Meltem Özturan

www.mis.boun.edu.tr/ozturan/samd

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Information Systems (IS) Development Environment

• Systems
• Information Systems
• Information Systems
Development

IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• A system is a collection of interrelated
or interacting components forming a
unified whole to achieve a specific
purpose
• Types of systems
– Natural / Human-made
– Closed / Open

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 IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• Input, process and ouput are the main
components of systems

Input Process Output

IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• Feedback and monitoring mechanisms
should be within the system to assure
the achievement of the system goal
Monitoring

Input Process Output Goal

Feedback

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 IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• Characteristics of systems:
• Systems are made up of interrelated subsystems
• Dividing a system into components based on subsystems is
functional decomposition
• The larger system is the environment
• The separation between a system and its environment is the
system boundary
• The seperation between the automated part of system and the
manual part is the automation boundary

IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• Characteristics of systems:
Environment
Feedback

Subsystem Subsystem
Monitoring
Automation boundary Subsystem

System Boundary

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 The Business Environment
The community Competitors
Government Agencies

Control
Management

Feedback
Information
Systems

Economic Organisational Goods & Services

Resources: Processes: Products
Money Production Services
People Marketing Payments
Facilities Finance Contributions
Information etc Personnel etc Information etc
Input Processing Output
Financial Institutions Labour Unions

IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• Characteristics of a well designed system:
• Effectiveness (accomplishes its purpose)
• Efficiency (achieve purpose at least cost)
• Dependability (reliable and able to do the job)
• Robustness (fault tolerance)
• Flexibility (about to be changed)
• Simplicity (need not be complicated to be good)
• Acceptability (users must ‘own’ the system)

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 IS Development Environment
(Systems)
• Systems thinking is;
• Being able to identify something as a system
• Involves being able to identify subsystems
• Identifying system characteristics and
functions
• Identifying where the boundaries are
• Identifying inputs and outputs to systems
• Identifying relationships among subsystems

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• An information system (IS) is an
arrangement of people, data,
processes, communications, and
information technology that interact to
support and improve day-to-day
operations in a business, as well as
support the problem-solving and
decision-making needs of management
and users.
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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• Three key elements of an information
system are:
– Data are the raw facts about people, objects, and
events in an organization where information is the
data that have been processed and presented in a
form suitable for human interpretation
– Data flows are the groups of data that move and
flow through the system
– Processing logic describes the steps that
transform data and events that trigger the steps

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• Components of an information system
are:

– Computer hardware
– Computer software
– Database
– Procedures
– People

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• Types of information systems:
– Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
• Automate handling of data about business activities
– Management Information Systems (MIS)
• Converts raw data from transaction processing system
into meaningful form
– Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• Designed to help decision makers and provides
interactive environment for decision making
– Expert Systems (ES)
• Replicates decision making process and describes the way an
expert would approach the problem

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• Stakeholders of information systems:

A stakeholder is any
person who has an
interest in an existing
or new information
system. Stakeholders
can be technical or
non-technical workers.

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• System owners as stakeholders
System owners are the information system’s
sponsors and chief advocates. They are
usually responsible for funding the project to
develop, operate, and maintain the information
system.

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• System users as stakeholders
System users are the people who use or are
affected by the information system on a regular
basis - capturing, validating, entering,
responding to, storing, and exchanging data
and information.
Types include: Internal users
External users

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• System analysts as stakeholders
A systems analyst studies the problems and
needs of an organization to determine how
people, data, processes, communications, and
information technology can best accomplish
improvements for the business.

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• System designers as stakeholders
System designers translate system users’
business requirements and constraints into
technical solutions. They design the computer
files, databases, inputs, outputs, screens,
networks, and programs that will meet the
system users’ requirements.

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• System builders as stakeholders
System builders construct the information
system components based on the design
specifications from the system designers. In
many cases, the system designer and builder
for a component are one and the same.

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems)
• IT vendors & consultants as stakeholders
IT vendors & consultants sell hardware,
software and services to businesses for
incorporation into their information
systems or are business partners.

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People
perspective
for Systems
Development

(Whitten et al,
2000, Fig 1.1)

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• Information systems projects are usually
triggered by

1.Problems
2.Opportunities
3.Directives

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• Goal of systems development is to
produce a quality system
• on time
• within budget
• that meets the user’s requirements.

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• A system development process is a set of
activities, methods, best practices,
deliverables, and automated tools that
stakeholders use to develop and maintain
information systems and software.
• It is often known as system development
life cycle (SDLC) because every IS
system is ‘born’ and eventually ‘dies’.

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
is the series of steps used to manage the
phases of development for an information
system
– Phases are not necessarily sequential
– Each phase has a specific outcome and
deliverable
– Individual companies use customized life
cycles

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• SDLC consists of four phases:

Planning

Systems Planning
Systems Analysis Analysis

Systems Design Design

Systems Implementation Implementation

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• SDLC – Planning
Organization’s total information system needs are
identified, analyzed, prioritized, and arranged.

• Defining the Problem

• Developing the Project Schedule
• Staffing the Project
• Launching the Project

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• SDLC – Analysis
System requirements are studied and structured.

• Determining System Requirements

• Modeling System Requirements
• Selecting the Best Alternative

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• SDLC – Design
Description of the recommended solution is converted
into logical and then physical system specifications.

• General Design

• Designing Databases

• Designing Inputs, Outputs and Controls

• Designing Interfaces and Dialogues

• Designing System Architecture

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• SDLC – Implementation
Information system is coded, tested, installed, and
supported in the organization.

• Application Development
• Installation
• Support and Maintenance

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 IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• Teams for systems development
• Characteristics of successful teams
• Diversity in backgrounds, skills, and goals
• Tolerance of diversity, uncertainty
• Clear and complete communication
• Trust
• Mutual respect and putting one’s own views
second to the team
• Reward structure that promotes shared
responsibility and accountability

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IS Development Environment
(Information Systems Development)
• Teams for systems development
• Team members for project based IS
development
• IS Managers
• Systems Analysts
• Programmers
• Business Managers
• Other IS Managers / Technicians

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst)
• Systems Analyst
• Analytical Skills
• Technical Skills
• Management Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Systems Analysis as a
Profession

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analyst)

• Systems analyst
• Studies the problems and needs of a
organization to determine how people, data,
processes, communications, and information
technology can best accomplish improvements
for the business.

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analyst)

• Synonyms for systems analyst

•A business analyst
•A programmer/analyst
•Systems consultant
•Systems architect
•Systems engineer
•Information engineer
•Information analyst
•Systems integrator

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analyst)

• Problem solving approach of systems analyst

•Identify the problem
•Analyze and understand the problem
•Identify solution requirements and expectations
•Identify alternative solutions and decide a course of
action
•Design and implement the “best” solution
•Evaluate the results. If the problem is not solved,
return to step 1 or 2 as appropriate.

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Analytical Skills)
• Four Sets of Analytical Skills
– Systems Thinking
– Organizational Knowledge
– Problem Identification
– Problem Analyzing and Solving

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Analytical Skills)
• Systems Thinking
– To be able to identify something as a system
which involves recognizing each of the
system’s characteristics
– Applying systems thinking to information
systems
– Information systems can be seen as
subsystems in larger organizational systems,
taking input from, and returning output to, their
organizational environments.

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Analytical Skills)
• Organizational Knowledge
– Understanding of how organizations work
– Knowledge of specific functions and
procedures of organization and department
– How work officially gets done
– Internal policies
– Competitive and regulatory environment
– Organizational strategies and tactics

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Analytical Skills)
• Problem Identification
– Problem is the difference between an existing
situation and a desired situation
– Identification is process of defining differences
– Differences are defined by comparing the
current situation to the output of a model that
predicts what the output should be

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Analytical Skills)
• Problem Analyzing and Solving
– Intelligence
• All relevant information is collected
– Design
• Alternatives are formulated
– Choice
• Best alternative solution is chosen
– Implementation
• Solution is put into practice

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Technical Skills)

• Constant re-education is necessary as

technology changes rapidly
• Activities to keep skills up-to-date are to
be realized
• Understanding of a wide variety of
technologies is required

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Management Skills)

• Four categories of management skills

– Resource Management
– Project Management
– Risk Management
– Change Management

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Management Skills)

• Resource Management
– Systems analyst needs to know how to get the
most out of the resources of an organization,
including team members
– Includes the a lot of capabilities such as predicting
resource usage, tracking resource consumption,
effective use of resources, etc.

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Management Skills)

• Project Management
– Prevent projects from coming in late
– Prevent projects from going over budget
– Assists management in keeping track of project’s
progress
– Consists of several steps such as decomposing
project into independent tasks, determining
relationships between tasks, assigning resources
and personnel to tasks

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Management Skills)

• Risk Management
– Ability to anticipate what might go wrong in a
project
– Minimize risk and/or minimize damage that might
result
– Placement of resources
– Prioritization of activities to achieve greatest gain

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Management Skills)

• Change Management
– Ability to assist people in making transition to new
system
– Ability to deal with technical issues related to
change
• Obsolescence
• Reusability

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Interpersonal Skills)

• Four types of skills

– Communication skills
– Working alone and with a team
– Facilitating groups
– Managing expectations

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Interpersonal Skills)

• Communication Skills
– Effective communication helps to establish and
maintain good working relationships with clients
and colleagues
– Skills improve with experience
– Three types used by Systems Analyst
• Interviewing and Listening
• Questionnaires
• Written and Oral Presentations
– Steps to improve communication skills should be
followed

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Interpersonal Skills)

• Working Alone and With a Team

– Working alone on aspects of project involves
managing:
• Time
• Commitments
• Deadlines
– Team work involves establishing standards of
cooperation and coordination
– Characteristics of a high-performance team should
be considered

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Interpersonal Skills)

• Facilitating Groups
– Involves guiding a group without being a part of
the group
– Useful skill for sessions such as Joint Application
Development (JAD)
– Guidelines for running a successful meeting
should be followed

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Interpersonal Skills)

• Managing Expectations
– Managing expectations is directly related to
successful system implementation
– There are a lot of skills for successful expectation
management

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analysis as a Profession)

• Standards have been established for education,

training, certification and practice
• Several aspects:
– Standards of Practice
– Ethics
– Career Paths

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analysis as a Profession)

• Standards of Practice
– Endorsed development methodology
– Approved development platforms
– Standardization of roles
– Development of a common language

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IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analysis as a Profession)

• Ethics
– Professional Ethics
– Business Ethics
• Stockholder approach
• Stakeholder approach
• Social contract approach

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 IS Development Environment
(Role of Systems Analyst – Systems Analysis as a Profession)

• Career Paths
– Consulting
– Information systems within a large corporation
– Software vendors
– Other opportunities outside of systems analysis

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