Basic Concepts for Understanding Systems

Agenda for today The need for frameworks & models Viewing businesses as systems Information systems and work systems Framework for thinking about systems Perspectives for viewing a work system Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective

The need for frameworks & models What is a framework? A set of ideas for organizing your thoughts about a thing or situation... What is a model? A useful representation of a specific situation or thing…

Framework & model, continued... Think about object oriented programming…  A framework is like a class definition  A model is like an instantiated object

Frameworks and models in action What are some frameworks that we encounter? Now, let’s think about models…examples? Let’s turn to the Resumix case to see the WCA framework in action

Resumix Case Define the elements of this case using the WCA framework What are the categories? They are  customer, product, business process, participants, information and technology

Viewing businesses as systems

Businesses as systems consisting of business processes

Viewing businesses as systems Value Chain  for a “sit down” restaurant, not fast food...

Viewing businesses as systems Business processes and functional areas of businesses  The silo model

Business processes and functional areas of businesses Processes that cross functional areas Processes related to a specific functional area Processes occurring in every functional area

Information systems and work systems

What kind of system?  Information system  Work system

Information systems and work systems Where are the boundaries between information systems and work systems?  Is this changing? Is this a reflection of the changes in the economy to focus on services? Do you think that the trend will continue?

Framework for thinking about systems The WCA

Framework for thinking about systems Customers  internal  external  what’s the difference? Product  the output of the work system Business process  What’s going on in the system  We’ll model this with flow charts and DFD’s

Framework for thinking about systems Participants  Who’s involved… Information

Framework for thinking about systems Technology  This is the part that’s cool, but remember its place in the puzzle

Perspectives for viewing a work system

You can use the WCA and the five perspectives to gain a better understanding of the work system Sort of a “drill down” approach When I ask you to give me a WCA diagram, I’m looking for the overall analysis, not all perspectives -- you may want to do these perspectives as you develop your model

Perspectives for viewing a work system ARCHITECTURE What are the components of the system that performs the work and who uses the work product? How are the components linked? How do the components operate together? PERFORMANCE How well do the components operate individually? How well does the system operate? (How well is the work performed?) How well should the system operate? INFRASTRUCTURE What technical and human infrastructure does the work rely on? In what ways does infrastructure present opportunities or obstacles? CONTEXT What are the impacts of the organizational and technical context? In what ways does the context present opportunities or obstacles? RISKS What foreseeable things can prevent the work from happening, can make the work inefficient, or can cause defects in the work product? What are the likely responses to these problems?

Looking at an IT- enabled system from a business perspective

Steps in systems analysis  defining the problem  describing the situation in enough depth  designing potential improvements  deciding what to do

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective How the WCA can be used to drill down on a problem...

Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective The WCA method

Limitations and issues with the WCA  architecture overemphasis on details confusion about roles  performance too often ignored  infrastructure you gotta have it! Don’t forget! Looking at an IT-enabled system from a business perspective

Limitations and issues with the WCA (cont.)  context ignoring incentives/disincentives, organizational culture, etc.  risks things don’t always go as planned… contingency disaster recovery