Information Systems Engineering: What Is It?

Benkt Wangler, Alexander Backlund

School of Humanities and Informatics, University of Skövde, Sweden

{benkt.wangler, alexander.backlund}@his.se

Abstract. This paper discusses the meaning of the term “information

systems engineering”. It does so by giving an account of five notions
embedded in the term, hence arriving to a concluding definition and a
suggestion of the broad areas of knowledge needed by ISE experts. The
paper ends with a brief discussion of new demands on ISE education
caused by the fact that information systems are increasingly becoming
multi-media and web based and that the look and feel aspect of the
business process as reflected in process-oriented information systems is
becoming ever more important.

1. Introduc tion

The title of this paper is “Information systems engineering: What is it?” To that
one might add: “- and what might it become?”, since towards the end of the
paper we will enter into a brief discussion on the new demands that novel multi-
media and web-based information systems architectures may pose on
information systems engineers and on their education.
Information systems engineering is situated at the intersection of information
systems, databases and software engineering. The term was coined around 1990,
possibly in connection with the start-up of the later so successful CAiSE
(Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering) series of
conferences. It is notable that there are indeed three research communities
corresponding to each of the above mentioned fields, the ISworld, DBworld and
SEworld communities. The people attending the CAiSE conferences, which we
might refer to as the ISE community, tend to participate to all three.
A complementary way of understanding Information Systems Engineering
stems from analyzing the terms that appear as its elements. One recognizes five
terms that have definite meanings and that also constitute primary notions under
study (information, information systems, engineering processes) or indicate
important ways of working (systemic) in information systems engineering, i.e.
− information
− systems
− engineering
− information systems
− systems engineering
In the sequel, we will go through each of the above terms and give an
indication of its relevance to information systems engineering. We will end by
suggesting a definition of information systems engineering and, as indicated
above, by discussing new demands on information systems engineers due to the
fact that the look and feel aspect of any computerized system becomes more and
more important.

2. Information

There are several ways to consider the nature of information. In broad terms
it is usually understood as “knowledge communicated”. In this paper, we will
discuss it from an information systems perspective. For a broader discussion of
the notion of information the reader is referred to [1].
However, from an information system point of view, information and its
relationship to knowledge can be understood in terms of a message. First of all a
message has a certain form, i.e. it may be formulated as a written message in
some natural language or it may take the form of some other (visual, audible,
smellable, tastable or tactile) symbol. Secondly, a message has some (intended)
content. It is this intended content that we usually refer to as information. Of
course, for different reasons, the form of the message might not always reflect
the intended content, e.g. when the wording of a sentence is not quite correct.
A message also has a sender and a receiver. The sender and the receiver may
be human or they may be computerized information systems or something else.
The sender formulates a message using knowledge it has stored in its memory
and the receiver interprets the message using its knowledge (or some
conceptions, ideas, or beliefs). In other words the aim of the information
encoded in the message is to convey knowledge from the sender to the receiver
(or at least to convey an idea, a thought, or something believed to be true). It
could be argued that it is the knowledge increment in the receiver, which arises
when he/she/it decodes the message, that is the information [2]. This entails that
information modifies somehow the knowledge structures present in the receiver.
On the other hand, it seems somewhat restrictive to say that only that which
increases our knowledge is information. For instance, a reminder can be seen as
information, even if it is superfluous and does, in fact, not add anything to our
knowledge (though repetition of a piece of information might in itself be a
valuable source of information).
Knowledge is often defined as justified true belief. It could be argued that a
computer holds no beliefs and therefore cannot be the receiver or the sender of
information, since it has no knowledge which it can use to interpret the
information received nor any intention to convey a particular content. However,
it has been programmed with certain rules and has access to data representing
knowledge which it can use to, in some rudimentary sense, interpret a message.
In order for them to understand each other, the knowledge of the sender and
the receiver must be reasonably compliant, e.g. they must both understand the
language in which the message is formulated. The knowledge of the receiver
would hence enable the receiver to act on the message received. However, the
message may not be true, i.e. the sender may be lying or misinformed, which the
receiver using its own knowledge, may be able to conclude. In doing, so he
might infer that the sender is ignorant, a liar, or insane, i.e. the knowledge
conveyed is not necessarily the intended one. It is also possible that the
information conveyed does not hold any truth value, e.g. a question, a request,
or an aesthetic judgment (even though all of these forms of messages can be
analyzed in such a way that they are given a truth value).
Börje Langefors has tried to define and characterize information by
formulating his infological equation: I = i( D, S, t) , where I is the information
derived by the interpretation process i from the data D and the pre-knowledge S
during the time t [3, 4]. Communication is successful only if the S of the
receiver and the sender are sufficiently overlapping. He distinguishes between
the subset of our pre-knowledge required to interpret a message and the
(probably larger) subset used to make inferences from the message received.
The first step, interpreting the message, he calls direct interpretation, while the
second step, making inferences and associations, is referred to as indirect
interpretation [3]. The interpretation of a message can be affected not only by
our knowledge but also by the form of the data and by emotional aspects [3, 5].
The form of the message represents the syntactic (data) aspect of the
message. The message content represents the semantic (information) dimension.
Finally, the pragmatic dimension of the message has to do with the functional
(knowledge) aspect of the message. The identification of the syntactic, semantic
and pragmatic dimensions of a message is due to the American philosophers
Peirce and Morris [6].
Wilson [7] defines information as “data plus the meaning ascribed to it” (p.
198), and says that computerized data processing systems become information
systems only when their output is used by someone, and hence, an information
system entails the users.
Naturally, there are several other ways to define information. Stafford Beer,
for instance, defines information as “That which CHANGES us.” (p. 283). We
know that we have been informed because our state has changed. There are
similar definitions by Bateson and MacKay (cf. [9]). There is a point in these
definitions, but it seems that if we are hit by a ton of bricks, that affects us but
gives us no information.
People receive information through their senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste,
and the perception of touch. For output, computerized information systems are
so far only able to utilize the first two of those, except in rare cases such as the
simulators used to train aircraft pilots or, for that matter, computer game
joysticks, where also touch may be involved.

3. System

A system is a set of at least two elements that are in some way related to each
other such that there are no independent elements [10]. In other words, a system
may be decomposed into comp onents or subsystems that may in turn be systems
that may be decomposed etc. Furthermore, any system may be a part of a greater
system. Hence, it is a central task in systems development to come to grips with
− the best way to decompose a system into components and subsystems ,
− how the components interact with each other, and
 − how the system relates to and interacts with the suprasystem of which it is
a part.
In consequence, employing a partially systemic, partially reductionist view
while working with information systems development, entails
− that you decompose the system into parts, that may be, as much as
possible, independently developed (i.e. components with high cohesion
and low coupling), and
− that you clearly identify the way the system interacts with the business
processes and functions that it is meant to support.

A more systemic approach focuses less on decomposing the system into parts
(but does not disregard their importance, since an understanding of both the
whole and the parts is often essential). Systemic and reductionist approaches are
complementary to each other. According to Ackoff [11] “There are considerable
differences between what might be called analytical and synthetic management.
[…] One such difference is worth noting here. It is based on the following
systems principle:
If each part of a system, considered separately, is made to operate as
efficiently as possible, the system as a whole will not operate as effectively
as possible.
Although the general validity of this principle is not apparent, its validity in
specific instances is.” (p. 18)
Regarding the systems approach he says:
“Systems thinking reverses the three-stage order of Machine-Age thinking:
(1) decomposition of that which is to be explained, (2) explanation of the
behavior or properties of the parts taken separately, and (3) aggregating these
explanations into an explanation of the whole. This third step, of course, is
synthesis. In the systems approach there are also three steps:

1. Identify a containing whole (system) of which the thing to be

explained is a part.
2. Explain the behavior or properties of the containing whole.
3. Then explain the behavior or properties of the thing to be explained
in terms of its role(s) or function(s) within its containing whole.

Note that in this sequence, synthesis precedes analysis.

In analytical thinking the thing to be explained is treated as a whole to be
taken apart. In synthetic thinking the thing to be explained is treated as a part of
a containing whole. The former reduces the focus of the investigator; the latter
expands it.” (p. 16-17)
The three main components of an information system are often said to be
− the part that realizes the functionality needed by the information system
users (user interface, user services),
− the part that realizes the functionality needed to give the business the
intended support (application functions, business services), and finally
− the part that realizes the data storage and retrieval functionality (data
services).
 These broad components may in turn be broken down into subsystems. The
superior systems, their components and the way they all hang together and
interact are usually said to form an information systems architecture, or
sometimes business (process) architecture, i.e. if one wishes to stress the fact
that the business process descriptions are part of that architecture.

4. Information System

In general terms, an information system may be defined as a rule-driven system

for communicating between people over space or time , i.e. it is a system for
sending, storing (and manipulating), and receiving (i.e. presenting to the
receiver) messages . Hence, the central component, i.e. the database, may be
thought of as a collection of stored messages.
The above definition also entails that information systems do not necessarily
have to be computerized, and that in fact any established (and rule-driven)
routines for communicating in an organizational environment is an information
system, and that the people involved participate in that information system. We
refer to this as an information system in the broad sense, as opposed to a
computerized information system, where only the computerized artifact for
entering, storing, manipulating, and presenting information is taken into
account.
However, if one wishes to stress the importance of informal communication
channels, the requirement that information systems should be rule-driven might
be left out.
There are many ways to define and view information systems, though.
Generally speaking, there seems to be two main perspectives: a humanly
centered or information centered and a technology centered or data centered
one. Authors adhering to the former view make a distinction between data
processing systems (or computer systems) and information systems. People are
a necessary, integral part of them. In the latter view, an information system is
primarily a (mostly computerized) data processing system [12].
Klein and Hirscheim [13] identify
“two ontological dimensions to information systems: (1) the nature of IS;
and (2) the nature of their consequences. In the former there are two
possibilities: they are either technical or social in nature. In the first case,
their design is primarily an engineering problem. In the second, IS are
conceived as social systems, their design and implementation is viewed in
terms of social evolution, role changes, policy making, and planned
organizational change. In the second dimension (the nature of their
consequences) three conceptions are possible: their consequences are either
technical in nature, social in nature, or a combination of both. Of course,
many important variations of these basic positions exist in the literature, but
the ones offered here appear as archetypes.” (p. 286)
The infological perspective advocated by Langefors [3] belongs toe the first
category.
Traditionally, IT has been mostly used to automate routine tasks in
organizations, thereby liberating (mostly office) workers from boring work and
providing them with better and faster tools do their job. The result is that fewer
people can do more work in shorter time.
Although, management information systems have been around since at least
the 1960’s it is not until lately with the advent of data warehousing and OLAP
(on-line analytical processing) technology that they have reached a level of
maturity that make them really useful.
While we may refer to the former category of systems as operational, i.e. they
support the (operational) core business of the organization, the latter may be
referred to as informational, i.e. they aim to support decision-makers by
providing better tools to derive decision support information. Now that the use
of IT in organizations has become more mature, of which the arrival of ERP
systems is a sign, there is a swing from rationalizing the organization towards
‘informationalizing’ the organization.
Among computerized information systems we can, consequently, distinguish
at least the following types of information systems (cf. e.g. Alter [14], pp. 214-
232):
− Pure communication systems, such as e-mail, voice-mail, synchrounous
and asynchronous tele-conferencing systems etc.
− Systems that simplify and rationalize normal office work such as word
processors, spreadsheet systems, and software that allows you to prepare
presentations etc.
− Individual expert support applications. These may be knowledge-based
such as in expert systems or they may be simpler systems meant to support
individuals such as e.g. salesmen, in their daily work.
− Systems that automate normal business transactions, i.e. what is nowadays
sometimes referred to as OLTP (on-line transaction processing) systems .
These systems may be interconnected and form standard software
packages that provide seamless support to complete business processes,
such as ERP and SCM packages.
− Systems that provide strategic and tactic decision support, i.e. executive
information systems, possibly based on data warehousing and including
OLAP functionality. Some ERP packages provide extensions that extract
and aggregate information such as to form such a “business warehouse”.
To conclude, information systems in the broad sense involve computerized as
well as manual routines and include people involved as agents manipulating and
conveying information that concern the things that are dealt with in the
organization. Furthermore, information systems may viewed as either part of the
operational business of an organization that they control and support, or as
informational systems providing information to support decision-makers.

5. Engineering

Engineering has been defined [15] by the Engineers Council for Professional
Development, in the United States, as the creative application of
“scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines,
apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or work utilizing them singly or
 in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance
of their design; or to forecast their behaviour under specific operating
conditions; all as respects and intended function, economics of
operation and safety to life and property.”
It is notable – and think of it in information systems terms – that according to
this definition, engineering includes the “creative application of manufacturing
processes” as well as the operation of systems. In consequence, the study of
information systems engineering ought to include not only the study of
realization technology and of development methodology, but the study of the
engineering process itself as well as the study of usage and maintenance of
information systems in a broad sense.

6. Systems Engineering

Systems engineering is about creating effective solutions to problems, and

managing the technical complexity of the resulting developments [16]. It deals ,
hence, with complex systems, where man-made artifacts interact with each other
and with humans. It does so by applying multifaceted knowledge from many
disciplines and is, hence, an interdisciplinary field. Having its roots in tele-
communications research it developed into a separate discipline after World
War II.
Systems engineering must handle the whole systems life -cycle, at all times
trying to balance competing factors such as performance and cost. It has to
capture and organize early on the system requirements and manage them
throughout the life-cycle , thus bridging the early stages to the grimy detail of
implementation. It should take a holistic approach without bias to particular sub-
systems. Hence, systems engineering also has a strong element of coordination.
Systems engineers must be able to communicate across the disparate groups of
people involved in developing a system.
From a methodological point of view, systems engineering has a great deal in
common with operations research. However, the systems studied in systems
engineering are typically open systems , dependent on changes in the
environment. As is the case with the information systems portfolios of many
organizations, they typically also mix newly developed and existing (legacy)
system components. Furthermore, a system will have to be deployed in an
organizational setting where it will have to react to stochastic events. Hence,
mathematical modeling and optimization techniques are tools frequently used in
systems engineering and ought to be so in information systems engineering. The
reason why the latter is not yet the case lies in the fact that the methods and
tools are, mostly, still lacking that would allow us, for instance, early in the
information systems life-cycle to simulate and measure the performance of the
system. The most promising technology in this respect is process manager
technology, where we today begin to see products [17] that do in fact allow
early simulation of complete business processes . Once taken into operation, they
also allow to collect information about the goings-on in the system that may be
used to measure such parameters as productivity and throughput time and, hence
in the long run, to improve (optimize) the business process.
7. Information Systems Engineering

Information systems engineering concerns dealing with information systems in

the broad sense, i.e. dealing with both the business aspects and the technical
aspects, and doing so from the first idea through to disposal i.e. throughout the
complete information systems life -cycle. It is important to understand that it is
almost always the case in information systems development that there is an
existing system that needs to be replaced, completely or partially, or there are
existing systems that the newly developed system needs to interact with.
Perhaps it is more correct to say that information systems development is
always a question of adapting, changing or replacing existing systems and
business structures. In that sense all information systems development may be
thought of as maintenance.
Capturing, early on, the information systems requirements, or even helping
the customer to understand and formulate its needs, and then managing the
requirements throughout the systems life-cycle are typical activities of
information systems engineering. Note also that not all information system
software is developed for one particular customer, but that more and more
systems are developed for a market (market-driven development) and sold to
many customers. The resulting artifact is software, that when deployed in the
organization is combined with the organizational business routines that may,
hence, have to be adapted to the routines embedded in the software.
In consequence, information systems engineering may be defined as follows
(adapted from the definition of systems engineering suggested by the
International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) [18]):
Information Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach
and means to enable the realization of successful information systems. It
focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in
the development cycle, documenting requirements, then proceeding with
design synthesis, and system validation and deployment while
considering the complete problem:
− Operations & Maintenance
− Performance
− Cost & Schedule
− Test
− Realization
− Training & Support
− Disposal
− Social aspects
Information Systems Engineering integrates all the disciplines and
specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development
process that proceeds from concept to production to operation.
Information Systems Engineering considers both the business and the
technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality
product that meets the user needs.
 There are at least three broad areas of knowledge that are needed for
successful work in information systems engineering (cf. Iivari [19]):
− knowledge of information systems domains and applications,
− knowledge about methods, models and tools for business and systems
analysis and design, deployment, and operations and maintenance,
− knowledge of technology needed for building systems and for integrating
them with legacy components.
Furthermore, the advent of multimedia, the WWW, and the computer game
industry etc. have brought new types of competencies into the information
systems industry. People with a background mostly in the communications
industry have become involved in designing web-based multimedia systems.
These people sometimes refer to themselves as content providers as opposed to
software developers. As a matter of fact, there is a whole industry sector out
there referring to itself as the “content industry” (or sometimes the “experience
industry”, although this may not be exactly the same). This industry sector
involves all types of companies where what is important is the production of
content that may later be easily duplicated and distributed, e.g. newspapers,
books, movies, music, and for that matter computer games and, why not,
computerized enterprise systems. The people involved take their training from
colleges of communication, media production and arts.
Multimedia has become more and more an integral part of information
systems. At the same time GUI’s have become more and more expressive and
appealing to several senses (sight and hearing, to some extent touching, if not
yet smelling and tasting).
In a previous section, we pointed out that information may be thought of as
the content of a message. If we abstract from “message” such as to incorporate
any communication act between some sender and some receiver, we understand
that the content can be a great deal more than the mere information. It may even
involve emotions. People experience communication acts through their senses.
They experience and feel the communication act, i.e. it conveys experience from
the sender to the receiver. If the communication act involves a work of art, the
experience is usually referred to as an aesthetic experience.
A message, whether transmitted directly between a sender and a receiver or
stored in a database, has a content that conveys not only knowledge. Hence, the
conceptual content, the idea, embedded in a communication act may be thought
of as subsuming information and something more. Correspondingly, experience
is more than (explicit) knowledge. Experience is what provides us with tacit
knowledge, so obviously that is a component of the experience as are also the
emotions involved and, of course, the explicit knowledge. In other words,
explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, and emotions may be thought of as three
integral parts of the experience, though not necessarily the only ones . Langefors
[3] argues that data that are supposed to inform people have to be designed with
human factors such as pre-knowledge taken into consideration. He also claims
that when designing an information system, in the data design process, it is
necessary to consider that the associations made can be influenced by the form
of the data. Hence, the experience conveyed in a communication act may also be
affected by its form. Furthermore, in [5] it is argued that that the direct and
indirect interpretation of data into information can be affected by emotional
factors. This is well-known and also frequently utilized in mass communication
and in art.
Form and content are inseparably connected to each other. When it comes to
information systems, it is therefore reasonable to regard as content not only the
content of its databases but also the screens and animations that present the
information to the user. In a way this corresponds to the design of the visual
element of a performance such as theatre play. Hence, one might suggest the
term screenograhy (cf. scenography, stage setting) for this. All-in-all, the way
the people involved experience and feel the human-computer discourse has
become more and more important. Modern information systems do not only
make work simpler, they also make it more fun.
Furthermore, in organized work human-computer interactions are interlinked
in workflows that remind of narratives, and indeed the term “saga” has been
suggested as a term to denote long lived transactions (LLT) that may be
interleaved with other LLT:s [20]. From a business point of view such a saga
may be said to represent the enactment of a business process. Furthermore
storyboards, a well-known technique among communications people, have
become a popular way of describing stereotypes of such sagas and thus to
illustrate a workflow in the early stages of systems development. Hence, the
business process and workflow designer may be regarded as the playwright and
perhaps the director of the information system. He or she sets up and directs the
drama of the workflow - the business process as docusoap (reality TV) …
Consequently, it may be necessary in the future to distinguish more clearly
even at the educational level the information systems content developers, i.e.
those that design the business process narratives, from the software engineers,
i.e. those that make the business narratives happen. The former would besides a
certain level of computer science and psychology also need training in graphical
design and perhaps in sub-fields of literature studies such as narratology and
dramaturgy.
To conclude, we have in this paper tried to outline the meaning of the term
“information systems engineering” by providing an account of five notions that
are embedded in the term. In doing so, we have concluded that information is ,
basically, the semantic or content aspect of a message; that systemic ways of
working and viewing things are fundamental to information systems
engineering; that engineering does in fact include both development and
maintenance, as well as the study of the engineering process itself; that
information systems besides supporting the day-to-day workings of some
organization (i.e. being operational), may also be informational, i.e. supporting
decision makers with information such that they can make better informed and
wiser decisions (however, if an MIS provides decision makers with more
relevant information, that does not necessarily improve their performance [10]);
and that systems engineering to a great extent is about managing complexity.
Finally, we have provided a definition of information systems engineering
and also concluded that the “experience and feel” aspect of information systems
is becoming ever more important, and that this does in fact give rise to new
demands on the training of information systems engineers.
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