CAPE Information Technology

UNIT 2
Module 1:Information Management
The uses of computers have evolved over time. Early computers were quite cabable of
"number crunching" therefore book-keeping and accounting were logical areas of
business where computers were introduced.
These early applications of computer systems in business involved finding, organising,
and displaying data. Systems such as these are known as Low Power Main Frame
systems. High power main frame systems involve processes such as modelling and
predicting. This is much more complex than simply displaying data and requires much
more processing power than is present in Low Power Main Frame systems.
As hardware became smaller and cheaper, the application of desktop PCs in business
became more common. Management is able to use technology to aid their decision
making as well as speeding up the work they need to do.
Problems occur within businesses that employ programmers to develop application
software to be used throughout the business. Often, the businesses become dependant
upon the programmers for support and maintenance of the systems. These employees
often leave or move jobs after a few years. It is not uncommon for hardly any
documentation to be left behind which leads to problems. Those left to run and operate
the system do not know how it works.
The typical reason for a lack of documentation for systems is that the development of it
was rushed. Getting the system up and running in the short term would have been the
priority whereas producing documentation for its long-term maintenance would have
been left as something unnecessary.
Management within a business has the following functions:

Planning (setting goals / policies etc...)

Organising
Controlling Resources
Directing
Controlling

Management information has to be entered into the system as raw data initially. It is
important that the information is correct or at least valid. Entries into a system can often
be checked on entry for validity. Users can be prompted to check the data they entered is
correct on entry (opposed to after the data has been saved).
Data is a raw, unprocessed, collection of values with no real meaning on its own.
Information is processed data that has been selected, summarised, and organised for a

purpose. Information can be good or poor depending on whether it fits the context or
whether it is useful to a decision maker.
Good information needs to be:
up-to-date
from a reliable source
accurate
relevant to the application
easy to understand
from a balanced range of data
complete

Objective #1:Differentiate among terms used in information management

a. field
field - group of characters e.g. surname
field is a certain part of a data base
field: Fields describe a single aspect of each member of a table. A student record,
for instance, might contain a last name field, a first name field, a date of birth field
and so on. All records have exactly the same structure, so they contain the same
fields. The values in each field vary from record to record, of course. In some
database systems, you'll find fields referred to as attributes
b. records
Record - e.g. all the information about one person
record: A record contains all the information about a single 'member' of a table. In
a students table, each student's details (name, date of birth, contact details, and so
on) will be contained in its own record. Records are also known as tuples in the
database field .
c. tables
table: A single store of related information. A table consists of records, and each
record is made up of a number of fields. Just to totally confuse things, tables are
sometimes called relations. You can think of the phone book as a table: It contains
a record for each telephone subscriber, and each subscriber's details are contained
in three fields - name, address and telephone.

d. database
database: A collection of related information stored in a structured format.
Database is often used interchangeably with the term table

e. database management system

dbms: Database management system. A program which lets you manage
information in databases. Lotus Approach, Microsoft Access and FileMaker Pro,
for example, are all DBMSs, although the term is often shortened to 'database'. So,
the same term is used to apply to the program you use to organise your data and
the actual data structure you create with that program

Objective #2: Explain how files and databases are used in organizations
Applications of files and databases in organizations are:

Store:
Organize:

Search:

Retrieve:

Eliminate redundancies

Data mining: Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data

Data warehouses: A data warehouse is a central repository for all or significant

parts of the data that an enterprise's various business systems collect. This
definition of the data warehouse focuses on data storage. However, the means to
retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the
data dictionary are also considered essential components of a data warehousing
system Typically, a data warehouse is housed on an enterprise mainframe server.
Data from various online transaction processing (OLTP) applications and other
sources is selectively extracted and organized on the data warehouse database for
use by analytical applications and user queries. Data warehousing emphasizes the
capture of data from diverse sources for useful analysis and access, but does not

generally start from the point-of-view of the end user or knowledge worker who
may need access to specialized, sometimes local databases.

Data marts: A data mart is a repository of data gathered from operational data and
other sources that is designed to serve a particular community of knowledge
workers. In scope, the data may derive from an enterprise-wide database or data
warehouse or be more specialized. The emphasis of a data mart is on meeting the
specific demands of a particular group of knowledge users in terms of analysis,
content, presentation,

Objective #3: Explain how data storage and retrieval have changed over time:
Research Assignment
Due: Wed , Sept. 30, 2009

Concepts of the terms

History of storage devices

Formats of data(text-based to multimedia)

Volumes to be stored

Compression utilities

Access methods

Speed

Objective #4: Explain the advantages of using a database approach compared to using
traditional file processing
Database and File Based System
file based system is a collection of application programs that perform services for the
users wishing to access information. Each program within a file based system defines and
manages its own data. Because of this, there are limits as to how that data can be used or
transported.
File based systems were developed as better alternatives to paper based filing systems.
By having files stored on computers, the data could be accessed more efficiently. It was
common practice for larger companies to have each of its departments looking after its
own data.

The problems that arise with this type of file based system are listed below:
- Data separation and isolation
- Data dependence
- Data duplication
- Incompatible data (different file formats)
- Lack of flexibility in organising and querying the data
- Increased number of different application programs
Some advantages of database systems are outlined below:
- Sharing of data
- Consistency of data
- Integrity of data
- Security of data
- Data independence
- Allows for more analysis of the same amount of data
- Improved data access and system performance
-Efficiency
- Potentially increased productivity
- Increased concurrency
- Improved data backups and recovery
-Data quality
-speed
-completeness
-consistency
-timeliness
-accuracy
Some potential disadvantages of database systems are the cost of implementing them, the
amount of effort needed to transfer data into the database from a current system, and also
the impact on the whole company if the database fails (even if only for a relatively short
period).