1008ICT Business Informatics

Module 4 - Hardware & IS Design

Basic building blocks for an information system

 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understanding of how an organisations goals are aligned and standards set using a mission statement
  • Be able to create an information architecture design for an organisation
  • Be able to understand the communication structure of an organisation
  • Be able to integrate the physical and logical organisational structure into the information architecture requirement
  • Gain an appreciation for how different physical, geographical and environmental factors affect the information architecture
  • Be able to understand how different tasks and their inherent network usage requirements might affect the information architecture
  • Understand how the number and type of user in an organisation might affect the information architecture
  • Be able to evaluate the possible requirements for system "Availability" and related levels of "Redundancy" where system usage is high
  • Understand how to plan effectively for growth in an organisation's system requirements
  • Understand how "legacy" and "foreign" (eg., Linux-Windows-Apple) systems must be able to be integrated into a new information architecture (interoperability)
  • Be able to build a basic hardware requirement list for an organisation given factors such as numbers of staff, locations, networks, user types and others
  • Understand the role of software and how it can be matched to particular departments, tasks and uses to streamline productivity.
  • Be able to create a basic spreadsheet to manage supplier and computer information for a project
  • Be able to use the basic graphics capabilities of MS Excel to create organisational diagrams.
   

Additional Material

Relevance: A systems analyst will go into an organisation and develop an organisational chart that will show the logical structure of the organisation - the relationships between people, departments and possible communication patterns. As each person has particular tasks it is possible to estimate the sort of computing devices that they require to do their jobs. Similarly, a physical analysis of the organization in geographical terms can highlight the sort of networking infrastructure that would be required to ensure each employee was able to connect to the intranet service.

This information allows the analyst to design an information architecture that suits the current organizational requirements. Organizations are changing constantly so an information architecture must be easily adaptable to change and be robust enough to cope with extremes of use even in the face of disaster. A dead e-commerce server means loss of business unless this is planned for.

Change, redundancy, flexibility, growth are all concepts that are applied to businesses and any organization. We will deal with how a corporate information system can be designed to perform in a dynamic business environment.

Check out the slides down in the resources section! We will talk about the basic components that might be required to build an information system within an organisation.

What does the organisation do?

A business must have a mission. This is a simple statement of purpose that provides a goal for the organisation to align with. For a restaurant, it could be something as simple as: "To provide our customers with the ultimate dining experience by providing the most appetising cuisine, most excellent service and access to a truly comprehensive wine cellar." More complex businesses will break down their mission into a series of specific quality and purpose statements that becomes a "charter" for operations.

Engaging with this mission or charter provides the underlying standards for quality and a sense of purpose that promotes a spirit of competition in the business' operation. It is all about achieving a market share and creating customer loyalty. It is about instilling pride in the workforce and a sense of satisfaction knowing that they are providing key part of a worthwhile endeavour.

Organisations use, create, communicate and protect information as a basis for management and providing the goods or services that are their business. In the pursuit of their employment, workers at all levels are going to use procedures, data, software and hardware to facilitate their role in the organisation. The more usable the information system the more effective and efficient the business will be in reaching their goals.

Effectiveness and efficiency are the aspects to maintaining competitive services, customer satisfaction, workforce satisfaction and management responsiveness and flexibility.

Every organisation has a unique structure both logically and physically. One business could be on one room or one building where another may be on several campuses world-wide. Today's communication and computer technologies allow us to create an "information architecture" to suit a wide range of business configurations. Information Architecture is defined as:

  • An overall technology strategy for an enterprise.

As technology is improving and changing constantly it is always important to keep up in order to maintain productivity and competitiveness. Larger organisations, like GU have their own IT department. Smaller organisations often farm this part of their operations out to specialist service providers. In either case

  • IT department uses procedures and software to maintain hardware and software applications

How is the organisation structured logically?

Every organisation has a departmental structure that breaks the operation down into task types that completes various different apects of the business. Even when the organisation is a single owner-operator the tasks can be broken down into things that are to do with Sales, Advertising, Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Logistics, Production, Design, Engineering, Administration, Human Resources, Customer Relations, Service, Management and many others. This logical organisational structure is reflected in a structure chart and sometimes appears as a tree or hierarchy.

Different people in different parts of the organisation are going to have different information and technology needs depending upon their roles.

How is the organisation structured physically?

Let us start with a small manufacturing or service oriented business operation with a production or work area, a warehouse or storage area and maybe an office for administration and management. For this example let us say that it can be housed within one building such as a small factory or commercial premises.

Essentially there needs only to be a single local area network with access to the Internet via a broadband router with a firewall. The business is in one building or one room and so the choices for networking and communication in general are simplified.

Successful businesses are want to expand their operations and spread out to service other areas. What would happen if the small business started up another factory across the road? How might their communications infrastructure need to change to allow the organisation to be logically connected when they are physically separated? In this case maybe a second broadband router for the new factory and then set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) over the telephone or cable network.

There are many options depending upon a range of conditions:

  • Communication density or network throughput (Mbps) that is required between sites or campuses
  • Availability of a common line of site contact point (microwave hub)
  • Presence or absence of high energy electrical noise
  • Radio coverage.

The Queensland government is housed in several buildings within the CBD of Brisbane. Because few of the buildings had line of site for microwave communication and because the network throughput was in excess of what the telecommunications infrastructure could affordably carry for a large while they elected to use satellite microwave communications to connect each of the buildings.

Similarly, GU has several campuses including the Gold Coast Hospital, Parklands, Logan, Nathan, Mt Gravatt and Southbank. We use a common line of site link to Tamborine mountain (all campuses have unhindered line of site) where a microwave repeater ensures that each of the campuses remain connected.

Once businesses expand their footprint to other regions, states or countries then different options for Wide Area Networking must be employed. Generally these require the telecommunications infrastructure that makes up the Internet backbones around the world. Communications media may include microwave links, satellite links, undersea optical fibre cabling and high capacity telephony networks.

How is the organisation structured in terms of network load?

In many organisations different departments will create different loads on the network and so the network must be designed around the types of user and usage requirements for efficient and effective operation.

Because different tasks have different intrinsic requirements for network bandwidth (Mbps) it is not unusual to find different departments creating different amounts of network traffic. The everyday administration office may have five users developing wordprocessed documents or spreadsheets that maybe respond to email infrequently as well as access the corporate intranet to access different bits of information. In a situation like this and taking into account any peak times, the average office would put very little strain on a 10 Mbps network.

Five different users that were creating streaming video on high end graphics engines or even a network gaming site where graphical images are being constantly updated would cause a much higher level of network traffic that could reach into the 100Mbps range. Wired networking is capable of this kind of traffic but knowing that the throughput of a WiFi network is either 54Mbps or 108Mbps you would have to think carefully about installing a wireless network system.

Imagine an online order processing system where there may be one or two database servers (standalone computers) that are constantly processing requests for stock, shipping, availability, payment, maintenance and other things from hundreds of users at the same time. The network traffic generated at those two computers can be immense and if there is insufficient bandwidth to handle all of those requests then the system may slow down to a point that customers or clients find it unusable. A large database server may utilise a large part of a 100Mbps or even a 1000Mbps (1Gbps) network connection.

Network links between campuses in GU operate at 300Mbps but the average network usage of each of the several thousand computers is very small. The largest traffic contributers are the Database servers for things like enrolment, the WWW servers for corporate information and the email servers that allow communication.

People - Who are the users and what do they do?

Every organisation is different and even amongst organisations that do the same thing, they all do it slightly differently. A systems analyst will enter an organisation in order to gain a perspective of how the organisation operates, how information flows and the roles that each of the members of the organisation plays.

The kinds of information that an analyst will gather come from simple questions that may be answered through interview or simply observation.

  • Who are the people in the organisation that you are analysing?
    • Customer relations using phones and customer management software
    • Front of house at a restaurant or retail POS operators
    • Mobile salespeople
    • Multimedia developers
    • Designers
    • Upper (strategic decisions) management
    • Middle (tactical decisions) management
    • Operations (operational decisions) management
    • Financial controllers
    • Office and administration staff
    • Reception staff
    • Human Resource Managers
    • Games testers
    • Network maintenance engineers
    • Software developers
  • What do they do with the information system?
    • log on to it from remote locations
    • access it to download/upload information after being away from the office
    • use it to create documents, browse the Web and send email
    • connect wirelessly
    • sit at a desktop workstation
    • use it for cooperative or collaborative design or document creation
    • networked virtual reality
    • connect wirelessly
  • What documents do they create or process?
    • text documents (email, wordprocessed, spreadsheets, databases, HTML, PDF, etc)
    • image documents (.gif, .jpg, .bmp, .raw, .tif, etc)
    • video and sound documents (.wav, .mov, .mpg, etc)
  • What software do they use?
    • Wordprocessors
    • Spreadsheet
    • Web page creation
    • video/image editing
    • CD/DVD creation
    • Intranet communication
    • Email client
    • Specialist software
  • What are their information needs?
    • access to WWW, intranet, corporate databases, email service
    • ability to communicate continuously
    • ability to communicate asynchronously
    • ability to save and manipulate huge files
    • ability to find corporate information quickly
    • ability to create reports of a particular format
    • ability to create and test software
  • Who do they communicate with?
    • coworkers
    • managers
    • customers
    • suppliers
    • internal users only
    • external users
  • How do they communicate?
    • telephone
    • mobile telephone
    • Internet telephone
    • email
    • web forms
    • memos
    • calendar entries
    • wireless - bluetooth
    • wireless - WiFi 802.11b/g
    • IR
    • RFID
  • What records do they need to keep?
    • customer related notes or messages
    • logged jobs
    • completed jobs
    • time management
    • costing
    • reporting
    • item related comparisons
    • employee data
    • customer data
    • supplier data
    • pricing data
    • design documents
  • Do they have special needs?
    • colour blind
    • blind
    • deaf
    • physically disabled
    • different language
    • application specific help

Availability & Redundancy - A question of need

Availability is all about how often an information system is accessible by those that interact with it to perform their tasks. In computer jargon it is measured and referred to as "uptime". Most businesses require that their system has the highest possible uptime and expectations for a high availability system are around 99.9% of time.

Computers, software and machines in general have a working life and require regular maintenance in order to operate efficiently. If a part of a system must be made inaccessible while maintenance is carried out that can affect the smooth operation of the business. If you have an online e-commerce system then as soon as you give the system "downtime" then you are losing business and potential sales.

In order to maintain a high level of availability for systems, key parts like servers or communication links may be replicated or mirrored. If one machine goes offline for a period then the second will carry on operating. Having multiple copies of hardware like computers, processors, harddrives and other items is called providing redundancy.

Scalability & Interoperability - A question of growth

Organisations grow and shrink and change shape depending upon a range of stimuli and needs. When designing and developing an information system it is important to take into account that change will occur and to design with the future in mind. If an information system can effectively grow and shrink with the organisation that contains it then it is considered to be scalable.

The system development lifecycle is such that organisations may undergo a continuous process of upgrade and replacement especially as new technologies and software become available or even required. It is quite common for an organisation that has an information system based upon older technologies to keep their data and important information in its current format. In order for a system upgrade to be worthwhile, any new information system components must be able to communicate and interact with the older parts of the system for as long as required. Designing composite systems so that the different parts and technologies are able to communicate and cooperate is called making them interoperable.

Hardware - What are the building blocks for the physical information system?

In general, these days most organisations that are service oriented have a "computer on every desk" policy so that all workers have access to the information that they need to perform their duties. There are exceptions in manufacturing and other industries but let us assume for the point of information system design that everyone in an organisation has access to the information system.

Everyone that spends time working at a desk needs a desktop computer of the specifications that suits their job (See slides in resource section).

Everyone that is predominantly mobile in their job needs some sort of mobile computing device. Those that need to process documents or access corporate information remotely should have something like a notebook or tablet PC. Those that need to access basic email and workflow or appointment information might need a handheld device like a PocketPC or other PDA.

Every person working in a given physical area needs to have access to the corporate information system which means, at a minimum, they should all have access to the internal network. The options are to provide:

  • Local area cable network between 8 or less employees using a central hub or switch and sharing drives and data mutually
  • For larger groups a wireless access point with one port (cable outlet) connected to the intranet, file or database server, other ports connected to other wired network hardware like servers or printers and a wireless network adapter for each machine on the network
  • If wireless communication is not appropriate then a network of switches (5, 8 or 16 port) and/or hubs to connect each of the computers in the area by cable to the intranet, file or database server and a network adapter card for each machine on the network.

If access is required to the Internet or to the public network in order to communicate with suppliers, customers and other parts of the organisation then a slightly different approach is required.

  • A router to connect to the broadband Internet on one side and one or more of the local area ports to connect to the internal LAN described above on the other
    • Wireless broadband router
    • Cable modem/router
    • ADSL modem/router
    • Others

General Network Design Rules

  1. One router for each network transition. Internet – LAN or LAN – sub-network
  2. Most routers have 4 or 8 ports (connections) for sub-networks
  3. Most routers can process 100Mbps
  4. Servers that have high traffic (10Mbps-100Mbps) put on their own sub-network
  5. Servers that have lower traffic (up to 10Mbps) put on their own port of a switch at a high level of the network hierarchy
  6. LAN with 8 or less computers creating low traffic could be connected to a hub
  7. LAN with 8 or less computers with one or more creating high traffic should be connected to a switch
  8. LAN with 9 or more computers should be connected by a switch
  9. Every networked computer requires a network card (adapter)
  10. Every wirelessly networked computer requires a wireless network adapter (some have built-in WiFi)
  11. One or more ports of a switch might be connected to other switches or hubs
  12. Most desktop computers (at GU) generate significantly less than 1% of 10Mbps (100Kbps) network traffic except at peaks when downloading large files so be very conservative in throughput estimations

If several 10Mbps star networks are connected to a central switch then the central switch would probably require a 100Mbps throughput capability

Network speed terminology

Bandwidth and throughput are used as measurements of how much data (bits or bytes) can be sent in a period of time along a transmission line or network link. The measurement used is Mbps or megabits per second and is sometimes referred to as the speed of the network.

Here is a useful case to use as an example of the hardware requirement analysis

Software - How to make the computer do a job

Every computer needs to have software to perform certain tasks (See slides in resources section). The basic sorts of software are:

  • Operating system
    • Unix
    • Linux
    • Windows
    • MacOS X
    • palmOS
  • Tools and utilities
    • Firewall
    • Zip software
    • VPN software
    • AntiVirus software
    • Adware detection software
  • Communication clients
    • Browser
    • email
    • FTP
    • Telnet
    • (IR)Chat
    • Instant messaging
  • Application software
    • Office productivity
    • Graphics production
    • Video production
    • Multimedia development
    • Web development
    • Application development environments (programming languages etc)
    • Task specific software

Task specific and "enterprise" software

Specialised jobs often require specialised information and data processing capabilities depending upon the operating environment. Users in different roles in the organisation will use different types of software in order to perform their particular tasks.

Within an organisation many specialist or department-specific applications can all be linked within the corporate system to provide information mutually as required. Just as people in different departments of an organisation must communicate and swap data so this can be accomplished within the enterprise computing environment.

Information from reports are used by management as feedback to control the operation at different levels. Sales reports and inventory changes may be linked to manufacturing and engineering departments and/or ordering and logistics depending upon how the organisation works.

Specialist software includes:

  • Finance
    • Budgeting
    • Forecasting
    • Cashflow
    • Investment management
  • Accounting
    • Accounts payable
    • Accounts receivable
    • Cash accounting
    • Financial reporting
  • Human resources - HRIS
    • ERM - Employee relationship management
  • Engineering and design
    • CAD - Computer aided design
    • CAE - Computer aided engineering
  • Manufacturing and production
    • CAM - Computer aided manufacturing (computer control of equipment)
    • CIM - Computer Integrated Manufacturing (computer management of orders, inventory, parts etc)
  • Resource management
    • ERP - Enterprise resource planning
    • MRP - Manufacturing resource planning (links with CIM above)
  • Marketing information system
  • Sales force automation software (SFA)
  • Distribution management
    • package tracking
  • Customer Interaction Management (another CIM)
    • software to manage notes from phone calls at call centers
  • Office Information Systems
    • Productivity tools - wordprocessors, spreadsheets, database production,
    • Communication tools - email, intranet
  • Transaction processing system
    • POS terminals
    • Online payment
    • Funds transfer
    • Receipts
    • Invoices
  • Management information system (MIS)
    • Reporting
    • Feedback
    • Control
  • Decision support systems (DSS)
    • Analysis tools
    • Rules, knowledge, limits
    • Executive information system (EIS)
  • Expert system
    • Artificial intelligence - inference rules
    • Knowledge base
  • Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
    • Coordination of different functional units within the enterprise
  • Content management system
    • databases and procedures to manage access to documents

Suppliers

Information

Match the concepts

Data     A ASCII
Primary Storage     B Hard Disk
Web Address     C Network
Binary System     D Information
Secondary Storage     E 16 bits
Interconnected Computers     F Random Available Memory
executable file extension     G Executes Instructions
text only files     H .exe
Basic language of the computer     I URL
Byte     J Random Access Memory
Control Unit     K 1's and 0's
Computer CPU Speed     L Machine Language
      M Megabytes
      N 8 bits
      O Decodes Instructions
      P Gigahertz

Computer Lab Exercises

Week 4 - Design and Organisation Structures

  1. Open a third worksheet on last week's spreadsheet document. Rename it from "Sheet 3" to "Structure".
  2. Using the drawing tools available within MS Excel create a picture of the physical structure of your project organisation. This entails looking at the number of locations, rooms, offices and staff at each location.
  3. How are the locations linked by communications (Internet, intranet, extranet) and what network hardware is required going by the simple rules on the course website above?
  4. On your diagram indicate the allocation of computing and communication resources to each location with the types of devices allocated. You can be fairly creative here if you are not too sure of how things work in the real world. A single person may use more than one device at different times of the day.
  5. Using the drawing tools (Org Chart) available within MS Excel create a logical structure diagram that depicts the hierarchical nature of the organisation that is your project. Within that diagram you should divide the organisation up into departments and employee types. Each project has different characteristics so feel free to be creative. Some organisations will have a single task type for each employee while smaller organisations may have one employee engaged in several of the organisational roles.

IUD Evaluation - Due 5pm Friday Week 4

Element Marks Description
Spreadsheet 10
  • Create Peer Evaluation Spreadsheet
  • Complete Study Assessment plan Gantt Chart
    		•
    Website Evaluation 10
  • Example of good website and evaluation
  • Example of bad website and evaluation
    		•
    Evaluation of Peer's project website 10
  • Student Number and Evaluation
  • Justification of Score with respect to UID theory
    		•
    Gantt Chart Template Use 10
  • listed tasks, assessment items,allocated start date and day duration
  • listed other courses, submissions, allocated start date and day durations
    		•
    Reflection Entry on myblog.html (out of 10) 60 (then divided by 6 to achieve mark our of 10)
  • Things Learned
  • Relevance of Knowledge
  • What was interesting?
  • Why was it interesting?
  • What was uninteresting?
  • Why was it uninteresting?
    		•

    Total marks will be divided by 10 to give a mark out of 5

    Week 5 - a crowbar and a decision tool

    In the spreadsheet that you started last week, create a new worksheet and name it "Functions" as we will use some of the many functions that Excel supplies. To put this in perspective, there are several areas of the Systems Analysis phase that require simple calculations, decisions and tables to be created. An example of this might be a decision table or tree. The relevance of these exercises will become apparent as you develop the worksheet. You may not finish this exercise in a week but try to complete as much as you can.

    NB: The help in MS Excel is and excellent source of instruction for many of the formulae

    NB2: While creating formulae by typing or using a wizard, never click on a cell before you have finished the formula by hitting the enter key. (Okay, try it and see what happens :-) )

    1. In cell A2 put a large heading in dark blue that says "Computer Choices And Excel Functions"
    2. In cell D4 put a small column label "Index" and then click to the cell below
    3. ROUND() and RAND() can be used together to create random "integer" numbers within a certain range.
      1. RAND() creates a random "real" number between 0.0 and 1.0 so entering the formula =RAND()*4 will create a random number between 0.0 and 4.0. The formula =RAND()*1000 will create a random number between 0.0 and 1000.0 and so on. In D5 create a formula that returns a number between 0.0 and 2.0
      2. ROUND() is used to round a number to the nearest whole or integer number. In the formula =ROUND(4.2,0) the 4.2 would be rounded down to 4. In =ROUND(4.6,0) 4.6 is rounded up to the integer value 5. In a spare cell try out this formula so that you know how it works.
      3. To create random integer values ROUND() and RAND() can be used together. The formula =ROUND(RAND(),0) returns the value 0 or 1. In cell D5 change the formula so that the value that is generated is an integer value between 0 and 2.
      4. Click on the D5 cell and you will notice that the cell is outlined with a black line and there is a small "dot" in the bottom left corner. This dot is called the "fill handle" and is used to repeat a value or formula over a range of cells. When you mouse over the fill handle the pointer will turn to a small bold cross. Click on the fill handle on the cell D5 and drag it down 25 cells and then let go. You should get a whole bunch of random numbers between 0 and 2
      5. Double click on an empty cell somewhere and then click on a second cell. You should notice that the values that you created have all changed as the spreadsheet recalculates itself. To stabilise the numbers and stop them changing you should select the entire column of random numbers and right click on the selection and choose "Copy". Right click on the selection again and click "Paste Special" and then select "As Values". This will replace the formula in each cell with its current value. To stop the dotted outline from highlighting the selection just hit the Esc key.
    4. Making a logical choice - using the IF() function to return one of two possible values - or more. The IF() function is structured =IF(logical_test,[value if true],[value if false]). A logical test is of the form F6<=3 or E10=6 where a cell is compared to a value. The [value if true] is the value that will be returned if the logical test returns a true value when evaluated. Similarly the [value if false] is the value that will be returned if the logical test fails. You can return any sort of value from a function to a number to a string of text. If you need to return text values make sure that they are in "quotes". Eg. =IF(D2<10,"Less than 10","10 or more") will compare the value in cell D2 against the value 10 and return the appropriate string of text. If a 3-way decision has to be made then IF() statements can be nested one within the other. Eg. =IF(D2<5,"Less than 5",IF(D2<10,"5 or more but less than 10","10 or more"))provides output for three different choices.
      1. In cell E4 put a small column label "Level" and then click to the cell below
      2. Create a formula in cell E5 that will return the value "Low End" if the value in D5 is equal to 0, return the value "Mid Range" if the value in E5 is equal to 1 and "High End" otherwise.
      3. When you have perfected the formula then select the cell and use the fill handle to drag the formula down 25 cells. This will create text values for each of the random numbers that you have generated.
    5. In the next column we want to generate some random integer computer prices between $0 and $3000. The column should be titled "Price" in cell F4. Once you have perfected the formula then use the fill handle to drag it to the bottom of the table. Use the Copy/Paste_Special features to stabilise the values in that column.
    6. More decisions - using a lookup table. Excel provides us the ability to look up a value in one column of a table and then place a value on the spreadsheet with the matching value from another column in the table. The formula that does this best is called VLOOKUP(). First though we need to create a "named range" to help us out. Named ranges allow us to refer to a range of cells by using a single name.
      1. In cell M4 enter the word "Price" and in N4 enter the word "Value"
      2. In cells M5, M6 and M7 enter the values 0, 1000, 2000 respectively
      3. In column N next to each of these numbers but the values "Cheap", "Okay" and "Expensive"
      4. Select the six cells (M5:N7) with the numbers and values and use the menus Insert->Name->Define to Add a named range called "Values"
      5. Use a basic shape to create a border around the table. Try a basic box shape and then use the Format Autoshape menu item to alter the outline colour and line width and render the box transparent (No Fill)
      6. In cell G4 put the heading "Value"
      7. Use the VLOOKUP() function to lookup the price value in the cell F5 and put the matching value rating in the cell G5. The function has the following attributes: =VLOOKUP([lookup_value],[lookup_table],[column_number]) where lookup_value can be a cell that contains the value to be looked up, lookup_table is either a named range or a range of cells, and column number refers to the column from which the value to be written should come. Table columns are numbered starting at column 1 for the left-most column in the table.
      8. When you have perfected the formula then select the cell and use the fill handle to drag the formula down 25 cells. This will create value ratings for each of the random prices that you have generated.
    7. Even more decisions - making decisions based on two or more values. In this exercise we use the IF() function, the OR() function and the AND() function to help make a decision on whether we might buy a particular computer based on its value. The AND() and OR() functions makes one logical test out of two or more. For example =AND(D2<=5, D4="cheap") will only return the value TRUE if both the value in cell D2 is less than or equal to 5 AND the value in cell D4 is the text string "cheap". =OR(H32=10, H34="okay", H34="expensive") will return a value of TRUE if either the value in H32 is equal to 10 or the value in H34 is "okay" or "expensive". AND() and OR() can have two or more parameters.
      1. In cells H4, I4 and J4 put the headings "Low End", "Mid Range" and "High End"
      2. In cell H5 create a function using IF() and AND() that will return the word "BUY" if the Level is "Low End" AND the value is "cheap". Otherwise it should return the empty string " " (a space)
      3. In cell I5 create a function that returns the word "BUY" if the level is "Mid Range" and the value is "Cheap" OR "Okay" (OR("Cheap", "Okay"))
      4. In cell J5 create a function that returns the word "BUY" if the level is "High End" and the value is "Expensive" or "Okay" or "Cheap".
      5. When you have the functions working use the fill handle to drag all of the formulae down 25 cells.
    8. We now want to find out what computers we should buy. We will base the criteria on the cheapest computer with a "BUY" rating for each computer level.
      1. Select the values that you have created from columns D to J excluding the headings. Use the Data->Sort menu item to arrange the values in ascending price order.
      2. Using the menu items insert->comment insert a comment into the "BUY" cells for each of the best value buying in "Low End", Mid Range" and "High End". Put an appropriate comment in each cell.
    9. We now need a count of the number of cells in the Value column that were "Cheap", the number that were "Okay" and the number that were "Expensive". We will use the COUNTIF() function to count the number of values in a column that meet particular criterion. COUNTIF() takes a cell range as the first attribute and the value being counted as the second. Eg. =COUNTIF(F5:F30,M12) will count the number of times that the value in cell M12 occurs in the cell range F5 to F30.
      1. Create a second table with a heading "Frequency Table". In the first column place the words "Cheap", "Okay" and "Expensive". In the next column use the COUNTIF() function to count the number of times that the relevant value rating appears in the Value column. In the table next to "Cheap" we should have a count of the number of computers that were rated as "Cheap". In the table next to "Okay" a count of the number of computers rated as "Okay" and so on.
      2. When that is working and you have a count (a frequency) for each value rating then use the menu item Insert->Chart to create a chart of the table that you have just created. A chart wizard will appear:
        1. Choose a Column bar chart
        2. Follow the instructions to select a data range that includes the value ratings and the count for each value
        3. Hit the next button and fill in the chart title as "Value Frequency"; the X-axis (horizontal) as "Value Rating" and the Y-axis as "Count".
        4. You want to create the chart in the current worksheet
    10. Make an entry in your Blog that outlines the new knowledge and skills that you have gained from this week's lessons.

      Focus: What have I learned?

      Reflect. - Think about what you have done above and answer these questions:

      1. What do you think you have learned from this module and its exercises?
      2. Where do you think this knowledge will be useful?
      3. What did you find interesting about the exercises?
      4. Why were they interesting?
      5. What did you find uninteresting about these exercises?
      6. Why were they uninteresting?
      7. How many hours per week have you spent doing work for this course in the last 2 weeks?

    IS Design Report Part A - Due 5pm Friday Week 5

  • introduction
    1. Purpose of the document
    2. Scope of the document - What will the reader find out by reading this document (sell the proposal)?
    3. Sources and methods used to collect this information
    4. Limitations and assumptions
    5. Background - What situation has caused a re-evaluation of the organisations requirement for a re-assessment of their information systems?
    6. Where can support documentation be found (your website)?
  • Requirements Brief
    1. What were the requirements of the client?
    2. What improvements was the client hoping to achieve by upgrading/installing an information system?
    3. What are the roles of the members of the user group? (i.e., managers, nurses, reception, etc)
    4. What were the requirements of different members of the user group?
    5. What were the problems encountered with the existing information system?
  • Organizational Structure Analysis
    1. scribe the logical structure of the organization (organization chart) and list any particular communication or information requirements that should be addressed as a consequence.
    2. scribe any special communication or information requirements of particular segments of the organization
    3. scribe the physical structure of the organization (site layout) and any particular communication or information requirements that should be addressed as a consequence
    4. scribe any limitations or advantages that the organizational structure adds to the information system design

     

    Item Marks Description
    Introduction 30
  • What will the reader find out by reading this document (sell the proposal)? Include:
    1. Purpose
    2. Scope
    3. Source and Methods
    4. Limitations and Assumptions
    5. Background
  • Summary of the rest of the document

    •  
    Requirements Brief 20 A clear statement of what the information system that they are designing is needed to do. This should include how a range of different users and organizational roles interact with the system and the tasks that they need to complete.

     
    Organisational Structure Analysis 30
  • Describe the logical structure of the organization (organization chart)
  • List any particular communication or information requirements that should be addressed as a consequence. This should include an incisive analysis of how the organizational structure affects the possibilities for information system design.
  • Describe the physical structure of the organization (site layout)
  • List any particular communication or information requirements that should be addressed as a consequence. This should include an incisive analysis of how the geographical layout of the organization affects information system design.

    •  

    Total marks will be divided by 8 to give a mark out of 10

     

    Week 6 - Spreadsheets and Networks

    1. Go to The PIRV Spreadsheet to find out your project company attributes. Assume that each company site needs to be connected to the Internet with each connection requiring a router. If there are any subnetworks then each of those will require a router at each of your business sites too.
      1. #Staff = total number of employees
      2. #Sites = total number of business addresses that company operates from
      3. #Subnets = total number of subnetworks within each site
      4. #Servers = number of server class or capable computers
      5. #HighEnd = number of power user workstations used for design or graphics
      6. #MidLevel = number of serious general purpose or development workstations
      7. #LowEnd = number of general purpose workstations
      8. #Mobile = total number of mobile computer users with laptops, tablet PCs or PDAs
      9. #PDA = number of mobile users that require only a PDA
      10. #Wireless = number of wireless sites where mobile computers may use WiFi
      11. IT Dept? = is there an in-house IT department to maintain systems
    2. Open a new worksheet in last week's spreadsheet workbook. Rename the worksheet from "Sheet 2" to "Hardware"
    3. Create a text box where you can estimate the number of each type of computer or networking device that your project requires. Use the information in the notes above to make your decisions and as your project business is fictitious feel free to be creative in your approach. Assume that you have to justify your expenditure so design your system to closely match the business requirements. [C - 10%]
    4. Create a text box and create a 14pt bold heading "Business Justifications".
      1. Below that state whether you would use one supplier or a number of different suppliers to complete the hardware requirements of the project.
      2. State why or why not.
      3. Can any one supplier supply all that is needed?
      4. Would a service and warranty arrangements with the supplier make a difference to your choice?
      5. State why or why not?
      6. Is there warranty? Are there any arrangements that are offered to business customers? Is delivery included? Justify your choices to let me know how you are thinking about this supply process. If there is not enough information on the supplier's sites to answer a question then state that as part of your justification.
    5. IMPORTANT: Create a text box and create a 14pt bold heading "Future Proof".
      1. Below that state whether you think that the system is scalable if the business grows.
      2. What equipment might you have to buy if the staff doubled within the next 3 years?
    6. IMPORTANT: Under another heading "Redundancy", state whether you consider maximum "uptime" for the servers to be important.
      1. What considerations helped with that statement?
      2. Why is it hardware or software redundancy important to your business?
      3. What avenues are there for your business to conduct e-commerce?
      4. Would your project business benefit from an internal information system (intranet)?
      5. With questions 3&4 in mind, how would you best provide redundancy in your project?
    7. Save your spreadsheet to your USB or network drive and then attach it to a list item in an unordered list in the "Week 5 " row of your professional website. Upload the updated website and the spreadsheet to your website on dwarf.

      8. Reflect - Make an entry in your Blog that outlines the new knowledge and skills that you have gained from this week's lessons. Think about what you have done above and answer these questions: Focus:What have I learned?

      1. What do you think you have learned from this module and its exercises?
      2. Where do you think this knowledge will be useful?
      3. What did you find interesting about the exercises?
      4. Why were they interesting?
      5. What did you find uninteresting about these exercises?
      6. Why were they uninteresting?
      7. How many hours per week have you spent doing work for this course in the last week?

    Remember to “back up”.  Have you got a copy of all of the files that you created on both your USB and network drives?

     

     

     

    Resources List:

     

    Updated by Heather Gray Feb 2011