1. Designing the System Output
Chapter 11
Designing the System Output

2. Learning Objectives
Understand the process of designing high quality and effective system output
Identify the basic characteristics of high quality system output
Discuss control strategies for system output

3. Learning Objectives
Identify and discuss the various categories of output, media, and output technology
Understand ways in which unintentional bias can be introduced into system output
Identify and discuss available backup and retention strategies for data recovery

4. Introduction
Users of an IS need output to accomplish their assigned tasks.
The overall satisfaction with a system is often measured by the quality of its output.

5. Designing System Output
Objective of Output
To create output that presents the desired information to the end user in an understandable and usable fashion

6. Output Characteristics
Purpose
What is the intended use or purpose of the output?
The purpose of the output may dictate the order or sequence of the various data elements contained within it.

7. Output Characteristics
Recipient
Who will be the primary users of the output?
The intended recipients of the output should be involved in the design and approval of each system output relevant to their assigned tasks.

8. Output Characteristics
Frequency
How often will the output need to be generated?
Minimizing the time between the request for the output and the receipt of the output

9. Output Characteristics
Distribution
Where will the output be used?
Output distribution is becoming less important due to the increased sophistication of client-server environments and local computer peripherals.

10. Output Characteristics
Human-machine Boundary
The point where an end user interacts with the system through the exchange of data or information

11. Figure 11-1. Human – Machine Boundary for Employee Payroll System
1.0
Create
Weekly
Payroll
Record
Employee Data File S1
Employee
Employee Tax Form
Payroll Data File S2
Accounting
Department
2.1
Compute
Gross
Pay
2.3
Check
2.2
Net
3.2
Print
Summary
3.1
Sort
Records by
4.2
Tax
Form
4.1
Calculate
Deductions
Employee Paycheck
Employee Payroll
Time Sheet
Employee Record
Gross Pay
Data
Net Pay
Hours Worked
Payroll Record
Sorted Records
Payroll Report
Figure Human – Machine Boundary for Employee Payroll System

12. Output Characteristics
Data Sources
What information must be delivered by the output?
No source data, no output

13. Output Characteristics
Media
In what form will the output be delivered?
If a given output must be generated using more than one primary media, additional design constraints may be encountered.

14. Output Characteristics
Format
How will the content of the output be displayed and formatted?
Tabular
Zoned
Narrative
Graphical

15. Figure 11-2. Combination Approach to Screen-Based Output

16. Output Characteristics
Control
What controls are necessary to limit access to the output?
Distributed control
Division of labor
Completeness control

17. Table 11-1. Output Design Issues to be Addressed

18.  Table 11-2. Common Design Guidelines for Output

19. Table 11-3. Common Completeness Controls for System Output

20. Types of Output External Output
Leave the boundary of the system and serve to either confirm a system action to the recipient or to trigger an action on the part of a recipient
Turnaround Document

21. Types of Output Internal Output
Output that normally stays within the system boundary and is used to support the organizational responsibilities and activities of the end users

22. Internal output Detail Report
To present data or information with only a minimum amount of filtering
Historical lists of transactions
A list of customers sorted by zip code
A list of paychecks for a given period

23. Internal output Summary report
To allow users to review information in a filtered or categorized form
Month-to-date or year-to-date sales by product category

24. Internal output Exception report
An internal output that contains filtered information intended to report events or transactions that require special attention
Overdue customer accounts
A list of items reach reorder point

25. Media Type and Output Technology
Hard Copy
Still the most common output media
Impact technology
Non-impact technology

26. Media Type and Output Technology
Screen Output
Can be viewed from any location
Offers real-time editing and modification
Reduces storage costs
Does not require long-term storage

27. Media Type and Output Technology
Audio and Video Output
Rich in the communication of information
Provides high quality interaction with users and customers
Speech synthesis and recognition

28. Figure 11-4. Screenshot from Video Editing Software

29. Media Type and Output Technology
COM Output
Computer output microfilm or microfiche
Decreasing in popularity due to advancement in digital scanning and storage technologies

30. Media Type and Output Technology
Robotic Output
Used as a vehicle for complex output intended to automate production, manufacturing, distribution, and applications requiring precise handling of physical component
Microsurgery and minimally invasive surgery

31. Figure 11-5. Robotic Output Devices

32. Table 11-4. Common Output Media and Technologies

33. Output Bias Issues
Range or Value Limits
Sorting or Sequence
Graphics

34. Output Bias Issues Range and Value Limits
Inappropriate limits on displayed values
Can introduce inaccuracies in information contained in the output.
Ranges that are set too low, too high, too narrow, or too wide
Can result in exception reports that are either of little use or introduce unnecessary biases into the decision process.

35. Output Bias Issues Sorting and Sequence Bias Common methods
Alphabetical
Chronological
Size
Cost

36. Figure 11-6. Example of Graphical Scaling Bias

37. Output Bias Issues Graphical Bias
Inappropriate scaling can introduce an unintended bias into graphical information.

38. Backup and Recovery Back files of an IS are internal outputs, too.
50 percent of end users suffer some form of data loss each year.
Over half of the world's commercial enterprise with no backup procedures could go bankrupt with 6 months following a catastrophic loss of data.

39. Cost of Data Loss $50,000 per Mb to re-create
$18,000 per hour in downtime cost for PC LANs
$75,000 per hour in downtime cost for UNIX network
$17,000 to re-create 20 Mb of sales and marketing data
$19,000 to re-create 20 Mb of account data
$98,000 to re-create 20 Mb of engineering data

40. Backup and Recovery Disaster recovery Plan
A comprehensive statement of consistent actions to be taken before, during, and after a disaster

41. Data Backup and Retention Strategies
Incremental backup
Establish a repetitive cycle that begins with a full backup of all data files and continues through a series of incremental backups

42. Table 11-5. Incremental Data Backup Strategy

43. Data Backup and Retention Strategies
Differential backup
A variation of the incremental backup
Based on the backup of all modified files since the previous full backup

44. Data Backup and Retention Strategies
Generational backup
Use a system of tape rotation via three storage sets.
Set One: “grandfather”
Set Two: “father”
Set Three: “son”

45. Table 11-6. Generation Data Backup and Retention Strategy

46. Data Backup and Retention Strategies
On-line backup system
Procedure
Automatically detect files on an organization’s computer network requiring backup.
Encrypt those files for security.
Compress the encrypted files.
Transmit the data through high-speed network.
The amount of work to fully protect the data is greatly reduced.

47. Chapter Summary
The goal of IS is to deliver high quality and relevant information to the end users of the system.
The specification of the complete scope of the outputs for a system is critical.

48. Chapter 11
End of Chapter