MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

“Building Information Systems”

Group 5 :

1. Arif Fauzan Hendrosfa ( 1810521062 )

2. Amelia Fitri Hasri ( 1810523012 )

3. Fauzia Wendrisa ( 1810523013 )

4. Hijjul Husna ( 1810523001 )

5. Jovanka Tiara Anindytha Eylba ( 1810523021 )

6. Noer Rachmadhani Hernirat ( 1810523011 )

7. Yola Ramadani Afnilda ( 1810523027 )

International Management

Faculty of Economics

Andalas University

2020
LO 13-1 How does building new systems produce organizational change?

A. Systems Development and Organizational Change

Four kinds of structural organizational change that are enabled by information
technology:
1. Automation, is the most common form of IT-enabled organizational change.
2. Rationalization, is a deeper form of organizational change—one that follows
quickly from early automation. For example, Cameron International’s new system
for financial reporting is effective not only because it uses computer technology
but also because the company simplified its business processes for this function.
Fewer manual steps are required.
3. Business process redesign, is a more powerful type of organizational change.
4. Paradigm shifts, is radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and
the nature of the organization.

B. Business Process Redesign

Business process management (BPM) provides a variety of tools and methodologies
to analyze existing processes, design new processes, and optimize those processes.
Companies practicing business process management go through the following steps:
1. Identify processes for change: One of the most important strategic decisions that a
firm can make is not deciding how to use computers to improve business
processes but understanding what business processes need improvement.
2. Analyze existing processes: Existing business processes should be modeled and
documented, noting inputs, outputs, resources, and the sequence of activities. The
process design team identifies redundant steps, paper-intensive tasks, bottlenecks,
and other inefficiencies.
3. Design the new process: Once the existing process is mapped and measured in
terms of time and cost, the process design team will try to improve the process by
designing a new one. A new streamlined “to-be” process will be documented and
modelled for comparison with the old process.
4. Implement the new process: Once the new process has been thoroughly modeled
and analyzed, it must be translated into a new set of procedures and work rules.
New information systems or enhancements to existing systems may have to be
implemented to support the redesigned process.
 5. Continuous measurement: Once a process has been implemented and optimized, it
needs to be continually measured. Why? Processes may deteriorate over time as
employees fall back on old methods, or they may lose their effectiveness if the
business experiences other changes.

13.2 What are the core activities in the systems development process?

The activities that go into producing an information system solution to an organizational

problem or opportunity are called systems development. Systems development is a structured
kind of problem solved with distinct activities.

A. Systems analysis
Systems Analysis is the analysis of a problem that a firm tries to solve with an
information system. It consists of defining the problem, identifying its causes,
specifying the solution, and identifying the information requirements that must be met
by a system solution. The systems analyst creates a road map of the existing
organization and systems, identifying the primary owners and users of data along with
existing hardware and software. The systems analyst then details the problems of
existing systems. The systems analysis also includes a feasibility study to determine
whether that solution is feasible, or achievable, from a financial, technical, and
organizational standpoint. Normally, the systems analysis process identifies several
alternative solutions that the organization can pursue and assess the feasibility of
each.

Establishing Information Requirements

 At the most basic level, the information requirements of a new system involve
identifying who needs what information, where, when, and how. Requirements
analysis carefully defines the objectives of the new or modified system and develops a
detailed description of the functions that the new system must perform. Faulty
requirements analysis is a leading cause of systems failure and high systems
development costs.

B. Systems Design
Systems design shows how the system will fulfil this objective. The design of
an information system is the overall plan or model for that system. The systems
designer details the system specifications that will deliver the functions identified
during systems analysis. These specifications should address all of the managerial,
organizational, and technological components of the system solution.

The Role of End Users

User information requirements drive the entire system-building effort. Users
must have sufficient control over the design process to ensure that the system reflects
their business priorities and information needs, not the biases of the technical staff.
Working on design increases users’ understanding and acceptance of the system.

C. Completing the Systems Development Process

1. Programming
During the programming stage, system specifications that were prepared
during the design stage are translated into software program code.
2. Testing
 Unit testing, or program testing, consists of testing each program separately in
the system. It is widely believed that the purpose of such testing is to guarantee
that programs are error free, but this goal is realistically impossible. System
testing tests the functioning of the information system as a whole. It tries to
determine whether discrete modules will function together as planned and whether
discrepancies exist between the way the system actually works and the way it was
conceived. Acceptance testing provides the final certification that the system is
ready to be used in a production setting. Systems tests are evaluated by users and
reviewed by management.
3. Conversion
Conversion is the process of changing from the old system to the new system.
In a parallel strategy, both the old system and its potential replacement are run
together for a time until everyone is assured that the new one functions correctly.
The direct cutover strategy replaces the old system entirely with the new system
on an appointed day. The pilot study strategy introduces the new system to only a
limited area of the organization, such as a single department or operating unit. The
phased approach strategy introduces the new system in stages, either by functions
or by organizational units. Detailed documentation showing how the system
works from both a technical and end-user standpoint is finalized during
conversion time for use in training and everyday operations.
4. Production and Maintenance
After the new system is installed and conversion is complete, the system is
said to be in production. During this stage, the system will be reviewed by both
users and technical specialists to determine how well it has met its original
objectives and to decide whether any revisions or modifications are in order.
After the system has been fine-tuned, it must be maintained while it is in
production to correct errors, meet requirements, or improve processing efficiency.

LO 13-3 What Is the Principal Methodologist for Modelling and Designing

System?

There are alternative methodologies for modeling and designing systems. Structured
methodologies and object-oriented development are the most prominent.
A. Structured Methodologies
Structured refers to the fact that the techniques are step by step, with each step
building on the previous one. Structured methodologies are top-down, progressing
from the highest, most abstract level to the lowest level of detail—from the general to
the specific. Structured development methods are process-oriented, focusing primarily
on modeling the processes, or actions that capture, store, manipulate, and distribute
data as the data flow through a system. These methods separate data from processes.
A separate programming procedure must be written every time someone wants to take
an action on a particular piece of data. The procedures act on data that the program
passes to them. The primary tool for representing a system’s component processes
and the flow of data between them is the data flow diagram (DFD). The data flow
diagram offers a logical graphic model of information flow, partitioning a system into
modules that show manageable levels of detail. It rigorously specifies the processes or
transformation.

The diagrams can be used to depict higher-level processes as well as lower-

level details. Through levelled data flow diagrams, a complex process can be broken
down into successive levels of detail. An entire system can be divided into subsystems
with a high-level data flow diagram. Each subsystem, in turn, can be divided into
additional subsystems with second-level data flow diagrams, and the lower-level
subsystems can be broken down again until the lowest level of detail has been
reached.
 The data dictionary defines the contents of data flows and data stores so that
systems builders understand exactly what pieces of data they contain. Process
specifications describe the transformation occurring within the lowest level of the data
flow diagrams. They express the logic for each process. In structured methodology,
software design is modeled using hierarchical structure charts. The structure chart is a
top-down chart, showing each level of design, its relationship to other levels, and its
place in the overall design structure. The design first considers the main function of a
program or system, then breaks this function into subfunctions, and decomposes each
subfunction until the lowest level of detail has been reached.

B. Object-Oriented Development
Object-oriented development addresses these issues. Object-oriented
development uses the object as the basic unit of systems analysis and design. An
object combines data and the specific processes that operate on those data. Data
encapsulated in an object can be accessed and modified only by the operations, or
methods, associated with that object. Instead of passing data to procedures, programs
send a message for an object to perform an operation that is already embedded in it.
The system is modeled as a collection of objects and the relationships among them.
Because processing logic resides within objects rather than in separate software
programs, objects must collaborate with each other to make the system work. Object-
oriented modeling is based on the concepts of class and inheritance. Objects
belonging to a certain class, or general category of similar objects, have the features
of that class. Classes of objects in turn can inherit all the structure and behaviors of a
more general class and then add variables and behaviors unique to each object. New
classes of objects are created by choosing an existing class and specifying how the
new class differs from the existing class instead of starting from scratch each time.
 The information system is implemented by translating the design into program
code, reusing classes that are already available in a library of reusable software
objects, and adding new ones created during the object-oriented design phase.
Implementation may also involve the creation of an object-oriented database. The
resulting system must be thoroughly tested and evaluated. Because objects are
reusable, object-oriented development could potentially reduce the time and cost of
writing software because organizations reuse software objects that have already been
created as building blocks for other applications. New systems can be created by
using some existing objects, changing others, and adding a few new objects. Object-
oriented frameworks have been developed to provide reusable, semi complete
applications that the organization can further customize into finished applications.

C. Computer-Aided Software Engineering

Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)—sometimes called
computer aided systems engineering—provides software tools to automate the
methodologies we have just described to reduce the amount of repetitive work in
systems development. CASE tools provide automated graphics facilities for producing
charts and diagrams, screen and report generators, data dictionaries, extensive
reporting facilities, analysis and checking tools, code generators, and documentation
generators. CASE tools also have capabilities for validating design diagrams and
specifications. Team members can share their work easily by accessing each other’s
files to review or modify what has been done. Modest productivity benefits can also
be achieved if the tools are used properly, which requires organizational discipline.
LO 13-4 What are alternative methods for building information systems?

This section describes these alternative methods: the traditional systems life cycle,
prototyping, application software packages and cloud software services, end-user
development, and outsourcing.

A. Traditional Systems Life Cycle

The systems life cycle is the oldest method for building information systems.
The life cycle methodology is a phased approach to building a system, dividing
systems development into formal stages, as illustrated in Figure 13.9. Systems
development specialists have different opinions on how to partition the systems-
building stages. The systems life cycle methodology maintains a formal division of
labor between end users and information systems specialists. Technical specialists,
such as systems analysts and programmers, are responsible for much of the systems
analysis, design, and implementation work; end users are limited to providing
information requirements and reviewing the technical staff’s work.

B. Prototyping
Prototyping consists of building an experimental system rapidly and
inexpensively for end users to evaluate. By interacting with the prototype, users can
get a better idea of their information requirements. The prototype endorsed by the
users can be used as a template to create the final system. The prototype is a working
version of an information system or part of the system, but it is meant to be only a
preliminary model. Once operational, the prototype will be further refined until it
conforms precisely to users’ requirements.

Steps in Prototyping
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Prototyping

Prototyping is most useful when there is some uncertainty about requirements

or design solutions and is often used for designing an information system’s end-user
interface. If the completed prototype works reasonably well, management may not see
the need for reprogramming, redesign, or full documentation and testing to build a
polished production system.

C. End-User Development

End-user development allows end users, with little or no formal assistance

from technical specialists, to create simple information systems, reducing the time and
steps required to produce a finished application. Using user-friendly query languages
and reporting, website development, graphics, and PC software tools, end users can
access data, create reports, and develop simple applications on their own with little or
no help from professional systems analysts or programmers.

D. Application Software Packages, Software Services, and Outsourcing

Application Software Packages and Cloud Software Services
If an organization has unique requirements that the package does not meet,
these tools include capabilities for customization. Customization features allow a
commercial software package or cloud-based software to be modified to meet an
organization’s unique requirements without destroying the integrity of the software.
The most important evaluation criteria are the functions provided by the software,
flexibility, user-friendliness, hardware requirements, database requirements,
installation and maintenance efforts, documentation, vendor quality, and cost. The
package or software service evaluation process often is based on a request for
proposal (RFP), which is a detailed list of questions submitted to software vendor.
 Outsourcing
If a firm does not want to use its internal resources to build or operate
information systems, it can outsource the work to an external organization that
specializes in providing these services. Cloud computing and software as a service
(SaaS) provider.

LO 13-5 What are new approaches for system building in the digital firm
era?

In addition to using software packages and online software services, businesses are
relying more heavily on fast-cycle techniques such as rapid application development, joint
application design, agile development, and reusable standardized software components that
can be assembled into a complete software system.

A. Rapid Application Development (RAD), Agile Development, and DevOps

The term rapid application development (RAD) refers to the process of
creating workable systems in a very short period of time with some flexibility to adapt
as a project evolves. RAD includes the use of visual programming and other tools for
building graphical user interfaces, iterative prototyping of key system elements,
automation of program code generation, and close teamwork among end users and
information systems specialists.
Sometimes a technique called joint application design (JAD) is used to
accelerate the generation of information requirements and to develop the initial
systems design. JAD brings end users and information systems specialists together in
an interactive session to discuss the system’s design.
Agile development focuses on rapid delivery of working software by breaking
a large project into a series of small subprojects that are completed in short periods of
time using iteration, continuous feedback, and continual user involvement.
Improvement or addition of new functionality takes place within the next iteration as
developers clarify requirements.
DevOps builds on agile development principles as an organizational strategy
to create a culture and environment that further promote rapid and agile development
practices. DevOps stands for “development and operations” and emphasizes close
 collaboration between the software developers who create applications and the IT
operational staff who run and maintain the applications.

B. Component-Based Development and Web Services

To further expedite software creation, groups of objects have been assembled
to provide software components for common functions such as a graphical user
interface or online ordering capability that can be combined to create large-scale
business applications. This approach to software development is called
component-based development, and it enables a system to be built by assembling
and integrating existing software components.
Web Services and Service-Oriented Computing
In addition to supporting internal and external integration of systems, web
services can be used as tools for building new information system applications or
enhancing existing systems. Web services can perform certain functions on their own,
and they can also engage other web services to complete more complex transactions,
such as checking credit, procurement, or ordering products.

C. Mobile Application Development: Designing for a Multiscreen World

A mobile website is a version of a regular website that is scaled down in
content and navigation for easy access and search on a small mobile screen. A mobile
web app is an Internet-enabled app with specific functionality for mobile devices.
Users access mobile web apps through their mobile device’s web browser. The web
app resides primarily on a server, is accessed via the Internet, and doesn’t need to be
installed on the device.
A native app is a standalone application designed to run on a specific platform
and device. The native app is installed directly on a mobile device. Native apps can
connect to the Internet to download and upload data, and they can also operate on
these data even when not connected to the Internet. Native mobile apps provide fast
performance and a high degree of reliability. They are also able to take advantage of a
mobile device’s particular capabilities, such as its camera or touch features. However,
native apps are expensive to develop because multiple versions of an app must be
programmed for different mobile operating systems and hardware.
Mobile apps need to be optimized for the specific tasks they are to perform,
they should not try to carry out too many tasks, and they should be designed for
usability. The user experience for mobile interaction is fundamentally different from
using a desktop or laptop PC. Saving resources—bandwidth, screen space, memory,
processing, data entry, and user gestures—is a top priority. Therefore, companies
need to design websites specifically for mobile interfaces and create multiple mobile
sites to meet the needs of smartphones, tablets, and desktop browsers.
One solution to the problem of having multiple websites is to use responsive
web design. Responsive web design enables websites to change layouts automatically
according to the visitor’s screen resolution, whether on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or
smartphone. Responsive design uses tools such as flexible grid-based layouts, flexible
images, and media queries to optimize the design for different viewing contexts
 CASE STUDY
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS DIFFERENT FOR MOBILE APPS

Developing successful mobile apps poses some unique challenges. The user

experience on a mobile device is fundamentally different from that on a PC. There are special
features on mobile devices such as location-based services that give firms the potential to
interact with customers in meaningful new ways. There are multiple platforms for mobile
software, including iOS, Android, and Windows 10, and a firm may need a different version
of an application to run on each of these as well as on devices of different sizes and
capabilities. Mobile devices might be tiny and worn on the wrist or they might be large high-
definition tablet displays. They might include sensors and audio output and even displays
combining real and virtual images.  Many enterprises require applications that link to
corporate systems and function on the desktop as well as on mobile devices. Take, for
example, Great-West Financial, the second largest retirement services company in the United
States with approximately $461 billion in assets under its administration. Company
employees spend more time serving customers in the field rather than in the office and
needed a connection to the company’s ERP Financials system from wherever they are
working to process accounts payable invoice approvals. Great West decided to deploy the
Dolphin Mobile Approvals app for this purpose.

Great-West selected Dolphin because it could handle all of its SAP workflows in a
single app, so that employees did not have to go to one place to approve invoices and another
to approve everything else. Great West configured the app to make its look and feel as similar
as possible to the application users accessed on their desktops.  A pop-up notification on the
mobile app eliminates the need for users to log into the app before knowing about an invoice.

Before deploying the mobile app, Great-West had to set up an appropriate mobile

infrastructure, considering factors such as security, sign-on, and back-end integration. Great-
West purchased 1,000 licenses for the mobile approvals app and issued company-owned
devices to senior executives and the heaviest invoice users.

For the past few years, United Parcel Service has provided customers with a UPS
Mobile app to track their shipments and obtain pricing information using smartphones and
tablets. UPS developers initially wrote and maintained multiple versions of UPS
Mobile, including one for iOS in Objective-C and another for Android in Java. This meant
twice the work for UPS mobile developers.

UPS was able to move the UPS Mobile app to a single development platform, but this
entailed an enormous amount of work. The company selected Visual Studio Tools for
Xamarin for this purpose because it allowed developers to share one C# code base across
platforms and deliver fully native apps to customers. Xamarin also had better integration with
mobile devices’ unique hardware and capabilities. Although UPS had to rebuild more than
130,000 lines of code that had been written over a four-year period, management realized that
rewriting UPS Mobile would produce dramatic time and cost savings in the long run. Much
of the Xamarin code would need to be developed only once and it could support multiple
platforms with great efficiency in the years to come. UPS mobile developers rewrote all
versions of UPS Mobile with Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin. UPS can now add a new
feature across all mobile devices in weeks and days instead of months.

Source: Laudon,Kenneth C and Laudon,Jane P. 2020.Management information systems:

managing the digital firm.Sixteenth edition. New York, NY: Pearson
 CONCLUSION

Building a new information system is a form of planned organizational change. There

are four kinds technology-enabled to change: (1) automation, (2) rationalization, (3) business,
(4) paradigm shift. Many organizations are using business process management to redesign
workflows and business process in the hope achieving productivity breakthrough. Business
process management is also useful for promoting total quality management (TQM), six
sigma, and other initiatives for incremental process improvement. As we mention above in
system development process have 7 core activities there are system analysis, system design,
programming, testing, conversion, production, and maintenance. Structured methodologies
and object-oriented development as the principal methodologies for modelling and designing
information system. Structures methodologies focus on modelling processes and data
separately. Object-oriented development models a system as a collection of objects that
combine process and data. It is based on the concepts of class and inheritance. In building nee
information system there are several alternative methods that can be implement by company:
life cycle, the systems life cycle is useful for large projects that need formal specifications
and tight management control over each stage of systems building, but it is very rigid and
costly; prototyping, consists of building an experimental system rapidly and inexpensively
for end users to interact with and evaluate. Prototyping encourages end-user involvement in
systems development and iteration of design until specifications are captured accurately.
Using a software package or online software services (SaaS) reduces the amount of
design, programming, testing, installation, and maintenance work required to build a system;
End-user development is the development of information systems by end users, either alone
or with minimal assistance from information systems specialists. Using software packages
and online software services, Companies are turning to rapid application design (RAD), joint
application design (JAD), agile development, and reusable software components to accelerate
the systems development process. RAD uses object-oriented software, visual programming,
prototyping, and tools for very rapid creation of systems. Agile development breaks a large
project into a series of small subprojects that are completed in short periods of time using
iteration and continuous feedback. Mobile application development must pay attention to
simplicity, usability, and the need to optimize tasks for tiny screens.
 The user experience on mobile devices is fundamentally different from that on a PC.
There are many platforms for mobile software, including iOS, Android, and Windows 10,
and companies may need different versions of the app to run on each of those versions. For
example, Great-West Finance, the second-largest retirement services company in the United
States with assets of about $461 billion under its administration. Company employees spend
more time serving customers in the field than in the office and need a connection to the
company's Financials ERP system from wherever they work to process trade payable invoice
approvals. Great West decided to use the Dolphin Mobile Approvals app for this purpose.
Great-West chose Dolphin because it can handle all its SAP workflows in one application, so
employees don't have to go to one place to approve invoices and another place to approve the
other. Before implementing a mobile app, the Great-West should set up an appropriate
mobile infrastructure, taking into account factors such as security, login, and back-end
integration. UPS can move the UPS Mobile app to a single development platform, but this
requires a lot of work. UPS mobile developers are rewriting all versions of UPS Mobile with
Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin.UPS can now add new features on all mobile devices in
weeks and days, not months.