The people in IS can be divided into those involved with the development and operation of an IS and those involved with using an IS. There is some overlap between the two groups.

1. Users and Managers

All people who use an IS in their business operations are known as end-users. They are in fact an integral part of an IS. Examples of end-users are:

• a customer making a phone inquiry about a product with the keyboard operator looking up details of the product on a computer screen
• someone photocopying a report produced by an IS for distribution to various managers of the business
• senior management viewing the report and making decisions on the future direction of the company (note that these managers have not touched any hardware)

An IS needs to cater for the needs of all end-users. For instance:

• the keyboard operator responding to the phone inquiry needs to be able to look up the product by id number or name or product type.
• the report produced by the IS needs to show the date, a sequence number for the report and a list of the people to whom the report should be distributed.
• the report being studied by senior management needs to show the most currently available information.

2. The Roles of IS Professionals:

• A small business may develop an IS occasionally.
  • They may not have any IS personnel on staff but will employ contract and/or consultant staff as the need arises.
• Large businesses will be constantly developing new systems, upgrading and maintaining old systems in order to gain or maintain a competitive advantage through the use of ICT in the business.
• An IS or ICT department will contain permanent staff who oversee the IS function in the organisation.
• Contract/consultant staff will be employed as and when certain specialist IS development skills are required.

We will look at small, medium and large businesses.

3. Small Business:

The person at the centre of an IS development project is a systems analyst. This person is responsible for determining the requirements an IS must meet, designing the IS to meet those requirements, overseeing the construction and testing of the IS, managing the implementation and evaluating the performance of the IS. The activities in which a systems analyst is involved are widespread. Some activities are technical, for example:

• selecting a hardware package,
• designing a database,
• training end-users.

• recommending improvements to business procedures
• designing business forms

• estimating activity times, costs and resource requirements
• keeping management informed of progress
• writing memos, reports, leading teams and giving presentations

• being able to work with people at all levels of an organisation
• effective oral and written communication skills
• an understanding of information systems and their impact on an organisation
• mature judgment and the ability to make informed decisions
• an understanding of the latest trends in hardware and software
• team leadership

In a small business a systems analyst is a jack of all trades. They may even be required to write the computer programs which make up the software which provide the interface to the system.

4. Medium-size Business:

In a medium-size business where a number of IS projects are going on at the one time, IS development staff become more specialised in their jobs.

• A new IS graduate is likely to spend their time testing the programs written by other programmers.
• Experience leads to a programming role.
• Programmers write software as required by the designer of the system.
  • They are given a specification for a small part of the software and have to produce code which satisfies those specifications.
• Experience as a programmer can lead to a systems analyst position where interaction with clients is required in order to determine and document the requirements of the IS.
• The table below gives an example of a possible career path.

5. Large Business:

Large businesses have a diverse array of people involved in IT, as shown by Fig 1-29:

General responsibilities:

• Application Development:
• Systems Support and Security
• User Support:
• Database Administration:
• Network Administration:
• Web Support:

6. The Systems Analyst:

• Systems analysts are the liaison between users and IT professionals.
• They convert user requests into technical specifications.
• To be effective, a systems analyst must:
  • Have some technical skills
  • Be familiar with business operations
  • Have excellent communications and interpersonal skill

7. People in IS in General:

A little bit of background is needed before we can consider people in IS in large business.

The IS function has become critical to the success of large business. The extreme competitiveness of large business has meant productivity drives are common. A common result is a decrease in personnel. In order to maintain productivity levels, business has become more reliant on ICT and IS.

The role of IS in business has changed enormously during the 1980s and 90s. It has moved up and down the centralisation/decentralisation continuum (compare the centralised processing, distributed processing and client/server models from lecture 2). The IS function has been outsourced (given to external suppliers) and the trend today is to insource (buy in resources and place them under internal management control).

I will try and portray the current situation. My reference for the following is:

Willcocks, L. (1996). Rethinking capabilities and skills in the IS function, Proceedings of the 7th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, v1. Hobart.

The IS function of an organisation is the set of activities, personnel and IT assets set up to define and ensure delivery of the IS requirements of the business.

There are four faces to the IS function:

1. Business 'face' - the IS function is concerned with determining and delivering the organisation's business requirements.
2. Technical 'face' - the IS function is concerned with making sure the organisation has the technical IT capabilities to support the delivery of the business requirements.
3. Governance 'face' - this is concerned with strategies in the organisation for information management. Of concern are the role of IS in the business, the standards which the IS function should achieve, the processes used to evaluate any proposals for new systems or ICT, the choice of people and processes which determine the IS strategy in the organisation etc.
4. Supply 'face' - this concerns understanding and the use of the external IS/ICT market. For instance, choosing a supplier for new computing equipment, negotiating a contract with that supplier and ensuring the contract is adhered to. Also deciding which part of the IS function to outsource, choosing an outsourcing supplier etc. The payroll function may be outsourced, for instance, but inventory systems will be kept within the organisation.

Staff employed in the IS function need to have the skills and capabilities to support the four faces. Nine roles are suggested which may be staffed by one or more employees. Nine roles are defined each related to the four 'faces' of the IS function.

Let us look at the nine roles:

1. Business systems thinker - an expert in the way business' run. Also known as business process engineers.
2. Relationship builder - this role ensures that business managers and other end-users get on well with the technical staff (eg. systems analysts). There is a lot of research which shows that the success of an information system depends on a successful working relationship between IS staff and the end-users. Why might this be?
3. Technical architect - this is the hard-core systems development role - the nerds!
4. CIO - chief information officer. This role co-ordinates all the other roles. Research has shown that the best results are obtained if this role reports directly to the CEO of the organisation. Why might this be?
5. Informed buyer - extensive, up-to-date knowledge of hardware and software developments and knowledge of the best suppliers are the skills associated with this role.
6. Technical fixer - the person who is called whenever anything goes wrong with the hardware.
7. Contract facilitator - negotiates contracts with vendors. Contracts may involve hardware, software or personnel.
8. Vendor developer - this role is external to the organisation. Vendors supply hardware. Developers supply software. This software is likely to be general, for example, payroll software. The software and hardware may be used within the organisation or outsourced, whereby the software runs on the vendors hardware.
9. Contract monitor - liaises between the organisation and a vendor during the running of a contract.

Some interesting points about the nine roles follow.

• With the exception of the technical architect and fixer, there is a strong emphasis on business skills.
• There is a high requirement for soft skills across all roles. We are talking about people skills here. Can you list the sort of skills I am referring to here?
• The nine roles demand high performers - employees of the highest quality.
• Each role requires a specific set of skills, attributes and drives. Research shows that any one person is only capable of filling two or three roles at the required performance level during their career.

Summary

People in IS require a broad education. Not only do the technical aspects of IS development and operation need to be understood but business and people skills are also required. Best of luck! The skills required are in fact becoming even more demanding. The highly successful Macquarie Bank employs graphic designers to design the menus, input screens and reports associated with their information systems.

References:

• Shelly, Cashman & Rosenblatt, Systems Analysis and Design, 6th Edition,  Course Technology, 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Brian Retallick

This page last updated on Thursday 16 October 2008 by Chris Cope, La Trobe University, Bendigo