BASIC CLERICAL WORKS

Level I
LEARNING GUIDE # 2
Use Business Equipment and Resources
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 1. Key Components of an
Information System
• In order to develop an approach to SAD, you
need to understand these three key components
of an Information System:
– Data – facts about things e.g. for a product – colour,
size, price (remember Information is data in a useful
format);
– Data flows – groups of data that move and flow
through a system.
– Processing logic – steps that transform (change) data
and events that trigger these steps (cause these steps to
happen). In other words, these are ‘business rules’.

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1. Key Components of an
Information System

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 1. Key Components of an
Information System
From the above figure
• The structure of the student Data is shown as a simple table of
rows (records about different students) and columns (attributes
that describe each student).
• The arrows in the Data Flows box represent groups of data
moving around the system.
• The boxes with rounded corners represent processing steps –
each step takes input data flows and produces output data
flows.
• The box called ‘GPA Values’ represents a file or data store.

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 1. Process-Oriented Approach

• Traditionally, Systems Analysts designed an

Information System based on what the
system was meant to do, such as billing or
inventory control or, in our example,
producing results statements.
– This meant that the focus was on outputs and
processing logic – or, in other words, on the flow,
use and transformation of data.
– The data used as inputs were seen as important
also, but secondary to (not as important as) the
application.
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 1. Process-Oriented Approach

– Each system would contain its own files and data

storage areas (e.g. a payroll system and a system for
scheduling classes & who will teach them would each
have their own sets of data for teachers in the
university)
– The data in each system would match the
specifications for that system only.
– Each system is considered (looked at) separately.
– The analysis involves creating drawings/diagrams
that show how the data moves around the system
and where it is stored in between flows.
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 2. Data-Oriented Approach

• Over time, the approach changed to being a

more data-oriented.
• This is a response to the problems above.
– This approach tends to focus on how the data
should be represented/organized, independently
of where and how data are used in the system.
– A data model is produced – this describes the
data and relationships between the data.
– Business rules define how the organization deals
with the data.
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 2. Data-Oriented Approach

– With this approach, databases are designed

around subjects – such as customers, suppliers,
parts (or, in our university example, teachers,
students, courses). This lets us use the same
databases for many different applications.
– This led to the modern approach that usually
includes a database for storing data and
applications that deal with getting and retrieving
the data from this one central location.
– This means that the application is independent of
data and data definitions – we can call this
application independence.
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 2. Data-Oriented Approach

• This approach is also called a ‘structured’

approach
• The diagram below shows the essential
difference between these two approaches.

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 2. Data-Oriented Approach

Illustration
• Suppose that a university has an application for Registration
of students and also an application for scheduling classes.
• Each of these applications would use data about the available
Courses.
• Note how the Courses Data in this example is duplicated
for the Process-oriented approach – because the focus is
on the two different systems.
• The Courses Data exists in only one database for the
Data-oriented approach – because the focus is on where &
how the data is stored, and then the systems are designed
around this.
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2. Data-Oriented Approach

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 Hand out 4
Role of the Systems Analyst & Types of IS

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 1. Role of the Systems
Analyst
• Put simply, the Systems Analyst bridges the
communications gap between those who need the
computer system and those who understand the
technology.
• A systems analyst facilitates the study of the problems
and needs of a business to determine how the business
systems and information technology can best solve the
problem and accomplish improvements for the
business.
• The product of this activity may be improved business
processes, improved information systems, or new or
improved computer applications – frequently it is all three of
these.
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 1.1 Involving End-Users

• Often, people in different departments of the

organization are involved in the system – for various
reasons, such as:
– They use the system, or will use the new system
– They know about the data and/or processes in the
system
– They require reports from the system
• These people are called the users or end-users of the
system.

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 1.2 Involving Managers

• Managers in the business also need to be considered,

for the following reasons:
– They define the business goals for projects (e.g. to increase
sales by 10%)
– They need to know what resources are required for a project
– They need to know how long the project will take
– They make the decisions (usually, and with the support of
their teams)
• The Systems Analyst must speak to all of the involved
people early on during the project, so that he/she can
gather together all the requirements for the system.

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 1.3 Communication Skills

• it is important that the Systems Analyst has good

communication skills – so that they can communicate
effectively with all the necessary people.
• This means that they must be able to:
– Speak about the system in layman’s terms (in common
language – not using technical/computer jargon that may not be
understood by the people who use the system but are not
computer experts)
– Understand the technology involved and be able to speak
about the system in technical terms, as they may also speak
with technical experts about existing systems or possible
technology to be used in the system.
– Produce good documentation to record the information
gathered.
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 1.3 Analytical Skills

• The Systems Analyst must be able to find out as

much information as possible about the system.
• They must be able to solve problems presented by the
system.
• To do this, they must be able to:
– Understand the problem
– Suggest solutions to the problem
– Suggest ways of implementing the solution

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 1.3 Analytical Skills

• In other words, the SA needs to analyse the way the

system works, and what problems there are in it.
• The process of solving a problem requires
– Interaction – all the people involved working
together to achieve the goal
– Creativity – being able to come up with inventive
and imaginative solutions (often, you will have to
get around obstacles and work with what you do have
– e.g. if the internet connection is very slow, a web-
site that has a lot of graphics is not very
practical/feasible).
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 2. Other Roles in the IT/IS
Department
• There are many other specialist roles in the area of
Information Technology.
• The Systems Analyst will interact with all of these
roles at different stages.
• The team put together for a particular project will
include people from some or all of these roles,
depending on the skill-set required for the project

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 2. Other Roles in the IT/IS
Department
• You may find that you will take on two or more of
these roles!
– Systems Administrators – people who design
and maintain the computer networks in an
organization
– Database designers/administrators (DBAs)
– people who design and maintain databases
– Programmers – people who write the code (such
as Java, C++)

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 2. Other Roles in the IT/IS
Department
– Website designers/graphics designers –
people who design websites
– Website developers/programmers – people
who write the code for websites
– Network/operations mangers – people who
manage all the computer networks for an
organization, often this means the electronic
commerce (eCommerce) network.
– Business analysts – people who specialise in
looking at the processes in the business, and
therefore who understand the business very well.
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Thank You!

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 3. Types of Information
System
• The main types of IS are:
– Transaction Processing Systems
– Management Information Systems
– Decision Support Systems
– Expert Systems

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 3.1 Transaction Processing
Systems (TPS)
• Automate the handling & capture of data about transactions or
business activities.
• For each transaction, the system must capture the data, verify
that it is a valid transaction and accept or reject it.
• Accepted transactions are stored in the system database.
• Reporting provides summaries of transactions (e.g. daily,
weekly).
• A transaction may be passed from one process to another to
reflect all steps in the business process e.g. take a credit card
order over the phone, authorise with the credit card company,
then place the order with the inventory system.

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 3.2 Management
Information Systems (MIS)
• Take the raw data from a system such as a TPS, and
convert into a more meaningful form, where the data is
aggregated (combined).
• Provide reports of this information to Managers.

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 3.3 Decision Support
Systems (DSS)
• Help decision-makers with decisions, by allowing them to
analyze data.
• Interactive environment to allow data to be manipulated
(viewed in different ways) and to change different
factors.
• Data extracted from a TPS or MIS, and combined with
models of business processes.
• Help user to find problems or decide a course of action
in the business.
• Requires a user interface to allow decision-maker to
input criteria, answer questions etc.
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 3.4 Expert Systems (ES)

• Replicate the decision-making process, by applying rules

to information in the way that an expert would.
• An ES is developed for a particular domain/area of
knowledge & problems e.g. medical.
• The knowledge of a human expert and how they apply
that knowledge to make decisions needs to be written
into the system.

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 3.4 Expert Systems (ES)

• More recently, expert systems include

data warehousing and data mining:
– Data warehousing is the storage of large
volumes of data for organizational use
– Data mining is the process of looking for
patterns in the data stored in databases, in
order to uncover undiscovered information

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 3.5 Summary
Type Characteristics Methods/Approach Example
TPS High-volume, Process-oriented – Applicatio
need to capture focus on capturing, n for
data; goals are validating & storing taking
efficient data and on moving credit card
processing & data from step to orders
movement of data step online
and interface with
different TPSs

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 3.5 Summary
Type Characteristics Methods/Approach Example
MIS Pulls data from Data-oriented – Aggregated
many sources to understand sales
provided relationships between figures,
aggregated & data and build a model broken
summarised data; of the data that allows down by
may also involve many uses product
forecasting future geographica
data based on l region etc
historical data &
business knowledge

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 3.5 Summary
Type Characteristics Methods/Approach Example
DSS Provides guidance Data-oriented, Application
for identifying understand and build for
problems in the relationships between scheduling
business processes, data; design a user deliveries
and interface for dialog using the
finding/evaluating between user & optimal
solutions to them; system. (best) route
need to access data
at various levels of
details – aggregate
down to transaction
level (drill-down) 31
 3.5 Summary
Type Characteristics Methods/Approach Example
ES Provides expert advice by Specialised decision logic A medical
asking users a sequence orientation – knowledge elicited diagnosis system
(series) of questions that (obtained) from experts and
depend on previous answers then described by rules
– the answers lead to a
conclusion or
recommendation
Or Data-oriented, build a data Try to find out if
Uncovers undiscovered structure that can be used there is
information in large across many applications and correlation
databases that allows efficient between
reporting/querying of the data purchasing
habits of
customers and
economic factors

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