BHMS4472 ICT in Business Lecture 10

Lecture 10: BHMS4472 ICT in Business - Building Information Systems

• ICT stands for Information, Communication, and Technology
• The lecture covers learning objectives related to building information systems
• Key objectives include understanding how building new systems produces organizational change, core activities in systems development, methodologies for modeling and designing systems, alternative methods for building information systems, and new approaches for system building in the digital firm era.

Systems Development and Organizational Change

• IT-enabled organizational change includes automation
  • Increased efficiency
  • Replacement of manual tasks
• Rationalization of procedures
  • Streamlining standard operating procedures
  • Often found in programs for continuous quality improvements (e.g. Total Quality Management [TQM], Six Sigma)
• Business process redesign
  • Analyze, simplify and redesign existing business processes
  • Reorganizing workflow, combining steps, and eliminating repetition
• Paradigm shifts
  • Rethinking the nature of business
  • Defining new business models
  • Changing the nature of the organization

Organizational Change Risks and Rewards

• A diagram presented shows a relationship between organizational change risk and reward, with automation having the lowest risk and highest return, and paradigm shifts having the highest risk and potentially highest reward.

Business Process Redesign

• Business Process Management (BPM): A variety of tools and methodologies used to analyze, design, and optimize business processes
  • Firms use BPM to manage business process redesign
• Steps in BPM:
  1. Identify processes needing change
  2. Analyze existing processes
  3. Design the new process
  4. Implement the new process
  5. Continuous measurement

Business Process - Purchasing a Book

• Diagrams illustrate business processes for purchasing a book, both in a physical bookstore and an online bookstore, showcasing the differences in flow.

Tools for Business Process Management

• Identify and document existing processes, including inefficiencies
• Create models of improved processes
• Capture and enforce rules for performing and automating processes
• Integrate existing systems to support improvements
• Verify that new processes have improved aspects
• Measure the impact of process changes on key business performance indicators

Systems Development

• Comprises activities for producing information systems, addressing organizational problems or opportunities.
  • Systems analysis
  • Systems design
  • Programming
  • Testing
  • Conversion
  • Production and maintenance

Systems Development Process

• A cyclical process including systems analysis, system design, programming, testing, conversion, and production/maintenance.

Systems Analysis

• Analysis of the problem to be solved
• Defining the problem, Identifying causes, Specifying solutions, Identifying information requirements
• Feasibility study, Systems proposal report, and information requirements. Faulty requirements analysis is a major cause of system failures and costs.

Systems Design

• Describing specifications for system functions identified during analysis.
• Address managerial, organizational, and technological components.
• Users must have sufficient control over the process to ensure the system reflects their business needs. Insufficient user involvement is a common cause of failure.
• Includes specifications for output, input, user interfaces, database design, processing, manual procedures, controls, security, documentation, conversion, training, and organizational changes.

System Design Specifications

• Specifications for output, input, user interfaces, database design, processing, manual procedures, controls, security, documentation, conversion, training, and organizational changes are outlined.

Completing the Systems Development Process

• Programming: System specifications are translated into software program code
• Testing: Ensures produced results are correct through various testing methodologies
• Conversion: Changing from an older system to a new one using parallel strategy, direct cutover, pilot study, or phased approach. This step also involves end-user training and detailed documentation to support the change.
• Production and Maintenance: System review for needed revisions, and post-implementation audits, along with maintenance activities for hardware, software, documentation, and procedures are described.

Core Systems Development Activities

• Activities in systems analysis, systems design, programming, testing, conversion, and production/maintenance.

Structured Methodologies

• Process-oriented: Step-by-step, progressive techniques focused on data-manipulating processes and separating data from processes
• Data flow diagrams: Represent the system’s component processes and show data flow between them. Logical graphic models of this information flow.
• Data dictionary: Defines contents of data flows and stores data.

Structured Methodologies (cont'd)

• Process specifications: Describe transformations in data flow diagrams at the lowest level.
• Structure charts: Top-down charts showing design levels, relationships between levels and place in the overall design structure

Object-Oriented Development

• Object: Basic unit of systems analysis and design; combines data and processes; data in an object is accessed only through associated operations.
• Object-oriented modeling: Based on class and inheritance concepts; Objects belong to a class and have features of that class. May inherit structures and behaviors from ancestor classes.

Object-Oriented Development (cont'd)

• More iterative and incremental than traditional structured development.
• In analysis, interactions between users and systems are identified to identify objects.
• Design phase identifies how objects will interact.
• Implementation involves reusing existing classes and creating new ones.
• Objects are reusable.

Traditional Systems Life Cycle

• Oldest method for building information systems; Uses a phased approach using a waterfall-like process of divided formal stages. Division of labor happens between end-users and information systems specialists. Formal specifications and paperwork are emphasized. Can be costly, time-consuming, and inflexible, but still used for building large complex systems.

Prototyping

• Building experimental systems rapidly and inexpensively for end-user evaluation. Working but preliminary information system prototype; approved as template for the final system.
• Steps in prototyping: Identify user requirements, develop initial prototype, use the prototype, revise and enhance prototype.
• Prototyping Process Flowchart: The steps of the prototyping process are illustrated in a flowchart to depict the iterative development cycle.
• Advantages and Disadvantages: Advantages: useful for uncertainty in requirements or design solutions, often used for end-user interface design, and likely to address requirements more accurately. Disadvantages: may gloss over essential steps, may not accommodate large numbers of users or data, and may not undergo full testing or documentation

Application Software Packages, Software Services, and Outsourcing

• Application software packages and software services save time and money, while offering customizable features.
• Evaluation criteria: functions provided, flexibility, user-friendliness, required resources, database requirements, installation and maintenance efforts, documentation, vendor quality, and cost.
• Request for Proposal (RFP): Vendors are requested for proposals, with details of the requested software.
• Outsourcing: several types; cloud and SaaS providers; external vendors, hired for new software design, domestic outsourcing (firm’s needs for additional skills, resources, or assets). Offshore outsourcing (driven by cost savings).
• Advantages/Disadvantages of Outsourcing: Advantages: organization flexibility in IT needs. Disadvantages: hidden costs like vendor identification and selection, transitioning to the vendor, and opening up proprietary business processes to third parties.

Rapid Application Development (RAD), Agile Development, Automated Software Testing, and DevOps

• Rapid Application Development (RAD): Process of creating workable systems in a remarkably short time.
• Joint Application Design (JAD): Used to accelerate information requirements generation and develop initial system design.
• Agile development: Focuses on rapid software delivery by breaking projects into sub-projects.
• Automated software testing: Tools for testing software and comparing outcomes with earlier test runs
• DevOps: Builds on agile development principles as an organizational strategy.
• Low-code development: Enables faster application development with minimal coding using visual modeling.
• No-code development: Includes built-in tools enabling users to create apps without coding.

Mobile Application Development

• Mobile websites, mobile web apps, Native apps
• Special Requirements: Smaller screens, keyboards, and multi-touch gestures saving resources (memory and processing).
• Responsive web design: Websites adapt their layouts automatically based on the user's device.