Information Systems Design 3

UFIE8V-20-3

2004-5

Lecture topics

• Admin– Staffing– UWE Online– Assessment

• Themes• Case studies• Changes from 2003-4• Workshops

– Next week– Following week

Staff

• Chris Wallace – Module leader and the majority of the lectures

• Kevin Doyle – Some lectures and linkage with ISD2

• John Betts– Tutorials (currently recovering from hip

operation)

• Prakash Chatterjee– Keynote lecturer on XML

Assessment

• Exam only – no coursework– Good to be relieved of the pressure of assignments –

free to do interesting things– Loss of safety net

• Summer Exam had marks from 85-15, 15% 1st, 15% fails – resists 95% pass

• Mock and summer exams and answers to be posted

• Exam structure:– 3 hour– One compulsory short, technical questions 25%– 3/ 7 problem-based, topic-based questions 25% each

UWE Online

• Module set up and should be visible – if not you are not enrolled!

• Will be used for – Notices– Tutorial reminders– Discussion groups– LINKs to teaching material – slides, notes,

applications– Key is the workplan which links from the schedule to

supporting documents.

Themes

• 4 layers – Development methods– Information Systems– Technology– Common tools and techniques

Development Methodology themes

• The study of the process of IS development and a critical analysis of ISD process models– What do we mean by an IS and by ISD? How ISD

different from software development, software engineering?

– Alternative process models – agile and XP processes in contrast to waterfall-based SSADM

– Alternative ways of viewing ISD:• knowledge-based• information management• social engagement• learning• a ‘conversation with materials’ …

Information Systems themes

• What’s the boundary(s) of an IS? • Different kinds of IS require different

knowledge bases – of application domain, of relevant technologies and approaches, the role of frames and patterns in ISD

• Specific ISD kinds:– Information retrieval and display– Matching and classifying– Business process support

Technology themes

• Technology provides the means to achieve information system goals.– 3-tier architecture

• Presentation - (IE, Mozilla + HTML, Javascript) • Application layer (PHP)• Persistence layer or Data store (MySQL, Oracle)• SMS and WAP as alternative presentation layers

– XML and related technologies• Using and designing XML ‘applications’• XSLT for transforming XML documents, web services

– Collaboration and Business process support • Content Management Systems – Plone/Zope• Workflow modelling• Process enactment• System integration and Process orchestration

Common tools and techniques themes

• Describing Structure– Extended ER modelling, realisation in an RDBMS– Hierarchical structures – Jackson notation, XML– Using a Case tool : QSEE

• Describing Processes– User stories, use cases, sequence and activity

diagrams, state transition models, RAD• Classification

– Terminology, taxonomy construction, testing and use• Matching

– Fuzzy matching, fitness functions

Case studies

• 3-tier– SMS Straw Poll – workshops 3 and 4– Travel information – Matching – biometrics

• XML – Travel information– Module/Award specification

• Business Process– CEMS academic processes – exam moderation

Changes from 2003-4

• Less on OO – switch to Extended ER but many notations are part of the UML diagramming suite

• More coherent approach to process modelling• More on XML with emphasis on XSLT for

declarative processing• More explicit methodology critique• Introduction of SMS• Better use of UWE Online

Next week’s workshop

• Information Systems v. Computer System– What’s the difference? What’s the same?

• Information Systems Development v. Software Engineering– What’s the difference? What’s the same?

• Use the 4 themes to orientate your thinking• E.g. Placements office as an IS, Access

database as Software• Group discussion and slide presentation

– Think about this and come prepared to contribute • + briefing on Poll system

Following week’s workshop

• The SMS Poll system– What issue to take a poll on?– Introduction to PHP and MySQL– Understand base application

• ER model the database• Hand execute the SQL queries

– Design modifications for the application