List of Figures and Tables | p. ix |
Preface | p. xii |
Acknowledgements | p. xiii |
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations | p. xiv |
Introduction to the Book | p. xv |
Purpose | p. xv |
Tools and methodology | p. xv |
Structure | p. xvi |
Chapters | p. xvi |
Appendices | p. xvii |
Glossary of buzzwords | p. xvii |
Suggested reading and references | p. xvii |
Information Systems and Organizations | p. 1 |
Introduction | p. 1 |
Information systems: A catalogue of failures? | p. 7 |
Conclusions | p. 12 |
Exercise | p. 13 |
What is Systems Analysis and Systems Design? | p. 15 |
Introduction | p. 15 |
Basics of a systems analysis and systems design methodology | p. 15 |
Example of a systems analysis and systems design methodology in action | p. 17 |
The reductionist | p. 20 |
The systemic | p. 21 |
What is the research approach and methodology of this book? | p. 21 |
Conclusion | p. 24 |
Exercise | p. 25 |
The Role of the Systems Planner or Systems Analyst | p. 26 |
You the analyst: First thoughts | p. 26 |
The history of the analyst | p. 31 |
You the analyst: Second thoughts | p. 33 |
Present reflection and self analysis | p. 33 |
Reflecting on the development of the analyst | p. 33 |
Conclusions | p. 37 |
Exercise | p. 38 |
Terms of Reference and Selecting our Planning/Development Tools: Sequence and Schedule | p. 39 |
The reality of analysis: Terms of reference | p. 39 |
Understanding the information environment: Information audit | p. 40 |
The context of an analysis methodology: Selecting the right tools | p. 43 |
The soft systems approach | p. 44 |
Information modelling | p. 44 |
Social and technical requirements | p. 44 |
Human-computer interface | p. 45 |
Technical aspects | p. 45 |
Ways of using Multiview | p. 46 |
Conclusion | p. 49 |
Exercise | p. 49 |
What is the Problem? The Human Activity System: Making a Model | p. 50 |
Introduction to the human activity system | p. 50 |
The rich picture | p. 52 |
Preparation | p. 52 |
The primary components of the rich picture: Structures | p. 54 |
The primary components of the rich picture: Processes | p. 58 |
Putting together the rich picture | p. 59 |
The root definition | p. 67 |
Introduction | p. 67 |
Three examples of CATWOE | p. 68 |
The new system (in concept) | p. 71 |
Introduction | p. 71 |
Conceptual model/systems model | p. 73 |
Conceptual model: Main activities for the information system project | p. 73 |
Systems model: Main systems involved in the information system | p. 74 |
Final considerations | p. 78 |
Conclusions | p. 78 |
Exercise | p. 79 |
The human activity system phase | p. 79 |
On root definitions and systems models | p. 80 |
Developing a systems model | p. 81 |
Information Modelling: Making a Workable System | p. 82 |
Introduction to information modelling | p. 82 |
Entities, attributes, functions and events | p. 85 |
Entity models/tables | p. 87 |
Attributes | p. 91 |
Functional decomposition | p. 93 |
Double checking on entities and functions | p. 96 |
Events | p. 98 |
Tying it all together | p. 99 |
Conclusions | p. 99 |
Exercise | p. 100 |
Technical Needs, Social Needs: Getting the Right Balance | p. 102 |
Introduction to socio-technical systems | p. 102 |
Predict future environment analysis | p. 105 |
Outline social and technical objectives | p. 107 |
Social objectives of the proposed information system | p. 107 |
Technical objectives of the proposed information system | p. 108 |
Generate social and technical alternatives | p. 108 |
Rank the alternatives | p. 109 |
Cost-benefit analysis | p. 111 |
Tabulate and grade | p. 112 |
List major factors | p. 112 |
Human and computer tasks | p. 113 |
People tasks | p. 113 |
IT tasks | p. 114 |
Conclusions | p. 115 |
Exercise | p. 116 |
The Human-Computer Interface | p. 117 |
Introduction to the human-computer interface | p. 117 |
The nature of the interface | p. 119 |
Some interfaces | p. 120 |
The technical interface | p. 120 |
Social issues | p. 123 |
Security | p. 125 |
Considering the technical interface | p. 125 |
The case study: Specific issues | p. 127 |
Considering the social interface | p. 130 |
The case study: Specific issues | p. 130 |
Considering the security interface | p. 131 |
The case study: Specific issues | p. 132 |
Implementing the interface design | p. 133 |
Conclusions | p. 134 |
Exercise | p. 134 |
Technical Aspects: What is Needed? | p. 135 |
Introduction | p. 135 |
The application area: What we want to do | p. 137 |
The case study | p. 139 |
The database area: The data store | p. 140 |
The case study | p. 140 |
The retrieval area: What we want from the system | p. 141 |
The case study | p. 142 |
The management area: How to control the system | p. 142 |
Controlling your system with the operating system | p. 143 |
Job priority control | p. 144 |
Security | p. 145 |
User support | p. 148 |
The maintenance area: Keeping the system going | p. 149 |
Preventative maintenance | p. 150 |
Corrective maintenance | p. 150 |
The monitoring and evaluation area: Learning about the system | p. 151 |
Rule of thumb | p. 152 |
Key indicator | p. 152 |
The logical framework | p. 153 |
An issue of risk? | p. 153 |
Assessing risk value | p. 154 |
Prioritizing the risks | p. 155 |
Putting it all together: The technical package | p. 155 |
Conclusions | p. 156 |
Exercise | p. 156 |
The Total Design, Training, Hardware, Software and Implementation | p. 157 |
Introduction to implementation issues | p. 157 |
Training | p. 158 |
The communication of skills | p. 158 |
Repetition of skills out of the training room context: Self confidence and self reliance | p. 159 |
Specific training issues to be aware of | p. 160 |
Software selection | p. 161 |
Case study | p. 163 |
Hardware selection | p. 164 |
Case study | p. 165 |
Implementation | p. 165 |
Conclusion | p. 166 |
The Multiview methodology | p. 166 |
The learning organization methodology | p. 167 |
Appendices | |
Systems analysis and systems design: Methodologies in relation to each other | p. 169 |
The project cycle: Seeing the task in perspective | p. 172 |
Some thoughts on answers to the exercises | p. 176 |
Glossary of Buzzwords | p. 193 |
Suggested Reading | p. 199 |
References | p. 203 |
Index | p. 215 |
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