Managing Information Systems - Case Study Example

REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS – INFORMATION SYSTEM and Section # of CONTENTS PREAMBLE 3 SELECTING REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS STRATEGY 3 Behavior-Oriented Model 4 Information-Oriented Model 4 Industry Analysis Model 5 Project Oriented Model 6 Critical Success Factor Model 6 Appropriate Paradigm(s) 6 PROCESSING/FUNCTIONS REQUIRED FROM SYSTEM 7 INPUTS TO THE SYSTEM 8 OUTPUTS EXPECTED FROM THE SYSTEM 9 DATA MANAGED BY THE SYSTEM 9 CONCLUSION 10 The purpose of this task is to review a number of widely used requirement analysis techniques and consequently tailor them according to the given case study, with the intent of extraction of various requirements governing the design of the information system to be developed for the particular scenario. PREAMBLE The requirement analysis phase in the development of the information system holds prime importance. It is defined as the process during which the designers of the system study the corporation’s goals, investigate the existent and future competitors and determine the organization-wide impact of the information system to be designed and deployed 1. The task at hand is to present a comprehensive requirement analysis and select the most appropriate paradigm(s) for preparing the requirement analysis. The task also aims to be an effective exercise in information gathering. 3.1 SELECTING REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS STRATEGY This section targets at presenting various requirement analysis models present in literature. Various models will be scrutinized and the most relevant strategy chosen to proceed towards the analysis development 2. Behavior-Oriented Model The basic idea of the behavior-oriented approach is to study the behavior, the decision-making style, and the data used by the pertinent personnel to extract information for the development of a critical information framework for the generation of requirement analysis. Background analysis is necessary to understand a particular problem, only then the designer can forward. Backward analysis helps to determine if the personnel were faced with a similar situation earlier in time. This helps to gain an insight into how similar problems had been solved in the past. The top executives are then interviewed to determine the main causes of the new problem prior to gathering of detailed information about the problem and summarizing the problem. This sort of model finds best application while developing an executive information systems or top-level decision-support system. The prime hurdles impeding in the efficiency of this model is the inability to quantify executive behavior and overlooking the needs of over-looking the needs or middle managers, supervisors, and operational personnel because they are usually the primary users of an information system. Information-Oriented Model The information-oriented model approach of specifying the requirement analysis focuses primarily on the information system products that will actually be used by the supervisory and the middle level managers. Investigating the information needs of the management gives a bottom-line compared to which the requirements might be given priority or their association with a new problem or opportunity assessed. The requirement analysis generated as a result of employing the information oriented model helps the designers to come with a comparatively more functionally useful system. The reason, as discussed earlier, is the focus on how the information technology will be utilized by the major users of the system. However, special attention to the middle management and supervisory ignores the needs of operational personnel. Industry Analysis Model The industry analysis model is based on one basic principle depicting that survival in the marketplace demands the development of an information system that is at least comparable in terms of functionality and reliability to the system in use by the competitors. The designer does ardent efforts to get hold of information about the new information system product development, improvements in existing information services and types of services made available to the competitor. This is achieved through industry associations, trade magazines, newspapers, professional journals, hardware and software vendors, and consultants. Another important criterion for providing ground for defining the requirements for a proposed system is to compare the organization’s own past records with the current records. A declining trend shows the inevitable need for development of a new system or improvements in the existing system. Industry analysis oriented model utilizes juxtaposition principle with peer ventures yielding precise comparative quantitative data that accurately ascertains definite requirements for the system 3. Project Oriented Model The project oriented model firstly takes into account the requirements of a system’s actual end users. The key is to develop a group of users that represent the most effected functional area of the venture. This group will then be the center of attention for determining the requirements and identifying the new opportunities. The project oriented approach usually yields user-friendly and most responsive systems. The model falls short when limited non-organizational wide vision of the blue collar end users renders the system non-global. Critical Success Factor Model The model initializes by identifying and assigning appropriate weights to corporate-level information system goals and targets. These objectives provide a foundation for defining critical success factors for each major functional group within the organization. The critical factors ultimately mould the requirements pertinent to the design of a particular information system. Appropriate Paradigm(s) According to my perspective, the most appropriate strategy would be to use a merger of Information and Project Oriented models for the requirement analysis generation. The scenario depicts the increasing level of stress Ian is experiencing. Ian is performing his duties as a middle-lever manager. With the Information oriented model, the requirements will mould to facilitate him and release him of un-due pressure. Significant work load would shed with the information system’s development. However, it must be kept in mind that the blue collar workers have issues working with a computerized information system. Most of them consider using time log a too difficult and bugging process. Some find working in presence of an IT system a potential threat to piracy. Others fear losing the freedom to bunk from the workplace. The project oriented model aims to resolve these particular issues. The aim is to develop a requirements model minimizing the difficulty the end user has to face while interacting with the system and at the same time maximize the system efficiency. Following the suggested approach, Ian would be relieved to a considerable extent of his painstaking routine and also organizational goals as longer opening hours and increased workforce will be achieved. 3.2 (a) PROCESSING/FUNCTIONS REQUIRED FROM SYSTEM There is certain processing required from the information system to be developed. This processing depicts the core requirements of the system. The functions required from the system are described as follows. The information system must be capable of keeping the exact details of the time for which each employee has worked during a week. This will reduce time spent by Ian on record maintenance, giving him chances to experience mental relaxation and increase his productivity. The work time record keeping must be able to distinguish between normal working hours and over time. Pays corresponding to the total work time (including the normal and overtime work hours) must be maintained for each individual employee. The system must be flexible enough to allow the employee to choose freely as when to be paid the surplus overtime money. The system must also maintain day offs, sick leaves, vacations and absentees of the employee. All this information must be passed to the accounts department, which will be responsible for the distribution of pay as per organization policy. Since the organization also requires an increase in workforce, the timing log data must be processed by the system such that a particular employee, in case involved in on-job training of another employee, is not forced to stay confined to the workplace to an extent that he/she can’t socialize. These core functionalities must be provided by the information system to the venture in order to resolve the problems being faced by the organization in the particular case study. 3.2 (b) INPUTS TO THE SYSTEM The processing done by the system has to be on some sort of data arriving from sources across system boundaries 4. One of the key inputs to the system is event recognition registered in from of card swapping across a panel. Each individual worker is uniquely identified by the card number. The card number is machine readable. Each card swap across the specialized panel results in passing of a flag to the system responding to which the system sets up a log in time for a particular employee. Re-swap flag accounts for the log out time. Recall that the system also has to cater for setting up breaks during a month to maintain the social circle of an employee. A human input to the system is the level to which a particular employee likes to socialize. This can be done by filling out psychologically designed forms serving to estimate the time desired by each individual employee for recreation. Ultimately the information obtained from these forms as a result of human interaction can be passed to the system as inputs to the system that define the work threshold of an employee. Other important inputs to the system include the information about public holidays and specification of maximum allowable absentees per month. 3.2 (c) OUTPUTS EXPECTED FROM THE SYSTEM The system must produce outputs that make sense and help resolving the core issues indicated in the use case. To give Ian a quick idea of the days’ progress, a display must be present in his office depicting the work hours up to the present moment completed. Secondly, work hours completed by every employee should be passed as an output to the system running in the accounts department such that the pays of the employees be modified accordingly. Thirdly, Ian must be informed of employees exhibiting extreme behaviors – ones missing work too often and ones missing fun too often, so that the former be warned of consequences of their actions and later be described the effects of mental and physical overload. Managing both extremes effectively would result in increased productivity in the long run. Ian must also be informed of whether a newly joined employee has successfully completed the orientation and on-job training. 3.2 (d) DATA MANAGED BY THE SYSTEM The chief responsibility of an information system is to provide the right information to the right person at the right time 5. Providing the information requires data to be managed by the system at the back end. The data to be managed by the system must include the work hours. Work hours for an employee can be calculating the difference between the log in time and the log out time. The system should be capable of maintaining the record effectively so that the information passed to other systems is error free. The system must also maintain the record of employee details and contact information as per organization privacy policy. The system must also keep a trace of attendance of each employee including the vacations, absentees, medical leaves and day offs. Another important aspect of data management is the time over which the data will be stored. To extend this feature, concepts like data dictionary and data warehousing can be employed. System must also maintain the record of the employee work threshold. Since the organization is planning workforce increase, the system must accommodate the new employee intake. Most importantly, the system must also be able to maintain record of employee performance in terms of increase in customer good will and regularity at attending job, so that the best performers be chosen monthly and be motivated; either by monetary rewards or by other means to encourage other employees to develop hardworking habits. CONCLUSION It is concluded that the requirement analysis activity is extremely critical in the design of the information system. Considerable amount of time spent on the requirement analysis ultimately pays off in the long run because it results in a more stable, flexible and efficient system. Different requirement models exist and can be merged or used individually in development of requirements. Once the requirements have been figured out, important features like system input, outputs, data management and processes can be specified. In a nutshell, an information system is a set of hardware, software, data, human, and procedural components intended to provide the right data and information to the right person at the right time. The ability of a system to provide the right data and information to the right person at the right time is strongly dependent upon the analysis of the system requirement. REFERENCES 1. Cash, J. I., Jr., McFarlan, W. F., McKenney, J. L., and Vitale, M. R., Corporate Information Systems Management: Text and Cases, Irwin, Chicago, 2nd ed., 1988. 2. Laudon, K. C. and Laudon, J.P., Managing Information Systems: A Contemporary Perspective, 2nd ed., Macmillan, New York, 1991. 3. McFarlan, W. F., ed., The Information Systems Research Challenge, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1985. 4. Panko, R. R., End User Computing: Management, Applications, & Technology, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1988. 5. Rockart, J. F., Chief executives define their own data needs, Harv. Bus. Rev.,57(2), 81, 1979. 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