Management Information

Systems
Managing the Digital Firm
Sixteenth Edition • Global Edition

Chapter 13
Building Information Systems

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Learning Objectives
13.1 How does building new systems produce organizational change?

13.2 What are the core activities in the systems development process?

13.3 What are the principal methodologies for modeling and designing
systems?

13.4 What are new approaches for system building in the digital firm
era?
Opening Case: Building a Healthy Case Management
System for Australia
• Problem
– Outdated legacy systems
– Inefficient manual processes
– Knowledge not shared
– Inconsistent and incomplete information sources

• Solutions
– Introducing collaboration technologies (e.g., Exchange and Sharepoint)
– Adopting MS Dynamics 365
– Using an agile development methodology
– Adapting existing processes
Systems Development and Organizational Change (1
of 2)
• IT-enabled organizational change

• Automation
– Increases efficiency
– Replaces manual tasks

• Rationalization of procedures
– Streamlines standard operating procedures
– Often found in programs for making continuous quality
improvements
 Total quality management (TQM)
 Six sigma
Systems Development and Organizational Change (2
of 2)
• Business process redesign
– Analyze, simplify, and redesign business processes
– Reorganize workflow, combine steps, eliminate repetition

• Paradigm shifts
– Rethink nature of business
– Define new business model
– Change nature of organization
Figure 13.1 Organizational Change Carries Risks and Rewards
Interactive Session: Organizations: Business Process
Redesign at DP World
• Class discussion
– How did DP World’s previous processes affect its operations?
– Describe the role of AI and IoT in improving how DP World handles
cargo.
– How would business process redesign enable digitized global
trade?
Business Process Redesign
• Business process management (BPM)
– Variety of tools, methodologies to analyze, design, optimize
processes
– Used by firms to manage business process redesign
• Steps in BPM
1. Identify processes for change
2. Analyze existing processes
3. Design the new process
4. Implement the new process
5. Continuous measurement
Figure 13.2 As-is Business Process for Purchasing a Book from a Physical Bookstore
Figure 13.3 Redesigned Process for Purchasing a Book Online
Tools for Business Process Management
• Identify and document existing processes
– Identify inefficiencies

• Create models of improved processes

• Capture and enforce business rules for performing, automating

processes
• Integrate existing systems to support process improvements

• Verify that new processes have improved

• Measure impact of process changes on key business performance

indicators
Systems Development
• Activities that go into producing an information system solution to an
organizational problem or opportunity
– Systems analysis
– Systems design
– Programming
– Testing
– Conversion
– Production and maintenance
Figure 13.4 The Systems Development Process
Systems Analysis
• Analysis of problem to be solved by new system
– Defining the problem
– Identifying causes
– Specifying solutions
– Identifying information requirements

• Feasibility study

• Systems proposal report

• Information requirements
– Faulty requirements analysis is a leading cause of systems failure
and high systems development costs
Systems Design
• Describes system specifications that will deliver functions identified
during systems analysis
• Should address all managerial, organizational, and technological
components of system solution
• Role of end users
– User information requirements drive system building
– Users must have sufficient control over design process to ensure
system reflects their business priorities and information needs
– Insufficient user involvement in design effort is major cause of
system failure
 Table 13.1 System Design Specifications (1 of 2)
Category Specifications

Output Medium, Content, Timing

Input Origins, Flow, Data entry
User Interface Simplicity, Efficiency, Logic, Feedback, Errors
Database Design Logical data model, Volume and speed requirements,
File organization and design, Record specifications
Processing Computations, Program modules, Required reports,
Timing of outputs
Manual Procedures What activities, Who performs them, When, How,
Where
Controls Input controls (characters, limit, reasonableness),
Processing controls (consistency, record counts),
Output controls (totals, samples of output), Procedural
controls (passwords, special forms)
 Table 13.1 System Design Specifications (2 of 2)

Category Specifications

Security Access controls, Catastrophe plans, Audit trails

Documentation Operations documentation, Systems documents, User
documentation
Conversion Transfer files, Initiate new procedures, Select testing
method
Cut over to new system
Training Select training techniques, Develop training modules,
Identify training facilities
Organizational Task redesign, Job redesign, Process design,
Changes Organization structure design, Reporting relationships
Completing the Systems Development Process (1 of 3)
• Programming
– System specifications from design stage are translated into
software program code
• Testing
– Ensures system produces right results
– Unit testing: Tests each program in system separately
– System testing: Test functioning of system as a whole
– Acceptance testing: Makes sure system is ready to be used in
production setting
– Test plan: All preparations for series of tests
Figure 13.5 A Sample Test Plan to Test a Record Change
Completing the Systems Development Process (2 of 3)
• Conversion
– Process of changing from old system to new system
– Four main strategies
 Parallel strategy
 Direct cutover
 Pilot study
 Phased approach
– Requires end-user training
– Finalization of detailed documentation showing how system works
from technical and end-user standpoint
Completing the Systems Development Process (3 of 3)
• Production and maintenance
– System reviewed to determine if revisions needed
– May include post-implementation audit document
– Maintenance
 Changes in hardware, software, documentation, or procedures
to a production system to correct errors, meet new
requirements, or improve processing efficiency
– 20 percent debugging, emergency work
– 20 percent changes to hardware, software, data, reporting
– 60 percent of work: user enhancements, improving
documentation, recoding for greater processing efficiency
 Table 13.2 Systems Development
Core Activity Core Activity

Systems analysis Identify problem(s), Specify solutions, Establish

information requirements
Systems design Create design specifications
Programming Translate design specifications into program code
Testing Perform unit testing, Perform systems testing, Perform
acceptance testing
Conversion Plan conversion, Prepare documentation, Train users
and technical staff
Production and Operate the system, Evaluate the system, Modify the
maintenance system
Structured Methodologies (1 of 2)
• Structured: Techniques are step-by-step, progressive

• Process-oriented: Focusing on modeling processes or actions that

manipulate data
• Separate data from processes

• Data flow diagram (DFD)

– Represents system’s component processes and flow of data
between them
– Logical graphic model of information flow
Structured Methodologies (2 of 2)
• Data dictionary
– Defines contents of data flows and data stores

• Process specifications
– Describe transformation occurring within lowest level of data flow
diagrams
• Structure chart
– Top-down chart, showing each level of design, relationship to
other levels, and place in overall design structure
Figure 13.6 Data Flow Diagram for Mail-in University Registration System
Figure 13.7 High-level Structure Chart for a Payroll System
Object-Oriented Development (1 of 2)
• Object
– Basic unit of systems analysis and design
– Combines data and the processes that operate on those data
– Data in object can be accessed only by operations associated with
that object
• Object-oriented modeling
– Based on concepts of class and inheritance
– Objects belong to a certain class and have features of that class
– May inherit structures and behaviors of a more general, ancestor
class
Figure 13.8 Class and Inheritance
Object-Oriented Development (2 of 2)
• More iterative and incremental than traditional structured
development
– Systems analysis: Interactions between system and users
analyzed to identify objects
– Design phase: Describes how objects will behave and interact;
grouped into classes, subclasses, and hierarchies
– Implementation: Some classes may be reused from existing
library of classes, others created or inherited
• Objects are reusable
– Object-oriented development can potentially reduce time and cost
of development
Computer-Aided Software Engineering
• Software tools to automate development and reduce repetitive work,
including:
– Graphics facilities for producing charts and diagrams
– Screen and report generators, reporting facilities
– Analysis and checking tools
– Data dictionaries
– Code and documentation generators

• Support iterative design by automating revisions and changes and

providing prototyping facilities
• Require organizational discipline to be used effectively
Rapid Application Development (RAD), Agile
Development, and DevOps
• Rapid application development (RAD)
– Process of creating workable systems in a very short period of time

• Joint application design (JAD)

– Used to accelerate generation of information requirements and to
develop initial systems design

• Agile development
– Focuses on rapid delivery of working software by breaking large project
into several small subprojects

• DevOps
– Builds on Agile development principles as an organizational strategy
Component-Based Development and Web Services
• Component-based development
– Groups of objects that provide software for common functions
(e.g., online ordering) and can be combined to create large-scale
business applications
• Web services
– Reusable software components that use XML and open Internet
standards (platform independent)
– Enable applications to communicate with no custom programming
required to share data and services
– Can engage other web services for more complex transactions
Mobile Application Development
• Mobile websites

• Mobile web apps

• Native apps

• Special requirements for mobile platform

– Smaller screens, keyboards, multitouch gestures, saving resources
(memory, processing)
• Responsive web design
– Websites programmed so that layouts change automatically
according to user’s computing device
Interactive Session: Technology: Systems
Development Is Different for Mobile Apps
• Class discussion
– What management, organization, and technology challenges need
to be addressed when building a mobile application?
– How does user requirement definition for mobile applications
differ from traditional systems analysis?
– Describe how Great-West’s invoice approvals process changed
after the mobile application was deployed.