Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 VI Scoping Scoping the Problem and the the Solution Solution Choosing Among Alternatives Alternatives Example The Hotel Checkout System Example The Computer Books By By Mail Mail Corporation Corporation Business Process Reengineering 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 1 Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Two Scoping Steps Scope the problem Meeting scheduling is too costly right now vs We need to improve productivity Scope the solution Build a system that schedules meetings vs Build a system that maintains people s calendars vs 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 2 Page Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 And Two More Steps Choose a business process Ask the secretary who handles the rest vs Negotiate with participants meeting details Choose among alternative computerized solutions given a business process Computer generates schedule given request details vs Solution produced by secretary and computer Beware of the difference between problems and symptoms 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 3 Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Scoping the Problem For the Bookstore example Textbooks are often not ordered in time for the start of classes But that s just a symptom so you ask the manager why Because we don t receive the booklists from instructors early enough Is that just a symptom of some other problem so ask the instructors why Because the instructors aren t allocated to courses early enough Is that just a symptom of some other problem so ask the UG office why Because we never know who s available to teach until the last minute more 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 4 Page Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Scoping the Problem cont d Is that just a symptom of some other problem so ask the dept chair why Because there s always uncertainty about who gets hired sabbaticals etc Is that just a symptom of some other problem so ask the dept chair why Because instructors we want to hire don t accept our offers early enough Is that just a symptom of some other problem so ask the new recruits why Because some other universities seem to wait for ages before making offers more 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 5 Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Scoping the Problem cont d Is that just a symptom of some other problem so ask U of Waterloo etc why Because it takes our department a long time to reach consensus on hiring Is that just a oh wait maybe we can develop a decision support system for faculty hiring at U of Waterloo and that will help us get our textbooks for the start of class 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 6 Page Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Scoping the Solution Say you decided that delay in processing booklists from instructors is the right level of problem to tackle So let s computerize submission of textbook forms from instructors But while we re at it it would help if we also computerized the submission of orders to the publishers and of course we ought to computerize the management of book inventories too so we can quickly check stock levels before ordering new books and in that case we might as well computerize the archives of past years booklists so that we can predict demand better 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 7 Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Scoping the Solution cont d and therefore it would also make sense to provide a computerized used book exchange because that has a big effect on demand for new books and then of course there s oh wait this is going to cost millions Bookstore manager tell me again how this automated used book exchange will help me order books faster 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 8 Page Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Choosing Among Alternative Business Processes What is the space of alternatives we are choosing from There are two dimensions along which we have choices The first and most important is between different business processes i e between different ways of accomplishing the same task e g handling an invoice handling a loan application handling an insurance claim 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 9 Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Choosing Among Alternative Business Processes cont d Consider the purchasing department of a university Current purchase process If someone wants to buy equipment she requests a purchase order from the purchase order department purchase order is issued vendor sends equipment to purchase order department is paid and equipment is shipped to researcher Alternative process Researcher s department issues purchase order gets equipment charges researcher s budget There are clearly other alternatives as well 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 10 Page Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 Choosing Among Alternative Computerized Solutions For each proposed business process we can look into what tasks can be computerized or facilitated by the system to be built For the textbook store example assume we only want to automate the submission of textbook lists from instructors Instructors submit via email an employee prepares purchase order lists for publishers or Instructors submit via email and the system prepares purchase order lists for publishers or Instructors submit via email system prepares purchase order lists which are sent out electronically web based alternatives 2004 Steve Easterbrook and John Mylopoulos Scoping 11 Information Systems Analysis and Design csc340 A Hotel Checkout System Consider a hotel checkout system Currently the system is updated twice a day with charges including room charge per day room service charges for such things as snacks delivered to one s room room video charges if the customer uses the room s pay TV restaurant charges if the customer dines in the hotel s restaurant and charges the bill to her room and when the customer leaves at which time the customer is supposed to mention any recent charges and the bill is paid in full Hotel management wants to change the system because there are often billing errors such as customers leaving without paying some charges also sometimes customers are double billed because they declare a certain charge for which they have already been billed In addition management expects business to grow because of a major extension
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