COM 125

Week 1

System Concept
 WHAT IS AN
INFORMATION
SYSTEM?
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 What is Information System?

An information system is a collection of interrelated

components that collect, process and store, and
provide as output the information needed to complete
a business task.

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 Examples of Information Systems

• Course registration system

• Online order system
• Online banking system

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 What Is System Analysis About?

• Understanding the goals and strategies of the

business.
• Defining the information requirements that
support those goals and strategies.
• It is not about programming.

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 System Analysis vs. System Design

• Investigation of the problem and requirement rather than

solution.

• System Design:

• A conceptual solution that fulfills the requirements, rather

than implementation.

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 Who is a System Analyst?

A business professional who uses analysis and design techniques to

solve business problems using information technology.
The Role of a System Analyst

• Business knowledge.
• Business problem solver.
• Help translate business requirements into IT projects.

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WHAT IS A
SYSTEM?

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 Introduction

• Systems are created to solve problems

• One can think of the systems approach as

an organized way of dealing with a

problem
• In the dynamic world, thus SAD, mainly

deals with software development

activities.

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 What is a system?

‘A group of interrelated components

working together toward a common
goal by accepting inputs and
producing outputs in an organised
transformation process’
(James o’Brien, 2004)

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 WHAT IS A SYSTEM?

Definition:
A collection of components that work together
to realize some objective forms a system.

A system is an organized, interacting,

interdependent and integrated set of
components.

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 WHAT IS A SYSTEM?

The objective of the system demands that

some output is produced as a result of
processing the suitable inputs.

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 WHAT IS A SYSTEM?

Systems are all around us.

• A computer is a system that takes inputs and
turns them into outputs.
• A simple light bulb is a system because it takes
electrical energy in and gives light energy out.
• Your body contains many systems, including the
circulatory system that passes blood between
your heart, lungs, and other parts of the body.

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 MAJOR FEATURES OF A SYSTEM

• Input element
• Transformation Process
• Output element
❖ Feedback loop
❖ Control mechanism
❖ Objectives
 Concept of System Theory

Organisation
Input from the Output to the
environment environment

Production process

Feedback

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(adapted from Laudon and Laudon, 2010:108)
 ENVIRONMENT
SYSTEM BOUNDARY

CONTROL

ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT

INPUT PROCESSOR OUTPUT

FEED BACK

ENVIRONMENT

A diagram showing the relationship between system transformation

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process, boundary and external environment
 Concept of System Theory

A business is an example of an organisational

system where economic resources (input) are
transformed by various business (processing)
into goods and services (output). Information
Systems provide information (feedback) on the
operations of the system to management for the
direction and maintenance of of the system
(control), as it exchanged inputs and outputs
with its environment
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 Concept of System Theory

System Environment
The environment is whatever that lies outside
the boundaries of the system but interacts with
the system.
System exist and function in an environment
containing other systems.
Systems are affected to different degrees and in
various ways by their external environment.
Input comes from and output goes to the
external environment. 18
 Concept of System Theory
System Boundary
The boundary of a system separates it
from its external environment. It tells the
scope of a system and serves three main
purpose:
❏ It encloses the systems activities
❏ It demarcates the system from other
systems in the external environment
❏ It reflects the system objectives
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 Concept of System Theory
Control
Control involves monitoring and evaluating
feedback to determine whether a system is
moving toward the achievement of its goal. The
control function then causes necessary
adjustments to a system’s input and processing
components to ensure that it produces the
desired output.

A system with feedback and control component is

sometimes called Cybernetic system.
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 Concept of System Theory
Feedback Mechanism
Feedback may be defined as modification or
control of a process or a system by its
results or effects by measuring the
difference between desired and actual
results.
Feedback is data about the performance of
a system.
Feedback may be positive or negative
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 Benefits of System Theory
● It helps to define what the system is by identifying its
properties as a whole, as distinct from the parts of
which it is made up.
● In terms of problem solving, it provides a broad look at
the system before the very detailed analysis of the
particular problem. It greatly reduces the danger of
wasteful investment in taking on the wrong problem.
● It helps to identify and review the purpose of the
system as a whole as well as its rationale and
objectives.
● It creates an awareness of subsystems (the different
parts of an organisation), each with potentially
conflicting goals which must be harmonized with each
other. 22
 Benefits of System Theory
● It helps to identify the effect of the environment on
the systems. The external factors that affect an
organization may be wide ranging. For example, the
government, competitors, trade unions, creditors and
stakeholders all have an interactive link with an
organization.
● It facilitates a strategic review of the effectiveness of
the system by comparing the desired and actual
outputs.
● It helps in design and development of information
systems to help decision makers ensure that decisions
are made for the benefit of the organization as a
whole.
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OPEN VS CLOSED
• If a system has exchange of information, material or energy with
the environment including random and undefined inputs then it
is called Open system. Eg: organizational system (marketing,
communication, forecasting) and biological system.
– They tend to have form and structure to allow them to adapt changes in
their environment in such a way as to continue their existence. They have
‘self organizing’ ability i.e. to change their organization in response to
changing conditions.
– Generally, open systems are same as of probabilistic systems as they are
complex in every aspect. Therefore they do considerable amount of
checking and controlling of the system behavior. Eg: pricing system.
• If a system does not have any exchange with the environment nor
is it influenced by the environmental changes then such a system
is called as Closed system.
– These systems are based on rules and principles.

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MODEL OF A BUSINESS SYSTEM
CONTROL

Policies
Plans
Standards

INPUT PROCESSOR OUTPUT

Men Product
Materials Organization
Services
Machines Profit/ Loss
Facilities
Information

Feed Back
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 SYSTEM CONCEPT
A system is composed of subsystems.
The interconnections and interactions between the
subsystems are the interfaces.
System exist on more than one level.
A subsystem is simply a system within a system.
Example
Subsystems of a bank may include demand
deposit department, savings department,
customer service etc
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 SUPERSYSTEM

When a system is part of a larger system, the larger

system is called a SUPERSYSTEM.
Example
GTBank is part of a FINANCIAL COMMUNITY.

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SYSTEM

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 A System: A Black Box or General View

Environment

. .
. .
. .
Inputs System Outputs Objectives
. .
. .
. .

Constraints

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 A System and its Subsystems

System Boundary
Environme
nt Syste
m
Interconnection

Inputs Outputs Objectives

Subsystems
(components)

Constraints 30
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SYSTEMS
1. They have specific objectives
The very existence & everything that the system does
and everything that happens within the system is for
the purpose of fulfilling the objective.
When does a system perform satisfactorily?
If the system achieves its objective it could be said to
be performing satisfactorily.
If not, it is termed a system malfunction.

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 Characteristics (contd.)

2. Systems are composed of elements and these

elements can be systems within themselves
Eg. Transport system:
Subsystems: Road Transport System, Rail Transport System, Air
Transport System, and Water Transport System.
They posses the characteristics of a system

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Characteristics (contd.)
3. Elements can be common to several
systems at the same time
A single element may be a part of several systems at the
same time.
Eg: Human Body
Element –Skin is a part of the body’s defense system; it
is part of the input system.
Business system
Element- Sales is a part of marketing system, also it is a
part of the accounting system.
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 Characteristics (contd.)

4. Elements in a system are interrelated

Eg: In a business system, marketing, finance, manufacturing etc are
related to each other.
They may work differently from each other and have
different short-term goals, but they eventually have
the same goal, which is to make the business
profitable.

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Characteristics (contd.)

5. Elements in a system are interdependent

They depend on each other for various inputs and are
responsible for directing their output to each other.
6. Systems have a defined structure
The flow of materials, feedback mechanisms etc is possible
because the interactions and interdependency work within
a predefined structure.

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 Characteristics (contd.)
7. Systems react with the environment
Almost all the systems have some form of reaction to the environment in
which they function. This is called as the system behavior. The
behavior may be in the inputs the system receives from the
environment, the output it gives to the environment and the measures
it takes to protect itself in threat from the environment.
8. All systems have a life cycle
Life cycle denotes the birth, evolution, decay and death of a
system.
9. All systems have boundaries
Boundaries define the limits of the system.
Interface
• The interconnections and interactions between the subsystems are
termed interfaces.
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 TYPES OF SYSTEMS
There are many different types of systems but because our
ultimate goal is on computer systems, we will divide all systems
into two categories:
1. Natural Systems: These are systems that exist in nature and
are not man made. They are divided into two subcategories:
a. Physical Systems include diverse example as:
● Stellar systems: galaxies, solar system…
● Geographical system: rivers, mountains…
● Molecular systems: complex organizations of atoms
b. Living Systems includes all of the myriad animals and
plants around us, as well as the human race.
2. Man-made systems:

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 TYPES OF SYSTEMS
There are many different types of systems but because our
ultimate goal is on computer systems, we will divide all systems
into two categories:
1. Natural Systems:
2. Man-made systems: These are systems that are made by
Man. Examples are:
a. Social Systems: organizations of laws, doctrines, customs
b. Transportation Systems- networks of highways, Airlines, Canals
c. Communication Systems: Telephone, Telex etc
d. Manufacturing Systems: factories, assembly lines
e. Financial systems: accounting, inventory, general ledger and so
on
Most of these systems make use of computers today (i.e they are
automated). Automated systems are man-made systems that
make use of computers for processing data to information.
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INFORMATION SYSTEM

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 INFORMATION SYSTEM
An information system is the collection of technical and
human resources that provide the storage, computing,
distribution and communication for the information required
by all or some part of an enterprise.

Information Systems can basically be classified into two main

categories:
• Manual Information System
• Automated Information System

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MANUAL INFORMATION SYSTEM
Manual Information System comprises of
people and / or methods organized to collect,
process, transmit and disseminate data that
represent user information.

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 COMPONENTS OF AUTOMATED
INFORMATION SYSTEM
• Computer hardware such as CPU, Disks, terminals
• Computer Software such as system programs like the
Operating Systems, Database Systems etc
• People: those who operate the system, those who
provide its inputs and those who consume its output.
Also those who provide manual processing activities in
a system.
• Data: The information that the system uses
• Procedures: Formal policies and instructions for
operating the system.

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 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MANUAL AND
AUTOMATED INFORMATION SYSTEM
Manual Information Systems Automated Information Systems

● It employs the use of separate ● It employs the use of relational

records or files to organize data or database concept to organize
information. information or data.

● There is minimal level error ● Errors can be magnified or

propagation i.e. whenever there propagated from one document to
are errors, they have impact on another due to relationship that
one document or few documents. exist among fields, records, files,
tables etc

● Human errors are more likely to be ● Varieties of errors ranging from

encountered human to machine (Hardware,
firmware and software)

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Manual Information Systems Automated Information Systems

● It has no error checking measures ● It has error checking measures in

in place to detect difference in data place to detect difference in data
more quickly. more quickly.

● It does not rely on automatic, ● It relies on automatic, clock driven

clock driven schedules that will schedules to reduce human error.
reduce human error.

● Duplicate information must be ● Information automatically filled in

manually entered on several for various document due to logical
documents. data organization.

● An individual proactively has to ● Although an individual intiates a

initiate an action or a process in process in some systems but most
the manual system. often automated kick off of
processes are predominant.
● There is a Lag- time experiences ● Information requests has a
between requests. real-time characteristics.
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Manual Information Systems Automated Information Systems

● Deals with paper files, which can ● Deals with electronic files, which
be difficult to locate and it may can easily be found through a
take some time to sift through a reference number or query of the
number of paper files. records.

● There is high tendencies for these ● There is less of an opportunity for

records to be lost, damaged or these records to be lost, damaged
destroyed or destroyed.

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 REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Define a system
2. Explain the components of a system
3. Explain the concept of systems theory and its benefits
4. Differentiate between manual and automated systems.
Give two examples each.
5. List the various components of automated systems.

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