MIS Test 1 – Flashcards

Systems thinking

Systems thinking

Hardware

D

C

C

A

B

Managerial

Strategic

Starting

Doing

B

track changes to shared documents

A

D

D

C

repository

supporting business processes

C

A

According to Moore's Law, "the number of transistors per square inch on an integrated chip doubles every 18 months." Because of Moore's Law, the ratio of price to performance of computers has fallen drastically. Therefore, it is important for managers to realize that, because of Moore's Law, the cost of data communications and data storage is essentially zero. The current business scenario is flooded with vast amounts of data that requires the effective assistance of information technology. Many business ventures have sprung up around this effect of Moore's Law. Future business professionals need to be able to assess, evaluate, and apply emerging information technology to business.

The four nonroutine skills identified as critical for organizations in the current scenario are: (1) Abstract reasoning - the ability to make and manipulate models. (2) Systems thinking - modeling the components of the system and to connect the inputs and outputs among those components into a sensible whole, one that explains the phenomenon observed. (3) Collaboration - developing ideas and plans with others; provide and receive critical feedback. (4) Experimentation - creating and testing promising new alternatives, consistent with available resources.

A system is a group of components that interact to achieve some purpose. An information system (IS) is a group of components that interact to produce information. A management information system is defined as a system that helps businesses achieve their goals and objectives.

The five components described in the model are: computer hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. These five components are present in every information system, from the simplest to the most complex. For example, when you use a computer to write a class report, you are using hardware (the computer, storage disk, keyboard, and monitor), software (Word, WordPerfect, or some other word-processing program), data (the words, sentences, and paragraphs in your report), procedures (the methods you use to start the program, enter your report, print it, and save and back up your file), and people (you).

Information systems exist to help people who work in a business to achieve the goals and objectives of that business. Information systems are not created for the sheer joy of exploring technology. They are not created so that the company can be "modern" or so that the company can show it has a social networking presence on the Web. They are not created because the information systems department thinks it needs to be created, because the company is "falling behind the technology curve," or for the sole reason that "every other business has one."

A user is the most important component of an information system. The user's mind and his/her thinking are not merely a component of the information systems they use, they are the most important component. This is so because, even if the user has the perfect information system, if they do not know what to do with the information that it produces, they are wasting both their time and money. The quality of one's thinking is a large part of the quality of the information system.

The five components of the information systems framework are: computer hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. The five components are shown in order of ease of change and the amount of organizational disruption. It is usually a simple matter to order new hardware and install it. Obtaining or developing new programs is more difficult. Creating new databases or changing the structure of existing databases is still more difficult. Changing procedures, requiring people to work in new ways, is even more difficult. Finally, changing personnel responsibilities and reporting relationships and hiring and terminating employees are both very difficult and very disruptive to the organization.

Information technology and information systems are two closely related terms, but they are different. Information technology (IT) refers to the products, methods, inventions, and standards that are used for the purpose of producing information. IT pertains to the hardware, software, and data components. On the other hand, an information system (IS) is an assembly of hardware, software, data, procedures, and people that produces information. Information technology drives the development of new information systems. A crucial difference between the two terms is that, while you can buy IT, you cannot buy an IS. That is, you can buy or lease hardware, you can license programs and databases, and you can even obtain predesigned procedures. Ultimately, however, it is your people who execute those procedures to employ that new IT. For any new system, you will always have training tasks and costs, you will always have the need to overcome employees' resistance to change, and you will always need to manage the employees as they utilize the new system.

Probably the most common definition of information is that information is knowledge derived from data, whereas data is defined as recorded facts or figures. Another common definition is that information is data presented in a meaningful context. Another definition of information that you will hear is that information is processed data, or sometimes, information is data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations. The fundamental idea of this definition is that we do something to data to produce information.

Data should be: (1) Accurate - Good information is based on correct and complete data, and it has been processed correctly as expected. (2) Timely - Good information is produced in time for its intended use. (3) Relevant - Good information is relevant both to the context and to the subject. (4) Just sufficient - Good information is sufficient for the purpose for which it is generated, but just barely so. (5) Worth its cost - For good information to be worth its cost, there must be an appropriate relationship between the cost of information and its value.

Cooperation is a group of people working together, all doing essentially the same type of work, to accomplish a job. A group of four painters, each painting a different wall in the same room, are working cooperatively. Collaboration occurs when a group of people work together to achieve a common goal via a process of feedback and iteration. Using feedback and iteration, one person will produce something, say the draft of a document, and a second person will review that draft and provide critical feedback. Given the feedback, the original author or someone else will then revise the first draft to produce a second. The work proceeds in a series of stages, or iterations.

According to Hackman, there are three primary criteria for judging team success: (1) successful outcome, (2) growth in team capability, and (3) meaningful and satisfying experience.

Structured decisions are those where there exists an understood and accepted method for making the decision. The process through which financial institutions avail credit is an example of structured decision making. Unstructured decisions are those where there is no agreed-on decision-making method. Examples can include facility location, product mix, and capital budgeting.

A structured decision process is one where there is an understood and accepted method for making the decision. Since the decision process is already understood, there is no reason for collaboration to determine how to make the decision.

Yes. Since they are made less frequently and generally have a long-term time horizon, most strategic decisions are relatively unstructured. Predicting the direction of the economy or long-term labor planning might be considered unstructured strategic decisions. Operational decisions may also be unstructured like the example of deciding the number of cab drivers needed the night before the homecoming game.

The four phases of a project are starting, planning, doing, and finalizing.

Synchronous communications are collaborations where all the team members meet at the same time. Examples include face-to-face meetings, videoconferencing, conference calls, and multiparty chats. Asynchronous communications occur when team members do not meet at the same time. Emails, discussion forums, and team surveys are examples of asynchronous communication.

Team surveys are a form of communication technology. With these, one team member creates a list of questions and other team members respond. Surveys are an effective way to obtain team opinions. They are generally easy to complete, so most team members will participate. Also, it is easy to determine who has not yet responded.

Version control involves one or more of the following capabilities: (1) user activity limited by permissions, (2) document checkout, (3) version histories, and (4) workflow. This gives managers better control over shared content.

SharePoint Online is an industrial-strength product for content sharing. It has deep and rich features, and it can handle massive amounts of data and hundreds of users. Users can use libraries and lists to manage and/or control content, gather team opinions with surveys and wikis, and share team members' opinions with blogs.

An organization's goals and objectives are determined by its competitive strategy. Thus, ultimately, competitive strategy determines the structure, features, and functions of every information system. In short, organizations examine the structure of their industry and determine a competitive strategy. That strategy determines value chains, which, in turn, determine business processes. The structure of business processes determines the design of supporting information systems.

Organizational strategy begins with an assessment of the fundamental characteristics and structure of an industry. One model used to assess an industry structure is Porter's five forces model. According to this model, five competitive forces determine industry profitability: bargaining power of customers, threat of substitutions, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, and rivalry among existing firms. The intensity of each of the five forces determines the characteristics of the industry, how profitable it is, and how sustainable that profitability will be.

An organization responds to the structure of its industry by choosing a competitive strategy. Porter followed his five forces model with the model of four competitive strategies. According to Porter, firms engage in one of these four strategies. An organization can focus on being the cost leader, or it can focus on differentiating its products from those of the competition. Further, the organization can employ the cost or differentiation strategy across an industry, or it can focus its strategy on a particular industry segment.

Porter defined value as the amount of money that a customer is willing to pay for a resource, product, or service. The difference between the value that an activity generates and the cost of the activity is called the margin. A value chain is a network of value-creating activities. That generic chain consists of five primary activities and four support activities.

The primary activities are (1) inbound logistics, (2) operations/manufacturing, (3) outbound logistics, (4) sales and marketing, and (5) customer service.

The support activities in the generic value chain contribute indirectly to the production, sale, and service of the product. They include procurement, which consists of the processes of finding vendors, setting up contractual arrangements, and negotiating prices. Supporting functions add value, albeit indirectly, and they also have costs. It is difficult to calculate the margin for such activities because the specific value added by a support activity is difficult to know.

Porter's model of business activities includes linkages, which are interactions across value activities. For example, manufacturing systems use linkages to reduce inventory costs. Such a system uses sales forecasts to plan production; it then uses the production plan to determine raw materials needs and then uses the material needs to schedule purchases. The end result is just-in-time inventory, which reduces inventory sizes and costs.

The central idea of business process design is that organizations should not automate or improve existing functional systems. Rather, they should create new, more efficient business processes that integrate the activities of all departments involved in a value chain.

A business process is a network of activities that generate value by transforming inputs into outputs. Each activity is a business function that receives inputs and produces outputs. An activity can be performed by a human, by a computer system, or by both. The cost of the business process is the cost of the inputs plus the cost of the activities. The margin of the business process is the value of the outputs minus the cost.

Changing business processes is not easy to do. Most process design requires people to work in new ways, to follow different procedures, and employees often resist such change

Organizations analyze their industry and choose a competitive strategy. Given that strategy, they design business processes that span value-generating activities. Those processes determine the scope and requirements of each organization's information systems.

Organizations can use various process-oriented competitive strategies to gain competitive advantage. Organizations can lock in customers by making it difficult or expensive for customers to switch to another product. This strategy is sometimes called establishing high switching costs. Organizations can lock in suppliers by making it difficult to switch to another organization, or, stated positively, by making it easy to connect to and work with the organization. Competitive advantage can also be gained by creating entry barriers that make it difficult and expensive for new competition to enter the market. Another means to gain competitive advantage is to establish alliances with other organizations. Finally, organizations can gain competitive advantage by reducing costs.

Switching costs are the expenses that a customer must pay to move from the current product to a competitor's offering. By making these switching costs high, it discourages the client from leaving the current provider. In the past, long distance phone service was known to carry high switching costs. Entering an agreement to construct a house also carries high switching costs.

The digital divide is the gap between those who have access to the Internet and those who do not. As the Internet has become a primary source for information in the world, this rift keeps getting deeper and deeper between the haves and the have-nots. Someone who knows how to search the Internet can learn more readily than someone who does not. And every year, the person with greater knowledge pulls farther and farther ahead.