SYSTEMS CONCEPTS AND

THEORY

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 I. General Systems Theory

1. System’s Concept
Def. A System is a set of components that interact with one another
and serve for a common purpose or goal.
Systems may be: (1) abstract or (2) physical.
• An abstract system is conceptual, product of a human mind. That is, it cannot be seen
or pointed to as an existing entity. Social, theological, cultural systems are abstract
systems. None of them can be photographed, drawn or otherwise physically
pictured. However, they do exist and can be discussed, studied and analyzed.
• A physical system, in contrast, has a material nature. It is based on material basis rather
than on ideas or theoretical notions.
• Either system has nine main characteristics (Fig. 1-1):
1. Components. 6. Input.
2. Interrelationships. 7. Output.
3. Boundary. 8. Interface.
4. Purpose. 9. Constraints.
5. Environment.
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 System’s Concept (cont’d)
FIGURE 1-1 Characteristics of a system

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 2. System’s Characteristics

• A component is either an irreducible part or an aggregate of parts, also called a

subsystem. The simple concept of a component is very powerful. For example, in case of
an automobile we can repair or upgrade the system by changing individual components
without having to make changes the entire system.

• The components are interrelated; that is, the function of one is somehow tied to the
function of the others. For example, in the Store system the work of one component, such
as producing a daily report of customer orders, may not progress successfully until the
work of another component is finished, such as sorting customer orders by date of receipt.

• Purpose : All of the components work together to achieve some overall purpose: the
system’s reason for existing.

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 System’s Characteristics (cont’d)
 Boundary – Artificially delimits a system for study or discussion purposes.
System designers can only control those system components within the
boundary.
 Environment – That which impacts the system but is outside the system’s
boundary. The system cannot control events in the environment.
 Interfaces – Points where two systems meet and share inputs and outputs.
Interfaces belong to the environment although they may be inside the
system boundary.

 System entropy – chaos in a system

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 4. Methods of system’s study
There are several important system’s concepts that help to study a system and
understand its functioning:
• Decomposition
• Modularity
• Coupling
• Cohesion
• Decomposition is the process of breaking down a system into its smaller components.
These components may themselves be systems (subsystems) and can be broken down
into their components as well. How does decomposition aid understanding of a
system? It results in smaller and less complex pieces that are easier to understand
than larger, complicated pieces.
• Modularity is a direct result of decomposition. It refers to dividing a system into
chunks or modules of a relatively uniform size. Modules can represent a system
simply, making it easier to redesign and rebuild. For instance, a portable CD player,
as a system, accepts CDs and settings of volume and tone as inputs and produces
music as output. It includes the separate systems as its subsystems: 1) read the digital
signals from CDs; 2) amplify the signals; 3) turn the signals into sound waves; and 4)
control the volume and tone of the sound (see Figure 1-4).
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 Methods of system’s study (cont’d)

FIGURE 1-4 Decomposing a CD system

• Coupling means that subsystems are dependent on each other. But they should be as
independent as possible. If one subsystem fails and other subsystems are highly
dependent on it, the others will either fail themselves or have problems functioning.
• Cohesion is the extend to which a subsystem performs a single function. In the CD
player example, signal reading is a single function.

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 5. “Systems” Thinking
Being able to identify something as a system
Being able to identify subsystems
Identifying system characteristics and functions
Identifying where the boundaries are (or should
be)
Identifying inputs and outputs to systems
Identifying relationships among subsystems

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 Information System, Subsystem and Supersystem (cont’d)

What are the interrelated components or subsystems(according to general

definition of a system) of an IS? For example, a customer support system
might have an order entry subsystem that creates new orders for customers.
Another subsystem might handle fulfilling the orders, including shipping and
back orders. A third subsystem might maintain the product catalog database.

Every system, in turn, is a part of a larger system, called a supersystem. So the

customer support system is really just a subsystem of the production system.
The production system, as it is shown in Figure 1-5, includes other systems,
such as inventory management and manufacturing.

On the other hand we can consider an information system as a list of its

components: hardware, software, inputs, outputs,data,people, and procedures
(Fig.1-6).
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 Information System, Subsystem and Supersystem (cont’d)

10 FIGURE 1-5 Information systems and subsystems

 Information System, Subsystem and Supersystem (cont’d)

11 FIGURE 1-6 Information system and component parts

 Importance of systems theory:
 It provides a theoretical framework for study of performance of
businesses

 It stresses the fact that all organizations are made up of subsystems,

which must work together harmoniously in order that goals of the
overall system can be achieved.

 It recognizes the fact that conflicts can arise within a system, and that
such conflicts can lead to sub-optimization and that, ultimately, can
even mean that an organization does not achieve its goals.

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 Importance of systems theory:
 It allows the individual to recognize that he/she is a
subsystem within a larger system, and that the
considerations of systems concept apply to him/her, also.

 Given the above factors, it is clear that information-

producing systems must be designed to support the goals of
the total system, and that this must be borne in mind
throughout their development.

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 Read:
Open systems and closed systems
Deterministic and probabilistic systems

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