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Q.)What is a system?

System is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an


integrated whole.
The concept of an "integrated whole" can also be stated in terms of a system embodying a set
of relationships which are differentiated from relationships of the set to other elements, and
from relationships between an element of the set and elements not a part of the relational
regime.
Most systems share the same common characteristics. These common characteristics include
the following:
1. Systems have a structure that is defined by its parts and processes.
2. Systems are generalizations of reality.
3. Systems tend to function in the same way. This involves the inputs and outputs of
material (energy and/or matter) that is then processed causing it to change in some
way.
4. The various parts of a system have functional as well as structural relationships
between each other.
A system may be defined as a set of elements which are joined together to achieve a common
objective. The elements are interrelated and interdependent. Every system is said to be
composed of sub-system which in turn are made up sub-systems.
The set of elements for a system may be understood as:
(i)
input
(ii)
process
(iii)
output
A system may have 1 or multiple inputs. These inputs are processed through a
transportation process to convert it to outputs.
Ex: in a manufacturing organization raw materials are input in the system which are
processed by using various organizational processing facilities to convert it to finished
products.
Similarly in an information system data is input which is processed and converted in
information.
INPUTPROCESSOUTPUT
Feedback and control element are attached to a system to make it self regulating and self
monitoring. It is known as a cybernating system.

An example of a cybernating system is that of a thermostat controlled heating system,


which automatically monitors and regulates its system to maintain a desired temperature on
the basis feedback it gets from the environment.
Q) What are the different types of system? Explain in brief.
A) Different types of systems are:1. Abstract and Physical System.
2. Deterministic and Probabilistic System.
3. Open and Closed System.
4. User Machine System.
1) Abstract and Physical systeman abstract or conceptual system is a orderly arranges of
independent or constructs, which may or may not have a counterpart in the real world.
Ex: a system of theology is an example of abstract system which is an orderly arrangement of
ideas about god and relationship of human to god.
Physical systems are generally concrete operational system made up of people, materials,
machines and other physical things. Physical systems always display some activity or
behavior. The elements in such a system interact to achieve a common objective.
2) Deterministic and Probabilistic SystemsA deterministic system is one in which the
occurrence of all events is known with certainty. In such a system given a description of the
system state at a particular point of time, the next state can be perfectly predicted.
An example of such a system is a correct computer programming which performs exactly
according to a set of instructions.
The probabilistic system is one in which the occurrence of events cannot be penetrated. An
example of such a system is the set of instructions given to a person who may or may not
follow the instructions exactly as given.
3) Open and Closed Systemopen system is one that interacts with its environment thus
exchanges information material or energy with the environment. All living systems are open
systems. An organization which is sensitive to changes in customer taste, preferences, likings,
disliking, demands and in consequences, adjust its price and its product mix and looks for
new market is a open organization.
A closed system is one which does not interact with its environment, such systems in
business world are very rare but relatively closed systems are common.
Thus the system that are relatively isolated from the environment, but not completely
closed are termed as closed system.

Example:- A computer program is a relatively closed system because it accepts and processes
previously defined input and provides output to in a previously defined way.
4) User Machine Systemmost of the physical system are user-machine system. It is
difficult to think of a system composed only of people who do not utilize equipment of
sometime to achieve their goals. In user-machine system, both i.e. human as well as machine
performance activity in the accomplishment of a goal. The machine elements are relatively
closed and deterministic where as the human element of the system are open and
probabilistic. The machine performs a supporting role where the human perform the
significant one.
Q). What is Conceptual system?
A conceptual system is a system that is comprised of non-physical objects, i.e. ideas or
concepts. In this context a system is taken to mean "an interrelated, interworking set of
objects".
A conceptual system is simply a model. There are no limitations on this kind of model
whatsoever except those of human imagination. If there is an experimentally verified
correspondence between a conceptual system and a physical system then that conceptual
system models the physical system. "values, ideas, and beliefs that make up every persons
view of the world": that is a model of the world; a conceptual system that is a model of a
physical system (the world). The person who has that model is a physical system.
Examples of conceptual systems are:

Entity-relationship model
Object-oriented programming: allows conceptual systems to be defined in a robust
manner.
Metalogic
Unified Modeling Language(UML)

Q). What is a information system?


A)An information system can be any organized combination of people ,hardware,
communication networks and data resources that stores and retrieves and transforms
information in an organization.
SQL- is a language which helps to retrieve data from data base.
Information system and Information Technology are 2 vital components of successful
business and organizations. People relied information system to communicate each other
using a variety of physical devices(hardware), information processing instruction and
procedure (software), communication channels(network), stored data(data resources), since
the dawn of civilization.
Q). What are the fundamental roles of information system in business system in business
system?
A) There are 3 fundamental roles of business application of information technology:
(i)
Support of its business process and operation
(ii) Support of decision making by it employees and managers

(iii)

Support of its strategies and competitive advantage

________________________________________________________________________

Q). What are the different types of Information System?

ASupport of business operations


BSupport of managerial decision making
aProcessing business transactions
bControl of industrial process
cTeam and work group collaboration
dPre-specified reporting for managers
eInteractive decision support
fInformation tailored for the executives
There are also some other categories of information system. They are:
(i)
Expert system
(ii)
Knowledge management system
(iii)
Strategic information system
(iv)
Functional business system
Expert Systemcan provide expert advice for operations like equipment diagnostics or
managerial decisions.

Knowledge Management Systemsare knowledge based information system that supports


the creation, organization of business knowledge to employees and managers throughout a
company.
Information systems such as accounting or marketing i.e. which focuses on operational and
managerial application in support of business functions are known as functional business
systems.
Strategic Information Systemsapply I.T. to firms products services of business process to
help it gain a strategic advantage over its competitors.

Q). What are the managerial challenges of Information Technology?


The most important challenges for the managers of Information System today are:(i) Speed and flexibility of products development, manufacturing and delivery cycles.
(ii) Re-engineering of business processes using interest technology.
(iii) Integration E-business and E-commerce into the organizations
strategies
process structure and culture.
(iv) Use of internet, intranet and web as the primary information technology
infrastructure.
(v) Diffusions of web technology to internal work employees, customers and
suppliers.
(vi) Global network, computing, collaboration and decision support system.
(vii) Give the customers what they want and how they want at the lowest cost.
(viii) Co-ordination of manufacture and business process with suppliers and
customers.
(ix) Marketing channel partnerships with suppliers and distributors.

Q). How success and failure of Information Technology can be measured?


A) The goal of every company is to maximize customer and business value by using I.T.
to support their employees in implementing co-operative with customers and others.
Therefore success of an information system should not be measured by its efficiency in
terms of minimizing costs, time and the use of information resources.
Success should also be measured by the effectiveness of the process enhancing its
organizational structure and culture and increasing the customer and business value of the
enterprise.

Q). Discuss about the trends in Information Technology.

Until 1960s the role of Information System was simple transaction processing, record
keeping and other electronic data processing application. Then another role was added as
the concept of Management Information System(MIS).
By the 1970s the decision support system the DSS was born. The new role for the
information system was to provide managerial end-users with add-hoc an interactive
support of their decision making process.

In 1980s several new roles of Information system appeared:(i) The rapid development of processing power, application software packages and telecommunication softwares gave birth to phenomena of end-user computing.
(ii) The concept of Executive Information System was developed.
(iii) Breakthroughs occurred in the development and application of artificial intelligence
techniques to Business Information System.
Expert system and other knowledge based system plays a new role for information
system. In 1990 the concept Strategic Information System(SIS) came into the picture.
The mid to the late 1990s saw the revolutionary emergence of enterprise Resource
Planning(ERP) systems. Finally rapid growth of internet, intranet and other
interconnected global network in the 1990s dramatically changed the capability of
information system in business at the beginning of the 21st century.
Q). Why we need a computer based information system(CBIS)?
1) The size of the organization may become larger. This is particularly true in India due to
increase in population and rapid growth of industrial development.
2) Computer based processing enable the same data to be processed in many ways based on
needs there by allowing the managers to look at the performance of an organization from a
different angle.
3) Increased volume of data variety of information and timeliness is off great importance
nowadays for this reason computer based information processing has become essential for
efficiently managing an organization.
4) Since organizations nowadays are distributed with many branches a good communication
between the branches is always needed, so good technology internet work is needed.
5) Since markets are becoming competitive to maintain a favorable balance, organizations
have to be internationally competitive.
6) The general socio economic environment demands up to date and accurate information.
Organizations have to interact with many other parties of interest such as consumer groups,

environment protection groups etc. to avoid hazards from government regulation and
statutory bodies.

Q). What do you mean by quality of information system?


Quality of information means:1) The information must be accurate. Incorrect information is worse than no information.
2) The information should be complete i.e. it should include all data and not exclude some.
3) The information should be trustworthy. The processing should not hide some vital
information.
4) The information should be timely given. It should be given to the right person whenever
needed. Delayed information may be of no value.
5) The information should be up to date, include all data available at the time of processing.
6) Information should be tailored to the needs of the user and must be of relevance.
7) It is essential to give brief summarized information to ensure quick action.
8) The information should be presented when it is needed and where it is needed, in
such a way that it may immediately perceive its significance.

Q). Discuss about the strategy for gathering information?


Gathering information in large and complex organizations is difficult and it takes a long time.
Relevant personal should be consulted such that no information is overlooked.
Very often what hurts an analyst most is what is not stated by users because they assume that
it is obvious and everyone knows it. The analyst should perceive such a situation, there be a
clear strategy be ignored by the analyst to gather information.
These strategies consist of
(i) User of the system.
(ii) Evolving a method of obtaining information from the identified sources
(iii) Using an information flow model of organization.

Q). What are the main sources of information?


(i) User of the system.
(ii) Forms and documents used in the organization.
(iii) Procedure manuals and rule books which specify the various activities are carried out in
the organization
(iv) Various reports used in the organization.
(v) Computer programs of existing system.
Q). Discuss about the methods for searching information.
Information gathering first starts with intervening the top level management. An overview of
the organization can be found for the to level managers. A gross system model is then worked
out and verified.
The next step is to interview the middle level management and operational staff.
In this step a day to day operational requirement and information required are gathered.
The earlier dos model is then refined and expanded. It should be remembered that the
operational staffs at day to day working level such as clerks the store-keeper and foreman
can make or break a system . It is essential to gain there confidence and explain to them what
the intended system could do. They should understand their responsibilities when the system
is implemented. These persons have a lot of information about the operational problems.
Qualitative information based on their experiences in often very variable.
For these reasons interviewing is the most important method of gathering information before
starting interviewing an analyst must decide on:(i) who will be interviewed;
(ii) in what order they will be interviewed;
(iii) what special question will be asked in each interview.
Besides individual interview we also see that consequences have to be reached by all users in
assigning priorities among objectives of the system. Thus leading to group discussions, frank
expressions of opinion are also responsibilities of a analyst. During group discussions many
bits of information are revealed .

It is not normally feasible to obtain all information during the course of a single interview
with the user. Usually 2 or 3 interviews are needed.
The 1st interview is normally to get to know a person and his areas of responsibilities and the
time of information. He has subsequent interviews are used to verify facts and gather more
information of relevance.
Q) What are the different types of information? Give brief description of each type.
In general all business organizations have a well defined organizational structure. All
organization consists of hierarchy of different level. Each level has a different role to play.
The top-management is involved in strategic activities, policy making and goal making.
The middle-management is involved in tactical activities while the operation level is
involved in day to day operation of the organization. The information requirements of
different levels are also different. On the basis of this classification there are three types of
information.
These are (i) Strategic Information
(ii) Tactical Information
(iii) Operational Information

Strategic Information- The Strategic Information generally relates to the top


management functions in an organization these informations deal with the
international and national topics trend in the industry investment pattern, government
regulations and policies, competition strategies, technologies trends etc.
The strategic information helps in long term activity.
The users of the strategic are typically senior management team members and the top
management of any organization. The term C level executives is often used to
denote the users of the information. The C level is based on designation such as
chief executive officer(CEO), chief marketing officer(CMO), chief financial
officer(CFO), chief information officer(CIO). The focus of the strategic information is
on serial management personnel who business orientation towards accomplishment of
strategic goal and objectives and large term planning for the organization.

Tactical Information- Tactical Information generally relates to the middle


management in an organization. The tactical information addresses short term
planning activity.
Examples of Tactical Information are those of sells forecasts, sells analysis, cash flow
projections, financial results, budgetary control etc.
The focus of the tactical information is on the post performance and present status
with little view of the future that too about near future and not long term as
addressed by strategic information.
Opposed to the strategic information the tactical information is more accurate with
limited level of subjectivity. Tactical Information is mainly used for affecting

tactical control and allocation of resources. Tactical Information is reasonably


predictive, focused on past present and near future.

Operational Information- The operational information deals with specific operation


within an organization. The operational information is often produced as a result of
data processing activity. Some of the most common examples of operational
information are customer order, daily attendance report, pending purchase order,
details of materials received and issued stock statement, vendor bills, cash and bank
vouchers etc.
Operational Information is typically structured hard data-it is based on internal
business transactions. These type of information are expected to be highly accurate
and with a very high degree of detailing. It is often considered that operational
information is the basis or foundation of tactical information and strategic
information.

N.B.-- The operational level of the business organization is involved in day to day
operations. The operational planning is oriented towards operational goals that are derived
from the strategic and tactical plans. The operational planning deals with planning horizons
which are measurable in months. These operational planning addresses short term goals such
as quarterly or monthly sales and production, monthly inventory control. The information
support required for operational planning is mainly based on inference generated from
internal sources.
Q). Define the term Management.
Koontz definition of management says that management is a art of getting things done
through and with a pebble in formally organized groups .
The basic function in an organization are listed as managerial function(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

planning;
organizing;
staffing;
directing;
controlling;

i) Planning in the process of foreseeing the future in advance.


ii) Organizing is the process of identifying the entire job, dividing the job into convenient
subjects/tasks, allocating sub-tasks to person/group and delegating authority to each so
that the job is carried out as planned.
iii) Stuffing is the process of putting the right to the right job. We can say that organizing
is job oriented whereas stuffing is work oriented.
iv) Directing includes:- (a) communication
(b) motivation

(c) leadership
Directing is important because in order to achieve predetermined goals and objective
people in the organization have to be guided, motivated and led by the managers.
v) Controlling ensures that activities are being performed as per plans. Controlling
involves fixing standards for- (a) measuring work performance;
(b) Measurement of actual performance;
(c) Comparing actual with standards and finding out
deviation if any;
(d) Taking corrective actions.

Q). Describe about Information Systems(IS).


An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that
collect, process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an
organization. In addition to supporting decision making, coordination, and control,
information systems may also help managers and workers analyze problems, visualize
complex subjects, and create new products.
Information systems contain information about significant people, places, and things within
the organization or in the environment surrounding it. By information we mean data that have
been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings. Data, in contrast, are
streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical
environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can
effectively understand and use.
A brief example contrasting information and data illustrations and data illustrates the
difference between them. Supermarket checkout counters scan millions of pieces of data,
such as bar codes, that describe the product. Such pieces of data can be totaled and analyzed
to provide meaningful information, such as the total number of bottles of dish detergent sold
at a particular store, which brands of dish detergent were selling the most rapidly at that store
or sales territory, or the total amount spent on that brand of dish detergent at that store or sales
region.
Three activities in an information system produce the information that organizations need to
make decisions, control operations, analyze problems, and create new products or services.
These activities are input, processing and output. Input captures or collects raw data from
within the organization or from its external environment. Processing converts this raw input
into a meaningful form. Output transfers the processed information to the people who will
use it or to the activities for which it will be used. Information systems also require feedback,
which is output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them
evaluate or correct the input stage.

In Toyotas vehicle orders management system, the raw input consists of customer order data
including the dealer identification number, model, color, and optional features of each car
ordered. Toyotas computer stores this data and process it to locate the models with options
specified by the customer that are either in inventory or under production, to place orders to
national distributors, to consolidate the orders, and then to transmit them to factories.
Toyotas production system then tell its how many vehicle to manufacture for each model,
color and option package, how much to bill for each vehicle, and where to ship the vehicle.
The output consists of shipping instructions, invoices and production reports. The system
provides meaningful information, such as which models and colors, and options are selling in
which locations, the most popular models and colors, and which dealers sell the most cars.
Although computer-based information system use computer technology to process raw data
into meaningful information, there is a sharp distinction between a computer and a computer
program on one hand, and an information system on the other. Electronic computers and
related software programs are the technical foundation, the tools and materials, of modern
information system programs are the technical foundation, the tools and materials, of modern
information systems. Computers provide the equipment for storing and processing
information. Computer programs or software are set of operating instruction that direct and
control computer processing. Knowing how computers and computer programs work is
important in designing solutions to organizational problems, but computers are only a part of
an information system.

Q). What are the dimensions of IS?


To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization,
management, and information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide
solutions to challenges and problems in business environment. We refer to this broader
understanding of information system, which encompasses an understanding of the
management and organizational of the system as well as the technical dimensions of systems,
as information systems literacy. Information systems literacy includes a behavioral as well as
a technical approach to studying information systems. Computer literacy, in contrast, focuses
primarily on knowledge of information technology.
The field of management information system tries to achieve this broader information
systems literacy. MIS deals with behavioral issues as well s technical issues surrounding the
development, use, and impact of information system used by managers and employees in the
firm.
Lets examine each of the dimensions of information systemorganizations, management,
and information technology.
Organizations
Organizations have a structure that is composed of different levels and specialties. Their
structures reveal a clear-cut division of labor. Authority and responsibility in a business firm

is organized as a hierarchy, or a pyramid structure, of rising authority and responsibility. The


upper levels of the hierarchy consist of managerial, professional, and technical employees;
where as the lower levels consist of operational personnel.
Senior management makes long-range strategic decisions about products and services as well
as ensures financial performance of the firm. Middle management carries out the programs
and plans of senior management and operational management is responsible for ministering
the daily activities of the business. Knowledge workers, such as engineers, scientists, or
architects, design products or services and create new knowledge for the firm, where as data
workers, such as secretaries or clerks, assist with paperwork at all levels of the firm.
Production or service workers actually produce the product and deliver the service.
Experts are employed and trained for different business functions. The a major business
function, or specialized tasks performed by business organizations, consists of sales and
marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources.
Most organizations business process includes formal rules that have been developed over a
long time of accomplishing tasks. These rule guide employees in a variety of procedures,
from writing an invoice to responding to customer complaints. Some these business processes
have been written down, but others are informal work practices, such as a requirement to
return telephone calls from co-workers or customers, that are not formally documented.
Information systems automate many business processes.
For instance, how a customer receives credit or how a customer is billed is often determined
by an information system that incorporates a set of formal business processes.
Each organization has a unique culture, or fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways
of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members. You can see organizational
culture at work by looking around your university or college is to learn, and that classes
follow a regular schedule.
Management
Managements job is to make sense out of many situations faced by organizations, make
decisions and formulate action plans to solve organizational problems. Managers perceive
business challenges in the environment; they set the organizational strategy for responding to
the challenges; and they allocate the human and financial resources to coordinate the work
and achieve success. Throughout, they must exercise responsible leadership.
But managers must do more than manage what already exists. They must also create new
products and services and even re-create the organization from time to time. A substantial part
of management responsibility is creative work driven by new knowledge and information.
Information technology can play a powerful role in helping managers design deliver new
products and services and re-directing and re-designing their organizations.
Technology
Information technology is one of the many tools managers use to cope up with change.
Computer hardware is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities
in an information system. It consists of the following: computers of various sizes and shapes;

various input, output and storage devices; and telecommunication devices that link the
computers together.
Computer software consists of detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system.
Data management technology consists of the software governing the organization of data and
physical storage media.
Networking and telecommunication technology, consisting of both physical devices and
software, links the various pieces of hardware and transfers data from one physical location
to another. Computers and communication equipments can be connected in networks for
sharing voice, data, images, sound and video. A network links two or more computers to
share data or resources, such as a printer.
The worlds largest and most widely used network is the Internet.
The internet has created a new universal technology platform on which to build new
products, services, strategies and business models. This same technology platform has
internal uses, providing the connectivity to link different systems and networks within the
firm. Internal corporate networks based on Internet technology are called intranets. Private
intranets extended to authorized users outside the organization are called extranets, and firms
use such networks to co-ordinate their activities with other firms for making purchases,
collaborating on design, and other inter organizational work.
The world wide web(www) is a service provided by the internet that uses universally
accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in an page
format of the internet. Web pages contain text, graphics, animations, sound, and video and are
links to other web pages. By clicking on highlighted words or buttons on a web page, you can
link to related pages to find additional information and links to other location on the Web.
. Q). What do you mean by Information System Department?
The information system department consists of specialists, such as programmers, system
analyst, project leaders, and information systems managers. Programmers are highly trained
technical specialists who write the software instruction for the computers. System analyst
constitute the principal liaison between the information system groups and the rest of the
organization. It is system analysts job to translate business problems and requirements into
information requirements and system. Information system managers are leaders of teams of
programmers and analyst, project managers, physical facility managers , telecommunication
managers or database specialists. They are also managers of computer operations and data
entry staff. Also, external specialists, such as hardware vendors and manufacturers, software
firms, and consultants, frequently participate in the day-to-day operations and long term
planning of information systems.
In many companies, the information system department is headed by a chief information
officer (CIO). The CIO is a senior manager who overseas the use of information technology
in the firm.

End users are representatives of departments outside of the information system group for
whom applications are developed. These users are playing an increasingly large role in the
design and development of information systems.
In the early years of computing, the information system group was composed mostly of
programmers who performed very highly but specialized but limited technical functions.
Today, a growing proportion of staff members are system analysts and network specialists,
with the information system department acting as a powerful change agent in the
organization. The information systems department suggests new business strategies and new
information-based products and services, and co-ordinates both the development of the
technology and the planned changes in the organization.

Q) Define and describe business processes and their relationship to information systems.
A business process is logically related set of activities that define how specific business tasks
can be viewed as a collection of business processes. Business processes are concrete
workflows of material, information and knowledge, and the way in which management
chooses to co-ordinate work. Managers need to pay attention to business processes because
they determine how well the organization can execute its business, and thus be a potential
source of strategic success or failure.
Although each of the major business function has its own set of business processes, many
other business processes are cross-functional, such as order fulfillment. Information systems
help organizations to achieve great efficiencies by automating parts of these processes or by
helping organizations redesign and streamline them. Firma can become more flexible and
efficient by coordinating their processes closely, and, in some cases, integrating these
processes so they are focused on efficient management of resources and customer service.
Q) Describe the information system supporting the major business functions.
The major business functions that are supported by any IS areSales and Marketing, Manufacturing and Production, Finance and Accounting, and Human
Resources.
At each level of organization, information system support the major fundamental areas of the
business. Sales and marketing sytems help the firm identify customers for the firms products
or services, develop products and services to meet customers needs, promote the products and
services, sell the product and services, and provide ongoing customer support. Manufacturing
and production system deal with the planning, production and development of the products
and services, and control the flow of production. Finance and accounting systems keep tracks
of the firms financial assets and fun flows. Human resources systems maintain employee
records; track employee skills, job performance, and training; and support planning for
employee compensation and career development.
Q) Evaluate the role played by systems serving the various levels of management in a
business and their relationships to each other.

There are four major types information systems in contemporary organizations serving
operational, middle, and senior management. Systems serving operational management are
transaction processing system (TPS), such as payroll or order processing, that track the flow
of the daily routine transactions to conduct the business. MIS and DSS provide middle
management reports and access to the organizations currents performance and historical
records. Most MIS reports condense information from TPS and are not highly analytical.
DSS supports management decisions when these decisions are unique, rapidly changing, and
not specified easily in advance. They have more advanced analytical models and data
analysis capabilities than MIS and often draw on information from external as well as internal
sources. ESS supports senior management by providing data of greatest importance to senior
management decision makers, often in the form of graphs and charts delivered via portals.
They have limited analytical capabilities but can draw on sophisticated graphics software and
many sources of internal and external information.
Q) Explain how enterprise applications and intranets promote business process
integration and improve organizational performance.
Enterprise applications, such as enterprise systems, supply chain management systems,
customer relationship management systems, are designed to support organization-wide
process coordination and integration so that the organization can operate efficiently. They
span multiple functions and business processes and may be tied to the business processes of
other organizations.
Enterprise systems integrate the key internal business processes of a firm into a single
software system so that information can flow throughout the organization, improving
coordination, efficiency, and decision-making. Supply chain management systems help the
firm to manage its relationship with suppliers to optimize the planning, sourcing,
manufacturing, and delivery of products and services.
Customer relationship management uses information systems to coordinate all the business
processes surrounding the firms interaction with its customers to optimize firm revenue and
customer satisfaction. Knowledge management systems enable to optimize the creation,
sharing, and distribution of knowledge to improve business processes and management
decisions.
Intranets and extranets use Internet technology and standards to assemble information from
various systems and present it to the user in a web page format. Extranets make portions of
private corporate intranets available to outsiders.
Q) Assess the role of the information systems function in a business.
The information systems department is the formal organizational unit responsible for
information technology services. The information systems department is responsible for
maintaining the hardware, software, data storage, and networks the comprise the firms IT
infrastructure. The information systems department consists of specialists, such as
programmers, system analyst, project leaders and information system managers, and is often
headed by a CIO.
There are alternative ways of organizing the IT function within the firm. A very small
company will not have a formal information system group. Larger companies will have a

separate information systems department, which may be organized along several different
lines, depending on nature and interests of the firm. Each functional area of the business mat
have its own information systems department, overseen by a corporate CIO. The information
system may be run as a separate department similar to the other functional departments. A
third arrangement found in very large firms with multiple divisions and product lines is to
have an information systems department for each division reporting to a high level central
information systems group and CIO.
Q) Identify and describe important features of organizations that managers need to
know about in order to build and use information systems successfully.
Managers need to understand certain features of organizations to build and use information
systems successfully. All modern organizations are hierarchical, specialized, and impartial,
using explicit routines to maximize efficiency. All organizations have their own cultures and
politics arising from differences in interest groups, and their surrounding environment affects
them. Organizations differ in goals, groups served, social roles, leadership styles, incentives,
types of tasks performed, and type of structure. These features help explain differences in
organizations use of information systems.
Q) Evaluate the impact of information systems on organizations.
Information systems and the organizations in which they are used interact with and influence
each other. The introduction of a new information system will affect the organizational
structure, goals, work designs, values, competition between interest groups, decision making
and day-to-day behavior.
At the same time, information systems have be designed to serve the needs of important
organizational groups and will be shaped by the organizations structure, tasks, goals, culture,
politics, and management. Information technology can reduce transaction and agency costs,
and such changes have been accentuated in organizations using the Internet.
Information systems are closely intertwined with an organizations structure, culture, and
business processes. New systems disrupt established patterns of work and power
relationships, so there is often considerable resistance to them when they are introduced. The
complex relationship between information systems, organizational performance, and decision
making must be carefully managed.
Q).What do you mean by IT infrastructure?
IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are
required to operate the entire enterprise. But IT infrastructure is also a set of firmware
services budgeted by management and comprising both human and technical capabilities.
These services include the following:

Computing platforms used to provide computing services that connect employees,


customers, and suppliers into a coherent digital environment, including large
mainframes, desktop and laptop computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs)
and internet appliances.

Telecommunication services that provide data, voice, and video connectivity


employees, customers and suppliers.

Data management services that store and manage corporate data and provide
capabilities for analyzing the data.
Application software services that provide enterprise-wide capabilities such as
enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain
management, and knowledge management systems that are shared by all business
units.
Physical facilities management services that develop and manage the physical
installations required for computing, telecommunications, and data management
services.
IT management services that plan and develop the infrastructure, coordinate with
business units for IT services, manage accounting for the IT expenditure, and provide
project management services.
IT standards services that provide the firm and its business units with policies that
determine which information technology will be used, when and how.
IT education services that provide training in system use to employees and offer
manager s training in how to plan for and manage IT investments.
IT search and developments services that provide the firm with research on potential
future IT projects and investments that could help the firm differentiate itself in the
marketplace.

Q) Evaluate the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions.


Major infrastructure challenges include dealing with infrastructure change, agreeing on
infrastructure management and governance, and making wise infrastructure investments.
Solution guidelines include using a competitive forces model to determine how much to
spend on IT infrastructure and when to make strategic infrastructure investments, and
establishing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of information technology assets.
The total cost of owning technology resources includes not only the original cost of
computer hard and software but also cost for hardware and software upgrades, maintenance,
technical support and training.

Q.What are the different types of decision?


Decision-making in business is a very important job in todays world. Today, lower-level
employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make
information available to lower levels of the business.

The following are the types of decisions:


Unstructured Decision are those in which the decision maker must provide judgment,
evaluation, and insight to solve the problem. Each of these decisions is novel, important, and
non-routine, and there is no well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making them.
Unstructured decisions, by contrast, are repetitive and routine, and they involve a definite
procedure for handling them so that they do not have to treat each time as if they were new.
Many decision have elements have both types of decisions and are semi-structured, where
only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure. In general
structured decisions are more prevalent at lower organizational levels, where as unstructured
problems are more common at higher levels of the firm.
Senior executives face many unstructured decision situations, such as establishing the firms
five- or ten-year goals or deciding a new market to enter. Answering the question Should we
enter a new market? would require access to news, govt. reports and industry views as well
as high-level summaries of firm performance. However the answer would also require senior
managers to use their own bets judgment and whole their managers for their opinions.
Middle management faces more structure decision scenarios but their decisions may include
unstructured components. A typical middle level management decision might be Why is the
reported order fulfillment report showing a decline over the past six months at a distributions
in Minneapolis? This middle manager could obtain a report from the firms enterprise system
or distribution management system on order activity and operational efficiency at the
Minneapolis distribution center. This is a structured part of the decision. But before arriving
at an answer this middle manager have to interview employees and gather more unstructured
information from external sources about local economic conditions or sales trends.
Operational management and rank-and-file employees tend to make more structured
decisions. For example, a supervisor or an assembly line has to decide whether an hourly paid
worker is entitled to over time pay. If the employees work more than eight hours on a
particular day, the supervisor would routinely grant overtime pay for anytime beyond eight
hours that was clocked on that day.

Q).Describe the Simons Model of Decision Making .


Administrative Behavior was Herbert Simons doctoral dissertation and his first book. It
served as the foundation for his life's work. The centerpiece of this book is the behavioral and
cognitive processes of making rational human choices, that is, decisions. An operational
administrative decision should be correct and efficient, and it must be practical to implement
with a set of coordinated means.

Any decision involves a choice selected from a number of alternatives, directed toward an
organizational goal or subgoal. Realistic options will have real consequences consisting of
personnel actions or non-actions modified by environmental facts and values. In actual
practice, some of the alternatives may be conscious or unconscious; some of the
consequences may be unintended as well as intended; and some of the means and ends may
be imperfectly differentiated, incompletely related, or poorly detailed.
The task of rational decision making is to select the alternative that results in the more
preferred set of all the possible consequences. This task can be divided into three required
steps: (1) the identification and listing of all the alternatives; (2) the determination of all the
consequences resulting from each of the alternatives; and (3) the comparison of the accuracy
and efficiency of each of these sets of consequences. Any given individual or organization
attempting to implement this model in a real situation would be unable to comply with the
three requirements. It is highly improbable that one could know all the alternatives, or all the
consequences that follow each alternative.
The question here is: given the inevitable limits on rational decision making, what other
techniques or behavioral processes can a person or organization bring to bear to achieve
approximately the best result? Simon writes:The human being striving for rationality and
restricted within the limits of his knowledge has developed some working procedures that
partially overcome these difficulties. These procedures consist in assuming that he can isolate
from the rest of the world a closed system containing a limited number of variables and a
limited range of consequences.
Administrative Behavior, as a text, addresses a wide range of human behaviors, cognitive
abilities, management techniques, personnel policies, training goals and procedures,
specialized roles, criteria for evaluation of accuracy and efficiency, and all of the
ramifications of communication processes. Simon is particularly interested in how these
factors directly and indirectly influence the making of decisions.
Weaving in and out of the practical functioning of all of these organizational factors are two
universal elements of human social behavior that Simon addresses are The Role of
Authority, and Loyalties, and Organizational Identification.
Authority is a well studied, primary mark of organizational behavior, and is straightforwardly
defined in the organizational context as the ability and right of an individual of higher rank to
determine the decision of an individual of lower rank. The actions, attitudes, and relationships
of the dominant and subordinate individuals constitute components of role behavior that can
vary widely in form, style, and content, but do not vary in the expectation of obedience by the
one of superior status, and willingness to obey from the subordinate. Authority is highly
influential on the formal structure of the organization, including patterns of communication,
sanctions, and rewards, as well as on the establishment of goals, objectives, and values of the
organization.
Decisions can be complex admixtures of facts and values. Information about facts, especially
empirically proven facts or facts derived from specialized experience, are more easily
transmitted in the exercise of authority than are the expressions of values. Simon is primarily
interested in seeking identification of the individual employee with the organizational goals
and values. Following Lasswell he states that a person identifies himself with a group when,

in making a decision, he evaluates the several alternatives of choice in terms of their


consequences for the specified group. A person may identify himself with any number of
social, geographic, economic, racial, religious, familial, educational, gender, political, and
sports groups. Indeed, the number and variety are unlimited. The fundamental problem for
organizations is to recognize that personal and group identifications can either facilitate or
obstruct correct decision making for the organization. A specific organization has to
deliberately determine and specify in appropriate detail and clear language its own goals,
objectives, means, ends, and values.
Chester Barnard pointed out that the decisions that an individual makes as a member of an
organization are quite distinct from his personal decisions. Personal choices may determine
whether an individual joins a particular organization, and continue to be made in his or her
extraorganizational private life. But, as a member of an organization, that individual makes
decisions not in relationship to personal needs and results, but in an impersonal sense as part
of the organizational intent, purpose, and effect. Organizational inducements, rewards, and
sanctions are all designed to form, strengthen, and maintain this identification.
The correctness of decisions is measured by two major criteria: (1) adequacy of achieving the
desired objective; and (2) the efficiency with which the result was obtained. Many members
of the organization may focus on adequacy, but the overall administrative management must
pay particular attention to the efficiency with which the desired result was obtained.
Simon's contributions to research in the area of decision-making have become increasingly
mainstream in the business community thanks to the growth of management consulting.
Simon's decision-making steps of Intelligence, Design, Choice, and Review are the basis of
the work of Inferential Focus.

Q).What are the Various Types of Decision-making Models?


Pure rationality model is the most rational decision-making model because it allows
decision-makers to make the best decisions and achieve highest efficiency out of unlimited
time, resources and knowledge in generating decisions. It assumes politics-administration
dichotomy in which the former identifies goals for the latter to achieve (Gianakis, 2004).
However, the incremental model is a less rational model because ends and means are
intertwined. Goals are politically feasible and decisions are made by comparing several
immediately available alternatives (Lindblom, 2005).
The bounded rationality model is less rational than the pure rationality model but more
rational than the incremental model. It is defined by Simon as the achievement of given
goals subject to subjective constraints (Simon, 1982).

Q). Assess how information systems support the activities of managers and management
derision.
Several different models of what managers actually do in organizations show how
information systems can be used for managerial support. Early classical models of
managerial activities stress the functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and
controlling. Contemporary research looking at the actual behavior of managers has found that
managers' real activities are highly fragmented, variegated, and brief in duration, with
managers moving rapidly and intensely from one issue to another.
Managers spend considerable time pursuing personal agendas and goals, and contemporary
managers shy away from making grand, sweeping policy decisions.
Information technology provides new tools for managers to carry out both their traditional
newer roles, enabling them to monitor, plan, and forecast with more precision and speed than
ever before and to respond more rapidly to the changing business environment. Information
systems have been most helpful to managers by providing support for their roles in
disseminating information, providing liaisons between organizational levels, and allocating
resources. However, some managerial roles cannot be supported by information systems, and
information systems are less successful at supporting unstructured decisions.

Q).What is Management Information System(MIS)?


MIS-a definition- is a system consisting of people, machines, procedures, datamodels as its
elements. The system gathers data from the internal and external sources of an organization
process it and supplies this management information to assist managers in the process of
decision making.
Thus from the above definition it is evident that on MIS is not a single system rather it is a
integrated system where sub-parts filled into an overall design. It can be diagrammatically
represented as-Management information systems (MIS) help managers monitor and control the business by
providing information on the firm's performance. They typically produce fixed, regularly
scheduled reports based on data extracted and summarized from the firm's underlying
transaction processing systems (TPS). Sometimes, MIS reports are exception reports,
highlighting only exceptional conditions, such as when the sales quotas for a specific territory
fall below an anticipated level or employees have exceeded their spending limits in a dental
care plan. Today, many of these reports are available online through an intranet, and more
MIS reports can be generated on demand.

Q) Discuss about the characteristics of MIS?


(i) System Approach-- approach implies a holistic approach to the study of the system and its
performance in the light of the objective for which it has been constituted.
(ii) Management orientedThis is an important channel of MIS. For designing MIS, top
down approach should be followed. The MIS development plan should be derived from the
overall business plan.
Management oriented characteristics also implies that the management actively directs the
system developments efforts.
(iii) Need basedMIS design should be at par the needs of the managers at different levels
i.e. strategic planning management control level.
(iv) Exception basedMIS should be developed on the exception reporting principle to the
decision maker at that required level.
(v) Future orientedMIS should look at the future, should not provide past or historical
information. Rather it should provide information on the basis of projection.
(vi) IntegratedIntegration is significant because of its ability to produce more meaningful
information.
(vii) Common Data FloorThe development common data floor is caused by the
interrelation concept of MIS, is an economically sound and logical concept. But it must be
viewed in a practical light.

(viii) Long Term PlanningMIS is developed over relatively long periods, such systems do
not develop overnight. A heavy element of planning is involved.
(ix) Sub-system conceptThe process of MIS development is quite complex. Thus the
system though viewed as a single entity, must be broken down into digestible sub-system,
which are more meaningful at the planning stage.
Q) What are the functions of MIS?
The MIS must perform the following function in order to meet its objective
(i) Data capturingMIS captures data from various internal and external sources of an
organization.
(ii) Processing of dataThe captured data is processed to convert into the required
management information using statistical, mathematical operations and research model.
(iii) Storage of informationMIS stores processed or unprocessed data for future use. If any
information is not immediate required it is saved as an organizational record.
(iv)Retrieval of informationMIS retrieved information from its stores as and when
requires by various users as per the requirement of management, the retrieved
information is either disseminated as such or it is processed again to meet the exact
management information needs.

_____________________________________________________________________

Q). Describe the structure of MIS?


Structure of MIS is a difficult concept to understand because there is no standard or
universally accepted framework for describing MIS. MIS structure may be described by
following a variety of approaches:(i) Physical component;
(ii) Information system processing functions;

(iii) Decision support;


(iv) Levels of Management activity;
(v) Organizational function;
(i) Physical componentsof an organizational information system may be:(a) Hardware
(b) Software
(c) Database
(d) Procedures
(e) Operating personnel
(f) Input and output
(ii) Information system structure can also be understood in terms of its processing function,
the function of an MIS explains what the system does. The main processing function are(a) Processing transaction--Ex: making a purchase on sale or manufacturing a product. It may
be within the organization or external to the organization.
(b) Maintain master-filesA master file store relatively performance or historical data about
the organization. Information system can create and maintain master-files in an organization.
(c) To produce reportsReports are significant product of energy information system.
(d) To process enquiresInformation system are used to process enquiry based on the
background databases.
(e) To process interactive support applicationsThe information system contains
applications design to support system for planning, analysis and used for such application.
(iii) Decision supportMIS should provide a support for decision making. A highly
structured decision can be preplanned whereas a highly unstructured decision cannot.
A structured decision because of it well defined nature is said to be programmable. Similarly
an unstructured decision is said to be unprogrammable.
The structured programmable decisions tend to be routine and frequently repeated. The
unstructured decisions tend to occur with less frequency and tends to be irregular.
(iv) Levels of Management activitiesMIS supports various management activities in an
organization and Anthony was the scientist on the basis of activities has classified the
management hierarchy into 3 levels. These are:- (1) strategic planning level;
(2) management control level;
(3) operational control level;
(v) Organizational functionThe structure of management information system can also be
described in term of the organizational function. More over M.I.S is essentially an integration
of information system that are designed to support. The functional sub-systems of the
organizations.

Each system performs all information supporting related to the function.

Q). What are the different types of MIS?


(1) TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEM (TPS)
(2) MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS)
(3) DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (DSS)
(4) EXECUTIVE SUPPORT SYSTEM (ESS)
(5) OFFICE AUTOMATION SYSTEM (OAS)
(6) BUSINESS EXPERT SYSTEM (BES)

1) Transactions Processing SystemTPS processes transaction and produces reports. It


represents the automation of fundamental of routine processing used to support business
operations. It does not provide any information to the user for his/her decision making.

This uses data and produces data as shown below:-

Previously TPS was known as MIS. In many organization TPS is also known as data
processing system. Data processing is mainly done with the help of computers its domain is
at the lowest level of management hierarchy of the organization.
Operational managers need systems that keep track of the elementary activities and
transactions of the organizations, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit
decisions, and the flow of materials in a factory. Transactions process system provide this
kind of information. A transaction processing system is a computerized system that performs
and records the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business, such as sales order
entry, hotel reservations, payroll, employee record keeping, and shipping.
Managers need TPS to monitor the status of internal operations and the firms relations with
the external environment. TPS are also major producers of information for the other types of
systems.
TPSs are often so central to a business that TPS failure for a few hours can lead to a firms
demise perhaps that of other firms linked to it.
Transaction may be internal to the organization or it may be external to the organization.
Externally generated transactions are from customers, suppliers and other groups.
Any internal event, which is recorded by the information system, is considered to be a
transaction.
For ex: Transforming working process from one stop of production.
Routine file changes such as adding deleting records or changing an employees address and
correcting error in previous input data are all examples of internal transaction. The output of
every data processing system or TPS way be in several form.

2) Management Information SystemM.I.S is information which process data and


comments it into information. These can be depicted diagrammatically as-

M.I.S uses TPS for its data inputs. The information generated are used for control of
information, strategic and long range planning, management control and other managerial
problem solving.(The Possible question may be-How TPS & DSS are related to each
other?)
In contrast TPS a MIS is more comprehensiveit encompasses processing in support of a
wide range of organizational functions and management process.

Secondly MIS is capable of providing analysis, planning and decision making support an
M.I.S can be defined as integrated system. Integration of information may be:a) Horizontal
b) Hierarchical
c) Cross functional
(1) Horizontalintegration refers to the integration of information system within a functional
area or chain of command. Ex: a product may pass through several production processes in a
production department.
2) Hierarchicalin hierarchical integration operational control level systems feed data to a
higher level system, i.e. to the management control level (middle level) and the strategic
planning level (top level).
(3) Cross Functionalas the name indicates, these type of systems associate with different
functional areas. Ex: a marketing information system may transmit information regarding loss
of sells, because inventory shortage to inventory control information system.
In business organization information system or generally developed to cater to information
needs of managers of each of the functional area of the business.
The functional areas of a business may be marketing, production, human resource, finance,
accounting etc and subsequently the information system supporting these functions are
known as marketing information system, production or manufacturing information system,
human resource information system etc.
3) Decision Support System(DSS)a DSS in an information system application that assists
decision making. DSS tends to be used in planning, alternating analysis, trial and error search
solutions, these type systems are generally operated through terminal based interactive
dialogues with users. DSS although created and used by managers are the less a part of the
organization MIS.

As DSS is tailored to a specific managerial task or a specific problem its use is limited to that
task or problem.
DSS a design primarily to serve management control level and strategic planning level
managers the elements of a DSS include a data base, a model base and a software providing
interactive dialogue facility for the managers.
Another element of DSS is a library of models to manipulate to analyze data in the desired
way.
The 3rd element is the user inter face. Though this the user can communicate with the DSS.

DSS goes one step further to a MIS as DSS supports decision making. DSS uses MIS as
follows:( The question may be- How DSS & MIS are related to each other?)

DSS can be differentiated from MIS in term of its processing capability. Whereas MIS
process data to convert it to information, DSS process information to support the decision
making.
Whereas MIS primarily address structured problems, DSS support semistructured and
unstructured problem analysis. The earliest DSS were heavily model-driven, using some type
of model to perform "what-if and other kinds of analyses. Their analysis capabilities were
based on a strong theory or model combined with a good user- interface that made the system
easy to use.
The main application areas of DSS are production, finance and marketing. For example DSS
supports decision making in procurement analysis, production planning and scheduling,
inventive planning and control, financial planning and analysis, tax planning financial
performance analysis, marketing mix decisions. Presently DSS is also used in developing
special purpose computer packages.
A typical DSS consists of 3 major components, these are(i)

DSS tools

(ii)

DSS generator

(iii) Specific DSS


DSS tools are framework based software solutions that are used as the building blocks of
DSS. These tools permit building of specific logic into the system, allows setting up of norms
and rules that are to be used to evaluate alternatives.
The DSS generators adopt the login, norms, rules to create a specific DSS that is capable of
handling predetermined decision functions.
The combination of DSS tools and generators produce the specific DSS with which the user
of DSS interacts.

We can also say that softwares that help users to build DSS are turned as DSS generator.
Spread sheet packages like MS EXCEL, LOTUS 123 are good examples of DSS.
Q). What are the characteristics of DSS?
1. decision aid
2. semi-structured decision support
3. what if analysis
4. effectiveness vs. efficiency
5. satisfactory principle
6. heuristic problem solving
7. individual preferences and decision style
8. trade of analysis
4) Executive Support SystemESS is an extension of the MIS which is a special kind of
DSS and ESS is tailored for the organization to support his or her decision making. Thus ESS
is a comprehensive information system which includes various types of DSS, but it is more
specific and person oriented.
As ESS is designed to cater the information of a chief executive keeping in views not only
his or her requirement but also taking into account his or her personality and style of
functioning.
5) Office Automation System(OAS)OAS requires to the application of the computers and
communication technology for office functioning. OAS system meant to improve the
productivity of managers at various levels of management by providing secretarial and better
communication facilities.
OAS are the combination of hardware, software, and people in information system that
process office transactions and support office activities at all levels of the organization. These
systems include a wide range of support facilities which include word processing, electronic
mail, message switching, data storage, data and voice communications.
Office activities may be grouped under 2 classes
(i) Activities performed by clerical personnel(clerks, secretaries, typists etc).
(ii) Activities performed by the executives(managers, engineers, other professionals like
economists, researches).
In the 1st category following is the list of activities
(i) typing;
(ii) mailing;
(iii) scheduling of meetings and conferences;
(iv) calendar keeping;
(v) retrieving document;
The following is the list of activities in the second category
(i) conferencing;
(ii) production of information;
(iii) controlling performance;
Information Technology facilitates both type of activity, a wide variety of Office Automation
Devices like fax machines, copiers, phones are used in offices.

Moreover nowadays computer based automation systems are gaining popularity among
managers and office staffs.
6) Business Expert System(BES)These systems are one of the main type of knowledge
based on artificial information system(KBIS). BES which are based on artificial intelligence
are advanced information system.
A knowledge based information system adds a knowledge base to the main components
found in other types of information system.
Artificial Intelligence may be referred to as the capability that makes computer intelligent and
acts as a human alike.
A BES is a knowledge based information system that uses its knowledge about a specific
complex application to act as an expert. Thus expert system provide decision support to
managers in the form of advice from an expert in a specific problem area.
The main advantages of using an expert system are:(i) The knowledge/capabilities of many experts can be used to build a single expert system.
(ii) Decision making of critical types can be more reliable as these systems are not affected
by emotional factor or fatigue.
(iii) Multiple hypotheses can be considered simultaneously.
The expert systems are interactive in nature, which enable it to ask questions to this user on
the basis of these questions an expert system searches its knowledge base for facts and rules,
explains the reasoning process when asked and comes out with expert advice to the end user.
The main components of BES are:(i) knowledge base
(ii) inference engine
(iii) user interface

Knowledge base contains the fact about the specific expert area and heuristic that describes
the reasoning produces of that subject.
Inference engine contains the logic of reaching an inference from the stored data and
rules(knowledge base).
Expert System may be developed by using either programming languages like LISP(list
processing) and PROLOG or C or by using expert system shells.
In this convection one should keep in mind that a system is not a set of randomly assembled
element rather it consists of element which can be identified as related to each other because
of a common purpose or a goal.

Q). What are the different types of DSS?


1. Passive DSS A Passive DSS is a system that aids the process of decision making but
cannot bring out explicit decision suggestions.
2. Active DSS An Active DSS can bring out such decisions, suggestions or solutions.
3. Co-operative DSS A co-operative DSS allows the decision maker to modify,
complete or refine the decision suggestions provided by the system, before sending
them back to the system for validation.
4. A model driver DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of a statistical, financial,
optimization or stimulation model. It uses data and parameters provided by users to
assist decision makers in analyzing a situation.
5. A communication driven DSS supports more than 1% working on a shared task. This
include integrated tools like, Microsofts, net-meeting or groove.
6. A data oriented DSS emphasizes access to manipulation of a time series of internal
company data and sometimes external data.
7. A document driven DSS manages, retrieves and manipulates unstructured information
in a variety of electronic formats.
8. A knowledge driven DSS provides specialized problem solving expertise stored as
facts, rules and procedures or in similar structures.

Q) How to build a DSS (Decision Support System)?


In building a specific DSS (SDSS), the iterative design process seems to be most appropriate
because of the need for flexibility and the short development cycle needed by the decision
makers. Flexibility can be viewed as the ability of the SDSS to respond the changes in their
decision making process as well as the ability to the specific DSS. An iterative design
compresses the traditional levels of the system life cycle to generate repeated version of the
S-DSS. The result of applying the iterative design process at all levels is n adaptive DSS
capability.
The key aspect of a iterative design:i)
focus on the sub-problem
ii)
focus on a small but usable DSS
iii)
plan for refinement / modification cycle
iv)
evaluate constantly
Q). What is DSS Generator ?
A generator is an integrated package of software that provides a set of capabilities to build a
specific DSS quickly, inexpensively (low cost) and easily. A DSS generator is an integrated
easy to use package with drivers capabilities ranging from modeling report generation,
graphical presentation for performing risk analysis.

The ideal DSS generator may be a special purpose language. The special purpose language
may be used to build a DSS application easily or as an integrated software system,
constructed around spread sheet technology.

Q).How to Create A DSS Generator?


A DSS generator should have three general capabilities. These are
i) It should be easy to use
a) the generator should be a SDSS that is easy and convenient for non-technical
people to use in an active and controlled way.
b) the generator should be easy and convenient for the builders to use for building and
modifying the SDSS (Specific DSS).
ii) The DSS generator should provide access to a a wide variety of data sources in a way that
supports problem solving and decision making for a variety of users, problems and contexts.
iii) The DSS generator should provide analysis to support problem solving and decision
making for a variety of users, problems and contexts. The generator should provide
suggestions on requests.
Q). The Development Process of a DSS Constructed by End-users
When end-users are allowed to modify a S-DSS to suit their decision needs or the decision
needs of a group that they represent, it is better to follow a construction process from the enduser point of view. A suitable construction process developed from an end-users point of view
is given by TURBAN, 1995.
PHASE-1: Choosing the project or problem to be solved. Departments involved are
committed to the process for finding a suitable solution.
PHASE-2: Selecting the suitable software and hardware for finding a suitable solution.
PHASE-3: Collecting the data (Data acquisition) and management.
PHASE-4: Model subsystem acquisition and management. Build the model base. Acquire
and include relevant models in the model base.
PHASE-5: Dialogue subsystems and its management. Development of user interface.
PHASE-6: Knowledge component perform knowledge engineering.
PHASE-7: Packaging the various software components of the DSS are put together for
easy using and testing.
PHASE-8: Testing evaluation and improvement test the sample and valid it to prove that
the DSS is reliable.
PHASE-9: User training trained users uses in the DSS.

PHASE-10: Documentation and maintenance produce the document and maintain the
DSS.
PHASE-11: Adaptation adopt DSS to suit user needs.
Q). Custom-made versus Ready-made DSS.
When a problem is non-routine and not structured, DSS needs to be custom made for the
organization.
When similar functional problem exists in different functional organization, a generic DSS
can be build with the options of some modification. Such a DSS is called Ready-made DSS.
Most of the DSS are custom made DSS.

Q). What is Group Decision Support System (GDSS)


The user is the final component of a DSS that influences the way, the final decision is
reached. Differences exist in user preferences and abilities and the way they arrived at a
decision. The user is also known as the manager or the decision maker, knowing who will use
the DSS is important in the designing of it. Individual can use a DSS for a personnel support
or they can individually use the DSS or a portion of a DSS in organizational or group support.
A new dimension, namely how a group of workers together is introduced when decision need
to be made collectively. These complicated types of DSS is called a Group-DSS.
A group decision-support system (GDSS) is an interactive, computer-based system used to
facilitate the solution of unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together
as a group. Tools for collaboration and web-based conferencing described earlier in this text
support same group decision processes, but their focus is primarily on communication.
GDSS, however, provide tools and technologies geared explicitly toward group decision
making and were developed in response to a growing concern over the quality and
effectiveness of meetings. The underlying problems in group decision making have been the
explosion of decision-maker meetings, the growing length of those meetings, and the
increased number of attendees. Estimates on the amount of a managers time spent in
meetings range from 35 to 70 percent.

Q). What are the Components of GDSS?


GDSS make meetings more productive by providing tools to facilitate planning,
Generating, organizing, and evaluating ideas, establishing priorities, and documenting
meeting proceedings for others in the firm. GDSS consist of three basic elements hardware,
software tools, and people. Hardware refers to the conference facility itself, including the
room, the tables, and the chairs. Such a facility must be physically laid out in a manner that
supports group collaboration.

It also must include some electronic hardware, such as electronic display boards, as well as
audiovisual, computer; and networking equipment.
GDSS software tools were originally developed for meetings in which all participants are in
the same room, but they also can be used for networked meetings in which participants are in
different locations. Specific GDSS software tools include the following:
Electronic questioners aid the organizations in pre-meeting planning by identifying issues
of concern and by helping to ensure that key planning information in not overlooked.
Electronic brainstorming tools enable individuals, simultaneously and anonymously, to
contribute ideas on the topics of the meeting.
Idea organizers facilitate the organized integration and synthesis of ideas generated during
brainstorming.

Questionnaire tools support the facilitators and group leaders as they gather information
before and during the process of setting priorities.
Tools for voting or setting priorities make available a range of methods from simple
voting, to rank in order, to a range of weighted techniques for setting priorities or voting.
Stakeholder identification and analysis tools use structured approaches to evaluate the
impact of an emerging proposal on the organization and to identify stakeholders and evaluate
the potential impact of those stakeholders on the proposed project.

Policy formation tools provide structured support for developing agreement on the
wording of policy statements.
Group dictionaries document group agreement on definitions of words and terms to the
project.
People refers not only to the participants but also to a trained facilitator and often to a stall
that supports the hardware and software. Together, these elements have led to the creation of
a range of different kinds of GDSS, from simple electronic boardrooms to elaborate
collaboration laboratories.
Q). Discuss about the business value of GDSS?
Studios show flint in traditional decision-making meetings without GDSS support, the
optimal meeting size is three to live attendees. Beyond that size, the meeting process begins
to break down. Using GDSS software, studies show the number of attendees in a meeting can
increase while productivity also increases. One reason for this is that attendees contribute
simultaneously rather than one at a time, which make more efficient use of meeting time.
A GDSS contributes to a more collaborative atmosphere by guaranteeing contributors
anonymity. Attendees can contribute without fear of personally being criticized or of having
their ideas rejected because of the identity of the contributor. GDSS software tools follow
structured methods for organizing and evaluating ideas and for preserving the results of
meetings, enabling non-attendees to locate needed information after the meeting. The
documentation of a meeting by one group at one site can also be used as input to another
meeting on the same project at another site.

Q).Demonstrate how decision-support systems (DSS) differ from MIS and how they
provide value to the business.

Management information system(MIS) provide information on firm performance to help


managers monitor and control the business, often in the form of fixed regularly scheduled
reports based on data summarized from the firm's transaction processing systems MIS
support structured decisions and some semi-structured decisions.
Decision-support systems (DSS) combine data, sophisticated analytical models and tools, and
user-friendly software into a single powerful system that can support semistructured or
unstructured decision making. The components of n OSS arc the, DSS database, the user
interface, and the DSS software system. There are two kinds of DSS; model-driven OSS and
data-driven DSS. DSS can help support decisions for pricing, supply chain management, and
customer relationship management as well as model .- alternative business scenarios. DSS
targeted toward customers as well as manager are becoming available on the Web. A special
category of USS called geographic information systems (GIS) uses data visualization
technology to analyze and display data for planning and decision making with digitized maps.
Q).Evaluate the role of information systems in helping people working in a group make
decisions more efficiently.
People working together in a group can use decision-support systems to help them in the
process of arriving at a decision. Group decision-support systems (GDSS) have hardware,
software, and people components. Hardware components consist of the conference room
facilities, including seating arrangements and computer and other electronic hardware.
Software components include tools for organizing ideas, gathering participants, a trained
facilitator, and documenting meeting sessions. People components include participants, a
trained facilitator, and staff to support the hardware and software.
A GDSS helps decision makers meeting together to arrive at a decision more efficiently and
is especially useful for increasing the productivity of meetings of more than four or five
people. However, the effectiveness of a GDSS is contingent on the composition of the group,
the task, appropriate tool selection and meeting support, and the organizational content of the
meeting.
Q). Demonstrate how executive support systems (ESS) help senior managers make
better decisions.
Executive Support System helps senior manager with unstructured problems that occur at the
strategic level of the firm. ESS provide data from both internal and external sources and
provide a generalized computing and communications environment that can be focused and
applied to a changing array of problems.
ESS helps senior executive monitor firm performance, spot problems, identity opportunities,
and forecast trends. These systems can filter out extraneous details for high-level overviews,
or they can drill down to provide senior managers with detailed transaction data if required.
ESS take advantage of firmwide data provided by enterprise systems. ESS help senior
managers analyze, compare, and highlight trends so that the managers may more easily
monitor organizational performance or identify strategic problems and opportunities. They
are very useful for environment scanning, providing business intelligence to help
management detect strategic threats or opportunities from the organizations environment.

ESS can increase the span of control of senior management, allowing them to oversee more
people with fewer resources.

Q). Discuss about web-based customer decision-support systems.


The growth of electronic commerce has encouraged many companies to develop DSS for
customers that use Web information resources and capabilities for interactivity and
personalization to help users select products and services. People are now using more
information from multiple sources to make purchasing decisions (such as purchasing a car or
computer) before they interact with the product or sales staff. For instance, nearly all
automobile companies use customer decision-support systems that allow Web site visitors to
configure their desired car. Customer decision-support systems (CDSS) support the
decision-making process of an existing or potential customer.
People interested in purchasing a product or service can use Internet search engines,
intelligent agents, online catalogs, Web directories, newsgroup discussions, e-mail, and other
tools to help them locate the information they need to help with their decision.
Companies have developed specific customer Web sites where all the information, models, or
other analytical tools for evaluating alternatives are concentrated in one location
Web-based DSS have become especially popular in financial services because so many
people are trying to manage their own assets and retirement savings. For example,
RiskGrades.com, a Web site run by RiskMetrics Group lets users input all their stock, bond
and mutual fund holdings to determine how much their portfolios might decline under
various conditions. Users can see how the addition or subtraction of a holding might affect
overall portfolio volatility and risk.
Q). Discuss about the role of executive support systems in the firm.
Use of ESS has migrated down several organizational levels so that the executive and
subordinates are able to look at the same data in the same way. Todays systems
try to avoid the problem of data overload because the data can be filtered or viewed in
graphic format (if the user so chooses). ESS have the ability to drill down, moving from a
piece of summary data to lower and lower levels of detail. The ability to drill down is useful
not only to senior executives but also to employees at lower levels of the firm who need to
analyze data. OLAP tools for analyzing large databases provide this capability.
A major challenge of executive support systems has been to integrate data from systems
designed for very different purposes so that senior executives can review organizational
performance from a firm-wide perspective. Today, enterprise systems are able to provide
managers with timely, comprehensive, and accurate firm-wide information. ESS based on
such data can be considered logical extensions of enterprise system functionally.
Executives need a wide range of external data, from current stock market news to competitor
information, industry trends, and even projected legislative action. Through their ESS, many

managers have access to news services, financial market databases, economic information,
and whatever other public data they may require.
Contemporary ESS include tools for modeling and analysis. With only a
minimum of experience, most managers find they can use these tools to create graphic
comparisons of data by time, region, product, price range, and so on.
ESS needs to have some facility for environmental scanning. A key information requirement
of managers at the strategic level is the ability to detect signals of problems in the
organizational environment that indicate strategic threats and opportunities (Walls et al.,
1992). The ESS need to be designed so that both external and internal sources of information
can be used for environmental scanning purposes.
Q). What is the business value of executive support systems ?
Much of the value of ESS is found in their flexibility and their ability to analyze, compare,
and highlight trends. The easy use of graphics enables the user to look at more data in less
time with greater clarity and insight than paper-based systems provide.
Executives are using ESS to monitor key performance indicators for the entire firm and to
measure firm performance against changes in the external environment. The timeliness and
availability of the data result in needed actions being identified and carried out earlier than
previously could have been done. Problems can be handled before they become they become
too damaging; opportunities can also be identified earlier. These systems can thus help
business move towards a sense-and-respond strategy.
A well-designed ESS could dramatically improve management performance
and increase upper management's span of control. Immediate access to so much data
increases executives' ability to monitor activities of lower units reporting to them. That very
monitoring ability could enable decision making to be decentralized and to take place at
lower operating levels. Executives are often willing to push decision making further down
into the organization as long as they can be assured that all is going well.
Alternatively, executive support systems based on enterprise-wide data could potentially
increase management centralization, enabling senior executives to monitor the performance
of subordinates across the company and to take appropriate action when conditions change.

Q).What do you mean by Software Life Cycle Models?


A software life cycle(or software process) is a series of identifiable stages that a software
product undergoes during its lifetime. A software product development effort usually starts
with a feasibility study stage, and the requirements analysis and specification, design, coding,
testing and maintenance are undertaken. Each of these stages is called a life cycle phase.

A software life cycle model(or process model) is a descriptive and diagrammatic model of a
software life cycle. A life cycle model identifies all the activities required to develop and
maintain a software product, and establishes a precedence ordering among the different
activities. Several different activities are carried out in each life cycle phase.
The primary advantage of adhering to a life cycle model is that it encourages development of
software in a systematic and disciplines manner.
A life cycle model defines entry and exit criteria for every phase. A phase is considered to be
complete only if the corresponding exit criteria are satisfied. Similarly, a phase can start only
if the corresponding phase entry criteria are satisfied.
Q).What is 99% complete syndrome?
When a life cycle model is adhered to, the project manager can easily tellat which stage of
development the project currently is. If no life cycle model is adhered to, it becomes very
difficult to chart the progress of the project and the project manager would have to depend on
the estimation of the team members. This usually lead to a problem known as the 99%
complete syndrome. In this syndrome, which appears when there is no definite way to assess
the progress of a project, the optimistic team members feel that the project is 99% complete
even when the project is far from its completion, making all projections about the completion
highly inaccurate.
Q). Discuss about Classical Waterfall Model.
The classical waterfall model divides the life cycle of a software development process into
the phases shown in the below figure. This life cycle model is named waterfall model
because its diagrammatic representation resembles a cascade of waterfalls. The different
phases

of this model are feasibility study, requirements analysis and specification, design, coding
and unit testing, integration and system testing are known as the development phases.
During each phase of the life cycle, a set of well-defined activities are carried out. The
important activities in each phase are discussed here. Each phase typically requires relatively
different amounts of effort.
Each phase of the life cycle has a well-defined starting and ending point. Therefore, he
development engineers know precisely when to stop a phase and start the next phase.

Feasibility Study
The main aim of feasibility study is to determine whether developing the product is
financially and technically feasible. The feasibility study involves analysis of the problem and
collection of data which would be input to the system, the processing required to be carried
out on these data, the output data required to be produced by the system, as well as study of
various constraints on the behavior of the system. The collected data are analyzed to arrive at
the following:
An abstract definition of the problem.
Formulation of the different solution strategies.
Examination of alternative solution strategies and their benefits, indicating resources
required, development, cost and time in respect of each of the alternative solutions.
A cost/benefit analysis is performed to determine which solution is the best. At this
stage, it may be also be determined whether any of the solutions is not feasible due to
high cost, resources constraints, or extraordinary technical reasons.
Requirements Analysis and Specification
The aim of the requirements analysis and specification phase is to understand the exact
requirements of the customer and to document the properly. This phase consists of two
distinct activities: requirements analysis and requirements specifications.
The goal of the requirements analysis is to collect and analyze all related data and
information with a view to understanding the customer requirements clearly and weeding out
inconsistencies and incompleteness in these requirements. Note that an inconsistent
requirement is one in which some part of the requirement may contradict some other parts.
An incomplete requirement is one in which some parts of the requirement may have been
omitted inadvertently.
Requirements analysis starts with the collection of all relevant data regarding the product
from the users through interviews and discussions. For example, to perform the requirements
analysis of a business accounting software of an organization, the analyst has to interview all
the accountants of the organization to ascertain their requirements. The data collected from a
group of users usually contain several contradictions and ambiguities because each user
typically has only a partial and incomplete view of the system. Therefore, all such
ambiguities and contradictions must be identified and then resolved by further discussions
with the customer. After all ambiguities, inconsistencies, and incompleteness have been
resolved and all the requirements properly understood, the requirements are systematically
organized into a Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document.
During requirements specification, the user requirements are properly organized and
documented in a SRS document. The SRS document addresses the functional requirements,
the nonfunctional requirements, and the special requirements on the maintenance and
development of the software product, if any. It must be remembered that the requirements
analysis and specification phase concentrates on what needs to be done and carefully avoids
the solution {how to do) aspects.
Design
The goal of the design phase is to transform the requirements specification into a structure
that is suitable for implementation in some programming language. Currently, two distinct

design approaches are being followed in different industries: traditional design approach and
object-oriented design approach, which we now discuss below:
Traditional design approach: The traditional design approach currently used by many
industries requires two different activities to be performed. First, a structured analysis of the
requirements specification is carried out and then this structured analysis is transformed into
software design (also called software architecture).
Structured analysis involves preparing a detailed analysis of the different functions to be
carried out by the system and identification of the data flow among the different functions.
Each function required by the user is studied carefully and then recursively decomposed into
various sub functions (processing activities).After structured analysis, architectural design (or
the high-level design) and detailed design (or the low-level design) are carried out. High-level
design involves decomposing the system into modules, and representing the invocation
relationships among the modules. During detailed design, the different modules are designed
in greater detail, e.g. the data structures and algorithms for the modules are designed and
documented. Several well-known methodologies are available for implementing the
architectural and low-level designs.
Object-oriented design: Object-oriented design is a relatively new technique. In this
technique, various objects that occur in the problem domain and the solution domain are first
identified and different kinds of relationships that exist among these objects are identified.
This object structure is further refined to obtain the detailed design. This approach has several
advantages such as less development effort, and time, and better maintainability.
Coding and Unit Testing
The purpose of this phase (also called the implementation phase) of software development is
to translate the software design into source code. During the implementation phase, each
component of the design is implemented as a program module, and each of these program
modules is unit tested (i.e. tested independently as a stand alone unit), debugged, and
documented. The purpose of unit testing is to determine the correct working of the individual
modules. Unit testing involves a precise definition of the test cases, testing criteria, and
management of test cases.
The end-product of the implementation phase is a set of program modules that have been
individually tested. Usually, every company formulates its own coding standards such as
layout of programs, contents and formats of the headers, commenting guidelines, variable and
function naming conventions and maximum number of source lines permitted in each
module.
Integration and System Testing
During this phase the different modules are integrated in a planned manner. The different
modules making up a system are almost never integrated in a single shot. Integration is
normally carried out through a number of steps. During each integration step, the partially
integrated system is tested. Finally, when all the modules have been successfully integrated
and tested, system testing is carried out. The goal of system testing is to ensure that the

developed system functions according to its requirements as specified in the SRS document.
The system testing usually consists of three different kinds of testing activities:
testing,
testing, and
acceptance testing.
Usually, testing is carried out according to a system test plan document. The system test plan
identifies all the testing-related activities that must be performed, specifies the schedule, and
allocates resources. Also, the system test plan prepared during the requirements specification
phase lists all the different test cases and the expected outputs. The final output of the testing
phase is the test report.

Maintenance
It has been estimated that maintenance of any software product usually requires much
more effort than the effort necessary to develop The product. Many studies indicate that the
relative effort of development of a typical system to its maintenance effort is roughly in the
40:60 ratio. Maintenance involves performing any one or more of the following three kinds
of activities:
1. Correcting errors that were not discovered during the product development phase.
This is called corrective maintenance.
2. Improving the implementation of the system and enhancing the functionalities of
the system according to the customer's its. This is called perfective maintenance.
3.Porting the software to a new environment, e.g. to a new computer or to a new
operating system. This is called adaptive maintenance.
Q). Discuss about Iterative Waterfall Model.
The classical waterfall model is an idealistic one since it assumes that no defect is introduced
during any of the phase of life cycle. However, in practical development
environments, defects do get introduced in almost every phase of the life cycle.
These defect usually get detected much later in the life cycle. Once a defect is
detected, we need to go back to the phase where it got introduced and redo some of
the work done during this phase and subsequent phases. Thus, for almost any
practical software development work, we need to modify the classical waterfall
model to incorporate feedback paths as shown in the following figure:

Feasibility
Study
Requirements analysis
and specification
Design
Coding and
unit testing
Integration and
system testing
Maintenance
In any practical software development effort though errors can get introduced in almost every
phase of development, it is preferable to detect these errors in the same phase in which they
got introduced. Even though all the errors may not get detected in the same phase in which
they got introduced, they should nevertheless be detected as soon as possible. For example, if
a design error is detected during the design phase itself, it can be taken care of much more
easily than if identified, say, at the end of the integration and system testing phase. In the
latter case, rework would need to be carried out not only to the design but also to the code
and the system test. This principle of detecting errors, as close to its point of introduction as
possible, is known as phase containment of errors.

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