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What is systems development?

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Process of creating and maintaining information systems. Involves all five components of IS model: hardware, software, data, procedures, people. It requires establishing system goals, setting up the project, determining requirements, business knowledge and management skills.

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System development life cycle (SDLC)

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Most common methodology. Business plan (identifies all possible projects) > System definition (objective, costs, schedule, scope) > Analysis (system requirements, model of data ERD, model of processes DFD, new estimates for schedule and budget costs, validate initial costs, make a go or no go decision) > Component design (component and detail design of the model: hardware, software, etc...) > Implementation (biggest effort, software development, testing, conversion to new system, implement new system) > Maintenance (support/maintain new system, goes on for a long time) > Connect back to business plan (feedback). Waterfall: how information flows to the next phase

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Why is systems development difficult and risky?

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-Many projects never finish. Often 200-300% over budget -Some finish within budget and schedule, but don't accomplish goals -High risk of failure, even with competent people following an appropriate methodology -System was not well defined (system definition) -Spend too much time on analysis phase

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Major challenges to system development

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-The difficulty of determining requirements -Changes in requirements -hard to estimate amount of time of costs it will take -Changing technology -Diseconomies of scale: after a certain amount of people, it slows down the process

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Brooks' Law

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Claims about software project management that adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. Coined by Fred Brooks in his book The Mythical Man-Month. Diseconomies of scale: new staff must be trained by productive members who lose productivity while training. Schedules can be compressed only so far. Once a project is late and over budget, no good choices exists

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Options for acquiring system capabilities

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To have a new information system for an organization, you can: 1) Build information system 2) Buy prepackaged system 3) Outsource development to 3rd party 4) End user development

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What are the five phases of SDLC?

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1) System definition 2) Requirements analysis 3) Component design 4) Implementation 5) Maintenance

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Phases in SDLC: business planning

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-System identification: identify opportunities for developing systems projects to solve problems -Selection: applying evaluation criteria to possible projects to select those that are critical to enabling the organization's mission, goals, and objectives -Information systems planning (ISP): developing formal plans for creating the IS project selected

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Evaluation Criteria for business planning process: Strategic alignment

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The extent to which the project is viewed as helping the organization achieve its strategic objectives and long term goals

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Evaluation Criteria for business planning process: potential benefits

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the extent to which the project is viewed as improving profits, customer service, and so forth, and the duration of these benefits

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Evaluation Criteria for business planning process: potential costs and resource availability

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the number and types of resources the project requires and their availability

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Evaluation Criteria for business planning process: project size/duration

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The number of individuals and the length of time needed to complete the project

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Evaluation Criteria for business planning process: technical difficulty/risks

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the level of technical difficulty involved in successfully completing the project within a given time and resource constraint

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How is system definition accomplished?

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Assign a team to define the new system, assess feasibility, and plan the project. Initial team includes users and IS professionals

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System definition

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-Define system goals and scope -Assess feasibility (costs, schedule, technical, organizational) -Form project team -Plan project

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Four dimensions of feasibility for system definition

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1)Cost: feasibility depends on the scope of the project 2) Schedule: feasibility is difficult to determine because it is hard to estimate the time it will take to build a system 3)Technical: feasibility refers to whether existing information technology can meet needs of new system 4)Organizational: feasibility concerns whether new system fits organizations customs, culture, charter, or legal requirement

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System definition: Form a project team

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Typical development team -Systems analyst/business analyst -managers -programmers -users -outside contractor

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Business analysts

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specialize in understanding business needs, strategies, and goals and helping businesses implement systems to accomplish competitive strategies

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Systems analysts

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IT professionals who understand both business and technology

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Analysis/requirement phase?

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Requirements analysis: most expensive and difficult -interviewing skills are crucial -interviewing dozens of users and documenting potentially hundreds of requirements -evaluate existing systems -determine new web pages/forms/reports/queries -identify new application features and functions -consider security -create the data model -consider all five components

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Methods to collecting system requirements (traditional)

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-Interviews: discussions with stakeholders (users) -Questionnaires: surveys to assess use and attitudes -Observations: watch process and systems use -Document analysis: reviewing current documents

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Deliverables from analysis/Requirements phase

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-system requirements -modeling the systems data -modeling organizational processes

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What is the users role in the requirements phase?

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Users approve requirements -requirements for all five IS components -communications and network -procedures and personnel -requirements or rules restricting activities for certain categories of employees

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Role of a prototype

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Provides direct experience for users, provides evidence to assess technical and organizational feasibility, used to estimate development and operational costs, often re-used in operational system. Developers face a dilemma when funding prototypes; costs of prototype occurs early in process; sometimes well before full project funding is available

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Component design phase: How are the five components designed?

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-determine hardware specifications -determine software specifications -design database -design procedures (normal, backup, and failure recovery) -design and develop new job descriptions Team designs each component by developing alternatives, evaluating each alternative against requirements, and selecting among those alternatives. Accurate requirements are critical or they will be poor guides for evaluation.

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How do organizations acquire application software?

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-Horizontal applications: off the shelf -Vertical applications: off the shelf and the customized One of a kind applications: custom developed

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Structured analysis and design

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old physical ; old logical ; new logical ; new physical

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How is an information system implemented?

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• Build system components • Conduct unit test • Integrate components • Conduct integrated test • Convert to new system

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System documentation

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the collection of materials produced with an information system to support the ongoing operation and development.

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Types of system documentation:user and reference guides

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step by step instructions for using the system features and functions

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Software programming

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creating the instructions from the programming logic design using a variety of programming languages assisted many times by language editors

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Software testing

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a series of tests designed to identify errors and validate logic in parallel with programming

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types of software testing: Developmental

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testing the correctness of individual modules and the integration of multiple modules. Performed be programmer.

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Conversion approaches

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the process of taking information from an old system to the new system. This is accomplished through manual and/or automated methods

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types of conversion approaches: parallel

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old and new system are used at the same time. However creates a safety net and attitude permeates

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What are the tasks for system maintenance

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• Record requests for change: o Failures o Enhancements • Prioritize requests • Fix failures o Patches o Service packs o New releases

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System maintenance

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the process by which a system is kept in working order and minor enhancements are completed

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Types of system maintenance: corrective maintenance

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making changes to an information system to repair flaws in the design, coding, or implementation

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What are some of the problems with the SDLC?

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SDLC Waterfall Method -Requirements documentation difficult (Business requirements change, "Analysis paralysis" - projects spend so much time on documentation it hampers progress). -Scheduling and budgeting difficulties (Time and cost estimates for large project way off. People who make initial estimates know little about how long it will take or cost) -Waterfall rarely works smoothly, causing development team to go back and forth, raising costs and delaying project.

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Many times it is not feasible to consider building an information system internally. Below are four situations that discourage the idea of developing a system internally

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Limited IS Staff Limited IS Skill Sets IS Staff is Overworked Problem IS Performance Your personnel have not worked with the technology to build a new system or management can be the issue

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Alternative to internal development: external acquisition

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The purchasing of an existing system (hardware, software, databases, network) from an outside vendor such as IBM, EDS, or Accenture

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External acquisition - Steps to proceed

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Business planning process ; Systems definition ; Requirements analysis ; development of a request for proposal (RFP) ; Proposal evaluation (GAP analysis) ; Vendor selection

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Development of a request for proposal (RFP)

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a report that is used to tell vendors what the requirements are and how they might be able to meet those requirements (hardware and software) 1) System Requirements 2) Data Model 3) Process Model 4) System Performance Criteria 5) Time Table 6) Budget

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Why consider outsourcing?

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-Cost and quality concerns - current cost and quality of information systems is unacceptable -Problems in IS performance - IS is having trouble meeting acceptable service standards -Supplier pressures - aggressive sales tactics -Simplifying, downsizing, and reengineering - having a need to focus on core processes -Financial factors - turning over IS systems can strengthen a balance sheet -Organizational culture - political or organizational problems that are difficult for IS to overcome -Internal Irritants - tension between the IS staff and users

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Cloud computing

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is internet-based computing in which large groups of remote servers are networked to allow the centralized data storage, and online access to computer services or resources.

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basic service models: Saas

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Software as a service: consume it, email, CRM, ERP, Collaborative

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5 ways your business can benefit from cloud computing

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Scalability: want more, get more. Want less, use less Security: most cloud providers have standards are more strict Flexibility: switch and move easily from Iaas, Saas, or Paas Accessibility: just need the internet Affordability: cheaper, share costs

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Cloud computing cost savings

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IT professionals expect to save 31% over the next 5 years. Moving to cloud can save up to 87% of IT energy

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Why Is the Cloud the Future for Most Organizations?

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The cloud: Elastic leasing of pooled computer resources over the Internet. Elastic: Leased computing resources increased or decreased dynamically, programmatically, in a short span of time and organizations only pay for resources used. Flexibility to meet unpredictable demand while limiting financial risks. Cloud resources are pooled: Many different organizations share same physical hardware through virtualization. Benefit from economies of scale: Average cost of production decreases as size of operation increases. Major cloud vendors operate enormous Web farms.

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Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

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Can be defined as a set of standard ways of requesting and receiving services over the Internet. Way of designing computer programs: Programs formally define services they perform, data they expect, and results they produce. Web service standards: Programs use worldwide standards to declare what they do, how they structure data, and how they will communicate. Allowed the cloud to become so successful.

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Why is the cloud preferred to in-house hosting? Positives

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Small capital requirements, speedy development, superior flexibility and adaptability to growing or fluctuating demand, known cost structure, possibly best of breed security disaster preparedness, no obsolescence, industry wide economies of scale hence cheaper

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Why is the cloud preferred to in-house hosting? Negatives

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Dependency on vendor, loss of control over data location, little visibility into true security and disaster preparedness capabilities

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Why now? cloud based hosting

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Been around since 1960s: Time-sharing vendors provided slices of computer time on a use-fee basis. Factors that made cloud-based hosting advantageous: Cheap processors, data communication, and data storage are nearly free. Virtualization technology enables near instantaneous creation of a new virtual machine. Internet-based standards enable cloud-hosting vendors to provide processing capabilities in flexible yet standardized ways.

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When does the cloud not make sense

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When, by law or by standard industry practice, a company is required to have physical control over its data. For example, a financial institution might be legally required to maintain physical control over its data. Breaches can happen in the cloud

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How do organizations use the cloud? Saas

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salesforce.com, google grid, microsoft skydrive and office 365, Apple iCloud

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Daas

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Desktop as a service with VMware Horizon™ -Access cloud-hosted virtual desktops and hosted apps from any device, anywhere. -Deliver virtual desktops and hosted apps in just a few clicks. -Reduce your upfront costs and lower your desktop TCO with predictable cloud economics. -Seamlessly extend your corporate data center to your cloud-hosted desktops and apps.

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Content delivery network (CDN) from cloud vendors

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-System of hardware and software that stores user data in many different geographical locations and makes it available on demand. -Provides a specialized type of PaaS, but usually considered its own category. -Minimize latency, time span to connect if you are in a different country -Often used to store and deliver content that seldom changes.

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Benefits of content delivery networks (CDN)

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Decreased even guaranteed load time, reduced load on origin sever, increased reliability, protection from denial of service (DOS) attacks, reduced delivery costs for mobile users, pay as you go

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How can a small/medium company use the cloud?

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-Some Saas product: google mail, google drive, office 365, and many others -Paas: lease hardware and operating systems from a cloud vendor such as linux, windows, or apache server Iaas: provides basic hardware in the cloud, some companies acquire servers this way and then load operating systems onto them (requires considerable technical expertise), data storage services elastically available

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How do you know a company is taking care of your services and protecting your information

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Company's have to pass SOC to be certified SAS 70- replaced by SOC 1, 2 and 3. Doesn't exist anymore. SOC 1: I want to know about the control over the vendors information systems to produce financial reports. Proper control in place for the financial systems they have. SAS don't let you know about controls. SOC 2: assessment and report whether or not they have good controls in place. SOC 3: high level report. Just lets you know if they passed or not

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How Can Organizations Use Cloud Services Securely?

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Remote Access Using VPN: Actual Connections Here a VPN, virtual private network, uses the public Internet to create the appearance of a private connection on a secure network.

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Private cloud

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-Owned and operated by an organization for its own benefit -Creates private internet and designs applications using Web services standards -Creates a server farm and manages it with elastic load balancing -Secure within organizational infrastructure but access from outside infrastructure not secure

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Private cloud for inventory and other applications

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Elastic load balancer: finds path that is least busy so you can get quicker service on your private cloud

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Using a virtual private cloud

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An organization can store its most sensitive data on its own infrastructure, and store less sensitive data on the VPC. In this way, organizations that are required to have physical control over some of their data can place that data on their own servers and locate the rest of their data on the VPC. Hybrid cloud: Subset of a Public Cloud With Highly Restricted, Secure Access.

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What Does the Cloud Mean for Your Future?

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-Fewer organizations will set up their own computing infrastructure -Readily obtain elastic resources at very low cost -More small tech-based startup businesses -New categories of work: Remote action systems, telediagnosis, telesurgery, telelaw enforcement -Value of top-notch performers increases, possibly exponentially

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What Are the Functions and Organization of the IS Department?

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-Plan use of IS to accomplish organizational goals and strategy. -Manage outsourcing relationships. Outsourcing Relations -Protect information assets. -Develop, operate, and maintain the organization's computing infrastructure. Operations -Develop, implement, and maintain applications. Development

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IS department CIO

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Chief information officer CIO is the guy that controls IS and IT, under him he has a structure: -Outsourcing Relations: to some extent cloud falls under this, someone else takes care of it -Development: maintenance, bills and supports systems -Operations: people who take care of the servers -Data Administration: keep data secure -CTO: group that responsible the keep track of technology changes

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What IS-related job positions exists?

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With exception of computer technician, and possibly PQA test engineer, all these positions require a 4-year degree and business knowledge or business degree, and good verbal communications and writing skills. 1) business analyst: work with business leaders and planners to develop processes and systems that implement business strategy and goals 2) system analyst: work with users to determine system requirements, design and develop job descriptions and procedures, help determine system test plans. 3) Programmer: design and write computer programs 4) network administrator: monitor, maintain, fix, and tune computer networks 5) database administrator: manage and protect database 6) CIO: manage IT department, communicate with executive staff on IT and IS related matters. Member of the executive group

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How do organizations plan the use of IS?

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-align information systems with organizational strategy; maintain alignment as organization changes -communicate IS/IT issues to executive group -develop/enforce IS priorities within the IS department -sponsor steering committee

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Steering committee

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a group of senior managers from the major business functions that works with CIO to set IS priorities and decide among major IS projects and alternatives. IS department sets up the steering committee's schedule, agenda and conducts meetings.

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How Do Organizations Align Information Systems With Their Strategy?

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Strategy determines information systems Porter; Link chain model: link together to eventually add value 1) Industry structure (deals with competitive and bargaining forces, figures out structure of industry) 2) competitive strategy 3) value chains (support activities and primary activities) 4) business processes 5) Information systems. Use knowledge of organization's market, together with observations of structure and content of Web storefront, to infer organization's competitive strategy and make inferences about its value chains and business processes.

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What Determine Industry Structure?

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Competitive Forces • Competition from vendors who manufacture substitutes • Competition from new competitors • Competition from existing rivals Bargaining Power Forces • Bargaining power of suppliers • Bargaining power of customers

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Primary activities of the value chain

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-inbound logistics: receiving, storing, and disseminating, inputs to the product -operations/manufacturing: transforming inputs into the final product -Outbound logistics: collecting, storing, and physically distributing the product to buyers -Sales and marketing: inducing buyers to purchase the product and providing a means for them to do so -customer service: assisting customers use of the product and thus maintaining and enhancing the products value

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What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing IS services?

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-Process of hiring another organization to perform services -Any value chain business activity can be outsourced -"Your back room is someone else's front room." (Drucker) -Management advantages (obtain expertise, aviod management problems, free management time) -Cost reduction (obtain part time services, gain economies of scale) Risk reduction (cap financial exposure, improve quality, reduce implementation risks) Many companies outsource portions of their information systems activities

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What are outsourcing alternatives?

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-Iaas cloud hosting: hardware -Licensed software/outsourced development: software (EDS, electronic data systems) -Paas: hardware and software (web storefront, Amazon.com) -Saas: hardware, software, data (Salesforce.com) -System: hardware, software, data, procedures (oracle) -Business function: all five components (travel agencies)

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Risks of outsourcing

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-Loss of control over important business functions, loss of human capital and important management resources -Benefits outweighed by long term costs -Vendor becomes defacto sole source and might increase its prices. -Vendor becomes tightly integrated such that parting company can be exceedingly risky. -Outsource vendor's employees have gained significant knowledge of the company. Vendor knows the server requirements in customer support, patterns of usage, and best procedures for downloading operational data into the data warehouse. Consequently, your lack of knowledge make it difficult to bring outsourced service back in-house. -Company must invest considerable work, duplication of effort, management time, and expense to change to another vendor. -Difficulty in identifying or realizing benefits -Difficulty in ending outsourcing dependencies

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Is outsourcing Fool's gold?

answer

Outsourcers get their first-level employees by hiring the ones you had. What you're really outsourcing is middle-level management of same IT personnel you had. No way of knowing whether the managers they supply are any better. Paying a premium for services of former employees, now managed by strangers and paid by outsource vendor, who evaluates those managers on how well they follow outsource vendor's profit-generating procedures.

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Ratings of supplier/vendor performance

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Overall, suppliers are earning a good report, but there is room for improvement/growth. Customers expect more than they received. Customers won't save as much money as they think they will by outsourcing. Overall revenue for IT for outsourcing is dropping. Outsourcing for IT companies is diminishing. Business processing was increasing for a while but in 2013 it dropped.

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Major domestic sourcing models

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1) "contract labor", "consulting" "staff augmentation": A client buys in labor to supplement in- house capabilities, but the client manages the person, usually onsite at client site. 2) "fee-for-service" or "exchange-based" or "traditional" outsourcing: A client pays a fee to a supplier in exchange for the management and delivery of specified IT products or services. 3) "joint ventures" "strategic partnerships": A specific type of contract entered into by two or more parties in which each agrees to furnish a part of the capital and labor for a business enterprise, and by which each shares in some fixed proportion in profits and losses.

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Types of system documentation: user training and tutorials

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manuals and exercises designed to educate users and build competence in system use. These training manuals and tutorials can be supported by a database that utilizes realistic datauser and reference guides

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types of software testing: Alpha

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testing of the overall system to see whether it meets design requirements. Performed by software tester. Beta: testing of the capabilities of the system in the user environment with actual data. Performed by actual system users

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types of software testing: Beta

answer

testing of the capabilities of the system in the user environment with actual data. Performed by actual system users

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types of conversion approaches: direct/plunge

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old system is discontinued on one day and the new is used on the next. Can lead to big issues. Arthur prefers this approach because it makes employees step up

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types of conversion approaches: phased

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Parts of the new system are implemented over time. System is broken down into functional components and new system is implemented over time

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types of conversion approaches: pilot (single location)

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Implements everything, not system wide, just certain location

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types of system maintenance: adaptive maintenance

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making changes to an information system to evolve its functionality to accommodate changing business needs or to migrate it to a different operating environment

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types of system maintenance: perfective maintenance

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making enhancements to improve processing performance or interface usability, or adding desired, but now necessarily required, system features (in other words, "bells and whistles")

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types of system maintenance: preventive maintenance

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making changes to a system to reduce the chance of future system failure

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Alternative to internal development: outsourcing

answer

Turning over some or all responsibility for an organization's information systems development and operations to an outside firm

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external acquisition - steps to proceed: proposal evaluation

answer

may include viewing system demonstrations, evaluating the performance of those systems, and examining criteria important to the organization and judging how the proposed systems respond to those criteria (GAP Analysis)

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external acquisition - steps to proceed: vendor selection

answer

using a scoring system devised to evaluate the competing proposal and then selecting the proposal that best fits the organization's needs

question

basic service models: Paas

answer

Platform, type of computer with type of hardware, as a service: build on it, App Dev, Web, decision support, streaming 3) Iaas, Infrastructure as a service, access information with permission Ex. OU website, caching, networking, security

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basic service models: Iaas

answer

Infrastructure as a service: access information with permission (Ex. OU website) caching, networking, security, system management

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elastic

answer

expands and shrink according to your needs

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cloud resources are POOLED

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Many different organizations share same physical hardware through virtualization.

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by using the cloud you benefit from ECONOMIES OF SCALE

answer

Average cost of production decreases as size of operation increases.

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How do organizations use the cloud? Paas

answer

microsoft azure, oracle on demand

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How do organizations use the cloud? Iaas

answer

amazon EC2 (elastic cloud 2), Amazon S3 (simple storage service)

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Hybrid cloud

answer

Uses both the public/external (off premises, third party) and a private/internal cloud (on premises)

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Porter's four competitive strategies

answer

1) lowest cost across the industry: won't last for very long 2) lowest cost within an industry segment 3) better product/service across the industry 4) better product/service within an industry segment: best choice, going to last in the industry

question

organizational strategy

answer

To be effective, organization goals, objectives, culture, and activities must be consistent with the organization's strategy. This means, all information systems in the organization must facilitate the organization's competitive strategy. Industry structure feeds into competitive strategy. After you choose your strategy, then it changes your processes - support and primary activities, then IS has to change

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