Basic Concepts for Understanding Systems

Agenda for today

The need for frameworks & models Viewing businesses as systems Information systems and work systems Framework for thinking about systems Perspectives for viewing a work system Looking at an IT-enabled system from a

business perspective

The need for frameworks & models What is a framework? A set of ideas for organizing your thoughts

about a thing or situation... What is a model? A useful representation of a specific

situation or thing…

Framework & model, continued... Think about object oriented

programming…A framework is like a class definitionA model is like an instantiated object

Frameworks and models in action What are some frameworks that we

encounter? Now, let’s think about models…examples? Let’s turn to the Resumix case to see the

WCA framework in action

Resumix Case

Define the elements of this case using the WCA framework

What are the categories? They are

customer, product, business process, participants, information and technology

©1999 Addison Wesley Longman Slide 1.3

Table 2.1 Processing Résumés Using Resumix

CUSTOMER

Manager who needs to hire an employee

Applicant who receives responses about a job application

Government agency that receives reports aboutcompliance to equal opportunity guidelines

©1999 Addison Wesley Longman Slide 1.4

Table 2.1 Processing Résumés Using Resumix

PRODUCT

List of applicants who fit the criteria

Selected data items about each applicant

Automatically generated rejection letters

©1999 Addison Wesley Longman Slide 1.5

Table 2.1 Processing Résumés Using Resumix

BUSINESS PROCESS

Major Steps:

•Define the criteria for selecting applicants

•Receive résumés

•Scan résumés and extract data

•Select applicants meeting criteria and forward their résumés to the hiring manager

•Send out rejection letters

•Track the hiring process

•Store applicant data for future searches

Rationale:

Instead of finding appropriate candidates by searching through paper résumés,extract the information on the résumés and do the search automatically.

©1999 Addison Wesley Longman Slide 1.6

Table 2.1 Processing Résumés Using Resumix

PARTICIPANTS

Human resourcesemployees

Manager doing the hiring

INFORMATION

Description of jobopening

Scanned résumésconverted into adatabase format

List of qualifiedapplicants

TECHNOLOGY

Résumix software

Scanner

Unidentified computers

Viewing businesses as systems

Viewing businesses as systems Businesses as systems consisting of

business processes

Viewing businesses as systems

Value Chain for a “sit down” restaurant, not fast food...

Viewing businesses as systems Business processes and functional areas

of businessesThe silo model

Business processes and functional areas of businesses Processes that cross functional areas Processes related to a specific functional

area Processes occurring in every functional

area

Information systems and work systems

Information systems and work systems What kind of system?

Information systemWork system

Information systems and work systems Where are the boundaries between

information systems and work systems? Is this changing?

Is this a reflection of the changes in the economy to focus on services?

Do you think that the trend will continue?

Framework for thinking about systems

The WCA

Framework for thinking about systems Customers

internalexternalwhat’s the difference?

Product the output of the work system

Business processWhat’s going on in the systemWe’ll model this with flow charts and DFD’s

Framework for thinking about systems Participants

Who’s involved… Information

Framework for thinking about systems Technology

This is the part that’s cool, but remember its place in the puzzle

Perspectives for viewing a work system

Perspectives for viewing a work system You can use the WCA and the five

perspectives to gain a better understanding of the work system

Sort of a “drill down” approach When I ask you to give me a WCA diagram,

I’m looking for the overall analysis, not all perspectives -- you may want to do these perspectives as you develop your model

Perspectives for viewing a work systemARCHITECTURE•What are the components of the system that performs the work and who uses the work product?•How are the components linked?•How do the components operate together?

PERFORMANCE•How well do the components operate individually?•How well does the system operate? (How well is the work performed?)•How well should the system operate?

INFRASTRUCTURE•What technical and human infrastructure does the work rely on? •In what ways does infrastructure present opportunities or obstacles?

CONTEXT•What are the impacts of the organizational and technical context?•In what ways does the context present opportunities or obstacles?

RISKS•What foreseeable things can prevent the work from happening, can make the work inefficient, or can cause defects in the work product?•What are the likely responses to these problems?

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective Steps in systems analysis

defining the problemdescribing the situation in enough depthdesigning potential improvementsdeciding what to do

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective How the WCA can be used to drill down

on a problem...

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective The WCA method

©1999 Addison Wesley Longman Slide 1.51

Table 2.11The 10 Issues in the Work-Centered Analysis Method

Systems analysis step

1. Define the problem

2. Describe the current worksystem in enough depth

and

3. Design potentialimprovements

4.Decide what to do

Corresponding issues for thinking about a system

Issue 1: Problem Definition

Issue 2: Improvements from product changesIssue 3: Improvements from process changesIssue 4: Improvements related to work system participantsIssue 5: Improvements from better informationIssue 6: Improvements from better technologyIssue 7: Improvements from shared infrastructureIssue 8: Improvements related to the business contextIssue 9: Improvements from risk reduction

Issue 10: Recommendation

Limitations and issues with the WCAarchitecture

overemphasis on details confusion about roles

performance too often ignored

infrastructure you gotta have it! Don’t forget!

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective Limitations and issues with the WCA

(cont.)context

ignoring incentives/disincentives, organizational culture, etc.

risks things don’t always go as planned… contingency disaster recovery