INFORMATION SYSTEM

• Information systems are

revolutionising the way we
capture, communicate, and
distribute knowledge in society
and business.

• Information systems are the

interactions between people,
technology, and an organisation’s
business processes. Engineers
work to provide and develop
information systems to help
address current issues, future
trends, and emerging
technologies.
 Information Engineering
• A formal methodology
that is used to create and
maintain information
systems

• Starts with the Business

Model and works in a
Top-Down fashion to
build supporting data
models and process
models for that business
model
 Information Engineering
Planning
1. Identify Strategic Planning
Factors
a. Goals
b. Critical Success Factors
c. Problem Areas
2. Identify Corporate Planning
Objects
a. Org. Units
b. Locations
c. Business Functions
d. Entity types
3. Develop Enterprise Model
a. Function decomposition
b. Entity-Relationship
Diagram
c. Planning Matrices
IS 257 - Fall 2008
Analysis
Design
1. Develop Conceptual
Model
(detailed E-R Diagram) Implementation
2. Develop Process
Models
(data flow diagrams)
1. Design Databases
(normalized relations)
2. Design Processes
a. Action Diagrams 1. Build database definitions
b. User Interfaces: (tables, indexes, etc.)
menus, screens, 2. Generate Applications
reports (program code, control
blocks, etc.)
 SYSTEM ENGINEERING

• Systems Engineering
has emerged as a
distinct professional
discipline in direct
response to the
increasing complexity of
new development
projects.
 What is Systems Engineering?
• System (Webster)
– A set or arrangement of things so related as to form a
unity or organic whole
– A set of facts, principles, rules. etc., … to show a logical
plan linking the various parts
– A method or plan of classification or arrangement
– An established way of doing something such as a method
or procedure
 The Systems Challenge
The Man-Made World Is Increasingly Populated by Systems

• Transportation, Energy & Power

Systems
• Manufacturing, Construction
Systems
• Telecommunication Networks
• Man-Made Biological & Health Care
Systems
• Facility, Properties
• Business Processes
• Other Man-Made and Natural
Systems
 The Systems Challenge
These Systems Are Becoming More Complex

• Under pressure of demand & competition

• Enabled by progress in technology
• Becoming more complex at exponentially
growing rates
 The Systems Challenge
The Growth Of Systems Complexity Eventually Can Outpace Human Ability To:

• Describe • Understand • Communicate About

• Predict • Install • Design and Implement
• Manage • Operate • Manufacture
• Monitor • Repair • Diagnose
• Configure • Maintain • Control
• Evolve • Account For • Maintain Security Of

Those Systems . . .
 The Systems Challenge

. . . At Least Within Reasonable:

• Time
• Cost
• Effort

• Sense of Security from Risk

Incose : Faster, Better and Cheaper

For a meal : must NOT result in MacDonald Hamburger !!

 Systems may be any technology

• Civil and Architecture

• Mechanical
• Electronic
• Software
• Chemical
• Thermodynamic
• Human organizations
• Biological
 What is Systems Engineering?
• It is not fundamental mathematics or strict
laboratory science
• It is a mix of HR, project management, business,
rational decomposition, trade studies,
requirements traceability, integration, testing,
verification and validation, operations, and end of
life cycle disposal of systems
• Standardizes the flow-down and traceability of
specifications for complex products from
customer requirements through production,
operation , and disposal

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 12

 What is Systems Engineering?
• Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and
means to enable the realization of successful systems.
• It focuses on defining customer needs and required
functionality early in the development cycle, documenting
requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and
system validation while considering the complete problem:
 Operations
 Performance
 Test
 Manufacturing
 Cost & Schedule
 Training & Support
 Disposal

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 13

 What is Systems Engineering?
• Systems Engineering integrates all of the
disciplines and specialty groups into a team
effort forming a structured development
process that proceeds from concept to
production to operation.
• Systems Engineering considers both the
business and the technical needs of all
customers with the goal of providing a quality
product that meets the user needs

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 14

 Why has Systems Engineering
•
Emerged
The term itself was not
as A Distinct Discipline?
formally used, nor was the
importance of the concepts
recognized, until after World
War II.
• Complexity increased orders of
magnitude with the creation
of coupled mecho-digital
systems, especially in defense
(P-51 Mustang versus the
Trident in 10 years)
• Creation of systems of
systems, with users,
acquisition, training, service,
support, etc.
• Explosions = N!/2(N-2)!

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 15

 Emergence of Systems Engineering
Issues
• “The Mythical Man-month”, written by Fred Brooks, who was
the first manager of the OS/360 development team at IBM in
the 1960's:
– People seem to think that people and time are interchangeable
and substitutable resources in projects
– Face it, the addition of people to a late project will only make it
later
– In computer systems, the issue of decomposition and system
management reared its ugly head with optimistic programmers
saying "This time it will surely run," or " I just found the last bug."
– The false assumption is that things will take as long as they “ought
to take” and things will work as planned.
– Nothing works out as planned the first time - Systems Engineering
attempts to mitigate this issue

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 16

 Emergence of Systems Engineering
Issues
• “The Mythical Man-month”, written by Fred Brooks, who was
the first manager of the OS/360 development team at IBM in
the 1960's:
– People seem to think that people and time are interchangeable
and substitutable resources in projects
– Face it, the addition of people to a late project will only make it
later
– In computer systems, the issue of decomposition and system
management reared its ugly head with optimistic programmers
saying "This time it will surely run," or " I just found the last bug."
– The false assumption is that things will take as long as they “ought
to take” and things will work as planned.
– Nothing works out as planned the first time - Systems Engineering
attempts to mitigate this issue

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 17

 The Role of the System Engineer
• Any engineer acts as a systems engineer when
responsible for the design and implementation of a
total system.
• The difference with “traditional engineering” lies
primarily in the greater emphasis on defining goals,
the creative generation of alternative designs, the
evaluation of alternative designs, and the
coordination and control of the diverse tasks that
are necessary to create a complex system.
• The role of Systems Engineer is one of Manager
that utilizes a structured value delivery process

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 18

 The Systems Engineering Process
• The major steps in the completion of a typical systems engineering project are the
following: (1) problem statement; (2) identification of objectives; (3) generation of
alternatives; (4) analysis of these alternatives; (5) selection of one of them; (6) creation
of the system, and, finally, (7) operation.

• Some examples of Systems Engineering Process activities are:

• Defining needs, operational concept, and requirements
• Functional analysis, decomposition, and allocation
• System modeling, systems analysis, and tradeoff studies
• Requirements allocation, traceability, and control
• Prototyping, Integration, and Verification
• System Engineering Product and Process control
• Configuration and Data Management
• Risk Management approaches
• Engineering technical reviews and their purposes

ESD.83 Cory R. A. Hallam 19

 Information Systems Planning

• Scope of IS is now the entire organization

• Sometimes called “enterprise-wide”
computing or “Information Architecture”
• Problem: isolated groups in an organization
start their own databases and it becomes
impossible to find out who has what
information, where there are overlaps, and to
assess the accuracy of the information

IS 257 - Fall 2008

 Information Systems Planning
• To support enterprise-wide computing, there
must be enterprise-wide information planning
• One framework for thinking about and
planning for enterprise-wide computing is an
Information Systems Architecture or ISA
• Most organizations do NOT have such an
architecture

IS 257 - Fall 2008