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Skills Needed by the
Systems Analyst
 Working knowledge of information technology
 Computer programming experience and expertise
 General business knowledge
 General problem-solving skills
 Good interpersonal communication skills
 Good interpersonal relations skills
 Flexibility and adaptability
 Character and ethics
 Systems Analysis and Design Skills
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Information Systems
Architecture
Information systems architecture - a unifying
framework into which various stakeholders with
different perspectives can organize and view the
fundamental building blocks of information systems.
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Focuses for
Information Systems
 KNOWLEDGE (Data) — the raw material used to
create useful information.
 PROCESSES — the activities (including management)
that carry out the mission of the business.
 COMMUNICATION (Interfaces) — how the system
interfaces with its users and other information systems.
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KNOWLEDGE Focus
 System owners’ view
– Interested not in raw data but in information that adds new
business knowledge and information that help managers
make intelligent decisions.
– Data entities and business rules.
 System users’ view
– Something recorded on forms, stored in file cabinets,
recorded in books and binders, organized into
spreadsheets, or stored in computer files and databases.
– Focus on the business issues as they pertain to the data.
– Data requirement – a representation of users’ data in
terms of entities, attributes, relationships, and rules
independent of data technology.
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KNOWLEDGE Focus …
 System designers’ view
– Data structures, database schemas, fields, indexes, and
constraints of particular database management system
(DBMS).
 System builders’ view
– SQL
– DBMS or other data technologies
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PROCESS Focus
 System owners’ view
– concerned with high-level process called business
functions
– Business function – a group of related processes that
support the business. Functions can be decomposed into
other subfunctions and eventually into processes that do
specific tasks. (e.g.Sales Function)
– A cross-functional information system – a system that
supports relevant business processes from several
business functions without regard to traditional
organizational boundaries such as divisions, departments,
centers, and offices. (e.g. Production Function)
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PROCESS Focus …
 System users’ view
– concerned with work that must be performed to provide
the appropriate responses to business events.
– Business processes – activities that respond to business
events.
– Process requirements – a user’s expectation of the
processing requirements for a business process and its
information systems.
– Policy – a set of rules that govern a business process.
– Procedure – a step-by-step set of instructions and logic
for accomplishing a business process.
– Work flow – the flow of transactions through business
processes to ensure appropriate checks and approvals are
implemented.
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PROCESS Focus …
 System designers’ view
– Concerned with which processes to automate and how to
automate them
– Constrained by limitations of application development
technologies being used
– Software specifications – the technical design of
business processes to be automated or supported by
computer programs (off-shelf, in-house) to be written by
system builders.
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PROCESS Focus …
 System builders’ view
– Concerned with programming logic that implements
automated processes
– Application program – a language-based, machinereadable representation of what a software process is
supposed to do, or how a software process is supposed to
accomplish its task.
– Prototyping – a technique for quickly building a
functioning, but incomplete model of the information
system using rapid application development tools.
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COMMUNICATION
Focus
 System owners’ view
– Concerned with communications scope of an
information system.
 Who (which business units, employees, customers, and
partners) must interact with the system?
 Where are these business units, employees, customers, and
partners located?
 What other information systems will the system have to
interface with?
 System users’ view
– Concerned with the information system’s inputs and
outputs (Interface Requirements).
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COMMUNICATION
Focus …
 System designers’ view
– Concerned with the technical design of both the user and the
system-to-system communication interfaces.
– Interface specifications – technical designs that document how
system users are to interact with a system and how a system
interacts with other systems.
– User dialogue – a specification of how the user moves from
window to window or page to page, interacting with the
application programs to perform useful work.
 System builders’ view
– Concerned with the construction, installation, testing and
implementation of user and system-to-system interface
solutions.
– Middleware – utility software that allows application software
and systems software that utilize differing technologies to
interoperate.
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Network Technologies
and the IS Building
Blocks
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System Development
Process Overview
System initiation – the initial planning for a project to define
initial business scope, goals, schedule, and budget.
System analysis – the study of a business problem domain to
recommend improvements and specify the business
requirements and priorities for the solution.
System design – the specification or construction of a
technical, computer-based solution for the business
requirements identified in a system analysis.
System implementation – the construction, installation,
testing, and delivery of a system into production.
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System Development
as Problem Solving
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Business Trends and
Driving Forces in the
Environment
 Globalization of the Economy
 Electronic Commerce and Business
 Security and Privacy
 Collaboration and Partnership
 Knowledge Asset Management
 Continuous Improvement and Total Quality Management
 Business Process Redesign
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Globalization of the
Economy
 Global Economy
– New and expanded international markets
– New international competitors
 Impact on information systems
– Require support of multiple languages, currency exchange rates,
business cultures
– Require consolidation of international data
– Demand for players who can communicate, orally and in writing,
with management and users that speak different languages
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Electronic Commerce
and Business
 E-Commerce – the buying and selling of goods and services
by using the Internet.
 E-Business – the use of the Internet to conduct and support
day-to-day business activities.
 Types of e-commerce and e-business
– Marketing of corporate image, products, and services
– Business-to-consumer (B2C)
– Business-to-business (B2B)
 Impact on information systems
– Most new information systems are being designed for an Internet (or
intranet) architecture
– Since the only client-side software is a web browser, the choice of
client operating system is becoming less important
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Security and Privacy
 Security
– How will the business continue in the event of a security
breach, terrorist attack, or disaster?
– How can the business protect its digital assets from
outside threats?
 Privacy
– Consumer demands for privacy in e-commerce
transactions
– Government requirements
 Impact on information systems
– Need to incorporate stringent security and privacy
controls
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Collaboration and
Partnership
 Organizations seek to break down the walls that
separate organizational departments and functions.
 Organizations collaborate with outside business
partners and even competitors.
 Impact on Information Systems
– System Requirements from external parties / business
partners
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Knowledge Asset
Management
 Knowledge Asset Management
– Recognize that data, information, and knowledge are
critical business resources
– How the organization manage and share knowledge for
competitive advantage
– Strive to integrate the data and information that can create
and preserve knowledge
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Total Quality Management
 Business Processes – Tasks that respond to
business events (e.g., an order). Business processes
are the work, procedures, and rules required to
complete the business tasks, independent of any
information technology used to automate or support
them.
 Total Quality Management (TQM) – a
comprehensive approach to facilitating quality
improvements and management within a
business.Do right thing in the first place, don’t wait
until at the end with QA/QC (retooling!!!)
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Business Process
Redesign
 From Reengineering to Redesign
 Business Process Redesign (BPR): the study,
analysis, and redesign of fundamental business
processes to reduce costs and/or improve value
added to the business.
 Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) – The
continuous monitoring of business processes to
effect small but measurable improvements in cost
reduction and value added
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Technology Drivers for
Information Systems
 Networks and the Internet
 Mobile and Wireless Technologies
 Object Technologies
 Collaborative Technologies
 Enterprise Applications
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Networks and the
Internet
 Networks include mainframe time-sharing systems, network
servers, and a variety of desktop, laptop, and handheld client
computers.
 The most pervasive networking technologies are based on
the Internet.
– xHTML and XML
– Scripting languages
– Web-specific programming languages
– Intranets
– Extranets
– Portals
– Web services
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Mobile and Wireless
Technologies
 Some mobile and wireless technologies
– PDAs
– Smart phones
– Bluetooth
– Wireless networking
 Impact on information systems
– Wireless connectivity must be assumed
– Limitations of mobile devices and screen sizes must be
accommodated
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Object Technologies
 Object technology – a software technology that defines a
system in terms of objects that consolidate data and
behavior.
 Object-oriented analysis and design – utilize object
technologies to construct a system and its software in system
development process.
 Agile development – a system development strategy in
which system developers are given the flexibility to select
from a variety of tools and techniques to best accomplish the
tasks at hand.
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Collaborative
Technologies
 Collaborate technologies are those that enhance
interpersonal communications and teamwork.
– E-mail
– Instant messaging
– Groupware
– Work flow
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Enterprise Applications
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Enterprise Applications ERP
 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – a software
application that fully integrates information systems
that span most or all of the basic, core business
functions.
 An ERP solution is built around a common database
shared by common business functions.
 Representative ERP vendors: Baan, J. D. Edwards,
Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP AG (the market leader).
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Enterprise Applications SCM
 Supply Chain Management (SCM) – a software
application that optimizes business processes from
raw material procurement through finished product
distribution by directly integrating the logistical
information systems of organizations with those of
their suppliers and distributors.
 Representative SCM vendors: i2 Technologies,
Manugistics, SAP, SCT.
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Enterprise Applications CRM
 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – a
software application that provides customers with
access to a business’s processes from initial inquiry
through post-sale service and support.
 Representative CRM vendors: BroadVision,
Epiphany, Kana, Nortel/Clarity,
Peoplesoft/Vanitive, Siebel (the market leader)
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Enterprise Application
Integration
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Enterprise Applications EAI
 Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) – the
process and technologies used to link applications to
support the flow of data and information between
those applications.
 Middleware – software used to translate and route
data between different applications.
 Representative EAI vendors: BEA Systems, IBM
(MQSeries), Mercator Software, TIBCO Software
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Current Business
&Technology Drivers
Read Chapters 1-4
of Friedman’s The World is Flat
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BUSINESS DRIVERS
BPR, CRM,
SCM, e-Biz, etc.
Business
Data
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
Business
Users
KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE
PROCESS
PROCESS
INTERFACE
INTERFACE
Database
Database
Information
Information Processing
Processing
Business
Business Rules,
Rules, Procedures
Procedures
Input,
Input, Output
Output
Location,
Location, Security
Security
Hardware
Hardware
Software
Software
Networking
Networking
ERP, Object, Mobile,
Collaborative, etc.
TECHNOLOGY DRIVERS
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