SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

C H A P T E R

2 INFORMATION
SYSTEM
BUILDING
BLOCKS

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Chapter Two Information System Building Blocks

• Differentiate between front- and back-office information systems.

• Describe the different classes of information system applications (transaction
processing, management information, decision support, expert, communication and
collaboration, and office automation systems) and how they interoperate to
supplement one another.
• Describe the role of information systems architecture in systems development.
• Identify three high-level goals that provide system owners and system users with a
perspective of an information system.
• Name three goal-oriented perspectives for any information system.
• Identify three technologies that provide system designers and builders with a
perspective of an information system.
• Describe four building blocks of the KNOWLEDGE goal for an information system.
• Describe four building blocks of the PROCESS goal for an information system.
• Describe four building blocks of the COMMUNICATIONS goal for an information
system.
• Describe the role of network technologies as it relates to Knowledge, Processes, and
Communications building blocks.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Chapter Map

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Front- and Back-Office Information Systems

• Organizations are served by a federation of

information systems (not by a single IS).
• Two perspectives of a federation of IS
– Conceptual picture in next slide..
– Front-office information systems:
• support business functions that extend out to the
organization’s customers (or constituents).
– Back-office information systems:
• support internal business operations of an organization, aw
well as reach out to suppliers (of materials, equipment,
supplies, and services).

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

A Federation of Information Systems

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Information System Applications ( by Costco tape)

A collection of applications serve as a foundation for a federation of

information systems……

A transaction processing system (TPS) is an information system

that captures and processes data about business transactions.

A management information system (MIS) is an information system

that provides for management-oriented reporting based on
transaction processing and operations of the organization.

A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that

either helps to identify decision making opportunities or provides
information to help make decisions.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Information System Applications ( by Costco tape)

An Executive Information System (EIS) is an information system

designed for top-level managers that integrates data from all over
the organization into “at-a-glance” graphical indicators and controls.

An expert system is an information system that captures the

expertise of workers and then simulates that expertise to the benefit
of nonexperts.

A communications and collaboration system is an information

system that enables more effective communications between
workers, partners, customers, and suppliers to enhance their ability
to collaborate.

An office automation system is an information system that

supports the wide range of business office activities that provide for
improved work flow between workers.
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Operational view of Information System Applications

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Information Systems Architecture

Information systems architecture

– Highest-level of framework term for understanding
different views of the fundamental building blocks (next
slide) of an information system.
– Provides a foundation for organizing the various
components of IS.
Three ultimate goals of IS
– Improve business knowledge -- using Db tech.
– Improve business processes and service – using SW
tech.
– Improve business communications and people
collaboration – using interface tech.

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Information System Building Blocks

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

KNOWLEDGE Building Blocks

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Views of KNOWLEDGE

• System owners’ view

– Interested in (not raw data) information that adds new
business knowledge to make more intelligent and
accurate decisions.
– identify relevant business entities and rules
– SA: get the scope and vision for the project
• System users’ view
– Actual user of data: tend to focus on the business
issues as they pertain to the data.
– Provide details of each entity and rule that was
provided by systems owners.
– Customer: active customer, inactive customer…..
– SA: get data requirements

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Views of KNOWLEDGE

• System designers’ view

– have a technically-oriented view
– Translate users’ data requirements into database
designs
– SA: translation of data requirements (in business
terms)

• System builders’ view

– Represent data in very precise and unforgiving
language such as SQL.
– SA: provide a direction and monitor progress of works

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

PROCESS Building Blocks

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Views of PROCESS

• System owners’ view

– Concerned with high-level processes called business
functions such as accounting, sales, manufacturing,
service….
– SA: identify how functions are supported by IS based
on the scope and vision
• System users’ view
– Concerned with work that must be performed to
provide the appropriate responses to business events.
– SA: identify details of the business process in terms of
activities, data flow, and work flow (process
requirements)
• Process requirements are frequently defined in terms of
policies and procedures.
Continued ...

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Views of PROCESS (continued)

• System designers’ view

– Concerned with which processes to automate and how to
automate them
– Constrained by limitations of application development
technologies being used

• System builders’ view

– Concerned with programming logic that implements automated
processes

• SA:
– Translate process requirements ( in business terms)
– provide a direction and monitor progress of works

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

COMMUNICATION Building Blocks

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Views of COMMUNICATION

• System owners’ view

– Concerned with communications scope of an information
system.
• 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?
– SA: define scope of communication
• System users’ view
– Concerned with the information system’s inputs and
outputs.
– SA: develop a interface guideline (GUI) for user
satisfaction
Continued ...
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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Views of COMMUNICATION (continued)

• System designers’ view
– 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 dialogue – 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
– Concerned with the construction, installation, testing and
implementation of user and system-to-system interface solutions.
• Middleware – utility software that allows application software and
systems software that utilize differing technologies to interoperate.
• SA
– Translate process requirements ( in business terms)
– provide a direction and monitor progress of works

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SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODS 6th Edition Whitten Bentley Dittman

Network Technologies and the IS Building Blocks

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