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Study Guide in (SAD 101 – SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN) Module No._2_

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 2

INFORMATION SYSTEMS BUILDING BLOCKS

MODULE OVERVIEW

System analysis and design methods are used to develop information systems for
organizations. Before learning the process of building systems you need a clear understanding of
the product you are trying to build. This module takes an architectural look at information systems
and applications. We will build a framework for information systems architecture that will
subsequently be used to organize and relate all of the parts in this module.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the module, the students are expected to:

1. Differentiate between front- and back-office information systems.
2. Describe the role of information systems architecture in systems development.
3. Identify three high-level goals that provide system owners and system users with a
perspective of an information system.
4. Identify three technologies that provide system designers and builders with a perspective of
an information system.
5. Identify three areas of focus for an information system
6. Describe four building blocks of the KNOWLEDGE goal for an information system.
7. Describe four building blocks of the PROCESS goal for an information system.
8. Describe four building blocks of the COMMUNICATIONS goal for an information system.
9. Describe the role of network technologies as it relates to Knowledge, Processes, and
Communications building blocks.

LEARNING CONTENTS (The Product- Information Systems)

THE PRODUCT- INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Organizations are served not by a single information system but, instead, by a federation of
information systems that support various business functions. The idea is illustrated in the figure
below. Notice that most businesses have both front-office information systems that support
business functions that reach out to customers (or constituents) and back-office information
systems that support internal back-office business information systems that feed data to
management information systems and decision support systems that support management needs of
the business. Contemporary information systems are interfacing with customers and suppliers using
electronic commerce technology, customer relations management (CRM), and Supply Chain
Management (SCM) applications over the Internet. Finally, most companies have some sort of
intranet (internal to the business) to support communications between employees and the
information systems

Front–Office Information System – an information system that supports business functions that
extend out to the organization’s customers.

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Back–Office Information System – an information system that supports the internal business
operations of an organization, as well as reaches out to suppliers.

FEDERATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

In this module, there are several classes of information system applications. Each class
serves the needs of different types of users. These classes overlap such that it isn’t always easy to
differentiate one from another. The various applications should ideally interoperate to complement
and supplement one another. The figure below illustrates the typical roles of information systems.
Notice that an organization can and will have multiple transaction processing systems, office
automation systems, and the like. The “drum” shapes represent stored data. Notice that an
organization has multiple sets of stored data, and only some of them work together. The following
number annotations are on the diagram.

1 The first transaction processing system responds to an input transaction’s data (e.g., an order). It
produces transaction information to verify the correct processing of the input transaction.

2 The second transaction processing system merely produces an output transaction (e.g., an
invoice). Such a system may respond to something as simple as the passage of time (e.g., it is the
end of the month; therefore, it generates all invoices).

3 The first management information system simply produces reports or information (e.g., sales
analysis reports) using data stored in transactional databases (maintained by the aforementioned
transaction processing systems).

4 The second management information system uses business models (e.g., MRP) to produce
operational management Information (e.g., a production schedule).

5 Notice that an MIS may use data from more than one transactional database.

6 Notice that snapshots of data from the transactional databases populate a data warehouse. The
snapshots may be taken at various time intervals, and different subsets of data may be included in
various snapshots. The data in the warehouse will be organized to ensure easy access and inquiry
by the manager’s data (e.g., an order); it produces transaction information to verify the correct
processing of the input transaction.

7 Decision support and executive information systems applications will typically provide read-only
access to the data warehouses to produce decision support and executive management
information.

8 An expert system requires a special database that stores the expertise in the form of rules and
heuristics.

9 An expert system either accepts problems as inputs (e.g., Should we grant credit to a specific
customer?), or senses problems in the environment (e.g., Is the lathe producing parts within
acceptable specifications?) and then responds to a problem with an appropriate solution based on
the system's expertise.

10 Personal office automation systems tend to revolve around the data and business processing
needs of an individual. Such systems are typically developed by the users themselves (and run on
personal computers).

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11 Workgroup office automation systems are frequently message-based (e.g., email-based) and are
smaller-scale solutions to departmental needs. As shown in the figure, they can access or import
data from larger, transaction processing systems.

INFORMATION SYSTEM APPLICATIONS

LEARNING CONTENTS (A Framework for Information Systems Architecture)

Information Systems Architecture - a unifying framework into which various stakeholders
with different perspectives can organize and view the fundamental building blocks of information
systems.
It has become fashionable to deal with the complexity of modern Information systems by using
the term architecture. Information technology professionals speak of data architectures, application
architectures, network architectures, software architectures, and so forth. Information systems
architecture serves as a higher-level framework for understanding different views of the
fundamental building blocks of an information system. Essentially, information systems architecture
provides a foundation for organizing the various components of any information system you care to
develop.
Different stakeholders have different perspectives on or views of an information system.
System owners and system users tend to focus on three common business goals of any Information
system. These goals are typically established in response to one or more of the business drivers.

These goal-oriented perspectives of an information system include:

 The goal to improve business knowledge. Knowledge is a product of information and
data.
 The goal to improve business processes and services.
 The goal to improve business communications and people collaboration.

The role of the system designers and builders is more technical. As such, their focus tends to
be placed more on the technologies that may be used by the Information system in order to achieve
the business goal. The system designers' and builders' perspectives of an Information system tend
to focus more on:

Technology Perspectives of System Designers & System Builders

 The database technologies that support business accumulation and use of business
knowledge.
 The software technologies that automate and support business processes and
services.
 The interface technologies that support business communications and collaboration.

Focuses of Information Systems

 Knowledge - the raw material used to create useful information.
 Process - the activities (including management) that carry out the mission of the
business.
 Communication- how the system interfaces with its users and other information
systems.

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The information system building blocks do not exist in isolation. They must be carefully
synchronized to avoid inconsistencies and incompatibilities within the system. For example, a
database designer (a system designer) and a programmer (a system builder) have their own
architectural views of the system; however, these views must be compatible and consistent if the
system is going to work properly, Synchronization occurs both horizontally.

INFORMATION SYSTEM PERSPECTIVES AND FOCUSES

In this module, we'll briefly examine each focus and perspective the building blocks of
information systems.

 KNOWLEDGE BUILDING BLOCKS

Improving business knowledge is a fundamental goal of an information system.

Business knowledge is derived from data and information. Through processing, data is refined
to produce information that results in knowledge. Knowledge is what enables a company to
achieve its mission and vision.
The KNOWLEDGE column of your framework is illustrated in the figure below. Notice at the
bottom of the KNOWLEDGE column that our goal is to capture and store business data using
DATABASE TECHNOLOGIES. Database technology (such as Access, SQL Server, DB2, or
Oracle) will be used to organize and store data for all information systems, Also, as you look down
the KNOWLEDGE column, each of our different stakeholders has different perspectives of the
Information system. Let's examine those views and discuss their relevance to the KNOWLEDGE
column.

 System owners’ view - interested not in raw data but in information that adds new business
knowledge and helps managers make decisions. Business knowledge and information help
managers make intelligent decisions that support the organization’s mission, goals,
objectives, and competitive edge. Business knowledge may initially take the form of a simple
list of business entities and business rules.
System owners are concerned with the big picture. They are generally not interested
in details (such as what fields describe a customer or an order). The primary role of system
owners in a systems development project should be to define the scope and vision for the
project. For KNOWLEDGE, scope can be defined in simple terms such as the
aforementioned business entities and rules. System owners define project vision and
expectations in terms of their Insight Into problems, opportunities, and constraints as they
relate to the business entities and rules.

 System Users’ View- Information system users are knowledgeable about the data that
describe the business. As Information workers, they capture, store, process, edit, and use
that data every day. They frequently see the data only in terms of how data is currently
stored or how they think data should be stored. To them, the data are recorded on forms,
stored in file cabinets, recorded in books and binders, organized into spreadsheets, or
stored in computer files and databases. The challenge in systems development is to
correctly identify and verify users’ business data requirements. Data requirements are an
extension of the business entities and rules that were initially identified by the system
owners. System users may identify additional entities and rules because of their greater
familiarity with the data. More importantly, system users must specify the exact data
attributes to be stored and the precise business rules for maintaining that data.
Data requirement – a representation of users’ data in terms of entities, attributes,
relationships, and rules independent of data technology.
A system owner may identify the need to store data about a business entity called a
customer. System users might tell us that we need to differentiate between prospective

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customers, active, active customers, and (Inactive customers because they know that
slightly different types of data describe each type of customer. System users can also tell us
precisely what data must be stored about each type of customer.

 System Designers' View of Knowledge - The system designer's knowledge perspective

differs significantly from the perspectives of system owners and system users. The system
designer is more concerned with the database technology that will be used by the
Information system to support business knowledge. System designers translate the system
users' business data requirements into database designs that will subsequently be used by
system builders to develop computer databases that will be made available via the
information system. The system designers’ view of data is constrained by the limitations of
whatever database management system (DBMS) is chosen. Often, the d1olce has already
been made and the developers must use that technology. For example, many businesses
have standardized on an enterprise DBMS (such as Oracle, DB2, or SQL Server) and a
work group DBMS (such as Access).
The system designer's view of KNOWLEDGE consists of data structures, database
schemas, fields, indexes, and other technology-dependent components. Most of these
technical specifications are too complex: to be reasonably understood by & system users.
The systems analyst and/or database specialists design and document these technical
views of the data.

 System Builders' View of Knowledge- The final view of knowledge is relevant to the
system builders. In the KNOWLEDGE column of figure below, system builders are closest to
the actual database management system technology. They must represent data in very
precise and unforgiving languages. The most commonly encountered database language is
SQL (Structured Query Language). Alternatively, many database management systems,
such as Access and Visual FoxPro include proprietary languages or facilities for constructing
a new database.

A BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVE OF INFORMATION SYSTEM

PROCESS BUILDING BLOCKS- improving business and service processes is another

fundamental goal of an Information system. Processes deliver the desired functionality of an
information system. Processes represent the work in a system. People may perform some
processes, while computers and machines perform others.

Business functions - a group of related processes that support the business. Functions
can be decomposed into other sub-functions and eventually into processes that do specific
tasks.

System Owners' View of Processes - system owners are generally interested in the big
picture. They tend to focus not so much on workflow and procedures as on high-level
business functions. Organizations are often organized around these business functions with
a vice president overseeing each function, unlike business events (such as CUSTOMER
submits ORDER) that have a definite beginning and end, a business function has no starting
time or stopping time.
System owners also frequently identify services and levels of service that they seek
to provide to customers, suppliers, and employees. A popular example is customer, supplier,
or employee self-service, Human resource systems, for example, increasingly provide
employees with the ability to enter their own transactions such as change of address,
medical claims, and training requests. System owners also identify need for information

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systems to improve service by reducing errors and improving service.

Process Requirements a user’s expectation of the processing requirements for

business process and its information systems.

Business function – a group of related processes that support the business.

Functions can be decomposed into other sub-functions and eventually into
processes that do specific tasks.

A cross-functional information system – a system that supports relevant business

processes from several business functions without regard to traditional organizational
boundaries such as divisions, departments, centers, and offices.

System Users' View of Process- Users are concerned with the business processes, or
work, that must be performed in order to the appropriate responses to business events.
System users specify the business process in terms of process requirements for a new
system. Process requirements are often documented in terms of activities, data flows, or
work flow.

Business Processes – activities that respond to business events.

Process Requirements – a user’s expectation of the processing requirements for a

business process and its information systems.

Policy – a set of rules that govern a business process.

Procedure – a step-by-step set of instructions and logic for accomplishing a

business process.

Workflow – the flow of transactions through business processes to ensure

appropriate checks and approvals are implemented.

A BUSINESS PROCESS Perspective of Information Systems

• SYSTEM DESIGNERS' VIEW OF PROCESSES - Concerned with which processes to

automate and how to automate them constrained by limitations of application development
technologies being used
• Software specifications – the technical design of business processes to be
automated or supported by computer programs to be written by system builders.
• SYSTEM BUILDERS’ VIEW OF PROCESSES - represent PROCESSES using precise
computer programming languages or application development environments (ADEs) that
describe inputs, outputs, logic, and control.
• Concerned with programming logic that implements automated processes
• Application program – a language-based, machine-readable representation of what
a software process is supposed to do, or how a software process is supposed to

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accomplish its task.

• Prototyping – a technique for quickly building a functioning, but incomplete model of
the information system using rapid application development tools.

COMMUNICATIONS BUILDING BLOCKS

A common goal of most organizations is to improve business communications and
collaboration between employees and other constituents. Communication improvements in
information systems are typically directed toward two critical interface goals for an information
system:
Information systems must provide effective and efficient communication interfaces to the
system’s users. These interfaces should promote teamwork and coordination of activities.
Information systems must interface effectively and efficiently with other information systems - both
with those within the business and increasingly with other businesses' information systems.

A BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

 SYSTEM OWNERS' VIEW OF COMMUNICATIONS- The system owners’ view of

communication is relatively simple. Early in a systems development project, system owners
need to specify:
 Who (which business units, employees, customers, and partners) must interact with
the system?
 Where are these business units, employees, customers, and partners located?
 What other information systems will the system have to interface with?

 SYSTEM USERS’ VIEW OF COMMUNICATION - Concerned with the information system’s

inputs and outputs.
Those Inputs and outputs can make many forms; however, the business interface
requirements are more important than the technical format. The Inputs and outputs
represent how the proposed system would interact with users, employees, business units,
customers, and other businesses.

 SYSTEM DESIGNERS’ VIEW OF COMMUNICATION - Concerned with the technical

design of both the user and the system-to-system communication interfaces.
 Interface specifications – technical designs that document how system users are to
interact with a system and how a system interacts with other systems.
User and Designers can be involved in interface design. But whereas system users
are interested in requirements and format, system designers have other interests
such as consistency, compatibility, completeness, and user dialogues.
 User dialogue (sometimes called Interface Navigation) – a specification of how
the user moves from window to window or page to page, interacting with the
application programs to perform useful work.

 SYSTEM BUILDERS’ VIEW OF COMMUNICATION- Concerned with the construction,

installation, testing and implementation of user and system-to-system interface solutions.
System-to-system interfaces are considerably more complex than user
interfaces to construct or Implement One system to system interfacing technology

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that is currently popular is middleware.,

• Middleware – utility software that allows application software and systems
software that utilize differing technologies to interoperate.

LEARNING CONTENTS (NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES AND THE IS BUILDING BLOCKS)

NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES AND THE IS BUILDING BLOCKS

In this module, we unveiled a framework for information systems architecture that was
initially inspired by the work of John Zachman. The Zachman "Framework for Information Systems
Architecture achieved international recognition and use. The Zachman framework is a matrix rows
corresponds to what Zachman calls perspectives of different people involved in systems
development and use different people involved in systems development and use.

The columns correspond to focuses on different aspects of the information system.

Zachman’s architecture includes a separate column that closely equates to what our framework
recognizes as network technologies.
The figure above shows a modern high-level information systems framework that
demonstrates the contemporary layering of an Information system's KNOWLEDGE, PROCESSES,
and communications building blocks on networking technologies. Today's best-designed information
systems tend to separate these layers and force them to communicate across the network. This
clean layering approach allows any one building block to be replaced with another while having little
or no impact on the other building blocks. For example, DATABASE TECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE
TECHNOLOGY, or INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY could be changed without impacting the other
building blocks.
Clean-layering approach allows any one building block to be replaced with another while
having little or no impact on the other building blocks.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Individual Assessment Task

1. The framework for Information System architecture used in this module is derived from the
pioneering framework developed by John Zachman. What is one of the advantages of
designing systems based on this or similar frameworks?

2. Assume you are designing a retail point-of-sale (POS) system for your company. What are
the typical system interfaces of a point of sale system that need to be taken into account lo
designing the POS system

3. Middleware is frequently used in systems Integration projects when different information

systems are tied together to exchange data via system-to-system interfaces. Briefly define
middleware, explain its benefits, and provide an example.

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4. In identifying and documenting business requirements, systems analysts need to be able to

distinguish between laws, policies, and procedures. Why is this important?

5. Select a medium to large organization. The organization can be in the public or

private sector, and it can be one with which you are personally familiar or one for
which information is readily available.
a. Describe the organization you have selected (type of organization, mission, products or
services, annual sales or revenues, etc.).
b. Select one of the major information systems the organization uses and/or is developing,
and describe it.
c. In the organization you selected, who would typically be the owner of this system?
d. Describe, from the viewpoint of the owner, the information produced by this system.
e. If the organization initiated a project to replace or modify this system, how might the
system owner define the scope and vision of the project within the context of the
organization you selected
f. Who are the typical users of this system?
g. Describe, from the perspective of the user, the information produced by this system.
h. What is an essential difference in how system owners and users view the Information
produced by the system?

Instructions for document format before submission:

Encode your final answers in MS Word and submit them on or before the given deadline. Your
answer for each question should be a maximum of 10 sentences only. Check grammar and spelling
errors before submitting. Place your name, year level and section at the beginning of the page.

SUMMARY

Organizations are served by a federation of information systems that support business

functions, Businesses have front-office information systems that support business functions that
extend out to their customers and back-office information systems that support Internal business
operations and interact with suppliers. Information systems architecture provides a unifying
framework into which various stakeholders with different perspectives can organize and view the
fundamental building blocks of information systems:
 System owners and system users tend to focus on three common business goals of any
information system-improvements in business knowledge business processes, and business
communications.
 System designers and builders tend to focus on technologies used by the information
system in order to achieve business goals. They focus on database technologies that
support business knowledge, software technologies that support business processes, and
internet technologies that support business communications.

The three views represented in the model are:

 KNOWLEDGE - the business knowledge that helps managers make intelligent decisions.
 PROCESSES - the activities (including management) that carry out the mission of the
business.
 COMMUNICATIONS - how the system Interfaces with Its users and other information
systems.

A common goal of most organizations is to fm. prove business communications:

 System owners define the communications scope of an h1fonnatlon system development

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project.
 System users view communications in terms of the information system's inputs and outputs.
 System designers are concerned with the technical design both user and system to system
communication interfaces.
 System builders are concerned with the interface technology they use to implement user and
system-to-system communication interfaces.

Today's information systems are built on networks. Network technology allows properly de-
signed information systems to separate the KNOWLEDGE, PROCESS, and COMMUNICATION
building blocks and force them to communicate across the network.

REFERENCE

1. Bentley, Lonnie D., Whitten, Jeffrey L., 2007. System Analysis & Design Methods 7th
edition, McGraw-Hill Education.

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