Chapter 2 - Understanding Organizational Style and Its
Impact on Information Systems
- Organizational Fundamentals
- Organizations as Systems
- Interrelatedness and Interdependence of Systems
- Systems Processes
- Organizational Boundaries
- System Feedback for Planning and Control
- Environments for Organizational Systems
- Openness and Closedness in Organizations
- Taking a Systems Perspective
- Depicting Systems Graphically
- Systems and the Context Level Data Flow
Diagram
DFD basic symbols:
- process - saction or group of actions that
take place
- entity - person, group, department, or any
system that either receives or originates information or data
(source/sink)
- data flow - information that is being
passed from/to a process
- Systems and the Entity-Relationship Diagram
- 1-1 = represented by two short parallel lines
- 1-many = many side represented by "crow's feet"
- none = represented by zero (circle)
- Associative Entity = something created that joins two entities (ex. invoice)
- Attribute Entity = something useful in describing attributes, especially repeating groups (ex. multiple copies of the same video)
Sketching basic E-R diagrams:
- List the entities in the organization in order to gain a better understanding of the organization.
- Choose key entities in order to narrow the scope of the problem to a manageable and meaningful dimension
- Identify what the primary entity should be.
- Confirm the results of steps I-III through other data-gathering methods (investigation, interviewing, adminstering questionnaires, observation, and prototyping)
- Levels of Management
- Operations Management - make decisions using predetermined rules that have predictable outcomes (ex. work scheduling, inventory control, etc.)
- Middle Management - make short-term planning and control decisions about how resources may best be allocated to meet organizational objectives. (decisions are less structured)
- Strategic Management - make decisions that will guide middle and operations managers in months and years ahead. (unstructured decision-making)
- Implications for Information Systems Development
- Organizational Culture
Transparencies
Exercises: (due - noon Sept. 8, 1998)
e-mail to summers_wayne@ColumbusState.edu your answers to the following problems: pg. 46 - 3, 5, 6
turn in on Sept. 8rd a solution to Group Project #1 (this may be completed in a small group of 3 to 4 students)
Explore the MRE HyperCase company and e-mail the answers to the questions [This can be done in a group of 2-3]