CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION There are three main categories of business information,and these are related to the purpose for which the information is utilized. These categories also tend to relate to the levels of information described above. STRATEGIC INFORMATION:- This relates long-term planning policies and is therefore of most interest to top management TACTICAL INFORMATION:- This is of use in sort-term planning, i.e. months rather than year, and is of more interest at departmental level OPERATIONAL INFORMATION:- This applies to the short-term, perhaps hourly, running of a department.

Front- and Back-Office Information Systems Front-office information systems support business functions that reach out to customers (or constituents). –Marketing –Sales –Customer management Back-office information systems support internal business operations and interact with suppliers (of materials, equipment, supplies, and services). –Human resources –Financial management –Manufacturing –Inventory control

Process of System Development A system development process is a set of activities, methods, best practices, deliverables, and automated tools that stakeholders (Lesson 7) use to develop and maintain information systems and software.

The CMM Process Management Model The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a framework to assess the maturity level of an organization’s information system development and management processes and products. It consists of five levels of maturity as measured by a set of guidelines called the key process areas. –Level 1—Initial: System development projects follow no prescribed process. –Level 2—Repeatable: Project management processes and practices are established to track project costs, schedules, and functionality. –Level 3—Defined: A standard system development process (sometimes called a “methodology”) is purchased or developed, and integrated throughout the information systems/services unit of the organization. –Level 4—Managed: Measurable goals for quality and productivity are established. –Level 5—Optimizing: The standardized system development process is continuously monitored and improved based on measures and data analysis established in Level 4.

CASE Tools Computer-aided systems engineering (CASE) tools are software programs that automate or support the drawing and analysis of system models and provide for the translation of system models into application programs. –A CASE repository is a system developers’ database. It is a place where developers can store system models, detailed descriptions and specifications, and other products of system development. Synonyms include dictionary and encyclopedia. –Forward engineering requires the systems analyst to draw system models, either from scratch or from templates. The resulting models are subsequently transformed into program code. –Reverse engineering allows a CASE tool to read existing program code and transform that code into a representative system model that can be edited and refined by the systems analyst.

Project and Project Management A project is a [temporary] sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by specific time, within budget, and according to specification. Project management is the process of scoping, planning, staffing, organizing, directing, and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified time frame.

Project Management Functions –Scoping –Planning –Estimating –Scheduling –Organizing –Directing –Controlling –Closing

Project Management Tools & Techniques A PERT chart is a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks. A Gantt chart is a simple horizontal bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar. Each bar represents a named project task. The tasks are listed vertically in the left-hand column. The horizontal axis is a calendar timeline.

Requirements Discovery Methods –Requirements discovery includes those techniques to be used by systems analysts to identify or extract system problems and solution requirements from the user community. Fact-finding (or information gathering) is a classical set of techniques used to collect information about system problems, opportunities, solution requirements, and priorities. –Sampling –Research –Observation –Questionnaires and surveys –Interviews Joint requirements planning (JRP) techniques use facilitated workshops to bring together all of the system owners, system users, systems analysts, and some systems designer and builders to jointly perform systems analysis.

Seven Fact-Finding Methods Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and databases. Research and site visits. Observation of the work environment. Questionnaires. Interviews. Prototyping. Joint requirements planning (JRP).

Guidelines for Conducting a JRP Session Do not unreasonably deviate from the agenda Stay on schedule Ensure that the scribe is able to take notes Avoid the use of technical jargon Apply conflict resolution skills Allow for ample breaks Encourage group consensus Encourage user and management participation without allowing individuals to dominate the session Make sure that attendees abide by the established ground rules for the session

Illegal Data Flows

Data Modeling Data modeling is a technique for organizing and documenting a system’s data. Data modeling is sometimes called database modeling because a data model is eventually implemented as a database. It is sometimes called information modeling. The actual model is frequently called an entity relationship diagram (ERD) because it depicts data in terms of the entities and relationships described by the data.

Data Modeling Concepts: Entity Data Modeling Concepts: Attributes Data Modeling Concepts: Domains Data Modeling Concepts: Identification Data Modeling Concepts: Identification Keys & Subsetting Criteria Data Modeling Concepts: Relationships Data Modeling Concepts: Cardinality Data Modeling Concepts: Degree Data Modeling Concepts: Foreign Keys