1 / 32

Basic Concepts for Understanding Systems

Basic Concepts for Understanding Systems. Agenda for today. The need for frameworks & models Viewing businesses as systems Information systems and work systems Framework for thinking about systems Perspectives for viewing a work system

lindsey
Download Presentation

Basic Concepts for Understanding Systems

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Basic Concepts for Understanding Systems

  2. Agenda for today • The need for frameworks & models • Viewing businesses as systems • Information systems and work systems • Framework for thinking about systems • Perspectives for viewing a work system • Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective

  3. The need for frameworks & models • What is a framework? • A set of ideas for organizing your thoughts about a thing or situation... • What is a model? • A useful representation of a specific situation or thing…

  4. Framework & model, continued... • Think about object oriented programming… • A framework is like a class definition • A model is like an instantiated object

  5. Frameworks and models in action • What are some frameworks that we encounter? • Now, let’s think about models…examples? • Let’s turn to the Resumix case to see the WCA framework in action

  6. Resumix Case • Define the elements of this case using the WCA framework • What are the categories? • They are • customer, product, business process, participants, information and technology

  7. Viewing businesses as systems

  8. Viewing businesses as systems • Businesses as systems consisting of business processes

  9. Viewing businesses as systems • Value Chain • for a “sit down” restaurant, not fast food...

  10. Viewing businesses as systems • Business processes and functional areas of businesses • The silo model

  11. Business processes and functional areas of businesses • Processes that cross functional areas • Processes related to a specific functional area • Processes occurring in every functional area

  12. Information systems and work systems

  13. Information systems and work systems • What kind of system? • Information system • Work system

  14. Information systems and work systems • Where are the boundaries between information systems and work systems? • Is this changing? • Is this a reflection of the changes in the economy to focus on services? • Do you think that the trend will continue?

  15. Framework for thinking about systems The WCA

  16. Framework for thinking about systems • Customers • internal • external • what’s the difference? • Product • the output of the work system • Business process • What’s going on in the system • We’ll model this with flow charts and DFD’s

  17. Framework for thinking about systems • Participants • Who’s involved… • Information

  18. Framework for thinking about systems • Technology • This is the part that’s cool, but remember its place in the puzzle

  19. Perspectives for viewing a work system

  20. Perspectives for viewing a work system • You can use the WCA and the five perspectives to gain a better understanding of the work system • Sort of a “drill down” approach • When I ask you to give me a WCA diagram, I’m looking for the overall analysis, not all perspectives -- you may want to do these perspectives as you develop your model

  21. Perspectives for viewing a work system • ARCHITECTURE • What are the components of the system that performs the work and who uses the work product? • How are the components linked? • How do the components operate together? • PERFORMANCE • How well do the components operate individually? • How well does the system operate? (How well is the work performed?) • How well should the system operate? • INFRASTRUCTURE • What technical and human infrastructure does the work rely on? • In what ways does infrastructure present opportunities or obstacles? • CONTEXT • What are the impacts of the organizational and technical context? • In what ways does the context present opportunities or obstacles? • RISKS • What foreseeable things can prevent the work from happening, • can make the work inefficient, or can cause defects in the work product? • What are the likely responses to these problems?

  22. Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective

  23. Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective • Steps in systems analysis • defining the problem • describing the situation in enough depth • designing potential improvements • deciding what to do

  24. Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective • How the WCA can be used to drill down on a problem...

  25. Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective • The WCA method

  26. Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective • Limitations and issues with the WCA • architecture • overemphasis on details • confusion about roles • performance • too often ignored • infrastructure • you gotta have it! Don’t forget!

  27. Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective • Limitations and issues with the WCA (cont.) • context • ignoring incentives/disincentives, organizational culture, etc. • risks • things don’t always go as planned… • contingency • disaster recovery

More Related