Friday, December 3, 2010
Some questions from OS LAB
SET A
Operating System Lab Quiz
1. Create a DOS batch file student.bat that examines the batch parameter %1 through %3. If a parameter is defined display the parameter’s value. If the parameter is not defined display an appropriate error message. [3]
2. Answer the following questions with respect to DOS: [3]
1. Which commands place entries in the environment?
2. How can you use SET to change your command prompt?
3. What is the function of REN command
4. what is purpose of pause command
5. How does Echo off affect pause?
3. Given the output of following: [4]
1. rm file *
2. wc < file13. ls|wc –l > file
4. mkdir abc|data abc|data2 abc
Set B
1. Create a DOS batch file student.bat that examines the batch parameter %1 through %3. If a parameter is defined display the parameter’s value. If the parameter is not defined display an appropriate error message. [2]
2. Answer the following with respect to DOS [3]:
1. How do you change existing environment’s entry value?
2. What is purpose of TEMP environment entry
3. Create a batch file which displays calendar for month of March’10
3. Given the output of following [5]:
1. rmdir abc|data abc|data2 abc
2. who >>file1
3. cat chap*>hello
4. echo $$
5. ps -l
SET C
Operating System Lab Quiz
1. Create a batch file teacher.bat that examines the batch parameter %1 through %4. If a parameter is defined display the parameter’s value. If the parameter is not defined display an appropriate error message. [2]
2. Answer the following [3]:
1. How do you change existing environment’s entry value?
2. What is purpose of TEMP environment entry?
3. Create a batch file which displays calendar for month of March’10
3. Given the output of following [5]:
a. rmdir abc|data abc|data2 abc
b. who >>file1
c. cat chap*>hello
d. echo $$
e. ps -l
SET D
Operating System Lab Quiz
1. Answer the following questions [5]:
1. What will cat fit fit fit display
2. How will you copy a directory structure tree1 tree2 ?Does it make any difference if tree2 exist?
3. What is difference between cat foo and cat > foo?
4. Delete all files and directories of the current directory through a single command?
5. Count number of lines, number of words and characters for 3 files and total count. All through a single command.
2. What is significance of these commands?[3]
a. mv $Home/include
b. cp –r t1 t2
c. mv *../bin
3. Make a menu driven program in dos using choice command [2]
Friday, November 12, 2010
PREPARATION OF METHOD STATEMENT
Standard Format for Method Statement
Note:
The method statement submitted is not limited to the above statements but only the minimum requirements that are required in a method statement
Sunday, October 3, 2010
XML Attributes
From HTML you will remember this: < IMG SRC="comp.gif" >. The SRC attribute provides additional information about the IMG element. In HTML (and in XML) attributes provide additional information about elements:
< img src="computer.gif" >
< a href="demo.asp" >
Attributes often provide information that is not a part of the data. In the example below, the file type is irrelevant to the data, but important to the software that wants to manipulate the element:
< file type="gif" > computer.gif < /file >
Students now u know abt basic XML, its scripting rules. Lets understand XML attributes which can be understood as property of an element.
Here are simple rules for XML elements
Quote Styles, "female" or 'female'?
Attribute values must always be enclosed in quotes, but either single or double quotes can be used. For a person's sex, the person tag can be written like this:
< person sex="female" > or like this:
< person sex='female' >
Note: If the attribute value itself contains double quotes it is necessary to use single quotes, like in this example:
< Inspector name='George "Rain" Abslum' >
Note: If the attribute value itself contains single quotes it is necessary to use double quotes, like in this example:
< Inspector name="George 'Rain' Abslum" >
Use of Elements vs. Attributes: Data can be stored in child elements or in attributes.
E.g. Take a look at these examples:
< firstname > Anna < /firstname >
lastname > Smith < /lastname >
< /person >
< person >
< sex > female < /sex >
< firstname > Anna > /firstname >
< lastname > Smith > /lastname >
< /person >
In the first example sex is an attribute. In the last, sex is a child element. Both examples provide the same information. There are no rules about when to use attributes, and when to use child elements. My experience is that attributes are handy in HTML, but in XML you should try to avoid them. Use child elements if the information feels like data.
E.g.Storing data in child elements.
The following three XML documents contain exactly the same information:
A date attribute is used in the first example:
< note date="12/11/2002" >
< to > Tove < /to >
< from>Jani < /from >
< heading>Reminder < /heading >
< body>Don't forget me this weekend! < /body >
< /note >
A date element is used in the second example:
< note >
< date > 12/11/2002 < /date >
< to > Tove < /to >
< from>JaniReminder < /heading >
< body>Don't forget me this weekend! < /body >
< /note >
An expanded date element is used in the third: (THIS IS MY FAVORITE):
< note >
< date >
< day > 12 < /day >
< month > 11 < /month >
< year > 2002 </year >
< /date >
< to > Tove < /to >
< from > Jani < /from >
< heading > Reminder < /heading >
< body >Don't forget me this weekend! < /body >
< /note >
< img src="computer.gif" >
< a href="demo.asp" >
Attributes often provide information that is not a part of the data. In the example below, the file type is irrelevant to the data, but important to the software that wants to manipulate the element:
< file type="gif" > computer.gif < /file >
Students now u know abt basic XML, its scripting rules. Lets understand XML attributes which can be understood as property of an element.
Here are simple rules for XML elements
Quote Styles, "female" or 'female'?
Attribute values must always be enclosed in quotes, but either single or double quotes can be used. For a person's sex, the person tag can be written like this:
< person sex="female" > or like this:
< person sex='female' >
Note: If the attribute value itself contains double quotes it is necessary to use single quotes, like in this example:
< Inspector name='George "Rain" Abslum' >
Note: If the attribute value itself contains single quotes it is necessary to use double quotes, like in this example:
< Inspector name="George 'Rain' Abslum" >
Use of Elements vs. Attributes: Data can be stored in child elements or in attributes.
E.g. Take a look at these examples:
< firstname > Anna < /firstname >
lastname > Smith < /lastname >
< /person >
< person >
< sex > female < /sex >
< firstname > Anna > /firstname >
< lastname > Smith > /lastname >
< /person >
In the first example sex is an attribute. In the last, sex is a child element. Both examples provide the same information. There are no rules about when to use attributes, and when to use child elements. My experience is that attributes are handy in HTML, but in XML you should try to avoid them. Use child elements if the information feels like data.
E.g.Storing data in child elements.
The following three XML documents contain exactly the same information:
A date attribute is used in the first example:
< note date="12/11/2002" >
< to > Tove < /to >
< from>Jani < /from >
< heading>Reminder < /heading >
< body>Don't forget me this weekend! < /body >
< /note >
A date element is used in the second example:
< note >
< date > 12/11/2002 < /date >
< to > Tove < /to >
< from>JaniReminder < /heading >
< body>Don't forget me this weekend! < /body >
< /note >
An expanded date element is used in the third: (THIS IS MY FAVORITE):
< note >
< date >
< day > 12 < /day >
< month > 11 < /month >
< year > 2002 </year >
< /date >
< to > Tove < /to >
< from > Jani < /from >
< heading > Reminder < /heading >
< body >Don't forget me this weekend! < /body >
< /note >
Element naming
XML elements must follow these naming rules:
Take care when you "invent" element names and follow these simple rules:
Any name can be used, no words are reserved, but the idea is to make names descriptive. Names with an underscore separator are nice.
Examples: < stud_name >, < stud_age > .
Avoid "-" and "." in names. For example, if you name something "first-name," it could be a mess if your software tries to subtract name from first. Or if you name something "first.name," your software may think that "name" is a property of the object "first." Element names can be as long as you like, but don't exaggerate. Names should be short and simple, like this:
< Thesis_title > not like this: < the_title_of_the_book >.
XML documents often have a corresponding database, in which fields exist corresponding to elements in the XML document. A good practice is to use the naming rules of your database for the elements in the XML documents. Non-English letters like éòá are perfectly legal in XML element names, but watch out for problems if your software vendor doesn't support them. The ":" should not be used in element names because it is reserved to be used for something called namespaces (more later).
- Names can contain letters, numbers, and other characters
- Names must not start with a number or punctuation character
- Names must not start with the letters xml (or XML, or Xml, etc)
- Names cannot contain spaces
Take care when you "invent" element names and follow these simple rules:
Any name can be used, no words are reserved, but the idea is to make names descriptive. Names with an underscore separator are nice.
Examples: < stud_name >, < stud_age > .
Avoid "-" and "." in names. For example, if you name something "first-name," it could be a mess if your software tries to subtract name from first. Or if you name something "first.name," your software may think that "name" is a property of the object "first." Element names can be as long as you like, but don't exaggerate. Names should be short and simple, like this:
< Thesis_title > not like this: < the_title_of_the_book >.
XML documents often have a corresponding database, in which fields exist corresponding to elements in the XML document. A good practice is to use the naming rules of your database for the elements in the XML documents. Non-English letters like éòá are perfectly legal in XML element names, but watch out for problems if your software vendor doesn't support them. The ":" should not be used in element names because it is reserved to be used for something called namespaces (more later).
Sunday, September 26, 2010
XML SCRIPTING
XML Language can be understood as a generic language used to describe other markup languages. You need to understand that XML makes a clear distinction between the markup and the content of the webpage. Here markup implies tags and attributes that are being used in the XML document and content refers to the information being presented in the document.
E.g.
< p > XML is used to store data in a structured way < /p >
In this example < p >…. </p > refers to the markup being used in the document and the text written between these tags refer to the content of the document.
You can say that markup is actually used to describe the presentation of the content. This is done using standard tags and attributes that are available in HTML. You will find that the XML markup is generally used to describe the content of the document and is not related with the appearance of the document.
E.g. < quiz answer=”Qutab Minar” > Can you name a famous monument in delhi?< /quiz >
In this example < quiz > tag is being used to describe the type of content and the answer attribute specifies the answer for this question.
To start using XML effectively you need to learn about the terminology used in XML and understand the structure of a XML file. Consider following example:
< catalog >
< movie >
< title > Jung < >
< duration > 3 hrs < /duration >
< /movie >
< /catalog >
As you can see XML files have hierarchical structure. Each tag used in XML defines an element. Each element defined should have an opening as well as a closing tag. E.g. < catalog > has opening as well as closing tag. You will find that some of the elements are self-contained. You do not need to enclose any information in them. These tags can be considered empty element. Such tags can be made self-closing by adding "/ > >" at the end of the opening tag. The hierarchical structure enables easy parsing of the document. As in above example catalogue contains information about movie which ultimately contains detail about title and duration of the movie.
XML Syntax
Check out the following example:
Line 1: < ?xml version="1.0" ? >
Line 2: < library >
Line 3: < type="Operational Research" year="1992" >
Line 4: < book1 > Linear Programming < /book >
Line 5: < book2 > Non Linear Programming < /book >
Line 6: < book3 > Mathematical Programming < /book >
Line 7: < /book >
Line 8: < /library >
The first line is a processing Instruction. Processing Instruction is used to define the XML version of the document. From Line 1 you will find that the example written conforms to the 1.0 specification of XML:
< ?xml version=”1.0”? >
2 defines the first element of the document which is the root element:
< library >
next lines define child elements of the root i.e. Book which further has child elements (book1, book2, book3).
You can see that an XML documents use a self-describing syntax which is very simple to understand. Before you read further about xml scripting you need to be aware of the major components of an xml document. XML mark-up document can be broadly divided into a set of components which describe the makeup of a XML document. These components can be defined as follows:
1. Element Tag: An element can be understood as a piece of information that corresponds to a tag or a set of tags in a XML document. In other words element can be understood as a logical piece of markup that is represented as a tag in a XML document. E.g. In above example ‘quiz’ is an element which has been used as < quiz > &lgt; /quiz > tag in the document.
Note that an element need to have both starting and ending tags like < quiz > …< /quiz > ,< p > …< /p > or a simple empty tag like < img/ >. While coding in HTML empty tag < br > do not need to have end tag. However with XML be careful you need to close every tag.
2. Processing Instruction: Apart from markup and content you will find processing instructions written in a XML document which is the first statement in the document. A processing instruction can be understood as a special command passed along to the program which will process the document. Processing instruction written in < ?.....? > .
E.g. < ?xml version="1.0"? >
This processing instruction is the first statement of a XML document. You will find that the processing instruction is similar to a tag. It includes name and attribute/value pair. This processing instruction tells that the document adheres to the standard of xml version 1.0.
3. Comments in XML:
In a XML document comments can be written using following syntax:
< !-- In this document you are learning about xml -->
Note: You can write comments in XML in the same way as you write in HTML.
4. Document Type Declaration: It is used for describing the structure of an XML document. It identifies the external DTD that defines the structure of an xml document. The external DTD( DTD stands for Document type definition) is created for describing the structure of the xml document. You need to put the ‘Document Type declaration’ on the top of the xml document. It is written just below the processing instruction. Its use is to perform three basic tasks:
1. Document Type Declaration is used to identify the root element of the document. In an xml document there is a root element such that all other elements are the children of the root element.
2. Identifies the external DTD of the file. An xml file is created according to the document structure defined in the DTD.
E.g. Check out the XML below which describes audio/video collection
< ? xml version="1.0"? >
< !DOCTYPE entertainment SYSTEM entertainment.dtd >
< entertainment >
< Audio >
< track1 > Tara Rampam < >
< track2 > Let's go for party < /track2 >
< /Audio >
< Video >
< track1 > Jumanji < /track1 >
< track2 > Home Alome < /track2 >
< /Video >
< /entertainment >
In above example first line is a processing instruction which shows that this document should be processed according to the xml version 1.0 standards. In second line is the document type declaration which states that the root element for this xml file is ‘entertainment’. Further it identifies that the document need to be verified according to the external DTD namely “entertainment.dtd”. While processing this file browser needs to look for “entertainment.dtd” and then validate the document structure according to this file.
E.g.
< p > XML is used to store data in a structured way < /p >
In this example < p >…. </p > refers to the markup being used in the document and the text written between these tags refer to the content of the document.
You can say that markup is actually used to describe the presentation of the content. This is done using standard tags and attributes that are available in HTML. You will find that the XML markup is generally used to describe the content of the document and is not related with the appearance of the document.
E.g. < quiz answer=”Qutab Minar” > Can you name a famous monument in delhi?< /quiz >
In this example < quiz > tag is being used to describe the type of content and the answer attribute specifies the answer for this question.
To start using XML effectively you need to learn about the terminology used in XML and understand the structure of a XML file. Consider following example:
< catalog >
< movie >
< title > Jung < >
< duration > 3 hrs < /duration >
< /movie >
< /catalog >
As you can see XML files have hierarchical structure. Each tag used in XML defines an element. Each element defined should have an opening as well as a closing tag. E.g. < catalog > has opening as well as closing tag. You will find that some of the elements are self-contained. You do not need to enclose any information in them. These tags can be considered empty element. Such tags can be made self-closing by adding "/ > >" at the end of the opening tag. The hierarchical structure enables easy parsing of the document. As in above example catalogue contains information about movie which ultimately contains detail about title and duration of the movie.
XML Syntax
Check out the following example:
Line 1: < ?xml version="1.0" ? >
Line 2: < library >
Line 3: < type="Operational Research" year="1992" >
Line 4: < book1 > Linear Programming < /book >
Line 5: < book2 > Non Linear Programming < /book >
Line 6: < book3 > Mathematical Programming < /book >
Line 7: < /book >
Line 8: < /library >
The first line is a processing Instruction. Processing Instruction is used to define the XML version of the document. From Line 1 you will find that the example written conforms to the 1.0 specification of XML:
< ?xml version=”1.0”? >
2 defines the first element of the document which is the root element:
< library >
next lines define child elements of the root i.e. Book which further has child elements (book1, book2, book3).
You can see that an XML documents use a self-describing syntax which is very simple to understand. Before you read further about xml scripting you need to be aware of the major components of an xml document. XML mark-up document can be broadly divided into a set of components which describe the makeup of a XML document. These components can be defined as follows:
1. Element Tag: An element can be understood as a piece of information that corresponds to a tag or a set of tags in a XML document. In other words element can be understood as a logical piece of markup that is represented as a tag in a XML document. E.g. In above example ‘quiz’ is an element which has been used as < quiz > &lgt; /quiz > tag in the document.
Note that an element need to have both starting and ending tags like < quiz > …< /quiz > ,< p > …< /p > or a simple empty tag like < img/ >. While coding in HTML empty tag < br > do not need to have end tag. However with XML be careful you need to close every tag.
2. Processing Instruction: Apart from markup and content you will find processing instructions written in a XML document which is the first statement in the document. A processing instruction can be understood as a special command passed along to the program which will process the document. Processing instruction written in < ?.....? > .
E.g. < ?xml version="1.0"? >
This processing instruction is the first statement of a XML document. You will find that the processing instruction is similar to a tag. It includes name and attribute/value pair. This processing instruction tells that the document adheres to the standard of xml version 1.0.
3. Comments in XML:
In a XML document comments can be written using following syntax:
< !-- In this document you are learning about xml -->
Note: You can write comments in XML in the same way as you write in HTML.
4. Document Type Declaration: It is used for describing the structure of an XML document. It identifies the external DTD that defines the structure of an xml document. The external DTD( DTD stands for Document type definition) is created for describing the structure of the xml document. You need to put the ‘Document Type declaration’ on the top of the xml document. It is written just below the processing instruction. Its use is to perform three basic tasks:
1. Document Type Declaration is used to identify the root element of the document. In an xml document there is a root element such that all other elements are the children of the root element.
2. Identifies the external DTD of the file. An xml file is created according to the document structure defined in the DTD.
E.g. Check out the XML below which describes audio/video collection
< ? xml version="1.0"? >
< !DOCTYPE entertainment SYSTEM entertainment.dtd >
< entertainment >
< Audio >
< track1 > Tara Rampam < >
< track2 > Let's go for party < /track2 >
< /Audio >
< Video >
< track1 > Jumanji < /track1 >
< track2 > Home Alome < /track2 >
< /Video >
< /entertainment >
In above example first line is a processing instruction which shows that this document should be processed according to the xml version 1.0 standards. In second line is the document type declaration which states that the root element for this xml file is ‘entertainment’. Further it identifies that the document need to be verified according to the external DTD namely “entertainment.dtd”. While processing this file browser needs to look for “entertainment.dtd” and then validate the document structure according to this file.
Just quick recap
I am sure you must be able to answer following questions:
1. How XML differs from HTML?
2. What is advantage of XML?
1. How XML differs from HTML?
2. What is advantage of XML?
Difference between HTML and XML
You need to understand that you will not use XML for replacing HTML. Both XML and HTML have been designed for different goals which can be summarized as follows:
a. XML is designed specifically for describing and structuring the data where as HTML is used for formatting and displaying the data.
b. XML is focused on defining data with its attributes. It basically tells what data is all about. HTML is focused on presentation of data and is used to customize looks of data.
c. In case of HTML Document tags to be used and the structure of the documents are predefined. While using HTML you can only use tags which are pre-defined in the HTML standards. In case of XML you can define your own tags and develop your own document structure.
d. An XML document is saved with an extension .XML whereas an HTML document is saved as .HTML.
E.g. The following example is an e-mail from Ram to Shyam stored as XML
< email >
< to > Ram </to >
< from > Shyam < /from >
< subject > Hi how are you? </subject >
< content > Let’s go for a New Year party </content >
< /email >
In above example e-mail has been stored using XML markup language. You can see that own tags have been created to store the names of sender and receiver. Similarly different tags have been created to store the subject and content of the web page.
a. XML is designed specifically for describing and structuring the data where as HTML is used for formatting and displaying the data.
b. XML is focused on defining data with its attributes. It basically tells what data is all about. HTML is focused on presentation of data and is used to customize looks of data.
c. In case of HTML Document tags to be used and the structure of the documents are predefined. While using HTML you can only use tags which are pre-defined in the HTML standards. In case of XML you can define your own tags and develop your own document structure.
d. An XML document is saved with an extension .XML whereas an HTML document is saved as .HTML.
E.g. The following example is an e-mail from Ram to Shyam stored as XML
< email >
< to > Ram </to >
< from > Shyam < /from >
< subject > Hi how are you? </subject >
< content > Let’s go for a New Year party </content >
< /email >
In above example e-mail has been stored using XML markup language. You can see that own tags have been created to store the names of sender and receiver. Similarly different tags have been created to store the subject and content of the web page.
CHARACTERISTICS OF XML
XML stands for ‘Extensible Markup Language’. It is a general-purpose specification which is commonly used for creating custom markup languages. It is an extensible language as it provides its users an ability to define their own elements. Thus it enables users to create custom tags that suit their requirement. XML has been primarily developed to information systems share their structured data online. It can be used to encode documents as well as to serialize data so that it can be efficiently used. Some of the features of XML have been summarized below:
1. XML can be understood as an extensible language which is freely available.
2. XML tags are user made tags. They are not predefined tags. In case of HTML predefined tags are used (like < p >, < h1 > etc.). While using XML users can define custom tags and develop document structure as per their requirement.
3. XML is not a replacement for HTML. It is actually a complement to HTML. Both scripting languages have their own purpose. As web is developing XML is being popularly used to describe and structure the data where as HTML is being be used for formatting and displaying the data.
4. XML has been inherited from SGML
Let us define SGML
SGML:SGML implies Standard Generalized Markup Language. SGML is an ISO standard that defines an extremely powerful markup language. It is popularly used in the publishing industry and large manufacturing companies. It is a meta language used for creating other markup languages such as HTML. It marks the origin of XML.
XML
XML can be understood as markup language like the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) which is commonly used for scripting web page. XML is specifically designed to describe data so that it can be effectively stored online. Web today contains such vast information. XML enables structuring of data so that it can then be mined to get suitable information. In case of XML unlike HTML there are no predefined tags. XML can also be called as self-descriptive markup language as users need to define their on tags.
For better understanding check out the example below:
Suppose you are storing information about a set of books. You may store the information in html as follows:
Book.html
< html >
< head > < title > Storing Information < /title >
< body >
< p > Linear Programming by A.S. Bajaj
< p > Marketing Research by Kotler
< /body >
< /html >
Book.xml
< catalog >
< book >
< title > Linear Programming < title >
< author > A.S Bajaj </author >
< /book >
< book >
< title > <Marketing Research="" <br=""> < author > Kotler < /author > <br /> < /book > <br /> < /catalog > <br /> <br /> In the above example you can see that you can easily define data in an XML file. The file shows that a catalogue of books is being developed which contains title and author detail of the book. You can see that XML the file size in XML is more then the other file size. You may feel that XML will loss in efficiency those results from this increased size. However XML makes this loss by speeding up the processing of a well-defined XML file. The way you interpret an html file is dependent on the pre-defined tags available in html. In contrast XML file tags are user defined and represent a piece of information in a hierarchical manner. Such kind of data which describes is also called metadata. Such data provides great strength to XML as it provides ability for creating own specifications and structure the data in the way you want it to be interpreted by any other system.
1. XML can be understood as an extensible language which is freely available.
2. XML tags are user made tags. They are not predefined tags. In case of HTML predefined tags are used (like < p >, < h1 > etc.). While using XML users can define custom tags and develop document structure as per their requirement.
3. XML is not a replacement for HTML. It is actually a complement to HTML. Both scripting languages have their own purpose. As web is developing XML is being popularly used to describe and structure the data where as HTML is being be used for formatting and displaying the data.
4. XML has been inherited from SGML
Let us define SGML
SGML:SGML implies Standard Generalized Markup Language. SGML is an ISO standard that defines an extremely powerful markup language. It is popularly used in the publishing industry and large manufacturing companies. It is a meta language used for creating other markup languages such as HTML. It marks the origin of XML.
XML
XML can be understood as markup language like the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) which is commonly used for scripting web page. XML is specifically designed to describe data so that it can be effectively stored online. Web today contains such vast information. XML enables structuring of data so that it can then be mined to get suitable information. In case of XML unlike HTML there are no predefined tags. XML can also be called as self-descriptive markup language as users need to define their on tags.
For better understanding check out the example below:
Suppose you are storing information about a set of books. You may store the information in html as follows:
Book.html
< html >
< head > < title > Storing Information < /title >
< body >
< p > Linear Programming by A.S. Bajaj
< p > Marketing Research by Kotler
< /body >
< /html >
Book.xml
< catalog >
< book >
< title > Linear Programming < title >
< author > A.S Bajaj </author >
< /book >
< book >
< title > <Marketing Research
Introduction to XML
Dear Students
In this an subsequent posts we will read about XML. We will be covering following topics in XML.
• List the applications and advantages of XML
• Create well-formed and valid XML documents.
• Make a XHTML document.
• Create XM DTD
• Use XSL for transforming XML data and display it in a Web browser.
• Apply data binding and the Document Object Model for displaying dynamic XML data in a Web browser.
In this an subsequent posts we will read about XML. We will be covering following topics in XML.
• List the applications and advantages of XML
• Create well-formed and valid XML documents.
• Make a XHTML document.
• Create XM DTD
• Use XSL for transforming XML data and display it in a Web browser.
• Apply data binding and the Document Object Model for displaying dynamic XML data in a Web browser.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
JAVASCRIPT Problems
Hello
Students check these javascript problems
compiled by PRAPTI
Students check these javascript problems
- Add new elemts at the beginning of array
<html >
<body >
<script language="javascript" >
var scripts=new Array();
scripts[0]="PHP";
scripts[1]="ASP";
scripts[2]="JAVASCRIPT";
scripts[3]="HTML";
document.write(scripts.join("< br > "));
document.write("< br >---- NOW AFTER APPLYING unshift()---< br >");
scripts.unshift("VBSCRIPT","PERL");
document.write(scripts.join("< br >"));
</script >
</body >
</html > - Display Today's date and Time
< html >
< title >
< /title >
< body >
< script language="javascript" >
var d=new Date;
document.write("< b > "+d);
< /script >
< /body >
< /html > - Add an element to position 2 in an array
< html >
< body >
< script type="text/javascript" >
var fruits = ["HTML", "JSP", "PHP", "ASP"];
document.write("Removed: " + fruits.splice(2,0,"JAVASCRIPT") + "< br / >");
document.write(fruits);
< /script >
< /body >
< /html > - Concatenate two arrays
< html >
< body >
< h2 > concat arrays containig alphabets,numbers,symbols < /h2 >
<script language="javascript" >
var alphabets = ["a","b","c"];
var numbers = ["1","2"];
var symbols = ["@", "$","^"];
var alphano = alphabets.concat(numbers,symbols);
document.write(alphano);
< /script >
< /body >
< /html > - To concert today's date to string
< html >
< body >
< script language="javascript" >
var d =new Date();
document.write("in original form");
document.write(d +"< br/ > ");
document.write("(according to UTC) to string:");
document.write(d.toUTCString());
< /script >
< /body >
< /html > - TO remove first element of the array
< html >
< head >
< title > Removing the first Element < /title >
< script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" >
< !--
var x = new Array(1,2,3,4);
var firstElement = x.shift();
alert(firstElement);
alert(2);
alert(3);
alert(4);
alert(x);
//-->
< /script >
< /head >
< body >
< h1 > Removing the first Element < /h1 >
< /body >
< /html > - Replace character in a string
< html>
< body>
< script language="javascript" >
var str="LOGIN UR ID!";
document.write(str.replace(/ID/,"ACCOUNT"));
< /script >
< /body >
< /html > - Reverse order of elements in the array
< html >
< title > JavaScript array reverse() example < /title >
< body >
< h2 >
Example of reversing an array
< /h2 >
< script type="text/javascript" >
var arr = new Array(3);
arr[0]="1";
arr[1]="2";
arr[2]="3";
document.write("< b > Array before reversed is < /b >="+arr+"< br > ");
document.write("< b > Reversed array is < /b > ="+arr.reverse()+"<br > ");
< /script >
< /body >
< /html >
compiled by PRAPTI
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Information System
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
Decision Support Systems (DSS)
Executive Information Systems (EIS)
Management Information Systems (MIS
Operations Support System:
Operations Support System (OSS) performs management, inventory, engineering, planning, and repair functions.
A lot of the work on OSS has been centered on defining its architecture. Put simply, there are four key elements of OSS:
• Processes
o the sequence of events
• Data
o the information that is acted upon
• Applications
o the components that implement processes to manage data
• Technology
o how we implement the applications
1. Transaction Processing System
A transaction processing system (TPS) collects, stores, modifies and retrieves the transactions of an organization. Examples of such systems are automatic telling machines (ATMs), electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS – also referred to as POS).
• A Transaction Processing System collects, stores, modify's and retrieves the daily transactions of a business.
• TPS systems secure and record the daily transactions of a company.
There are two types of transaction of processing:
Batch processing: where all of the transactions are collected and processed as one group or batch at a later stage.
Real-time processing: where the transaction is processed immediately
Batch Processing
In Batch processing all information that needs to be processed is collected and processed as a group at a later date.
A good example of Batch processing is Cheques, as these are collected and processed at a later date.
Three main disadvantages of batch processing are:
1. The processing schedule is pre-determined so it must wait till a set time.
2. Errors cannot be corrected during processing
3. Sorting the transaction data is expensive and time consuming.
Real time processing
Real time Processing is the immediate processing of data. It instantaneously provides confirmation of a transaction.
There are two main concerns with Real-time processing these are:
1. Concurrency, which ensures that two users cannot change the same data at any one time.
2. Atomicity, which is the ensurance that all steps in the transaction process are completed.
Real time processing is extremely expensive. Both the hardware and software.
Information systems are constantly changing and evolving as technology continues to grow. Very importantly the information systems described below are not mutually exclusive and some (especially Expert Systems, Management Information Systems and Executive Information Systems are can be seen as a subset of Decision Support Systems). However these examples are not the only overlaps and the divisions of these information systems will change over time.
Components of A Transaction Processing System:
• Users – are people who use a TPS often take the data provided by the TPS and use it in another type of information system. This is a main feature of a TPS
• Participants – are the people who conduct information processing. Success or failure of the system depends on them.
• People – people from the environment become participant when they directly enter transactions and perform validation .Eg, withdrawing money from an ATM.
• Rapid response – fast performance with rapid results
• Reliability – well designed backup and recovery with a low failure rate
• Inflexibility – treat every transaction equally
• Controlled processing – maintain specific requirements for the roles and responsibilities of different employees.
• The output from a TPS is the input to other types of information systems.
Such as:
• DSS (Decision Support Systems) can provide the information necessary to make informed decisions.
• MIS (Management Support Systems) provides information for the organisation’s managers. Presenting basic facts.
File Types in A Transaction Processing System:
• Master file - contains information about an organisations business situation.
• Transaction file - is a collection of transaction records.
• Report file - contains data that has been formatted for presentation to a user.
• Work file - is a temporary file in the system used during the processing.
• Program file – contains instructions for the processing of data.
ACID MODEL
The ACID model is one of the oldest and most important concepts of database theory. It sets forward four goals that every database management system must strive to achieve: atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability. No database that fails to meet any of these four goals can be considered reliable.
Let’s take a moment to examine each one of these characteristics in detail:
• Atomicity states that database modifications must follow an “all or nothing” rule. Each transaction is said to be “atomic.” If one part of the transaction fails, the entire transaction fails. It is critical that the database management system maintain the atomic nature of transactions in spite of any DBMS, operating system or hardware failure.
• Consistency states that only valid data will be written to the database. If, for some reason, a transaction is executed that violates the database’s consistency rules, the entire transaction will be rolled back and the database will be restored to a state consistent with those rules. On the other hand, if a transaction successfully executes, it will take the database from one state that is consistent with the rules to another state that is also consistent with the rules.
• Isolation requires that multiple transactions occurring at the same time not impact each other’s execution. For example, if Amit issues a transaction against a database at the same time that Richa issues a different transaction; both transactions should operate on the database in an isolated manner. The database should either perform Amit’s entire transaction before executing Richa’s or vice-versa. This prevents Amit’s transaction from reading intermediate data produced as a side effect of part of Richa’s transaction that will not eventually be committed to the database. Note that the isolation property does not ensure which transaction will execute first, merely that they will not interfere with each other.
• Durability ensures that any transaction committed to the database will not be lost. Durability is ensured through the use of database backups and transaction logs that facilitate the restoration of committed transactions in spite of any subsequent software or hardware failures.
Monday, August 23, 2010
System Development Life Cycle-4
System Development Life Cycle
The system development life cycle is the overall process of developing, implementing, and retiring information systems through a multistep process from initiation, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance to disposal. There are many different SDLC models and methodologies, but each generally consists of a series of defined steps or phases.
The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project, from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application.
The SDLC in its Pure Form has These Phases.
1) Requirement Analysis: - This phase is also known as feasibility study. In this stage the Requirement is been gathered for the product to be developed. The gathered requirement is documented in a simple document which is known as the Software Requirement Specification.
The Requirement Analysis Phase ultimately ends up with the SRS.
2) Design Analysis: - The purpose of this phase is to plan out the solutions to develop the application that has been documented in the SRS. The design provides solutions to the problems from the Requirement Analysis Phase.
3) Coding/ Development: - This phase is where the actual coding takes place. This stage targets to develop the application using right coding standards and technology.
4) Testing: - This phase is where the code is tested and verified to match the requirement given in the SRS. The stage repeats itself until the code is ready to publish or distribute. The testing takes place in many methods which are Black Box Testing, White Box Testing, Unit Testing, and Integrated Testing etc...
5) Implementation and Maintenance: - This is a phase where the Tested code is distributed to the end user and the Application has to be maintained. This stage is the most time consuming Phase where the end user keeps on identifying bugs and the application has to be modified and updated.
The system development life cycle is the overall process of developing, implementing, and retiring information systems through a multistep process from initiation, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance to disposal. There are many different SDLC models and methodologies, but each generally consists of a series of defined steps or phases.
The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project, from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application.
The SDLC in its Pure Form has These Phases.
1) Requirement Analysis: - This phase is also known as feasibility study. In this stage the Requirement is been gathered for the product to be developed. The gathered requirement is documented in a simple document which is known as the Software Requirement Specification.
The Requirement Analysis Phase ultimately ends up with the SRS.
2) Design Analysis: - The purpose of this phase is to plan out the solutions to develop the application that has been documented in the SRS. The design provides solutions to the problems from the Requirement Analysis Phase.
3) Coding/ Development: - This phase is where the actual coding takes place. This stage targets to develop the application using right coding standards and technology.
4) Testing: - This phase is where the code is tested and verified to match the requirement given in the SRS. The stage repeats itself until the code is ready to publish or distribute. The testing takes place in many methods which are Black Box Testing, White Box Testing, Unit Testing, and Integrated Testing etc...
5) Implementation and Maintenance: - This is a phase where the Tested code is distributed to the end user and the Application has to be maintained. This stage is the most time consuming Phase where the end user keeps on identifying bugs and the application has to be modified and updated.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
CASE STUDY On BPR-2
CASE STUDY 2
Read the following case and answer the questions at the end:
Dr. Sukumar inherited his father’s Dey’s Lab in Delhi in 1995. Till 2002, he owned 4 labs in the
National Capital Region (NCR) . His ambition was to turn it into a National chain. The number increased to 7 in 2003 across the country, including the acquisition of Platinum lab in Mumbai.
The number is likely to go to 50 within 2-3 years from 21 at present. Infusion of Rs. 28 crores for
a 26% stake by Pharma Capital has its growth strategy.
The lab with a revenue of Rs. 75 crores is among top three Pathological labs in India with Atlantic
(Rs. 77 crores) and Pacific (Rs. 55 crores). Yet its market share is only 2% of Rs. 3,500 crores market. The top 3 firms command only 6% as against 40-45% by their counterparts in the USA. There are about 20,000 to 1,00,000 stand alone labs engaged in routine pathological business in India, with no system of mandatory licensing and registration. That is why Dr. Sukumar has not gone for acquisition or joint ventures. He does not find many existing laboratories meeting quality standards. His six labs have been accredited nationally whereon many large hospitals have not thought of accreditation; The College of American pathologists accreditation of Dey’s lab would help it to reach clients outside India.
In Dey’s Lab, the bio-chemistry and blood testing equipments are sanitized every day. The bar coding and automated registration of patients do not allow any identity mix-ups. Even routine tests are conducted with highly sophisticated systems. Technical expertise enables them to carry out 1650 variety of tests. Same day reports are available for samples reaching by 3 p.m. and by 7 a.m. next day for samples from 500 collection centres located across the country. Their Technicians work round the clock, unlike competitors. Home services for collection and reporting is also available.
There is a huge unutilized capacity. Now it is trying to top other segments. 20% of its total business comes through its main laboratory which acts as a reference lab for many leading hospitals. New mega labs are being built to Encash preclinical and multi-centre clinical trials within India and provide postgraduate training to the pathologists.
Questions:
(i) What do you understand by the term Vision? What is the difference between ‘Vision’ and ‘Mission’? What vision Dr. Sukumar had at the time of inheritance of Dey’s Lab? Has it been achieved?
(ii) For growth what business strategy has been adopted by Dr. Sukumar?
(iii) What is the marketing strategy of Dr. Sukumar to overtake its competitors?
(iv) In your opinion what could be the biggest weakness in Dr. Sukumar’s business strategy?
CASE STUDY ON BPR-1
CASE STUDY 1
DD is the India’s premier public service broadcaster with more than 1,000 transmitters covering 90% of the country’s population across an estimated 70 million homes. It has more than 20,000 employees managing its metro and regional channels. Recent years have seen growing competition from many private channels numbering more than 65, and the cable and satellite operators (C & S). The C & S network reaches nearly 30 million homes and is growing at a very fast rate.
DD’s business model is based on selling half-hour slots of commercial time to the programme producers and charging them a minimum guarantee. For instance, the present tariff for the first 20 episodes of a programme is Rs. 30 lakhs plus the cost of production of the programme. In exchange the producers get 780 seconds of commercial time that he can sell to advertisers and can generate revenue. Break-even point for producers, at the present rates, thus is Rs. 75,000 for a 10 second advertising spot. Beyond 20 episodes, the minimum guarantee is Rs. 65 lakhs for which the producer has to charge Rs. 1,15,000 for a 10 second spot in order to break-even. It is at this point the advertisers face a problem – the competitive rates for a 10 second spot is Rs. 50,000. Producers are possessive about buying commercial time on DD. As a result the DD’s projected growth of revenue is only 6-10% as against 50-60% for the private sector channels. Software suppliers, advertisers and audiences are deserting DD owing to its unrealistic pricing policy. DD has three options before it.
First, it should privatize, second, it should remain purely public service broadcaster and third, a middle path. The challenge seems to be to exploit DD’s immense potential and emerge as a formidable player in the mass media.
Question:
(i) What is the best option, in your view, for DD?
(ii) Analyze the SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats ) factors the DD has ?
(iii) Why to you think that the proposed alternative is the best? (20 Marks)
Advantage & Disadvantages of MIS
Advantage & Disadvantages of MIS
Modern businesses have been leveraging management information systems (MIS) to manage, order, organize and manipulate the gigabytes and masses of information generated for various purposes. MIS helps businesses optimize business processes, address information needs of employees and various stakeholders and take informed strategic decisions. However, budget allocation and monitoring issues can affect the efficacy of MIS. It has its advantages and disadvantages depending on organizational deployment and usage.
ADVANTAGES
An MIS provides the following advantages:
1. It Facilitates planning: MIS improves the quality of plants by providing relevant information for sound decision - making. Due to increase in the size and complexity of organizations, managers have lost personal contact with the scene of operations.
2. In Minimizes information overload: MIS change the larger amount of data in to summarize form and there by avoids the confusion which may arise when managers are flooded with detailed facts.
3. MIS Encourages Decentralization: Decentralization of authority is possibly when there is a system for monitoring operations at lower levels. MIS is successfully used for measuring performance and making necessary change in the organizational plans and procedures.
4. It brings Co-ordination: MIS facilities integration of specialized activities by keeping each department aware of the problem and requirements of other departments. It connects all decision centers in the organization.
5. It makes control easier: MIS serves as a link between managerial planning and control. It improves the ability of management to evaluate and improve performance. The used computers has increased the data processing and storage capabilities and reduced the cost.
6. MIS assembles, process, stores, Retrieves, evaluates and disseminates the information.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Highly sensitive requires constant monitoring.
2. Buddgeting of MIS extremely difficult.
3. Quality of outputs governed by quality of inputs.
4. Lack of flexibility to update itself.
5. Effectiveness decreases due to frequent changes in top management
Modern businesses have been leveraging management information systems (MIS) to manage, order, organize and manipulate the gigabytes and masses of information generated for various purposes. MIS helps businesses optimize business processes, address information needs of employees and various stakeholders and take informed strategic decisions. However, budget allocation and monitoring issues can affect the efficacy of MIS. It has its advantages and disadvantages depending on organizational deployment and usage.
ADVANTAGES
An MIS provides the following advantages:
1. It Facilitates planning: MIS improves the quality of plants by providing relevant information for sound decision - making. Due to increase in the size and complexity of organizations, managers have lost personal contact with the scene of operations.
2. In Minimizes information overload: MIS change the larger amount of data in to summarize form and there by avoids the confusion which may arise when managers are flooded with detailed facts.
3. MIS Encourages Decentralization: Decentralization of authority is possibly when there is a system for monitoring operations at lower levels. MIS is successfully used for measuring performance and making necessary change in the organizational plans and procedures.
4. It brings Co-ordination: MIS facilities integration of specialized activities by keeping each department aware of the problem and requirements of other departments. It connects all decision centers in the organization.
5. It makes control easier: MIS serves as a link between managerial planning and control. It improves the ability of management to evaluate and improve performance. The used computers has increased the data processing and storage capabilities and reduced the cost.
6. MIS assembles, process, stores, Retrieves, evaluates and disseminates the information.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Highly sensitive requires constant monitoring.
2. Buddgeting of MIS extremely difficult.
3. Quality of outputs governed by quality of inputs.
4. Lack of flexibility to update itself.
5. Effectiveness decreases due to frequent changes in top management
MIS – Introduction to management in context of Information System
MIS – Introduction to management in context of IS
Management Information Systems, which are often abbreviated to MIS, are a subdivision of internal business controls that usually refer to documents, IT, people and procedures. An MIS is usually applied by management accountants who will be trying to solve a business problem or setting a price for how much a product should cost.
MIS are actually quite different from other information systems. This is because the MIS are used primarily to analyze other information systems that are used in the operational activities of any particular organization.
So MIS is not a true information system in the sense of technology, but nor is it a true business function. In fact it straddles both these disciplines and is a way in which technology can be harnessed along with business so that people can function more effectively.
Within any given organization there may well be MIS professionals, but they are actually employed as systems analysts or even project managers. They often will act as a means of communication between management and the staff on the ground and they are actually a very valuable asset to any firm, since MIS professionals have the ability to analyze vast amounts of data.
This is the real beauty of Management Information Systems; they allow personnel to effectively and efficiently analyze huge amounts of data that would otherwise be too enormous to be analyzed by humans. This means that trends can be spotted or patterns start to emerge. The MIS systems can also show dips or peaks in performance that may not be readily available when using other information systems, so they are incredibly important.
Origins of Management Information Systems
Initially computers were used to keep finances up to date by using word processing and in many cases accounting. But then more and more applications were invented all of which were geared towards providing management with useful and relevant information that would help them to manage their business and due to the nature of the information they contained, these applications became known as Management Information Systems.
Aim of Management Information Systems
The main aim of MIS systems is to inform management and help them make informed decisions about management and the way the business is run. This highlights the difference between an MIS and other types of information systems that do not necessarily contain information that will help managers make managerial decisions.
MIS, or management information systems, are used to manage the data created within the structure of a particular business. These systems store the data and allow the business to manipulate, analyze and compile the data through the use of software applications. Reports and analysis pulled from an information system can assist in the directing, planning and decision making needs of managers.
Component of MIS in context of IS
1. Information Management
2. Structures
3. Data
4. Tools
5. Output
1. Information Management
Businesses gather information every day in the form of invoices, proposals, daily sales figures and time cards. This information can provide a business insight into their operations, create a platform for decision making and reveal ideas that feed strategic planning. Gathering the information requires a consistent and reliable process in order for the information to be useful. Information management requires a system that supports the business model the information comes from.
2. Structures
Management information structures provide a central location in which to store and manage the information from. The structure or system is fed by people (employees, vendors, suppliers, customers) who input (provide) the data and output the data (creating reports and disseminating the data). Software and hardware supply the equipment needed to process, store and control access to the data. Business rules (how production cost is figured, formulas for vacation time, how accounts payable are processed for payment) dictate how the software should operate.
3. Data
Data found in information management systems is gathered by hand or electronically. Documents can provide data that is then input into the system or data can be gathered through conversation and input directly into the system via a form. Data can also be gathered using an electronic device such as a barcode scanner that is then downloaded into the management system. Delivering data into the system can occur from outside the system via customers, vendors or suppliers. Access to data may be controlled via a separate set of rules implemented by the business.
4. Tools
Software programs designed to fit the business rules and its required documents are the entry points for an information system. Hardware is needed to operate the software and can include large computer networks or a simple single server with a small number of desktops. Each business department may have a separate software program that shares its data with other programs or all departments can enter data through a central software program. Oracle and Microsoft offer management information system software products for medium to large businesses.
5. Output
Software applications allow the sorting and analyzing of data. Output typically comes in the form of reports. Reports can be disseminated electronically or by hand. A report can provide information about sales figures, production goals or even the financial value of the business as a whole. Annual reports and quarterly sales figures are created from data located in a management information system.
Management Information Systems, which are often abbreviated to MIS, are a subdivision of internal business controls that usually refer to documents, IT, people and procedures. An MIS is usually applied by management accountants who will be trying to solve a business problem or setting a price for how much a product should cost.
MIS are actually quite different from other information systems. This is because the MIS are used primarily to analyze other information systems that are used in the operational activities of any particular organization.
So MIS is not a true information system in the sense of technology, but nor is it a true business function. In fact it straddles both these disciplines and is a way in which technology can be harnessed along with business so that people can function more effectively.
Within any given organization there may well be MIS professionals, but they are actually employed as systems analysts or even project managers. They often will act as a means of communication between management and the staff on the ground and they are actually a very valuable asset to any firm, since MIS professionals have the ability to analyze vast amounts of data.
This is the real beauty of Management Information Systems; they allow personnel to effectively and efficiently analyze huge amounts of data that would otherwise be too enormous to be analyzed by humans. This means that trends can be spotted or patterns start to emerge. The MIS systems can also show dips or peaks in performance that may not be readily available when using other information systems, so they are incredibly important.
Origins of Management Information Systems
Initially computers were used to keep finances up to date by using word processing and in many cases accounting. But then more and more applications were invented all of which were geared towards providing management with useful and relevant information that would help them to manage their business and due to the nature of the information they contained, these applications became known as Management Information Systems.
Aim of Management Information Systems
The main aim of MIS systems is to inform management and help them make informed decisions about management and the way the business is run. This highlights the difference between an MIS and other types of information systems that do not necessarily contain information that will help managers make managerial decisions.
MIS, or management information systems, are used to manage the data created within the structure of a particular business. These systems store the data and allow the business to manipulate, analyze and compile the data through the use of software applications. Reports and analysis pulled from an information system can assist in the directing, planning and decision making needs of managers.
Component of MIS in context of IS
1. Information Management
2. Structures
3. Data
4. Tools
5. Output
1. Information Management
Businesses gather information every day in the form of invoices, proposals, daily sales figures and time cards. This information can provide a business insight into their operations, create a platform for decision making and reveal ideas that feed strategic planning. Gathering the information requires a consistent and reliable process in order for the information to be useful. Information management requires a system that supports the business model the information comes from.
2. Structures
Management information structures provide a central location in which to store and manage the information from. The structure or system is fed by people (employees, vendors, suppliers, customers) who input (provide) the data and output the data (creating reports and disseminating the data). Software and hardware supply the equipment needed to process, store and control access to the data. Business rules (how production cost is figured, formulas for vacation time, how accounts payable are processed for payment) dictate how the software should operate.
3. Data
Data found in information management systems is gathered by hand or electronically. Documents can provide data that is then input into the system or data can be gathered through conversation and input directly into the system via a form. Data can also be gathered using an electronic device such as a barcode scanner that is then downloaded into the management system. Delivering data into the system can occur from outside the system via customers, vendors or suppliers. Access to data may be controlled via a separate set of rules implemented by the business.
4. Tools
Software programs designed to fit the business rules and its required documents are the entry points for an information system. Hardware is needed to operate the software and can include large computer networks or a simple single server with a small number of desktops. Each business department may have a separate software program that shares its data with other programs or all departments can enter data through a central software program. Oracle and Microsoft offer management information system software products for medium to large businesses.
5. Output
Software applications allow the sorting and analyzing of data. Output typically comes in the form of reports. Reports can be disseminated electronically or by hand. A report can provide information about sales figures, production goals or even the financial value of the business as a whole. Annual reports and quarterly sales figures are created from data located in a management information system.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Ethical And Social impact of Information System
Ethics
Information technology offers potent tools that can serve to fulfill an individual's life, to further organizational goals, pursue national interest, or support environmentally sustainable regional development. The same technology can also be used to infringe on property in a digital form, invade individuals' private sphere, and to hold them in fear of omnipresent surveillance. The way the technology is deployed depends on our decisions as professionals and as users of information systems. It also depends on the enacted policies and legislation. All of us, therefore, should make the relevant decisions guided not only by the economic, organizational, and technological aspects of information systems, but also in consideration of their effects on individuals. Our knowledge of ethics helps us in making such decisions. What we may call infoethics is the application of ethical thinking to the development and use of information systems.
Ethics is a study of the principles of right and wrong that ought to guide human conduct. Ethics concerns itself with what values are worth pursuing in life and what acts are right. Therefore, ethics is a study of morality.
Human behavior and decision making fall into three domains :
1. Legal Domain
The legal domain governs a variety of relatively well defined behaviors, specified by law enforceable in the courts of a given country or within a local jurisdiction. International bodies increasingly address legal issues that cross national borders. Computer crime and abuse, such as destruction of databases with the use of computer viruses or misrepresentation of electronic identity toward financial gain, are the breaches of law and fall into this domain.
2. Discretionary Domain
However, not every legal action is ethical. The domain of ethics is governed by the general norms of behavior and by specific codes of ethics. To see whether your decision-making in a given case involves an ethical issue, you may apply the “sunshine principle”: “What if I read about my decisions and subsequent actions in tomorrow's paper?” Ethical considerations go beyond legal liability, and the breach of norms not punishable by law meets with social opprobrium. Only if the action is both legal and ethical, does it fall in the discretionary domain, where we properly act entirely according to our preferences.
3. Ethical Issues
Knowledge of ethics as it applies to the issues arising from the development and use of information systems, which we may call info ethics, helps us to make decisions in our professional life. Professional knowledge is generally assumed to confer a special responsibility in its domain. This is why the professions have evolved codes of ethics, that is, sets of principles intended to guide the conduct of the members of the profession.
The principal code of ethics for information systems professionals is the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, binding on the members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The code should be familiar also to all those whose professional life is affected by information systems.
To select a course of action in an ethical dilemma, we turn to ethical theories.
Ethical theories give us the foundation for ethical decision making. There are two fundamental approaches to ethical reasoning:
1. Consequentialist theories tell us to choose the action with the best possible consequences. Thus, the utilitarian theory that prominently represents this approach holds that our chosen action should produce the greatest overall good for the greatest number of people affected by our decision. The difficulty lies in deciding what the “good” is and how to measure and compare the resulting “goods.” The approach may also lead to sacrificing the rights of a minority. There are certain acts that are wrong in themselves and should be always avoided. The unethical acts interfere with the rights of others, the rights that may be derived from the other principal group of ethical theories.
2. Deontological theories argue that it is our duty to do what is right. Your actions should be such that they could serve as a model of behavior for others—and, in particular, you should act as you would want others to act toward you. Our fundamental duty is to treat others with respect—and thus not to treat them solely as a means to our own purposes.
Treating others with respect means not violating their rights. It is, therefore, vital that we recognize the rights of each human individual.
The principal individual rights recognized in democratic societies are:
1. The right to life and safety;
2. The right of free consent—individuals should be treated as they freely consent to be treated;
3. The right to private property;
4. The right to privacy;
5. The right of free speech, extending to the right to criticize truthfully the ethics or legality of the actions of others;
6. The right to fair treatment—individuals who are similar in regards relevant to a given decision should be treated similarly;
7. The right to due process—individuals have a right to an impartial hearing when they believe their rights are being violated.
Social and Ethical issues arise from the processing of data into information. The phrase "Social and Ethical Issues" refers to issues that affect direct and indirect users of the system. They may be legal issues but they may also be moral issues and the dangers to society from the misuse of the information. The phrase "Social and Ethical Issues" refer to a range of issues which are covered under:
Acknowledgment of data sources
The freedom of information act
Privacy principles
Accuracy of data and the reliability of data sources access to data, ownership and control of data
New trends in the organization, processing, storage and retrieval of data such as data warehousing and data-mining
The ethical issues involved are many and varied; however, it is helpful to focus on just four:
1. Privacy and Confidentiality - all web communications are subject to "eavesdropping". Browsers record your activities in history files. Cookies deposited by web sites collect information about you and your browsing. EG many online e-commerce sites use cookies to track buying habits. When these cookies are collected into a database, they may reveal identities of individuals. Some companies sell these databases.
2.Freedom and Censorship of Speech - people have to respect Copyright laws, and many of these laws are being violated, resulting in other laws being enforced banning people from downloading things like music off the Internet. It is good for musicians who don't want their music stolen, but bad for musicians who are wanting their music to be downloaded so they can become popular. There are also people who warp what other people say, or criticize it. This isn't fair because the Internet is open to anyone to say whatever they want.
3.Security - it is becoming increasingly easy to hack into people's computers and websites. This needs to be stopped because hacking into someone’s computer is the equivalent to breaking into someone’s house - it shouldn't happen.
4.Computer Crimes and Computer Related Crimes - like Security, more and more people are hacking into computers and program. A lot more crimes are being committed over and because of the Internet also. For example people can hack into bank accounts and steal money, or manipulate systems to cause destruction. A man in Australia hacked into a sewerage system and released millions of liters of raw waste into rivers and parks.
Information technology offers potent tools that can serve to fulfill an individual's life, to further organizational goals, pursue national interest, or support environmentally sustainable regional development. The same technology can also be used to infringe on property in a digital form, invade individuals' private sphere, and to hold them in fear of omnipresent surveillance. The way the technology is deployed depends on our decisions as professionals and as users of information systems. It also depends on the enacted policies and legislation. All of us, therefore, should make the relevant decisions guided not only by the economic, organizational, and technological aspects of information systems, but also in consideration of their effects on individuals. Our knowledge of ethics helps us in making such decisions. What we may call infoethics is the application of ethical thinking to the development and use of information systems.
Ethics is a study of the principles of right and wrong that ought to guide human conduct. Ethics concerns itself with what values are worth pursuing in life and what acts are right. Therefore, ethics is a study of morality.
Human behavior and decision making fall into three domains :
1. Legal Domain
The legal domain governs a variety of relatively well defined behaviors, specified by law enforceable in the courts of a given country or within a local jurisdiction. International bodies increasingly address legal issues that cross national borders. Computer crime and abuse, such as destruction of databases with the use of computer viruses or misrepresentation of electronic identity toward financial gain, are the breaches of law and fall into this domain.
2. Discretionary Domain
However, not every legal action is ethical. The domain of ethics is governed by the general norms of behavior and by specific codes of ethics. To see whether your decision-making in a given case involves an ethical issue, you may apply the “sunshine principle”: “What if I read about my decisions and subsequent actions in tomorrow's paper?” Ethical considerations go beyond legal liability, and the breach of norms not punishable by law meets with social opprobrium. Only if the action is both legal and ethical, does it fall in the discretionary domain, where we properly act entirely according to our preferences.
3. Ethical Issues
Knowledge of ethics as it applies to the issues arising from the development and use of information systems, which we may call info ethics, helps us to make decisions in our professional life. Professional knowledge is generally assumed to confer a special responsibility in its domain. This is why the professions have evolved codes of ethics, that is, sets of principles intended to guide the conduct of the members of the profession.
The principal code of ethics for information systems professionals is the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, binding on the members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The code should be familiar also to all those whose professional life is affected by information systems.
Ethical theories give us the foundation for ethical decision making. There are two fundamental approaches to ethical reasoning:
1. Consequentialist theories tell us to choose the action with the best possible consequences. Thus, the utilitarian theory that prominently represents this approach holds that our chosen action should produce the greatest overall good for the greatest number of people affected by our decision. The difficulty lies in deciding what the “good” is and how to measure and compare the resulting “goods.” The approach may also lead to sacrificing the rights of a minority. There are certain acts that are wrong in themselves and should be always avoided. The unethical acts interfere with the rights of others, the rights that may be derived from the other principal group of ethical theories.
2. Deontological theories argue that it is our duty to do what is right. Your actions should be such that they could serve as a model of behavior for others—and, in particular, you should act as you would want others to act toward you. Our fundamental duty is to treat others with respect—and thus not to treat them solely as a means to our own purposes.
Treating others with respect means not violating their rights. It is, therefore, vital that we recognize the rights of each human individual.
The principal individual rights recognized in democratic societies are:
1. The right to life and safety;
2. The right of free consent—individuals should be treated as they freely consent to be treated;
3. The right to private property;
4. The right to privacy;
5. The right of free speech, extending to the right to criticize truthfully the ethics or legality of the actions of others;
6. The right to fair treatment—individuals who are similar in regards relevant to a given decision should be treated similarly;
7. The right to due process—individuals have a right to an impartial hearing when they believe their rights are being violated.
Social and Ethical issues arise from the processing of data into information. The phrase "Social and Ethical Issues" refers to issues that affect direct and indirect users of the system. They may be legal issues but they may also be moral issues and the dangers to society from the misuse of the information. The phrase "Social and Ethical Issues" refer to a range of issues which are covered under:
Acknowledgment of data sources
The freedom of information act
Privacy principles
Accuracy of data and the reliability of data sources access to data, ownership and control of data
New trends in the organization, processing, storage and retrieval of data such as data warehousing and data-mining
The ethical issues involved are many and varied; however, it is helpful to focus on just four:
1. Privacy and Confidentiality - all web communications are subject to "eavesdropping". Browsers record your activities in history files. Cookies deposited by web sites collect information about you and your browsing. EG many online e-commerce sites use cookies to track buying habits. When these cookies are collected into a database, they may reveal identities of individuals. Some companies sell these databases.
2.Freedom and Censorship of Speech - people have to respect Copyright laws, and many of these laws are being violated, resulting in other laws being enforced banning people from downloading things like music off the Internet. It is good for musicians who don't want their music stolen, but bad for musicians who are wanting their music to be downloaded so they can become popular. There are also people who warp what other people say, or criticize it. This isn't fair because the Internet is open to anyone to say whatever they want.
3.Security - it is becoming increasingly easy to hack into people's computers and websites. This needs to be stopped because hacking into someone’s computer is the equivalent to breaking into someone’s house - it shouldn't happen.
4.Computer Crimes and Computer Related Crimes - like Security, more and more people are hacking into computers and program. A lot more crimes are being committed over and because of the Internet also. For example people can hack into bank accounts and steal money, or manipulate systems to cause destruction. A man in Australia hacked into a sewerage system and released millions of liters of raw waste into rivers and parks.
MIS Q & A
Q1. Identify and describe the four levels of the organizational hierarchy. What types of information systems serve each level?
From lowest to highest, the four levels of the organizational hierarchy are operational, knowledge, management, and strategic. Types of information systems include transaction processing systems, office systems, knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, management information systems, and executive support systems.
Transaction processing systems, such as order tracking, payroll, machine control, and compensation, serve the operational level.
Engineering workstations, word processing, graphics workstations, managerial workstations, document imaging, and electronic calendars are examples of knowledge work systems and office systems that serve the knowledge level.
Sales region analysis, cost analysis, annual budgeting, and relocation analysis are examples of decision-support systems and management information systems.
Many of these systems are programs that students learn in their management science or quantitative methods courses. Some are based on database management systems. Examples of executive support systems that serve the strategic level are sales trend forecasting, operating plan development, budget forecasting, profit planning, and manpower planning.
Q2. List and briefly describe the major types of systems in organizations.
Transaction processing systems, office systems, knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, management information systems, and executive support systems are the major types of systems in organizations. Transaction processing systems function at the operational level of the organization. Examples of transaction processing systems include order tracking, order processing, machine control, plant scheduling, compensation, and securities trading.
Knowledge work systems help create and integrate new knowledge within the organization. Examples of knowledge work systems include engineering workstations, managerial workstations, and graphics workstations. Office systems help increase data worker productivity and include word processing document imaging, and electronic calendars.
Management information systems provide managers with reports based primarily on data pulled from transaction processing systems, have an internal orientation, and have limited flexibility. Examples of management information systems include sales management, inventory control, and capital investment analysis. Decision-support systems function at the management level and provide analytical models and data analysis tools to provide support for semi structured and unstructured decision-making activities. Examples of decision-support systems include sales region analysis, cost analysis, and contract cost analysis.
Executive support systems function at the strategic level, support unstructured decision making, and use advanced graphics and communications. Examples of executive support systems include sales trend forecasting, budget forecasting, and personnel planning.
The systems form a level of systems, with all types either formatting or processing the information from a lower level. For instance, the office systems provide reports or presentations on the information or data in transaction processing systems.
Decision-support and executive support systems often use office systems in presenting information extracted from transaction processing systems and management information system. Management information systems depend on data from transaction processing systems.
Some systems, including knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, and executive support systems may use external information, such as stock market information and design information from suppliers.
Q3. What are the five types of TPS in business organizations? What functions do they perform? Give examples of each.
The five types of transaction processing systems include
1. Sales/marketing systems,
2. Manufacturing/production systems,
3. Finance/accounting systems,
4. Human resources systems, and
5. Other types.
1. Sales/marketing systems provide sales management, market research, promotion, pricing, and new product functions. Examples include sales order information systems, market research systems, and sales commission systems.
2. Manufacturing/production systems provide scheduling, purchasing, shipping/receiving, engineering, and operations functions. Examples of manufacturing systems include machine control systems, purchase order systems, and quality control systems.
3. Finance/accounting systems provide budgeting, general ledger, billing, and cost accounting functions. Examples of finance/accounting systems include general ledger, accounts receivable/payable, and funds management systems.
4. Human resource systems provide personnel records, benefits, compensation, labor relations, training, and payroll functions. Examples include employee records, benefit systems, and career path systems.
5. Other types include admissions, grade records, course records, and alumni for a university. Examples of transaction processing systems for a university include a registration system, student transcript system, and an alumni benefactor system.
Q4. Describe the functions performed by knowledge work systems and office systems and some typical applications of each.
Knowledge work systems (KWS) aid knowledge work professionals to create new information and knowledge, and ensure that new knowledge and technical expertise are properly used in their corporations. Examples of knowledge workers (and some of their software) include engineers (graphics workstations), Wall Street traders, analysts, and arbitrageurs (financial and stock market workstations), research scientists, doctors, and designers (CAD systems).
Office systems provide support for data workers, including secretaries, accountants, filing clerks, and some managers. Software examples include word processing, desktop publishing, presentation programs, electronic calendars, and document imaging.
Q5. What are the characteristics of MIS? How do MIS differ from TPS and DSS?
MIS supports the management level by providing routine summary reports and exception reports for various purposes, including planning, controlling, and decision making. Examples include sales and profit per customer and per region, relocation summary and analysis, inventory control, capital investment analysis, and even a report on students who were here in the autumn but did not to return in the spring.
MIS differs from TPS in that MIS deals with summarized and compressed data from the TPS and sometimes analysis of that summarized data.
Decision-support systems provide material for analysis for the solution of semi-structured problems, which often are unique or rapidly changing. Typically, they provide the ability to do “what if” analysis. While MIS have an internal orientation, DSS will often use data from external sources, as well as data from TPS and MIS. DSS supports “right now” analysis rather than the long-term structured analysis of MIS. MIS are generally not flexible and provide little analytical capabilities. In contrast, DSS are designed for analytical purposes and are flexible.
Q6. What are the characteristics of DSS? How do they differ from those of ESS?
DSS provide sophisticated analytical models and data analysis tools to support semistructured and unstructured decision-making activities. DSS use data from TPS, MIS, and external sources, provide more analytical power than other systems, combine data, and are interactive. ESS support senior managers with unstructured strategic-level decision making. They may be less analytical than DSS with less use of models such as linear programming or forecasting. However, they often rely on external data and rely heavily on graphics.
Q7. Describe the relationship between TPS, office systems, KWS, MIS, DSS, and ESS.
The various types of systems in the organization exchange data with one another. TPS are a major source of data for other systems, especially MIS and DSS. TPS are operational-level systems that collect transaction data. Examples of these are payroll or order processing that track the flow of the daily routine transactions that are necessary to conduct business. TPS provide data that are required by office systems, KWS, MIS and DSS, although these systems may also use other data. KWS and office systems not only use data from TPS but also from MIS. DSS not only use data from TPS but also from KWS, office systems, and MIS. MIS rely heavily on data from TPS but also use data from KWS and office systems. ESS obtain most of their internal data from MIS and DSS.
Q8. List and describe the information systems serving each of the major functional areas of a business.
Sales and marketing information systems help the firm identify customers for the organization's products and services. These systems help develop, promote, sell, and provide ongoing customer support for the firm's products and services. Specific sales and marketing information systems include order processing, market analysis, pricing analysis, and sales trend forecasting.
Manufacturing and production information systems provide information for planning, product development, production or service scheduling, and controlling the flow of products and services. Specific manufacturing and production information systems include machine control, CAD, production planning, and facilities location.
Finance and accounting information systems track the organization's financial assets and fund flows. Financial and accounting systems include accounts receivable, portfolio analysis, budgeting, and profit planning.
Human resources information systems maintain employee records; track employee skills, job performance, and training; and support planning for employee compensation, including pensions and benefits, legal and regulatory requirements, and career development. Systems include training and development, career path, compensation analysis, and human resources planning.
Q9. What is a business process? Give two examples of processes for functional areas of the business and one example of a cross-functional process.
Business processes are the ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce their valuable products or services. Business processes for the manufacturing and production area include product assembling, quality checking, and producing bills of materials. For the sales and marketing area, business processes include identifying customers, making customers aware of the product, and selling the product. For finance and accounting, business processes includes paying creditors, creating financial statements, and managing cash accounts. For human resources, business processes include hiring employees, evaluating job performance of employees, and enrolling employees in benefits plans.
The order fulfillment process is an example of a cross-functional process.
Q10. Why are organizations trying to integrate their business processes? What are the four key enterprise applications for organization-wide process integration?
An organization operates in an ever-increasing competitive, global environment. Operating in a global environment requires an organization to focus on the efficient execution of its processes, customer service, and speed to market. To accomplish these goals, the organization must exchange valuable information across different functions, levels, and business units. By integrating its processes, the organization can more efficiently exchange information among its functional areas, business units, suppliers, and customers. The four key enterprise applications are enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, and knowledge management systems.
From lowest to highest, the four levels of the organizational hierarchy are operational, knowledge, management, and strategic. Types of information systems include transaction processing systems, office systems, knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, management information systems, and executive support systems.
Transaction processing systems, such as order tracking, payroll, machine control, and compensation, serve the operational level.
Engineering workstations, word processing, graphics workstations, managerial workstations, document imaging, and electronic calendars are examples of knowledge work systems and office systems that serve the knowledge level.
Sales region analysis, cost analysis, annual budgeting, and relocation analysis are examples of decision-support systems and management information systems.
Many of these systems are programs that students learn in their management science or quantitative methods courses. Some are based on database management systems. Examples of executive support systems that serve the strategic level are sales trend forecasting, operating plan development, budget forecasting, profit planning, and manpower planning.
Q2. List and briefly describe the major types of systems in organizations.
Transaction processing systems, office systems, knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, management information systems, and executive support systems are the major types of systems in organizations. Transaction processing systems function at the operational level of the organization. Examples of transaction processing systems include order tracking, order processing, machine control, plant scheduling, compensation, and securities trading.
Knowledge work systems help create and integrate new knowledge within the organization. Examples of knowledge work systems include engineering workstations, managerial workstations, and graphics workstations. Office systems help increase data worker productivity and include word processing document imaging, and electronic calendars.
Management information systems provide managers with reports based primarily on data pulled from transaction processing systems, have an internal orientation, and have limited flexibility. Examples of management information systems include sales management, inventory control, and capital investment analysis. Decision-support systems function at the management level and provide analytical models and data analysis tools to provide support for semi structured and unstructured decision-making activities. Examples of decision-support systems include sales region analysis, cost analysis, and contract cost analysis.
Executive support systems function at the strategic level, support unstructured decision making, and use advanced graphics and communications. Examples of executive support systems include sales trend forecasting, budget forecasting, and personnel planning.
The systems form a level of systems, with all types either formatting or processing the information from a lower level. For instance, the office systems provide reports or presentations on the information or data in transaction processing systems.
Decision-support and executive support systems often use office systems in presenting information extracted from transaction processing systems and management information system. Management information systems depend on data from transaction processing systems.
Some systems, including knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, and executive support systems may use external information, such as stock market information and design information from suppliers.
Q3. What are the five types of TPS in business organizations? What functions do they perform? Give examples of each.
The five types of transaction processing systems include
1. Sales/marketing systems,
2. Manufacturing/production systems,
3. Finance/accounting systems,
4. Human resources systems, and
5. Other types.
1. Sales/marketing systems provide sales management, market research, promotion, pricing, and new product functions. Examples include sales order information systems, market research systems, and sales commission systems.
2. Manufacturing/production systems provide scheduling, purchasing, shipping/receiving, engineering, and operations functions. Examples of manufacturing systems include machine control systems, purchase order systems, and quality control systems.
3. Finance/accounting systems provide budgeting, general ledger, billing, and cost accounting functions. Examples of finance/accounting systems include general ledger, accounts receivable/payable, and funds management systems.
4. Human resource systems provide personnel records, benefits, compensation, labor relations, training, and payroll functions. Examples include employee records, benefit systems, and career path systems.
5. Other types include admissions, grade records, course records, and alumni for a university. Examples of transaction processing systems for a university include a registration system, student transcript system, and an alumni benefactor system.
Q4. Describe the functions performed by knowledge work systems and office systems and some typical applications of each.
Knowledge work systems (KWS) aid knowledge work professionals to create new information and knowledge, and ensure that new knowledge and technical expertise are properly used in their corporations. Examples of knowledge workers (and some of their software) include engineers (graphics workstations), Wall Street traders, analysts, and arbitrageurs (financial and stock market workstations), research scientists, doctors, and designers (CAD systems).
Office systems provide support for data workers, including secretaries, accountants, filing clerks, and some managers. Software examples include word processing, desktop publishing, presentation programs, electronic calendars, and document imaging.
Q5. What are the characteristics of MIS? How do MIS differ from TPS and DSS?
MIS supports the management level by providing routine summary reports and exception reports for various purposes, including planning, controlling, and decision making. Examples include sales and profit per customer and per region, relocation summary and analysis, inventory control, capital investment analysis, and even a report on students who were here in the autumn but did not to return in the spring.
MIS differs from TPS in that MIS deals with summarized and compressed data from the TPS and sometimes analysis of that summarized data.
Decision-support systems provide material for analysis for the solution of semi-structured problems, which often are unique or rapidly changing. Typically, they provide the ability to do “what if” analysis. While MIS have an internal orientation, DSS will often use data from external sources, as well as data from TPS and MIS. DSS supports “right now” analysis rather than the long-term structured analysis of MIS. MIS are generally not flexible and provide little analytical capabilities. In contrast, DSS are designed for analytical purposes and are flexible.
Q6. What are the characteristics of DSS? How do they differ from those of ESS?
DSS provide sophisticated analytical models and data analysis tools to support semistructured and unstructured decision-making activities. DSS use data from TPS, MIS, and external sources, provide more analytical power than other systems, combine data, and are interactive. ESS support senior managers with unstructured strategic-level decision making. They may be less analytical than DSS with less use of models such as linear programming or forecasting. However, they often rely on external data and rely heavily on graphics.
Q7. Describe the relationship between TPS, office systems, KWS, MIS, DSS, and ESS.
The various types of systems in the organization exchange data with one another. TPS are a major source of data for other systems, especially MIS and DSS. TPS are operational-level systems that collect transaction data. Examples of these are payroll or order processing that track the flow of the daily routine transactions that are necessary to conduct business. TPS provide data that are required by office systems, KWS, MIS and DSS, although these systems may also use other data. KWS and office systems not only use data from TPS but also from MIS. DSS not only use data from TPS but also from KWS, office systems, and MIS. MIS rely heavily on data from TPS but also use data from KWS and office systems. ESS obtain most of their internal data from MIS and DSS.
Q8. List and describe the information systems serving each of the major functional areas of a business.
Sales and marketing information systems help the firm identify customers for the organization's products and services. These systems help develop, promote, sell, and provide ongoing customer support for the firm's products and services. Specific sales and marketing information systems include order processing, market analysis, pricing analysis, and sales trend forecasting.
Manufacturing and production information systems provide information for planning, product development, production or service scheduling, and controlling the flow of products and services. Specific manufacturing and production information systems include machine control, CAD, production planning, and facilities location.
Finance and accounting information systems track the organization's financial assets and fund flows. Financial and accounting systems include accounts receivable, portfolio analysis, budgeting, and profit planning.
Human resources information systems maintain employee records; track employee skills, job performance, and training; and support planning for employee compensation, including pensions and benefits, legal and regulatory requirements, and career development. Systems include training and development, career path, compensation analysis, and human resources planning.
Q9. What is a business process? Give two examples of processes for functional areas of the business and one example of a cross-functional process.
Business processes are the ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce their valuable products or services. Business processes for the manufacturing and production area include product assembling, quality checking, and producing bills of materials. For the sales and marketing area, business processes include identifying customers, making customers aware of the product, and selling the product. For finance and accounting, business processes includes paying creditors, creating financial statements, and managing cash accounts. For human resources, business processes include hiring employees, evaluating job performance of employees, and enrolling employees in benefits plans.
The order fulfillment process is an example of a cross-functional process.
Q10. Why are organizations trying to integrate their business processes? What are the four key enterprise applications for organization-wide process integration?
An organization operates in an ever-increasing competitive, global environment. Operating in a global environment requires an organization to focus on the efficient execution of its processes, customer service, and speed to market. To accomplish these goals, the organization must exchange valuable information across different functions, levels, and business units. By integrating its processes, the organization can more efficiently exchange information among its functional areas, business units, suppliers, and customers. The four key enterprise applications are enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, and knowledge management systems.
BPR --Business Process Reengineering
Business process reengineering
The analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. A business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering is the basis for many recent developments in management. The cross-functional team, for example, has become popular because of the desire to re-engineer separate functional tasks into complete cross-functional processes. Also, many recent management information systems developments aim to integrate a wide number of business functions.
Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, knowledge management systems, groupware and collaborative systems, Human Resource Management Systems and customer relationship management systems all owe a debt to re-engineering theory.
Business Process Reengineering is also known as Business Process Redesign, Business Transformation, or Business Process Change Management.
Overview
Business process reengineering (BPR) began as a private sector technique to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors. A key stimulus for reengineering has been the continuing development and deployment of sophisticated information systems and networks. Leading organizations are becoming bolder in using this technology to support innovative business processes, rather than refining current ways of doing work.
Business process reengineering is one approach for redesigning the way work is done to better support the organization's mission and reduce costs. Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals, and customer needs.
Basic questions are asked, such as "Does our mission need to be redefined? Are our strategic goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers?" An organization may find that it is operating on questionable assumptions, particularly in terms of the wants and needs of its customers. Only after the organization rethinks what it should be doing, does it go on to decide how best to do it.
Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals, reengineering focuses on the organization's business processes—the steps and procedures that govern how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs of particular customers or markets. As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Reengineering identifies, analyzes, and redesigns an organization's core business processes with the aim of achieving dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.
Reengineering recognizes that an organization's business processes are usually fragmented into subprocesses and tasks that are carried out by several specialized functional areas within the organization. Often, no one is responsible for the overall performance of the entire process. Reengineering maintains that optimizing the performance of subprocesses can result in some benefits, but cannot yield dramatic improvements if the process itself is fundamentally inefficient and outmoded. For that reason, reengineering focuses on redesigning the process as a whole in order to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the organization and their customers. This drive for realizing dramatic improvements by fundamentally rethinking how the organization's work should be done distinguishes reengineering from process improvement efforts that focus on functional or incremental improvement.
Business Process Reengineering
Definition
Different definitions can be found. This section contains the definition provided in notable publications in the field:
• "... the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed."
• "encompasses the envisioning of new work strategies, the actual process design activity, and the implementation of the change in all its complex technological, human, and organizational dimensions."
• "Business Process Reengineering, although a close relative, seeks radical rather than merely continuous improvement. It escalates the efforts of JIT and TQM to make process orientation a strategic tool and a core competence of the organization. BPR concentrates on core business processes, and uses the specific techniques within the JIT and TQM ”toolboxes” as enablers, while broadening the process vision."
In order to achieve the major improvements BPR is seeking for, the change of structural organizational variables, and other ways of managing and performing work is often considered as being insufficient. For being able to reap the achievable benefits fully, the use of information technology (IT) is conceived as a major contributing factor. While IT traditionally has been used for supporting the existing business functions, i.e. it was used for increasing organizational efficiency, it now plays a role as enabler of new organizational forms, and patterns of collaboration within and between organizations.
How to implement a BPR project
The best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That means:
• Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry.
• Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.
• Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.
• Defining behaviors that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.
• Producing key performance measures to track progress.
• Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization
• Identifying initiatives that will improve performance
BPR derives its existence from different disciplines, and four major areas can be identified as being subjected to change in BPR –
1. Organization,
2. Technology,
3. Strategy, and
4. People
where a process view is used as common framework for considering these dimensions.
2.Technology
Technology is concerned with the use of computer systems and other forms of communication technology in the business. In BPR, information technology is generally considered as playing a role as enabler of new forms of organizing and collaborating, rather than supporting existing business functions.
3.Business strategy
Business strategy is the primary driver of BPR initiatives and the other dimensions are governed by strategy's encompassing role. The organization dimension reflects the structural elements of the company, such as hierarchical levels, the composition of organizational units, and the distribution of work between them.
4. People / Human
The people / human resources dimension deals with aspects such as education, training, motivation and reward systems. The concept of business processes - interrelated activities aiming at creating a value added output to a customer - is the basic underlying idea of BPR. These processes are characterized by a number of attributes: Process ownership, customer focus, value adding, and cross-functionality.
A five step approach to Business Process Reengineering
1. Develop the business vision and process objectives: The BPR method is driven by a business vision which implies specific business objectives such as cost reduction, time reduction, output quality improvement.
2. Identify the business processes to be redesigned: most firms use the 'high-impact' approach which focuses on the most important processes or those that conflict most with the business vision. A lesser number of firms use the 'exhaustive approach' that attempts to identify all the processes within an organization and then prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
3. Understand and measure the existing processes: to avoid the repeating of old mistakes and to provide a baseline for future improvements.
4. Identify IT levers: awareness of IT capabilities can and should influence BPR.
5. Design and build a prototype of the new process: the actual design should not be viewed as the end of the BPR process. Rather, it should be viewed as a prototype, with successive iterations. The metaphor of prototype aligns the Business Process Reengineering approach with quick delivery of results, and the involvement and satisfaction of customers
The role of information technology
Information technology (IT) has historically played an important role in the reengineering concept. It is considered by some as a major enabler for new forms of working and collaborating within an organization and across organizational borders.
Early BPR literature identified several so called disruptive technologies that were supposed to challenge traditional wisdom about how work should be performed.
• Shared databases, making information available at many places
• Expert systems, allowing generalists to perform specialist tasks
• Telecommunication networks, allowing organizations to be centralized and decentralized at the same time
• Decision-support tools, allowing decision-making to be a part of everybody's job
• Wireless data communication and portable computers, allowing field personnel to work office independent
• Interactive videodisk, to get in immediate contact with potential buyers
• Automatic identification and tracking, allowing things to tell where they are, instead of requiring to be found
• High performance computing, allowing on-the-fly planning and revisioning
In the mid 1990s, especially workflow management systems were considered as a significant contributor to improved process efficiency. Also ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) vendors, such as SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle, PeopleSoft, positioned their solutions as vehicles for business process redesign and improvement.
Reengineering has earned a bad reputation because such projects have often resulted in massive layoffs. This reputation is not altogether unwarranted, since companies have often downsized under the banner of reengineering. Further, reengineering has not always lived up to its expectations.
The main reasons seem to be that:
• Reengineering assumes that the factor that limits an organization's performance is the ineffectiveness of its processes (which may or may not be true) and offers no means of validating that assumption.
• Reengineering assumes the need to start the process of performance improvement with a "clean slate," i.e. totally disregard the status quo.
• Reengineering does not provide an effective way to focus improvement efforts on the organization's constraint.
Other criticism brought forward against the BPR concept include
• It never changed management thinking, actually the largest causes of failure in an organization
• Lack of management support for the initiative and thus poor acceptance in the organization.
• Exaggerated expectations regarding the potential benefits from a BPR initiative and consequently failure to achieve the expected results.
• Underestimation of the resistance to change within the organization.
• Implementation of generic so-called best-practice processes that do not fit specific company needs.
• Overtrust in technology solutions.
• Performing BPR as a one-off project with limited strategy alignment and long-term perspective.
• Poor project management.
Reengineering Recommendations
1) BPR must be accompanied by strategic planning, which addresses leveraging IT as a competitive tool.
2) Place the customer at the center of the reengineering effort -- concentrate on reengineering fragmented processes that lead to delays or other negative impacts on customer service.
3) BPR must be "owned" throughout the organization, not driven by a group of outside consultants.
4) Case teams must be comprised of both managers as well as those will actually do the work.
5) The IT group should be an integral part of the reengineering team from the start.
6) BPR must be sponsored by top executives, who are not about to leave or retire.
7) BPR projects must have a timetable, ideally between three to six months, so that the organization is not in a state of "limbo".
8) BPR must not ignore corporate culture and must emphasize constant communication and feedback
The analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. A business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering is the basis for many recent developments in management. The cross-functional team, for example, has become popular because of the desire to re-engineer separate functional tasks into complete cross-functional processes. Also, many recent management information systems developments aim to integrate a wide number of business functions.
Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, knowledge management systems, groupware and collaborative systems, Human Resource Management Systems and customer relationship management systems all owe a debt to re-engineering theory.
Business Process Reengineering is also known as Business Process Redesign, Business Transformation, or Business Process Change Management.
Overview
Business process reengineering (BPR) began as a private sector technique to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors. A key stimulus for reengineering has been the continuing development and deployment of sophisticated information systems and networks. Leading organizations are becoming bolder in using this technology to support innovative business processes, rather than refining current ways of doing work.
Business process reengineering is one approach for redesigning the way work is done to better support the organization's mission and reduce costs. Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals, and customer needs.
Basic questions are asked, such as "Does our mission need to be redefined? Are our strategic goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers?" An organization may find that it is operating on questionable assumptions, particularly in terms of the wants and needs of its customers. Only after the organization rethinks what it should be doing, does it go on to decide how best to do it.
Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals, reengineering focuses on the organization's business processes—the steps and procedures that govern how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs of particular customers or markets. As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Reengineering identifies, analyzes, and redesigns an organization's core business processes with the aim of achieving dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.
Reengineering recognizes that an organization's business processes are usually fragmented into subprocesses and tasks that are carried out by several specialized functional areas within the organization. Often, no one is responsible for the overall performance of the entire process. Reengineering maintains that optimizing the performance of subprocesses can result in some benefits, but cannot yield dramatic improvements if the process itself is fundamentally inefficient and outmoded. For that reason, reengineering focuses on redesigning the process as a whole in order to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the organization and their customers. This drive for realizing dramatic improvements by fundamentally rethinking how the organization's work should be done distinguishes reengineering from process improvement efforts that focus on functional or incremental improvement.
Business Process Reengineering
Definition
Different definitions can be found. This section contains the definition provided in notable publications in the field:
• "... the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed."
• "encompasses the envisioning of new work strategies, the actual process design activity, and the implementation of the change in all its complex technological, human, and organizational dimensions."
• "Business Process Reengineering, although a close relative, seeks radical rather than merely continuous improvement. It escalates the efforts of JIT and TQM to make process orientation a strategic tool and a core competence of the organization. BPR concentrates on core business processes, and uses the specific techniques within the JIT and TQM ”toolboxes” as enablers, while broadening the process vision."
In order to achieve the major improvements BPR is seeking for, the change of structural organizational variables, and other ways of managing and performing work is often considered as being insufficient. For being able to reap the achievable benefits fully, the use of information technology (IT) is conceived as a major contributing factor. While IT traditionally has been used for supporting the existing business functions, i.e. it was used for increasing organizational efficiency, it now plays a role as enabler of new organizational forms, and patterns of collaboration within and between organizations.
How to implement a BPR project
The best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That means:
• Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry.
• Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.
• Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.
• Defining behaviors that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.
• Producing key performance measures to track progress.
• Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization
• Identifying initiatives that will improve performance
BPR derives its existence from different disciplines, and four major areas can be identified as being subjected to change in BPR –
1. Organization,
2. Technology,
3. Strategy, and
4. People
where a process view is used as common framework for considering these dimensions.
2.Technology
Technology is concerned with the use of computer systems and other forms of communication technology in the business. In BPR, information technology is generally considered as playing a role as enabler of new forms of organizing and collaborating, rather than supporting existing business functions.
3.Business strategy
Business strategy is the primary driver of BPR initiatives and the other dimensions are governed by strategy's encompassing role. The organization dimension reflects the structural elements of the company, such as hierarchical levels, the composition of organizational units, and the distribution of work between them.
4. People / Human
The people / human resources dimension deals with aspects such as education, training, motivation and reward systems. The concept of business processes - interrelated activities aiming at creating a value added output to a customer - is the basic underlying idea of BPR. These processes are characterized by a number of attributes: Process ownership, customer focus, value adding, and cross-functionality.
A five step approach to Business Process Reengineering
1. Develop the business vision and process objectives: The BPR method is driven by a business vision which implies specific business objectives such as cost reduction, time reduction, output quality improvement.
2. Identify the business processes to be redesigned: most firms use the 'high-impact' approach which focuses on the most important processes or those that conflict most with the business vision. A lesser number of firms use the 'exhaustive approach' that attempts to identify all the processes within an organization and then prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
3. Understand and measure the existing processes: to avoid the repeating of old mistakes and to provide a baseline for future improvements.
4. Identify IT levers: awareness of IT capabilities can and should influence BPR.
5. Design and build a prototype of the new process: the actual design should not be viewed as the end of the BPR process. Rather, it should be viewed as a prototype, with successive iterations. The metaphor of prototype aligns the Business Process Reengineering approach with quick delivery of results, and the involvement and satisfaction of customers
The role of information technology
Information technology (IT) has historically played an important role in the reengineering concept. It is considered by some as a major enabler for new forms of working and collaborating within an organization and across organizational borders.
Early BPR literature identified several so called disruptive technologies that were supposed to challenge traditional wisdom about how work should be performed.
• Shared databases, making information available at many places
• Expert systems, allowing generalists to perform specialist tasks
• Telecommunication networks, allowing organizations to be centralized and decentralized at the same time
• Decision-support tools, allowing decision-making to be a part of everybody's job
• Wireless data communication and portable computers, allowing field personnel to work office independent
• Interactive videodisk, to get in immediate contact with potential buyers
• Automatic identification and tracking, allowing things to tell where they are, instead of requiring to be found
• High performance computing, allowing on-the-fly planning and revisioning
In the mid 1990s, especially workflow management systems were considered as a significant contributor to improved process efficiency. Also ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) vendors, such as SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle, PeopleSoft, positioned their solutions as vehicles for business process redesign and improvement.
Reengineering has earned a bad reputation because such projects have often resulted in massive layoffs. This reputation is not altogether unwarranted, since companies have often downsized under the banner of reengineering. Further, reengineering has not always lived up to its expectations.
The main reasons seem to be that:
• Reengineering assumes that the factor that limits an organization's performance is the ineffectiveness of its processes (which may or may not be true) and offers no means of validating that assumption.
• Reengineering assumes the need to start the process of performance improvement with a "clean slate," i.e. totally disregard the status quo.
• Reengineering does not provide an effective way to focus improvement efforts on the organization's constraint.
Other criticism brought forward against the BPR concept include
• It never changed management thinking, actually the largest causes of failure in an organization
• Lack of management support for the initiative and thus poor acceptance in the organization.
• Exaggerated expectations regarding the potential benefits from a BPR initiative and consequently failure to achieve the expected results.
• Underestimation of the resistance to change within the organization.
• Implementation of generic so-called best-practice processes that do not fit specific company needs.
• Overtrust in technology solutions.
• Performing BPR as a one-off project with limited strategy alignment and long-term perspective.
• Poor project management.
Reengineering Recommendations
1) BPR must be accompanied by strategic planning, which addresses leveraging IT as a competitive tool.
2) Place the customer at the center of the reengineering effort -- concentrate on reengineering fragmented processes that lead to delays or other negative impacts on customer service.
3) BPR must be "owned" throughout the organization, not driven by a group of outside consultants.
4) Case teams must be comprised of both managers as well as those will actually do the work.
5) The IT group should be an integral part of the reengineering team from the start.
6) BPR must be sponsored by top executives, who are not about to leave or retire.
7) BPR projects must have a timetable, ideally between three to six months, so that the organization is not in a state of "limbo".
8) BPR must not ignore corporate culture and must emphasize constant communication and feedback
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)