Information Management Summary Exam
2
Entire book/All Chapters
Chapter 1: Introduction
Lockean  Empiricism  data, facts and figures representing reality
Leibnizian  Rationalism  causal relationships about phenomena
Kantian  Epistemogoly  perspective or view on some part of reality, multiple views needed for
complete view
Hegelian  Subjectivism  subjective insights and expressions of beliefs to influence others and as
input to dialogues
Singerian  pragmatism  ideas, information and methods for solving multi-dimensional problems
Organizational Context  info and info technology as an organizational model of informing and info
management asset.
Problematic World  Select area, scope, topic analyze and make a model of the issue  design an
informing solution realization of the informing solution in software and organizational practice 
answers, decision, solutions  Problematic World
Inquiring Systems
Lockean  databases
Leibnizian  decision models
Kantian  multiple perspectives
Hegelian  information politics
Singarian  problem solving
Chapter 2: Empiricism, data management and databases
Empiricism  theory of knowledge emphasizing role of experience/sensory perception in the formation
of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas
Locke:
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Mind is a blank slate/tabula rasa
People born without innate ideas
Language is key element in forming and codifying understandings
Empiricism emphasizes true facts about reality as the key to understanding the world.
Universe of discount description contains meaningful coding and words (semantics) for representing
relevant phenomena,
Lockean  representational veracity, completeness and meaningfulness of primary data.
1) Scoping and identifying objects in the world about which data has the be registered (University
of Discourse)
2) Data definitions as description of body of objects/meaning of data (universe of discourse
descriptions)
3) Data models (translate UoDD to data tables and relations)
4) Reporting mechanisms
Database  explicitly logically structure collection of data
Universe of discourse:
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Related to our everyday use of language
Need to be unambiguous
Metadata define meaning/semantics of primary data
Social media enable the identification of unique events or characteristics of a person by EXIF labels.
EXIF labels:
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GPS coordinates
Data
Time
1. Entity  person  whole set of relevant entities and their logical relations is what we call
universe of discourse
2. Attribute  age for example
3. Number 1 and 2 have logical relations
4. Attributes have values
5. Entities can have relations as well
6. Attributes can have meaningful relations
7. Values have correlations
Universe of Discourse:
Area of expertise -------------------Employee--------------------------Name-----------------------Project
|
Department
|
Location------------------------------- Accounting-----------------------Sales
UoDD is specification of UoD
Universe of discourse description:
Expertise------------------------employee---------------------------Task
PK code
PK number
PK code
|
Department
PK number
||-----------|| one to one
||-----------<- one to many
||------------0 one or zero
||--------0--<- zero or many
Chapter 3: Rationalism and spreadsheets for decision support
2 kinds of truth:
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Truth of reasoning
Truth of fact
People need explanations and predictions
Causal knowledge enables the production of new decision relevant information
Empirical preconditions for the perception of causality:
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6.
7.
8.
Cause and effect must be contiguous in space and time (ifthen)
Cause prior to effect
Constant union between cause and effect
Same cause always produces same effect, and effect does not rise but from that cause
When several different objects have same effect it must be by means of same shared quality
Difference between effects of objects must be from their difference
Increase in cause is increased in effect and vice versa
One object may require another for an effect
GIGA  garbage in, garbage out
Spreadsheets usable for causal models
1.
2.
3.
4.
Select scope
Make causal model, including goal variables and causes
Create spreadsheets, variables as labels and causal as formulas
Perform what if analysis
Primary data  related value  derivative data
Pivot table  summarize data and show most important data
Chapter 4: Analytic thinking and multi-perspective business modeling
Related to Kantian inquiring system:
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Observing, describing and understanding anything is enabled by analytic a priori.
o These synthetic a priori’s often have a view of the world at its root (ontology)
o For analyzing organizational and business processes, several a priori’s are important:
 Time
 Space
 What
 How
 Who
 Why
Problematic World
1) Select area of the world as problem, challenge, agenda
2) Organizational a priori’s
a. What model: create universe of discourse; datamodel
b. How model: conditions and actions
c. When model: schedules and agenda
d. Who model: agents, capabilities and resources
e. Where model: information needed for specific actions by whom
f. Why model: reasons, arguments, justifications, evidence, knowledge
3) Integrate models to enterprise system
4) Realize organizational change needs
5) New organizational capabilities
Problematic World
Elements of MS-Visio described through the a priori’s.
BPMN  Business Process Modeling Notation  complex integrated modeling language
MS Visio  business modeling tool to create drawings, flowcharts and other reports of relevance for
organizations and business.
Business Process Modeling using MS Visio
Business process is a synthetic a prior consisting of multiple analytic a priori’s like:
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Activity
Time
Sequence
Information Flow
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Actor
How Perspective  Roadmap that describes what must be done in certain situations  Basic flowchart
Shape meanings:
Square  process
Diamond  decision
Wavy Square  Document
Skewed Square  Information/Data
Square in Square  Predefined Process
There can also exist:
1. Off page reference  links to another model
2. Commentary or remark
Where Perspective  shows the communication needs between departments if a project is under
construction, consists of two parts:
1. Organization Chart
2. Integrated Model  Swimlane shape
a. Vertical swimlanes
b. Horizontal swimlanes
Who Perspective  shows the interrelationships between actors, activities and resources
Basic Shapes
An actor performs an activity, for which s/he needs some resources
What Perspective  considers the needed data and information
Needs an entity-relationship diagram, for this you can use an alternative to MS-Visio named CMAP.
When Perspective  about modeling of time dimensions, which can be done by PERT and Gantt charts.
Before starting, you need to think about why the when perspective should be made.
Why Perspective  seeks to provide evidence, arguments or reasons for certain actions.
For this the brainstorming shapes of MS Visio can be used as it weighs the pros and cons against each
other. For this you need a central topic for both arguments for and against the topic.
Ontologies, The BPMN language
BPMN  business process modeling notation.
Notation  the language by which the key constructs of an ontology can be represented
Primary goal of BPMN is to provide a notation that is readily understandable by all business users and
creates a standardized bridge for the gap between the business process design and process
implementation.
BPMN defines a Business Process Diagram (BPD) which is based on a flowcharting technique.
The categories of elements (synthetic a priori’s):
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Flow objects
o Event  circle and is something that happens during the business process. Have a cause
(trigger) or an impact (result). 3 types:
 Start
 Intermediate
 End
o Activity  rounded-corner rectangle and is a generic term for work. Can be atomic or
nonatomic (compound). The types:
 Task
 Sub-process  distinguished by a small plus sign in the bottom center
o Gateway  diamond shape and determines traditional decisions as well as the forking,
merging and joining of activity sequence paths
Connecting objects
o Sequence flow  solid line with solid arrowhead and presents the order that activities
will be performed in
o Message flow  dashed line with an open arrowhead and used to show the flow of
messages between two separate process participants (business entities or roles) that
send and receive them
o Association  dotted line with a line arrowhead, used to associate data, text and other
Artifacts with flow objects. Used to show the inputs and outputs of activities.
Swimlanes  cross functional flow diagrams
o Pool  participant in a process. Used when diagram involves two separate business
entities or participants. Has self-contained processes/activities.
o Lane  sub-partition within a pool and will extend the entire length of the pool either
vertically or horizontally
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Artifacts
o Data objects  mechanism to show how data object data is required or produced by
activities. Connected to activities through association.
o Group  rounded corner group rectangle drawn with a dashed line. Can be used for
documentation or analysis purpose.
o Annotations  mechanism for a model to provide additional text information
Simple business process
More detailed process
Business Process Diagram with pools
Segment of a process with lanes
Segment of a process with data objects, groups and annotations.
Two types of models can be created with a BPD:
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Collaborative B2B processes (Public)  depicts interactions between two or more business
entities  generally global point of view diagrams
Internal business processes (Private)  focus on the point of view of a single business
organization.
Collaborative (public) B2B process
High level business process
Modeling of business processes starts with capturing high-level activities and then drilling down to lower
level of detail within separate diagrams.
Lower level business process
Example Case
The example case to teach BPMN is about a pizzeria that has problems with preparation and delivery
durations of pizza. The process starts when a client calls the pizzeria.
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The call employee takes note of the order and the delivery address and hands it to the chef.
The chef takes the order and decides upon the ingredients necessary.
o There are 25 kinds of pizza, in two categories: standard and specialty.
o Standard pizza: all ingredients in kitchen
o Special pizza: ingredients in freezer in storage room to be picked up
When all ingredients available, chef will prepare and bake it.
o Oven is quite old and sometimes the temperate rises to the level that pizzas get burned
and chef must repeat the process
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When pizza is ready, chef hands it to the employee at the counter who puts it in a box and gives
it to the delivery guy who brings it the address.
o He receives the payment and gives this to the employee at the counter.
o Alternatively, the client collects the pizza personally
Model of the process
New process to resolve the problem.
Chapter 5: The Hegelian perspective and information triangulation
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Info is subjective and contextual
Each statement may be countered by anti-statement on same or different evidence
Information consumer = info slave  must build own opinion
Fine key parameters of management information:
1. Impossible to know all the effects of certain actions
2. Many actions that managers take are non-routine because managerial situations are often
unique
3. No knowledge, then trial and error
4. If objectives are unclear or knowledge of impact is, then information systems may not help
5. Output measurement is different and may result in wrong
6. Reliable, disambiguous data, clear objectives, relations between data&effect known  ten info
can be used for decision optimization
Info is not neutral
Internet Information Triangulation
Triangulation is about info values
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Data triangulation  verification of data, acknowledged in source
Investigator triangulation  focus on author
Theoretical triangulation  look in different perspectives
Methodological triangulation  used to develop evidence
o Empirical data  observe/facts
o Interpretive data  why
o Historical data  name itself, look for historical data
o Critical data  data on impact
1.
2.
3.
4.
Define thesis
Formulate query
Select highest ranked document
All triangulate methods  if positive, accept thesis and formulate synthesis (for both thesis and
anti-thesis)
Dialectic info triangulation is to be critical.
Brand monitoring:
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Feedreaders Sorting feeds
Blog post monitors  tracking blogs
Social comments  comments on content
Discussion boards  boardtracker
Microblog search  twitter search
Social account  friendstream  searches for brand through all social accounts
Social search  social mention  search user generated content
Interactive search  filtr bax  delivers most relevant mentions
Opinion mining  analysis of opinions expressed on social media
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Sentiment analysis
Sentiment mining
Subjectivity analysis
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Affect analysis
Emotion detection
Opinion spam detection
1. Regular: specific target
a. Direct
b. Indirect
2. Comparative
Sentiment expression has 3 levels:
1. Document level  review positive/negative
2. Sentence level  each sentence positive/negative
3. Entity and aspect level  parts of an entity
Opinion expression includes:
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Target
Sentiment
People who holds opinion
Moment/Time opinion is expressed  context of expression
Social media triangulation can be very useful to gain access to large amount of info
Chapter 6: Pragmatism, social software and information services
Singerian pragmatism is an epistemology and ethical theory stating that the value of knowledge should
be expressed in terms of how the knowledge improves the human condition and they will never reach
the ultimate truth, though people have to strive for it.
Progress is more important that truth itself.
Singerian pragmatists inquirers seek the creation of exoteric knowledge
Exoteric knowledge  knowledge for every man, not scientific
Social software is useful for multi-discipinary work, as many works of many people is needed.
Social software  open for many, has information and use functions of everyone for everyone and
enables the collaboration of nearly everyone in problem solving. Software that supports group
interaction.
Social Software
Social software may affect the interaction patterns between organizational members, create new
opportunities for knowledge and information sharing, or unfold the disruptive and possibly changeinducing potential of so called “informational capabilities”.
Informational capabilities  information technology’s potential to alter the storage, transmission and
creation of information in an organization.
Three implications resulting from the use of social software:
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Users can assume several strategically important roles for the company beyond their obvious
role as consumers of products and services
Social software shares with all information technology the capacity to change organizations in
unpredictable ways, because it directly alters the way and the location where information is
store, share and created.
Users rely on social software to organize within online communities that may or may not be
supported by companies, and develop a life of their own.
Strategy
Value Creation
Value Appropriation
Technology
Social Software as a tool
Social Software as a mediator
Community
Leadership
Boundary
View from inside the firm
Implement
Inviting and empowering
customers to contribute to
product development
Firm’s differentiated
involvement in communities,
dual licensing, selective
revealing, better innovation
performance
Deploy
Gaining access to creative users,
utilizing their judgment and
know-how
Platform-induced biases, groups
and user-generated content and
behavior as runtime effect
Harness
Trade-offs between community
founding and sponsorship,
community leadership costly
and complex
Cultural differences as
challenge, risk of knowledge
leakage
Social Software:
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Social Networking
o General
o Location-based
o Interactive and action oriented services
View from outside the firm
Emergence
Strategic interaction with other
users and learning benefits
Availability and dissemination of
assets under Open Source and
Creative Commons licenses, or
appropriation by user
entrepreneurship
Self-expression
Use of blogs and community
participation for self-expression
and identity building
Technology architecture signals
value and suggests (self)assignment of tasks and
specialization
Belonging
Central role of most achieved
members of the community,
social skills matter beyond
technical savvy
Firm involvement makes a
difference in terms of
contribution and motivation,
yet firm recognition matters
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Entertainment
o Game sharing
o Media and entertainment platforms
o Virtual worlds
o Livecasting
o Music and audio sharing
o Photography and art sharing
Collaborative purposes
o Brand monitoring
o Blogs
o Business reviews
o Community Q&A
o Content Management Systems
o Diagramming and Visual Collaboration
o Document managing and editing tools
o Information aggregators
o Microblogging
o Presentation sharing
o Product reviews
o Research/Academic collaboration
o Social Bookmarking/taggin
o Social Navigation
o Social News
o Wikis
Wisdom of the crowd  taking into account the opinion or wisdom of a large group of individuals rather
than a single expert. Using this, you need to take key elements into account
1. Diversity of opinion: every person should have his own opinion, the more diverse the crowd, the
better
2. Independence: the opinion of individuals should not be determined by those around them
3. Decentralization: one must not direct individuals in the crowd to work in a certain way
4. Aggregation: there must exist a mechanism to aggregate all the individual judgments into one
Wisdom of the crowd is strongly related to the singerian philosophy.
Prediction markets  websites that exploit the wisdom of the crowd in a more commercialized way.
Social Listening
Developing a thought-out vision is the first step towards effective social media strategy. Ask the
following questions:
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Who is your target audience
What do you specifically want to accomplish by using social media?
How do social media connect with your overall organizational vision and mission?
How much time and resources will you invest to manage social media activity?
Have three to five goals for a vision statement, and transform the vision into SMART objectives:
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Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely
Key Performance Indicators can help track your progress.
For listening well, take time to develop a basic understanding of the issue that your organization works
on, by answering the following questions:
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What is the company’s vision and mission?
What is the purpose of the different programs and initiatives?
What are the past and present goals of these programs and initiatives?
What are the current issues that the programs and initiatives are working on?
Who are the most influential individuals, organizations and thought leaders on these issues.
Concepts allow you to identify trending topics on Twitter and influencers will provide you with a group
of key individuals and organizations to follow. Make the amount you are following manageable.
Constant activity on social media establishes your organization as a legitimate source of information on
issues your organization works on. Consistency gains trust. Divide activities into daily, weekly and
monthly. Make a schedule for this.
After this you need to start building an audience. Tap into close relationships, so the audience
organically expands. Follow and identify influencers that do similar work. Create criteria that will help
you determine whether to follow certain accounts or not.
Brand your hashtag with something easy to remember and relevant. Maintain lists for each of the issue
areas.
Develop a social media policy to clear up confusion and give your company guidelines for what should
and should not be done on social media.
Chapter 7: Organizing the collective brain
The extended alignment model
IT Strategy and IT-organization alignment
A good alignment of IT policies is difficult to achieve because:
1. Organizational strategies are often difficult to identify and there may be a difference between
the existing and intended strategy
2. Organizational strategies are never stable and have to constantly adapt to changing
environmental circumstances
3. The resulting IT means have a need for change on their own, given developments on the IT
market place
4. It is often hard to make an IT strategy that satisfies the needs of all organizational stakeholders,
and consequently IT portfolios are not always consistent with the IT strategy
Role of IT in firms  strategic grid
IT Architectures
IT services that an organization needs should be well linked to specific business needs and be well
supported by software, technologies and people.
ArchiMate is a leading language to represent an organization in this, it includes three layers for the IT
architecture:
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Business Layer  provides products and services to consumer and clients (front-office)
Application Layer  supports the business layer with application services realized through
software
Infrastructure Layer  consists of all the infrastructural services needed to run the applications.
Next to these horizontal layers, ArchiMate distinguishes vertical aspects:
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Information aspect  takes care of the information objects and the data structures (passive
structure)
Behavior aspect  organizes the actions that transform information to meet the information
need
Structure aspect  contains an organized group of persons, applications and information
technology which perform behavior that is necessary to fulfil the information need
Archimate framework
ArchiMate also supports that aspect and layer components have causal relations. The “used-by” and
“realization” relations are represented by different causal arrows. It also has triggers and
information flows.
IT project portfolio management
Suggested to use the ArchiMate framework and analyze the contributions of IT components for
business objectives. You can express causal relations by the importance and effectiveness of a
component for another component by a 1-10 scale.