Designing Information Systems

PrefacePart 1 Human Organization 1 System Basics 1.1 What is a System? 1.2 Information 1.3 What we Mean by Systems Analysis 1.4 Summary Discussion Points 2 Describing Systems 2.1 Data Flow Diagrams and Data Dictionaries 2.2 Data Models 2.3 Function Mini-Specs or Structure Rules 2.4 A Business System Description, Partitioning and Levelling 2.5 A Knowledge-Based System 2.6 Summary of the Descriptive Models Discussion Points Exercises 3 Management and Control 3.1 Realms of Control 3.2 Process Management and Control 3.3 Levels of Management 3.4 Open Systems 3.5 The Design of Management Information Systems 3.6 Summary Discussion PointsPart 2 System Design 4 How to Design Information Systems 4.1 Users, Operators, Analysts, Programmers and Others 4.2 An Overall View of Design 4.3 Feasibility Document 4.4 Documents Produced from Analysis and Specification 4.5 Documents Produced from the Functional Construction Function 4.6 Documents Produced from the Audit Function 4.7 Summary Discussion Points 5 Functional Specification and Functional Analysis 5.1 The Context of Functional Analysis 5.2 An Overview of Analysis and Specification 5.3 Obtaining the Facts 5.4 Analysing the Facts: Physical and Logical Data Flow Diagrams 5.5 Analysing the Facts: Boundary Considerations 5.6 Analysing the Facts: The Local Data Model and Users' Access Requirements 5.7 Analysing the Facts: Control Considerations 5.8 Analysing the Facts: Data Volumes, Timeliness and Response Time 5.9 Deciding the Most Appropriate Design Solutions 5.10 Presentation of Solutions to the User Community 5.11 The Sellemkwik Case Study: A Medium-Sized Garage 5.12 Summary Discussion Points 6 Procedures and Rules 6.1 The Careful Manufacturing Company 6.2 Transition Processing 6.3 Rule Specification Using Relationships in the Data Model 6.4 Rules About Processing 6.5 Summary Discussion Points Exercises 7 Data modeling and Data Analysis 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The Context of Data modeling 7.3 Charting Conventions and Data modeling Concepts 7.4 Data Structures 7.5 Normalization 7.6 Domains and Domain Integrity 7.7 Table Integrity Rules 7.8 'Views'and Local Data Models 7.9 Data Analysis 7.10 Summary Discussion Points Exercises 8 How The System Behaves 8.1 An Overview 8.2 Data Collection 8.3 Updating Serial Tables by Batch Processing 8.4 Organization of Data for Batch Processing 8.5 Dialogue Design 8.6 Organization of Data for Demand Processing 8.7 Summary Discussion Points 9 System Evaluation 9.1 The Problem 9.2 Simplification 9.3 Coping with Uncertainty 9.4 Sensitivity Analysis 9.5 Cash Flow Analysis 9.6 Appraisal of the Simple Approach 9.7 Non-Monetary Pay-Off 9.8 Utility 9.9 Estimating the Reliability of our Suppliers by Using an Expression 9.10 Binary Utility Measurement 9.11 System Evaluation with Multiple Purposes 9.12 Review of Methods of Evaluation 9.13 The Relationship with Subsequent Design Stages 9.14 Summary Discussion PointsPart 3 Management and Control 10 The Data Dictionary 10.1 What is a Data Dictionary? 10.2 What Do Words Mean? 10.3 What We Want to Know About Tables 10.4 What We Want to Know About Columns 10.5 What We Want to Know About Domains 10.6 What We Want to Know About Relationships 10.7 The Data Dictionary Data Model 10.8 The Relationship Between an Application and the Database 10.9 Global Data Dictionary Data Model 10.10 Naming Conventions and Synonyms 10.11 The Last Word 10.12 Summary Discussion Points Exercises 11 Project Management 11.1 Background 11.2 Partitioning 11.3 Naming Work Packages 11.4 Reporting Plans and Results 11.5 Data Flows, Data Analysis and the Data Model 11.6 Data Collection for Project Management 11.7 Work Measurement and Estimating 11.8 Clients and Managers 11.9 Composition of the Project Design Team 11.10 Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) 11.11 Team Leadership 11.12 Summary Discussion PointsPart 4 Human Factors 12 Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) 12.1 Introduction 12.2 The Nature of HCI 12.3 Relationship of HCI to System Design 12.4 Summary 13 User Participation 13.1 What is a User? 13.2 The Traditional Participants of Systems Development 13.3 Who Should be the Participants? 13.4 Problems of Communication 13.5 Approaches to User InvolvementPart 5 Implementation 14 Implementation 14.1 Planning 14.2 User Involvement and Training 14.3 Documentation - User and Operator Manuals 14.4 Testing The System 14.5 Changeover Procedures 14.6 Post-Implementation Evaluation and Audit 14.7 MaintenanceAnswer PointersIndex