CSE1IS Information Systems
Week 1 Lecture 1
What is an Information System?

1. Introduction to Information Systems

We begin with the Why, What and How of learning about information systems.

Why is the subject Information Systems included in a computing course?

There is an increasing reliance by business on rapidly changing information technology (IT). This IT commonly stores information vital to the successful running of the business. Information is considered a key resource of an organisation rivalling stock and personnel, and its storage and retrieval are often computerised. Hence, a major employment area for Computing graduates is in Information Systems (IS) development and maintenance. The academic field of information systems is also a fertile research area.

IS subjects are also of general interest in a Computing qualification because the techniques used for developing complex information systems are the same as those used for solving any large computer programming problem.

Compare:

with: with: Large information systems and complex computer programs involve requirements so complex and a computer program too large for any one person to maintain all details in their brain at once. Some form of structured developmental approach which integrates the efforts of many people are required.

The skills necessary to interact successfully with different types of people are important to an IS developer. Again these types of skills are of value in areas other than IS but are taught in an IT course.

What will you learn about in Information Systems?

This subject offers you the opportunity to:

How will you best learn about information systems?

To be successful in your studies in this subject you will need to:

How you do this is up to you but the learning context provided in this subject is one which I hope you perceive as requiring a deep learning approach. This means that you will be responsible for your own learning. It means that you will try to seek meaning in the material you are learning rather than simply trying to accumulate knowledge through remembering isolated facts. You should always relate anything you are trying to learn to something you already understand, either from experiences earlier in this subject or prior to this course. The tutorial sessions will feature practical activities. It is important you constantly reflect on the purpose of these activities and what you think you have learnt. It is important that you constantly reflect on the major questions posed during the subject.

2. What is an Information System?

Part of being an IS professional involves interviewing clients and users about their requirements for an IS. Research into conversations between IS professionals and clients has shown that a primary aim of the conversations is for the professional and the client to agree upon a conceptualisation of the IS required by the client. For conversations to be successful the IS professional must have a sophisticated understanding of what an IS is. The client however is unlikely to hold as sophisticated a conception of an IS as the professional. It follows that the professional needs to be also aware of the less sophisticated views of an IS held by their clients and be able to accommodate these views in conversations.

The first few weeks of this subject are designed to provide you with a conceptual understanding of an information system (IS). I am not trying to provide a definition but rather I want you to develop a mental image of an information system which will support you in the second half of the subject when we look at how information systems are developed. The prescribed textbook does not cover this area well so I will be providing extensive notes as well as activities and discussions in the tutorial sessions. So the question to reflect on in these first weeks is:

What do the words 'information system' mean to me?

Below are some examples of information systems from the Bendigo area:

Can you add more to the list?

From these examples can you generalise about what information systems do?

What do information systems do?

Can you add more to the list?

Using the Bendigo examples it seems that information systems are pervasive in society and have a consistent purpose.

Let's look at the words information and systems separately and then together

Information

There is a natural desire in humans to obtain information. It is almost like another sensory input. Examples of the sort of input we need to organise our lives include:

Where does this information come from? Either we or somebody else performs the following activities.

Raw facts are COLLECTED (Data). Facts are then STORED, EXAMINED, ANALYZED, SUMMARISED (Processed). Finally processed facts are COMMUNICATED to us (Information). To be described as information the processed facts must be ACCURATE, EASILY AVAILABLE and CURRENT.

There have been drastic improvements in the collection and processing of data and the communication of information over time. For example let's take communication of information. The spoken communication of information has progressed through face to face contact, signs, the telegraph, the telephone, video, etc. The written communication of information - clay tablets, cave drawings, paper and ink, mail services, fax machines. Similar changes can be mapped for the collection and processing of data.

The major improvements in our handling of information have come from business investment. The impetus for this was the acknowledgement that more accurate and more timely information can provide an organisation's management with a substantial edge over its competitors. Information is now considered a key resource in a business organisation and the management of information, a key process.

Systems

The Concept of a  System

'a group of things or parts forming a whole'
(Heinemann, Australian Dictionary)
 

' a set of procedures used to accomplish a specific result'
(S,C & A - your text book)

' a set of interrelated, interacting components that function
together ...to achieve a specific result'
( Powers, Cheney & Crow - 'Structured Systems
Development')

a few general system ideas

Systems pervade our lives. For instance, our respiratory system, manufacturing systems, payroll systems, transport systems, gambling systems, the system - 'you can't beat the system'.

All of these systems feature structure and order. Sets of procedures are used to accomplish a specific result. A series of steps are followed in a regular, specified order to accomplish an end result. Systems are often joined to other systems to form more complex systems capable of performing more complex tasks, for example the human body.

At a simple level all systems take an input, process that input in a structured way and produce a more useful output.

Information systems

The fastest, cheapest and most efficient method of processing data and communicating information involves using a system to manage the data. In particular computer systems and computer controlled communications are the most efficient information systems.

The decrease in the cost of computer systems and the increase in computer literacy amongst employees means an organisation can and has to invest in extensive computer information systems in order to remain competitive.

The consequences of the need for and improvements in information systems are:

In Summary

A computerised Information System provides timely, accurate, concise information to individuals to:

by: Information systems need not necessarily be computerised but tend to have become so in the drive for efficiency. We will be concentrating on computerised information systems.

In considering our main question 'What is an information system?' it is worth considering the different views of people involved with information systems.

For each of the comments below try and put yourself in the place of the person making the comment and consider their mental image of an information system.
 
 

IS Practitioner

Can you describe your mental image of an information system?

Well, I typically see a collection of bits and pieces which are people wandering around in offices and computer rooms - and the offices tend to be like mine with small computers in them - and the people are engaged in either taking pieces of paper to and from or talking to each other about something to do with the system, or they're involved in keying in data on the machine - some kind of interaction with their machine so they might be keying in data or running some software.
 
 

IS Academic

Can you describe your mental image of an information system?

Basically I see an information system as more or less, I suppose, a set of rules, not something physical, um, or, something physical and not physical basically. A means of collecting data, storing it and organising it and making it accessible.

And do you see the rules being stored somewhere?

Ah, yeah, it would have to be stored within the system itself.
 
 

IS User

Let's talk about the personnel information system you deal with. If somebody wants to find out about you in Personnel, how do they go about doing it?

All they have to do is log in and go to the Personnel side and then go through the different screens to get to where they need to go to, to find the information.

And I guess it appears back on the screen?

Yeah, that's right - it's printed out on the screen.

Right - so do you have an understanding of how it gets on the screen?

No, not really, I just know it's there and it just comes onto the screen.

So, when you say it's there - is the screen important in your view - the fact that it's there?

Oh, definitely, without the screen we're hopeless.

OK - so the screen is the important part of ...

Well, No, Well the screen - the file is actually the important part I think because without the file you would get nothing on the screen to show you what is there.

Which one has the correct image of an IS? Is there necessarily a correct image? In developing your own concept of an IS it is important to consider the views of others, to read widely and to reflect on what an IS is? You might like to try the following questions:

Finally ...

an information system could be a manual system

i.e. processing can be carried by people with the appropriate electronic aids such as calculators, adding machines etc

filing cabinets, cards etc can be used for the storage of data the telephone, mail service etc can be used to transfer data/information, however....
as the amount of data to be processed increases, and the required speed and accuracy of the processing increases most information systems are computerised.

Another view:

An Information System processes (transforms) data (input) into information (output):

1165A000127834SMITHJOHN355012NEWSTFLORAHILL

          Sales Report as of: 3rd March, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Number            Name                  Address
1165               John Smith          12 New St
                                                  Flora Hill
                                                   3550

   (Department    Marketing)
        Total Sales:   $1278.43

3. Careers in IT:

Where does this subject fit into a future IT career?

The Australian Computer Society (www.acs.org.au) devotes a whole section of its web site to ICT Careers.

Among others, it identifies the following ICT career paths:

Systems Analyst:

From the ACS web page:
"Systems analysts define software requirements and specifications and guide program design and development. A systems analyst may supervise a software development or maintenance team of analyst / programmers and programmers."

Qualifications: Generally some sort of computing or IT degree

Usual career entry path: start by programming!

Career paths: Senior analyst or solutions architect, Database Administrator, Project Management etc.

Personal Qualities include:

Software Development (Programming):

References:

Copyright © 2006 L. Staehr, B. Choi,C. Cope, J. McCullagh, P. Somerville, C. Matthews, B. Retallick