Module 1: Introduction to

Information Systems

Learning Objectives:

 System Definition
 System Concepts
 Information Systems
 Types of Information Systems
 General System Principles
 Players in System Game
 Roles of the System Analyst
 Required Skills of the System Analyst

System Definition
• What is a System?
• an interrelated set of components that function
together to achieve an outcome

• Three major components:

• Input
• Processing
• Output

1
 System Definition
• Elements of a system:
• Purpose
• Subsystems
• Environment
• Boundary
• Connections
• Control Mechanisms

System Concepts
• Business Concepts
• collection of policies, procedures, methods,
people, machines, and other elements that
interact and enable the organization to achieve
its goals

System Concepts
• Information System
• collection of interrelated components that
collect, process, store, and provide as output the
information needed to complete a business task

2
 Information Systems
• Components
• Work practice
• Information
• People
• Information technology

Information Systems
• Reasons why information system is needed:
• growing size of the organization and the
number of competitors
• growing ability of computers to process large
amount of data with great speed
• dramatic increase in volumes of data generated

Information Systems
• advances in communication technologies to
permit faster data transmission
• increase in pace of business transactions
• much more sophisticated technology today

3
 Types of Information System
• Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
• process large amount of data for routine
business activities or transactions
• very important for the organization since they
gather all the input necessary for other types of
information systems

Types of Information System

• Management Information Systems (MIS)
• provide a standard reports for managers about
transaction data
• work on the purposeful interaction between
people and computers
• supports a broader range of organizational tasks
to include not only TPS but also decision
analysis and decision making
• managers, usually in a report format

Types of Information System

• help unite some of the computerized
information functions of a business
• designed to take the relatively raw data
available through a TPS and convert them into
a summarized and aggregated form

4
 Types of Information System
• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• designed to help organizational decision makers
identify and choose between options or
decisions
• provides an interactive environment in which
decision makers can quickly manipulate data
and models of business operations
• depend on a database as a source of data

Types of Information System

• Office Automation Systems (OAS)
• support general office work for handling and
managing documents and facilitating
communication
• aspects include word processing, spreadsheets,
desktop publishing, electronic scheduling, and
communication through voice mail, email, and
video conferencing

Types of Information System

• Expert Systems (ES)
• perform a task that would otherwise be
performed by a human expert
• designed to take the place of human expert,
while others are designed to aid them
• are part of a general category of computer
applications known as Artificial Intelligence
(AI)

5
 Types of Information System
• Executive Information Systems (EIS)
• provide a generalized computing and
communication environment to senior
managers to support strategic decisions
• rely on the information generated by MIS and
allow communication with external sources of
information
• designed to facilitate senior managers’ access to
information quickly and effectively

General System Principles

• The more specialized a system is, the less

able it is to adapt to different
circumstances.
• The more general-purpose a system is, the
less optimized it is for any particular
situation. But the more the system is
optimized for a particular situation, the less
adaptable it will be to new circumstances.

General System Principles

• The larger the system is the more of its
resources that must be devoted to its
everyday maintenance.
• Systems are always part of larger systems,
and they can always be partitioned into
smaller systems.

6
 General System Principles
• Systems grow. This principle could not be
true for all systems, but many of the
systems with which we are familiar do
grow, because we often fail to take it into
account when we begin developing the
system.

Players in the System Game

• System sponsors/owners
• pay for the system to be built and operated and
set the vision and priorities for the system

• System users
• use the system on a regular basis to support the
operation and management of the organization

Players in the System Game

• System designers
• technical specialists that translate the business
requirements into a feasible technical solution

• System builders
• technical specialists who build, test, and deliver
the information system

7
 Players in the System Game

• System analysts
• who determine the requirements that must be
met by the information system

Roles of the Systems Analyst

• Systems Analyst as Consultant

• address specific information systems issues
within a business

• Systems Analyst as Supporting Expert

• draws on professional expertise concerning
computer hardware and software and their uses
in the business

Roles of the Systems Analyst

• Systems Analyst as Agent of Change

• perform any of the activities in the SDLC and
are present in the business for an extended
period
• advocates a particular avenue of change
involving the use of information systems

8
 Required Skills of the Systems
Analyst

Technical Technical
Knowledge Skills

Required Skills of the Systems

Analyst
• Technical Knowledge and Skills
• Computers and how they work
• Devices that interact with computers, including
input devices, storage devices, and output
devices
• Communications networks that connect
computers
• Databases and database management systems

Required Skills of the Systems

Analyst

• Programming languages
• Operating systems and utilities
• Software packages such as Microsoft Access
that can be used to develop systems
• Integrated development environments (IDEs)
for specific programming languages

9
 Required Skills of the Systems
Analyst
• Computer-aided system engineering (CASE)
tools that store information about system
specifications created by analysts and
sometimes generate program code
• Program code generators, testing tools,
configuration management tools, software
library management tools, documentation
support tools, project management tools, and
others

Required Skills of the Systems

Analyst

Business Business
Knowledge Skills

Required Skills of the Systems

Analyst
• Business Knowledge and Skills
• have an understanding of the business
organizations in general

• understand the type of organization for which

they work

10
 Required Skills of the Systems
Analyst
• some specifics the analyst needs to know about
the company:

• What the specific organization does

• What makes it successful
• What its strategies and plans are
• What its traditions and values are

Required Skills of the Systems

Analyst

People People
Knowledge Skills

Required Skills of the Systems

Analyst
• People Knowledge and Skills
• understand a lot about people since they usually
work on development teams with other
employees

• possess many interpersonal skills

11
 Required Skills of the Systems
Analyst

• understand how people:

• Think
• Learn
• React to change
• Communicate
• Work (in a variety of jobs and levels)

12