Management Information Systems II
Oskar Szumski, PhD
University of Warsaw Faculty of Management
oskar.szumski@uw.edu.pl
Agenda
• IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies
• Telecommunications, the Internet and Wireless
Technology
• Information Systems, Organizations, and
Strategy
• Technology management
• Building Information Systems
• Enterprise Architecture, IT Governance and IT
Portfolio Management
• Computer systems are
complex and often link
multiple traditional
systems potentially
supplied by different
software vendors
• Common dilemma is how
to use IT in effective and
efficient way
?
IT Infrastructure and Emerging
Technologies
IT infrastructure
• IT infrastructure consists of a set of
physical devices and software applications
that are required to operate the entire
enterprise
Connection between the firm,
IT infrastructure and business capabilities
Stages in IT Infrastructure evolution_1
Stages in IT Infrastructure evolution_2
Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution_1
Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power
•
•
•
•
In 1965, Gordon Moore, the directory of Fairchild Semiconductor’s Research and
Development Laboratories, an early manufacturer of integrated circuits, wrote in
Electronics magazine that since the first microprocessor chip was introduced in 1959,
the number of components on a chip with the smallest manufacturing costs per
component (generally transistors) had doubled each 18 months. This law would
later be interpreted in multiple ways. There are at least three variations of Moore’s
Law, none of which Moore ever stated:
(1) the power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months;
(2) computing power doubles every 18 months;
(3) the price of computing falls by half every 18 months year. This assertion became
the foundation of Moore’s Law. Moore later reduced the rate of growth to a doubling
every two years
The Law of Mass Digital Storage
•
•
The world produces as much as 5 exabytes of unique information per year (an
exabyte is a billion gigabytes, or 1018 bytes). The amount of digital information is
roughly doubling every year (Lyman and Varian, 2003). Fortunately, the cost of
storing digital information is falling at an exponential rate of 100 percent a year.
The number of kilobytes that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 from 1950 to
the present roughly doubled every 15 months
Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution_2
Metcalfe’s Law and Network Economics
•
Robert Metcalfe - inventor of Ethernet local area network technology claimed in 1970 that the value or power of a network grows
exponentially as a function of the number of network members.
Metcalfe and others point to the increasing returns to scale that network
members receive as more and more people join the network. As the number
of members in a network grows linearly, the value of the entire system
grows exponentially and continues to grow forever as members increase.
Demand for information technology has been driven by the social and
business value of digital networks, which rapidly multiply the number of
actual and potential links among network members
Declining Communications Costs and the Internet
•
Continues declining cost of communication both over the Internet and over
telephone networks (which increasingly are based on the Internet). As
communication costs fall toward a very small number and approach 0,
utilization of communication and computing facilities explodes.
How many people worldwide have
now Internet access?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000……?
Yes – it’s truth!
WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS
June 30, 2012 *
World Regions
Population (2012 Internet Users
Est.)
(Dec. 31, 2000)
Internet Users
(Latest Data)
Penetration (% Growth 2000- Users % of
population)
2012
Table
Africa
1,073,380,925
4,514,400
167,335,676
15.6 %
3,606.7 %
7.0 %
Asia
3,922,066,987
114,304,000
1,076,681,059
27.5 %
841.9 %
44.8 %
Europe
820,918,446
105,096,093
518,512,109
63.2 %
393.4 %
21.5 %
Middle East
223,608,203
3,284,800
90,000,455
40.2 %
2,639.9 %
3.7 %
North America
348,280,154
108,096,800
273,785,413
78.6 %
153.3 %
11.4 %
Latin America / Carib.
593,688,638
18,068,919
254,915,745
42.9 %
1,310.8 %
10.6 %
35,903,569
7,620,480
24,287,919
67.6 %
218.7 %
1.0 %
7,017,846,922
360,985,492
2,405,518,376
34.3 %
566.4 %
100.0 %
Oceania / Australia
WORLD TOTAL
* http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
The IT infrastructure ecosystem
Contemporary hardware platform
trends
• the emerging mobile digital platform
(smartphones, netbooks, and tablet computers)
• grid computing
• virtualization
• cloud computing
• green computing
• autonomic computing
• high-performance and power-saving processors
Contemporary software platform
trends
• Linux and open source software
• software for the web: JAVA and AJAX
• web services and service-oriented
architecture
• software outsourcing and cloud services
Making wise infrastructure
investments
• Total cost of ownership (TCO) of
technology assets - hardware and
software acquisition costs account for only
about 20% of TCO
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
cost components
Infrastructure component
Cost components
Hardware acquisition
Purchase price of computer hardware equipment, including
computers, terminals, storage,and printers
Software acquisition
Purchase or license of software for each user
Installation
Cost to install computers and software
Training
Cost to provide training for information systems specialists
and end users
Support
Cost to provide ongoing technical support, help desks, and
so forth
Maintenance
Cost to upgrade the hardware and software
Infrastructure
Cost to acquire, maintain, and support related
infrastructure, such as networks and specialized equipment
(including storage backup units)
Downtime
Cost of lost productivity if hardware or software failures
cause the system to be unavailable for processing and user
tasks
Space and energy
Real estate and utility costs for housing and providing
power for the technology
Competitive forces model for IT
infrastructure
Telecommunications, the Internet,
and Wireless Technology
Corporate network infrastructure
Physical transmission media
•
•
•
•
Twisted wire
Coaxial cable
Fiber optics and optical networks
Wireless transmission media (microwave,
cellular, Wi-Fi)
The global internet
• The Internet has become the world’s most
extensive, public communication system
that now rivals the global telephone
system in reach and range.
• It’s also the world’s largest
implementation of client/server
computing and internetworking, linking
millions of individual networks all over the
world.
Internet – how does it work?
• An Internet service provider (ISP) is a commercial
organization with a permanent connection to the Internet
that sells temporary connections to retail subscribers
• Internet Protocol (IP) address
• Domain Name System (DNS) converts domain names to
IP addresses
• Internet policies are established by a number of
professional organizations and government bodies,
including the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), which
helps define the overall structure of the Internet; the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), which assigns IP addresses; and the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets
Hypertext Markup Language and other programming
standards for the Web
Major internet services
CAPABILITY
FUNCTIONS SUPPORTED
E-mail
Person-to-person messaging; document sharing
Chatting and instant messaging
Interactive conversations
Newsgroups
Discussion groups on electronic bulletin boards
Telnet
Logging on to one computer system and doing work
on another
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Transferring files from computer to computer
World Wide Web
Retrieving, formatting, and displaying information
(including text,audio, graphics, and video) using
hypertext links
The Web - components
•
•
•
•
•
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
Web Servers
Search Engines
Web 2.0
Web 3.0 - The Future Web?
Web 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0 summary
http://www.skarbiecmennicy.pl
Radio-frequency identification
(RFID)
• RFID is an automatic identification method,
relying on storing and remotely retrieving data
using devices called RFID tags or transponders.
The technology requires some extent of
cooperation of an RFID reader and an RFID tag.
• An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to
or incorporated into a product, animal, or person
for the purpose of identification and tracking
using radio waves. Some tags can be read from
several meters away and beyond the line of
sight of the reader.
RFID tag
• Most RFID tags contain at least two parts.
One is an integrated circuit for storing and
processing information, modulating and
demodulating a radio-frequency (RF)
signal, and other specialized functions.
The second is an antenna for receiving
and transmitting the signal.
• Size of tags: from 0,05 mm × 0,05 mm
• Working distance: from 0,1m to 10m
Types of RFID tags
• RFID tags come in three general varieties:
– passive (tags require no internal power
source, they are only active when a reader is
nearby to power them by wireless
illumination),
– active (tags require a power source, usually a
small battery),
– beacon (tags transmit autonomously with a
certain blink pattern and do not respond to
interrogation)
Communication
• To communicate, tags respond to queries
generating signals that must not create
interference with the readers, as arriving signals
can be very weak and must be differentiated.
Besides backscattering, load modulation
techniques can be used to manipulate the reader's
field. Typically, backscatter is used in the far field,
whereas load modulation applies in the nearfield,
within a few wavelengths from the reader.
RFID technology in practice
RFID reader sends a
radio signal
API (Application
Programming Interface)
signal transfer
Database layer
Tag sends data to the
RFID transmitter
Application Layer
(eg. ERP)
RFID: tag-reader-computer
RFID Reference Model
• Created in 2007 by CE RFID
(Coordinating European Efforts for
Promoting the European RFID Value
Chain)
• It covers to areas:
– Mainly Object Tagging
– Tagging with Reference or Potential
Reference to Individuals
RFID Reference Model
RFID - Mainly object tagging
RFID - Tagging with reference to
individuals
Example: Intel Connected Store
Information Systems,
Organizations, and Strategy
The two-way relationship between
organizations and information technology
Features of organizations
Routines and Business Processes
• Routines (standard operating procedures) are precise
rules, procedures, and practices that have been
developed to cope with virtually all expected situations
• Business processes are collections of such routines
Organizational Politics
• political struggle for resources, competition, and
conflicts within organization
Organizational Culture
Organizational Environments
Organizational Structure
Other Features
Disruptive technologies: winners
and losers
Technology
Description
Winners and losers
Microprocessor chips
(1971)
Thousands and eventually millions of
transistors on a silicon chip
Microprocessor firms win (Intel, Texas Instruments)
while transistor firms (GE) decline.
Personal computers
(1975)
Small, inexpensive, but fully functional
desktop computers
PC manufacturers (HP, Apple, IBM), and chip
manufacturers prosper (Intel), while mainframe
(IBM) and minicomputer (DEC) firms lose.
PC word processing
software (1979)
Inexpensive, limited but functional text
editing and formatting for
personal computers
PC and software manufacturers (Microsoft, HP, Apple)
prosper, while the typewriter industry disappears.
World Wide Web
(1989)
A global database of digital files and
“pages” instantly available
Owners of online content and news benefit, while
traditional publishers (newspapers, magazines,
broadcast television) lose.
Internet music
services (1998)
Repositories of downloadable music
on the Web with acceptable
fidelity
Owners of online music collections (MP3.com, iTunes),
telecommunications providers who own Internet
backbone (AT&T, Verizon), local Internet service
providers win, while record label firms and music
retailers lose (Tower Records).
PageRank algorithm
A method for ranking Web pages in
terms of their popularity to
supplement Web search by key
terms
Google is the winner (they own the patent), while
traditional key word search engines (Alta Vista)
lose.
Software as Web
service
Using the Internet to provide remote
access to online software
Online software services companies (Salesforce.com)
win, while traditional “boxed” software companies
(Microsoft, SAP, Oracle) lose.
How information systems impact
organizations
Economic impacts
• IT reduces both agency and transaction costs for firms, we
should expect firm size to shrink over time as more capital is
invested in IT. Firms should have fewer managers, and we
expect to see revenue per employee increase over time
Organizational and behavioral impacts
• IT flattens organizations (IT pushes decision-making rights
lower in the organization because lower-level employees
receive the information they need to make decisions without
supervision)
• Postindustrial organizations (authority increasingly relies on
knowledge and competence, and not merely on formal
positions)
• Understanding organizational resistance to change
The internet and organizations
• The Internet increases the accessibility, storage, and
distribution of information and knowledge for organizations
Implications for the design of
information systems
Organizational factors necessary to consider during
planning a new system:
• environment in which the organization must function
• structure of the organization: hierarchy, specialization,
routines, and business processes
• organization’s culture and politics
• type of organization and its style of leadership
• principal interest groups affected by the system and the
attitudes of workers who will be using the system
• kinds of tasks, decisions, and business processes that
the information system is designed to assist
Porter’s competitive forces model
Information system strategies for
dealing with competitive forces
• Low-cost leadership - Use information systems to
achieve the lowest operational costs and the lowest
prices
• Product differentiation - Use information systems to
enable new products and services, or greatly change the
customer convenience in using your existing products
and services.
– mass customization - ability to offer individually tailored products
or services using the same production resources as mass
production
• Focus on market niche - Use information systems to
enable a specific market focus, and serve this narrow
target market better than competitors
• Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy - Use
information systems to tighten linkages with suppliers
and develop intimacy with customers.
Impact of the internet on competitive
forces and industry structure
Competitive force
Impact of the internet
Substitute products or services
Enables new substitutes to emerge with new approaches to
meeting needs and performing functions
Customers’ bargaining power
Availability of global price and product information shifts
bargaining power to customers
Suppliers’ bargaining power
Procurement over the Internet tends to raise bargaining power
over suppliers; suppliers can also benefit from reduced
barriers to entry and from the elimination of distributors and
other intermediaries standing between them and their users
Threat of new entrants
The Internet reduces barriers to entry, such as the need for a
sales force, access to channels, and physical assets; it
provides a technology for driving business processes that
makes other things easier to do
Positioning and rivalry among
existing competitors
Widens the geographic market, increasing the number of
competitors, and reducing differences among competitors;
makes it more difficult to sustain operational advantages;
puts pressure to compete on price
The business value chain model
• The value chain model highlights specific activities in the
business where competitive strategies can best be applied
and where information systems are most likely to have a
strategic impact
• Primary activities are most directly related to the
production and distribution of the firm’s products and
services, which create value for the customer
• Support activities make the delivery of the primary
activities possible
• Benchmarking involves comparing the efficiency and
effectiveness of your business processes against strict
standards and then measuring performance against those
standards
• Industry best practices are usually identified by
consulting companies and research organizations as the
most successful solutions or problem-solving methods for
consistently and effectively achieving a business objective
The value chain model
Extending the Value Chain –
The Value Web
• A value web is a collection of independent
firms that use information technology to
coordinate their value chains to produce a
product or service for a market collectively
• It is more customer driven and operates in
a less linear fashion than the traditional
value chain
The value web
Network-based strategies
Network Economics
• Business models based on a network may help firms strategically by taking
advantage of network economics. In a network law of diminishing returns
does not work - the marginal costs of adding another participant are about
zero, whereas the marginal gain is much larger
Virtual Company Model
• Virtual organization, uses networks to link people, assets, and ideas,
enabling it to ally with other companies to create and distribute products and
services without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries or
physical locations. One company can use the capabilities of another
company without being physically tied to that company
Business Ecosystems: Keystone and Niche Firms
• Business ecosystem is term for loosely coupled but interdependent
networks of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, transportation service
firms, and technology manufacturers. Business ecosystems can be
characterized as having one or a few keystone firms that dominate the
ecosystem and create the platforms used by other niche firms
An ecosystem strategic model
Using systems for competitive
advantage
• Sustaining competitive advantage
• Aligning it with business objectives
• Managing strategic transitions
Technology Management
• Technology Management can be defined as the integrated
planning, design, optimization, operation and control of
technological products, processes and services.
• Technology Management is set of management disciplines
that allows organization to manage its technological
fundamentals to create competitive advantage.
• Role of technology management function in organization is
to understand the value of certain technology for the
organization. Continuous development of technology is
valuable as long as there is a value for the customer and
therefore technology management function in organization
should be able to argue when to invest on technology
development and when to withdraw.
Typical concepts used in
technology management
• technology strategy (a logic or role of
technology in organization),
• technology mapping (identification of
possible relevant technologies for the
organization),
• technology roadmapping (a limited set
of technologies suitable for business),
• technology project portfolio (a set of
projects under development),
• technology portfolio (a set of
technologies in use).
Technology Strategy
Technology mapping
Technology roadmap for systems beyond 3G
Technology portfolio - example
• JK Technosoft (JKT) is
a global software &
solutions company that
is driven by the simple
yet powerful tenet of
providing ‘total
customer satisfaction’
• http://www.jktech.com/
cms/web/publishing/full
Preview&pageContent
=88
generations.arc.nasa.gov
How can we forecast future?
?
Building Information Systems
4 kinds of structural organizational
change enabled by IT
1. Automation
– Increase efficiency, replace manual tasks
2. Rationalization
– Streamline standard operating procedures
3. Business process reengineering (BPR)
– Analyze, simplify, and redesign business processes
4. Paradigm shifts
– Rethink nature of business, define new business
model, change nature of organization
Organizational change carries risks
and rewards
The most common forms of organizational change are automation and rationalization.
These relatively slow-moving and slow-changing strategies present modest returns but
little risk. Faster and more comprehensive change—such as reengineering and paradigm
shifts—carries high rewards but offers substantial chances of failure.
Steps in effective reengineering
• Determine which business processes should be
improved
• Must avoid becoming good at the wrong process
• Understand how improving the right processes will
help the firm execute its business strategy
• Understand and measure performance of existing
processes as a baseline
• Even with effective BPR, majority of reengineering
projects do not achieve breakthrough gains because
of inadequate change management
Business process management
(BPM)
• Helps firms manage incremental process
changes
• Uses process-mapping tools to:
– Identify and document existing processes
– Create models of improved processes that
can be translated into software systems
– Measure impact of process changes on key
business performance indicators
Capabilities of BPM software
• Work flow management
• Business process modeling notation
• Quality measurement and management
• Change management
• Tools for standardizing business processes (they
can be continually manipulated)
• Process monitoring and analytics (verifies process
performance and measures impact of process changes
on key business performance indicators)
Quality management
• Fine-tuning business processes to
improve quality in their products, services,
and operations
• The earlier in the business cycle a
problem is eliminated, the less it costs the
company
• Quality improvements raise level of
product and service quality as well as
lower costs
Quality management (cont.)
• Total Quality Management (TQM):
– Achievement of quality control is end in itself
– Everyone is expected to contribute to improvement of
quality
– Focuses on continuous improvements rather than
dramatic bursts of change
• Six sigma:
– Specific measure of quality
– 3.4 defects per million opportunities
– Uses statistical analysis tools to detect flaws in the
execution of an existing process and make minor
adjustments
Information systems support
quality improvements
• Simplify products or processes
• Make improvements based on customer
demands
• Reduce cycle time
• Improve quality and precision of design and
production
• Meet benchmarking standards
– Benchmarking: Setting strict standards for products,
services, and other activities, and then measuring
performance against those standards
Overview of systems
development
• Systems development - activities that go
into producing an information system
solution to an organizational problem or
opportunity
•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems analysis
Systems design
Programming
Testing
Conversion
Production and maintenance
The Systems Development Process
Building a system can be broken down into six core activities.
Systems analysis
• Analysis of problem that will be solved by
system
– Defining the problem and identifying causes
– Specifying solutions
• Systems proposal report identifies and examines alternative
solutions
– Identifying information requirements
• Includes feasibility study
– Is solution feasible from financial, technical,
organizational standpoint
– Is solution a good investment?
– Is required technology, skill available?
System analysis (cont.)
• Establishing information requirements
– Who needs what information, where, when,
and how
– Define objectives of new/modified system
– Detail the functions new system must perform
• Faulty requirements analysis is leading
cause of systems failure and high systems
development cost
Systems design
• Describes system specifications that will deliver
functions identified during systems analysis
• Should address all managerial, organizational,
and technological components of system
solution
• Role of end users
– User information requirements drive system building
– Users must have sufficient control over design
process to ensure that system reflects their business
priorities and information needs
– Insufficient user involvement in design effort is major
cause of system failure
Design specifications
OUTPUT
Medium
Content
Timing
INPUT
Origins
Flow
Data entry
USER INTERFACE
Simplicity
Efficiency
Logic
Feedback
Errors
DATABASE DESIGN
Logical data model
Volume and speed
requirements
File organization and
design
Record specifications
PROCESSING
Computations
Program modules
Required reports
Timing of outputs
MANUAL PROCEDURES
What activities
Who performs them
When
How
Where
CONTROLS
Input controls (characters, limit,
reasonableness)
Processing controls (consistency, record
counts)
Output controls (totals, samples of output)
Procedural controls (passwords, special
forms)
SECURITY
Access controls
Catastrophe plans
Audit trails
DOCUMENTATION
Operations documentation
Systems documents
User documentation
CONVERSION
Transfer files
Initiate new procedures
Select testing method
Cut over to new system
TRAINING
Select training techniques
Develop training modules
Identify training facilities
ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGES
Task redesign
Job redesign
Process design
Organization structure design
Reporting relationships
Programming and testing
• Programming:
– System specifications from design stage are translated into
software program code
– Software may be purchased, leased, or outsourced instead
• Testing
–
–
–
–
To ensure system produces right results
Unit testing: Tests each program in system separately
System testing: Tests functioning of system as a whole
Acceptance testing: Makes sure system is ready to be used in
production setting
– Test plan: All preparations for series of tests
Conversion
• Process of changing from old system to new
system
• Four main strategies
–
–
–
–
Parallel strategy
Direct cutover
Pilot study
Phased approach
• Requires end-user training
• Finalization of detailed documentation showing
how system works from technical and end-user
standpoint
Production and maintenance
• System reviewed to determine if any revisions needed
• May prepare formal postimplementation audit document
• Maintenance
– Changes in hardware, software, documentation, or
procedures to a production system to correct errors, meet
new requirements, or improve processing efficiency
– 20% debugging, emergency work
– 20% changes to hardware, software, data, reporting
– 60% of work: User enhancements, improving
documentation, recoding for greater processing efficiency
Summary of systems development
activities
CORE ACTIVITY
DESCRIPTION
Systems analysis
Identify problem(s)
Specify solutions
Establish information requirements
Systems design
Create design specifications
Programming
Translate design specifications into code
Testing
Unit test
Systems test
Acceptance test
Conversion
Plan conversion
Prepare documentation
Train users and technical staff
Production and
maintenance
Operate the system
Evaluate the system
Modify the system
Methodologies for modeling
• Most prominent methodologies for modeling and
designing systems:
– Structured methodologies
– Object-oriented development
• Structured methodologies
– Structured: Techniques are step-by-step, progressive
– Process-oriented: Focusing on modeling processes or
actions that manipulate data
– Separate data from processes
Methods
• Data flow diagram:
– Primary tool for representing system’s component processes
and flow of data between them
– Offers logical graphic model of information flow
– High-level and lower-level diagrams can be used to break
processes down into successive layers of detail
• Data dictionary: Defines contents of data flows and data stores
• Process specifications: Describe transformation occurring
within lowest level of data flow diagrams
• Structure chart: Top-down chart, showing each level of design,
relationship to other levels, and place in overall design structure
Object-oriented development
• Uses object as basic unit of systems analysis and design
• Object:
• Combines data and the specific processes that operate on those data
• Data encapsulated in object can be accessed and modified only by
operations, or methods, associated with that object
• Object-oriented modeling based on concepts of class
and inheritance
• Objects belong to a certain class and have features of that class
• May inherit structures and behaviors of a more general, ancestor
class
Object-oriented development
• More iterative and incremental than traditional structured
development
• Because objects reusable, object-oriented development
can potentially reduce time and cost of development
• Phases:
– Systems analysis: Interactions between system and users
analyzed to identify objects
– Design phase: Describes how objects will behave and interact;
grouped into classes, subclasses and hierarchies
– Implementation: Some classes may be reused from existing
library of classes, others created or inherited
Computer-aided software
engineering (CASE)
• Software tools to automate development and
reduce repetitive work, including
–
–
–
–
–
Graphics facilities for producing charts and diagrams
Screen and report generators, reporting facilities
Analysis and checking tools
Data dictionaries
Code and documentation generators
• Support iterative design by automating revisions
and changes and providing prototyping facilities
• Require organizational discipline to be used
effectively
Alternative Systems-Building
Methods
•
•
•
•
•
Traditional systems life-cycle
Prototyping
End-user development
Application software packages
Outsourcing
Traditional systems lifecycle
• Oldest method for building information systems
• Phased approach - divides development into formal
stages
– Follows “waterfall” approach: Tasks in one stage finish before
another stage begins
• Maintains formal division of labor between end users and
information systems specialists
• Emphasizes formal specifications and paperwork
• Still used for building large complex systems
• Can be costly, time-consuming, and inflexible
Prototyping
• Building experimental system rapidly and
inexpensively for end users to evaluate
• Prototype: Working but preliminary version of
information system
– Approved prototype serves as template for final
system
• Steps in prototyping
•
•
•
•
Identify user requirements
Develop initial prototype
Use prototype
Revise and enhance prototype
Prototyping (cont.)
• Advantages of prototyping
– Useful if some uncertainty in requirements or design
solutions
– Often used for end-user interface design
– More likely to fulfill end-user requirements
• Disadvantages
– May gloss over essential steps
– May not accommodate large quantities of data or
large number of users
– May not undergo full testing or documentation
End-user development
• Uses fourth-generation languages to allow end-users to
develop systems with little or no help from technical
specialists
• Fourth generation languages: Less procedural than
conventional programming languages
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
PC software tools
Query languages
Report generators
Graphics languages
Application generators
Application software packages
Very high-level programming languages
End-user development (cont.)
• Advantages:
– More rapid completion of projects
– High-level of user involvement and satisfaction
• Disadvantages:
– Not designed for processing-intensive applications
– Inadequate management and control, testing,
documentation
– Loss of control over data
• Managing end-user development
– Require cost-justification of end-user system projects
– Establish hardware, software, and quality standards
Application software packages
• Save time and money
• Many packages offer customization features:
• Allow software package to be modified to meet unique requirements
without destroying integrity of package software
• Evaluation criteria for systems analysis include:
• Functions provided by the package, flexibility, user friendliness, hardware
and software resources, database requirements, installation and
maintenance efforts, documentation, vendor quality, and cost
• Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Detailed list of questions submitted to packaged-software vendors
• Used to evaluate alternative software packages
Outsourcing
Several types
– Cloud and SaaS providers
• Subscribing companies use software and computer hardware
provided by vendors
– External vendors
• Hired to design, create software
• Domestic outsourcing
– Driven by firms need for additional skills, resources, assets
• Offshore outsourcing
– Driven by cost-savings
Outsourcing (cont.)
• Advantages
– Allows organization flexibility in IT needs
• Disadvantages
– Hidden costs, e.g.
• Identifying and selecting vendor
• Transitioning to vendor
– Opening up proprietary business processes to
third party
Application Development for the
Digital Firm
• Rapid application development (RAD)
– Process of creating workable systems in a very short
period of time
– Utilizes techniques such as:
• Visual programming and other tools for building graphical
user interfaces
• Iterative prototyping of key system elements
• Automation of program code generation
• Close teamwork among end users and information systems
specialists
Joint application design (JAD)
• Use to accelerate generation of information
requirements and to develop initial systems
design
• Brings end users and information systems
specialists together in interactive session to
discuss system’s design
• Can significantly speed up design phase and
involve users at intense level
Component-based development
• Groups of objects that provide software for common
functions (e.g., online ordering) and can be combined to
create large-scale business applications
• Web services
– Reusable software components that use XML and open Internet
standards (platform independent)
– Enable applications to communicate with no custom
programming required to share data and services
– Can engage other Web services for more complex transactions
– Using platform and device-independent standards can result in
significant cost-savings and opportunities for collaboration with
other companies
Agile development
• Focuses on rapid delivery of working software by
breaking large project into several small sub-projects
• Subprojects
– Treated as separate, complete projects
– Completed in short periods of time using iteration and
continuous feedback
• Emphasizes face-to-face communication over written
documents, allowing collaboration and faster decision
making
Manifesto for Agile Software
Development
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
Twelve Principles of Agile
Software
1.
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable
software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for
the customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should
be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.
Enterprise Architecture,
IT Governance and IT Portfolio
Management
Enterprise architecture
• description of the structure of an enterprise, its
decomposition into subsystems, the
relationships between the subsystems, the
relationships with the external environment,
• this description should be comprehensive and
include enterprise goals, business functions,
business process, roles, organisational
structures, business information, software
applications and computer systems
• Four domains of EA: Business, Information,
Applications, Technology
Four domains of EA: Business
• Strategy maps, goals, corporate policies,
operating model
• Functional decompositions, business
capabilities and organizational models
expressed as line of business architecture
• Business processes, Workflow and Rules
that articulate the assigned authorities,
responsibilities and policies
• Organization cycles, periods and timing
• Suppliers of hardware, software, and
services
Four domains of EA: Information
• Information architecture - a holistic view on
the flow of information in an enterprise
• Metadata - data that describes your
enterprise data elements
• Data models: conceptual expressed as
enterprise information architectures,
logical, and physical
Four domains of EA: Applications
• Application software inventories and
diagrams, expressed as functional or line
of business architectures
• Interfaces between applications (events,
messages and data flows)
Four domains of EA: Technology
• Inter-application mediating software or 'middleware'.
• Application execution environments and operating
frameworks including applications server environments
and operating systems, authentication and authorisation
environments, security systems and operating and
monitoring systems.
• Hardware, platforms, and hosting: servers, datacentres
and computer rooms
• Local and wide area networks, Internet connectivity
diagrams
• Intranet, Extranet, Internet, eCommerce, EDI links with
parties within and outside of the organization
• Operating System
• Infrastructure software: Application servers, DBMS
• Programming Languages, etc. expressed as enterprise /
line of business technology architecture
Architecture-Centric view of IT
IT Governance - definition
• Specifying the decision rights and accountability
framework to encourage desirable behaviour in the
use of IT
• The leadership and organisational structures and
processes that ensure that the organisation’s IT
sustains and extends the organisation’s strategies
and objectives
• The system by which the current and future use of
ICT is directed and controlled. It involves
evaluating and directing the plans for the use of
ICT to support the organisation and monitoring this
use to achieve plans. It includes the strategy and
policies for using ICT within an organisation
IT Governance
• The rising interest in IT governance is partly due to compliance
initiatives, as well as the acknowledgment that IT projects can
easily get out of control and profoundly affect the performance of
an organization.
• A characteristic theme of IT governance discussions is that the IT
capability can no longer be a black box. The traditional
involvement of board-level executives in IT issues was to defer all
key decisions to the company's IT professionals.
• IT governance implies a system in which all stakeholders, including
the board, internal customers, and in particular departments such as
finance, have the necessary input into the decision making
process. This prevents IT from independently making and later
being held solely responsible for poor decisions. It also prevents
critical users from later complaining that the system does not
behave or perform as expected.
IT governance goals
• The primary goals for information technology
governance are to
– assure that the investments in IT generate business value,
– mitigate the risks that are associated with IT
• This can be done by implementing an organizational
structure with well-defined roles for the responsibility of
information, business processes, applications,
infrastructure, etc.
• Decision rights are a key concern of IT governance;
depending on the size, business scope, and IT maturity
of an organization, either centralized, decentralized or
federated models of responsibility for dealing with
strategic IT matters are suggested
IT portfolio management
• IT portfolio management is the application
of systematic management to large
classes of items managed by enterprise
Information Technology (IT) capabilities
• It’s focused on quantification of previously
mysterious IT efforts, enabling
measurement and objective evaluation
of investment scenarios
Integrating Processes that reinforce
architecture
The Enterprise Architecture and
Organizational Development Virtuous
Circle
Thank you for your attention!
What we can expect in near
future?
Hype cycle
• A hype cycle is a graphic representation of
the maturity, adoption and business
application of specific technologies.
Emerging technology hype
cycle
Hype cycle – 5 steps
• "Technology Trigger" — The first phase of a hype cycle is the
"technology trigger" or breakthrough, product launch or other event
that generates significant press and interest.
• "Peak of Inflated Expectations" — In the next phase, a frenzy of
publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic
expectations. There may be some successful applications of a
technology, but there are typically more failures.
• "Trough of Disillusionment" — Technologies enter the "trough of
disillusionment" because they fail to meet expectations and quickly
become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons
the topic and the technology.
• "Slope of Enlightenment" — Although the press may have stopped
covering the technology, some businesses continue through the
"slope of enlightenment" and experiment to understand the benefits
and practical application of the technology.
• "Plateau of Productivity" — A technology reaches the "plateau of
productivity" as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and
accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves
in second and third generations. The final height of the plateau
varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or
CRM hype cycle