Chapter 13: Building Information Systems

Summary:

 The decision to create or invest in a new information system is not to be taken lightly. Its implementation will require major organizational change to jobs, skills, and management. Let us look at four kinds of structural change that a new information system can enable, with varying degrees of risk vs. reward. 

Automation is the most common form of organizational change. This involves technology that increases employee’s efficiency and effectiveness in performing tasks. Rationalization is the streamlining of standard operating procedures. This includes well-known programs such as total quality management and six sigma. Next on the chart is Business process redesign, which focuses on analyzing and then simplifying business processes to restructure workflows and eliminate repetitive tasks. Highest on the risk vs. reward scale are Paradigm shifts. This involves a transformation of the nature of the organization, as opposed to the specific business parts changed by redesign and rationalization. While many companies attempt to exploit the rewards associated with such high risk changes, the vast majority of corporations concentrate on business process management in the hope to achieve spectacular increases in productivity.

The production of new information systems is accomplished through a process called systems development. Systems development includes systems analysis, systems design, programming, testing, and production activities, among others. The purpose of this is to identify a solution for a specific requirement or problem that exists and develop an information system to accomplish it.

When modeling and designing systems, there are two prominent methods: 1) Structured, and 2) Object-oriented development. Structured methods concentrate on step by step modeling processes which are kept separate from data actions. This is accomplished primarily through a tool called the data flow diagram (DFD). These illustrate the processes, external entities, and data stores present in a systems component processes. Object-oriented development combines processes and data together as a collection of objects. They are more effective at modeling data than structured methodologies are; they accomplish this by modeling the systems around the concepts of class and inheritance.

As is becoming evident during my study of this chapter, there are a plethora of approaches for building new information systems. These systems vary in size and complexity in regards to the organizational problems that they are intended to rectify. The oldest method for systems building is the system life cycle process. It focuses on segmenting development into formal stages, but is also considered inflexible because one stage must be completed before the next stage can begin. This also translates into it being a costly and time-consuming process. Other alternative systems-building approaches include prototyping, utilization of application software packages, outsourcing, and end-user development. 

Organizations that exist primarily in the digital environment have a need to be capable of adding or retiring technological capabilities in such a rapidly changing environment. To do this, they rely upon rapid application development (RAD) or agile development to speed up the systems development process. For example, agile development breaks a large project into a set of smaller projects that can be completed quickly and effectively by teams through collaboration and continuous feedback. Other techniques discussed in our textbook include the use of component-based development and the use of web services, which allow multiple systems to communicate regardless of their technology platforms.