cis 465 - wca framework 1 basic concepts the work centered analysis framework

CIS 465 - WCA Framework 1

Basic Concepts

The Work Centered Analysis Framework


Processing Résumés Using Resumix



CUSTOMER

Manager who needs to hire an employee

Applicant who receives responses about a job application

Government agency that receives reports about compliance to equal opportunity guidelines

PRODUCT

List of applicants who fit the criteria

Selected data items about each applicant

Automatically generated rejection letters



BUSINESS PROCESS

Major Steps:

•Define the criteria for selecting applicants

•Receive résumés

•Scan résumés and extract data

•Select applicants meeting criteria and forward their résumés to the hiring manager

•Send out rejection letters

•Track the hiring process

•Store applicant data for future searches

Rationale:

Instead of finding appropriate candidates by searching through paper résumés, extract the information on the résumés and do the search automatically.



PARTICIPANTS

Human resources employees

Manager doing the hiring

INFORMATION

Description of job opening

Scanned résumés converted into a database format

List of qualified applicants

TECHNOLOGY

Résumix software

Scanner

Unidentified computers


DEBATE TOPIC

• The technology is Resumix is designed to convert a resume into a series of fields in a database regardless of what the initial resume looks like. Statements that don’t match these specific fields aren’t recognized. Does the use of this technology imply that a company does not care about the individuality of the applicants?


INTRODUCTION

• Framework - brief set of ideas about organizing a thought process about a concept.It helps by identifying topics that should be considered and shows how they are related.

• Models - useful representation of reality. The describe or mimic reality without dealing with the details

• They both help us understand complexity


A Classification of Models

• Iconic Models

• Analog Models

• Mathematical Models

• Mental Models


Iconic and Analog Models

• Iconic (scale) models - the least abstract model, is a physical replica of a system, usually based on a different scale from the original. Iconic models can scale in two or three dimensions.

• Analog Models - Does not look like the real system, but behaves like it. Usually two-dimensional charts or diagrams. Examples: organizational charts depict structure, authority, and responsibility relationships; maps where different colors represent water or mountains; stock market charts; blueprints of a machine; speedometer; thermometer


Mathematical Models

• Mathematical (quantitative) models - the complexity of relationships sometimes can not be represented iconically or analogically, or such representations may be cumbersome or time consuming.A more abstract model is built with mathematics.

• Note: recent advances in computer graphics use iconic and analog models to complement mathematical modeling.

• Visual simulation combines the three types of models.


Mental Models

• People often use a behavioral mental model.• A mental model is an unworded description of how

people think about a situation.• The model can use the beliefs, assumptions, relationships,

and flows of work as perceived by an individual. • Mental models are a conceptual, internal representation,

used to generate descriptions of problem structure, and make future predications of future related variables.

• Support for mental models are an important aspect of Executive Information Systems. We will discuss this in depth later.


Examples of Models


Viewing Businesses as Systems

• A business is a system consisting of many subsystems, some of which are information systems.

• Definition: A system is a set of interacting components that operate together to accomplish a purpose.

• Key ideas: purpose, boundary, environment, inputs, outputs.

• Businesses can be considered as systems consisting of business processes.

• A process’s value added is the amount of value it creates for internal or external customers.


Viewing a firm as a System


The Value Chain

• The set of processes a firm uses to create value for its customers is called its value chain.

• The value chain contains both primary processes and support processes.

• The value chain is important because the way business processes are organized in a firm should be related to the way the firm creates value for customers.

• Understanding how the value chain is “supposed” to work is the first step in improving business processes.


Primary processes for a hypothetical restaurant


The Functional Areas of a Business

• Large subsystems of a firm related to specific business disciplines are often called the functional areas of the business.

• Examples: Production, Sales and Marketing, Finance.• Most Businesses are organized around these functional areas.• Sometimes there can be organizational inertia where

organizational members focus on the functional areas instead of the customer.

• Functional areas are important, but they should not be the basis for studying information systems


Business Processes and Functional Areas


Functional Areas in a Typical College or University

• Admissions• Records and

Registration• Financial Aid• Bursar• Human Resources• Accounts Payable• Budget, Finance, and

Accounting

• Academic Department• University

Advancement• Student Services• Residence Life• Public Safety• Physical Plant• Student Career

Development


The Context of Information Systems….


The System We Are Talking About….

• A work system is a system in which human participants perform a business process using information, technology, and other resources to produce products for internal or external customers.

• The core of a work system is a business process, a related group of steps or activities that uses people, information, and other resources to create value for internal or external customers.

• Work is the application of human and physical resources to generate outputs used by internal and external customers.


Information System vs. Work Systems

Bar code scanners and computers identify the items sold and calculate the bill

Work system supported by the information system: Performing customer checkout

Aspects of the work system not included in the information system: Establishing personal contact with customers, putting the groceries in bags

University registration system permits students to sign up for specific class sections

Work system supported by the information system: Registering for classes

Aspects of the work system not included in the information system: Deciding which classes to take and which sections to sign up for in order to have a good weekly schedule

Word Processing system used for typing and revising chapters

Work system supported by the information system: Writing a book

Aspects of the work system not included in the information system: Deciding what to say in the book and how to say it


Information System vs. Work Systems

Interactive system top managers use to monitor their organization’s performance

Work system supported by the information system: Keeping track of organizational performance

Aspects of the work system not included in the information system: Talking to people to understand their views about what is happening

System that identifies people by scanning and analyzing voice prints

Work system supported by the information system: Preventing unauthorized access to restricted areas

Aspects of the work system not included in the information system: Human guards, cameras, and other security measures


WCA framework for thinking about any system in business


Example: Who is a toy factory’s customer?


Relationship between data, information, and knowledge


WCA framework for thinking about any system in business


Five Perspectives for Understanding a Work System

ARCHITECTURE•What are the components of the system that performs the work and who uses the work product?•How are the components linked?•How do the components operate together?

PERFORMANCE•How well do the components operate individually?•How well does the system operate? (How well is the work performed?)•How well should the system operate?

INFRASTRUCTURE•What technical and human infrastructure does the work rely on? •In what ways does infrastructure present opportunities or obstacles?

CONTEXT•What are the impacts of the organizational and technical context?•In what ways does the context present opportunities or obstacles?

RISKS•What foreseeable things can prevent the work from happening, can make the work inefficient, or can cause defects in the work product?•What are the likely responses to these problems?


Important Point

• Improvements in a work system are usually related to the links between the architecture and the performance perspectives.

• Customer satisfaction is largely determined by product performance.

• Product performance is determined by a combination of product architecture and the internal work system performance.

• Note: efficiency vs. effectiveness


From work system architecture to customer satisfaction


Detailed Discussion of the Five Perspectives:Architecture

Performance

Infrastructure

Context

Risks


Architecture, Perspective #1

• Architecture is a summary of how a work system operates. It focuses on the components of the system and how those components are linked, and how they operate together to produce outputs.

• It is not merely a technical issue; IT and business professional involved with a system need to understand how it operates.

• It is impossible to build an information system without detailed documentation of information and technology components of the architecture.

• We use successive decomposition for documenting and summarizing

architecture.• Process operation and process characteristics



CUSTOMER

Customer’s entire cycle of involvement with the product

Requirements

Acquisition

Use

Maintenance

Retirement

PRODUCT

Components

Information content

Physical Content

Service content

(more in Chapter 6)



BUSINESS PROCESS

Process operation:

•Processes providing inputs

•Sequence and scheduling of major steps

•Processes receiving the outputs

Process characteristics:

•Degree of structure

•Range of involvement

•Level of integration

•Complexity

•Degree of reliance on machines

•Linkage of planning, execution, and control

•Attention to exceptions, errors, and malfunctions

More to be covered in Chapter 3….



PARTICIPANTS

Formal and informal organization:

Job responsibility

Organization chart

INFORMATION

Major data files in the database:

Data organization and access

TECHNOLOGY

Major components:

Hardware

Software


Performance, Perspective #2

• Performance - How well the system operates.

• A complete analysis involves qualitative and quantitative measurements.

• Consider some performance variables….



CUSTOMER

Customer Satisfaction

PRODUCT

Cost

Quality

Responsiveness

Reliability

Conformance to standards and regulations



BUSINESS PROCESS

Rate of output

Consistency

Productivity

Cycle time

Flexibility

Security



PARTICIPANTS

Skills

Involvement

Commitment

Job satisfaction

INFORMATION

Quality

Accessibility

Presentation

Prevention of unauthorized access

TECHNOLOGY

Functional capabilities

Ease of use

Compatibility

Maintainability


Comparing Vague Descriptions, Measurements, and Interpretations

ACCURACY OF INFORMATIONVague description: The information doesn’t seem very accurate.Measurement: 97.5% of the readings are correct within 5%.Interpretation:This is (or is not) accurate enough, given the way the information will be used.

SKILLS OF PARTICIPATIONVague description: The sales people are very experienced.Measurement: Every salesperson has 5 or more years of experience; 60% have more than 10 years.Interpretation:This system is (or is not) appropriate for such experienced people.

CYCLE TIME OF BUSINESS PROCESSVague description: This business process seems to take a long time.Measurement: The three major steps take an average of 1.3 days each, but the waiting time between the steps is around 5 days.Interpretation:This is (or is not) better than the average for this industry, but we can (or cannot) improve by eliminating some of the waiting time.

QUALITY OF THE WORK SYSTEM OUPUTVague description: We produce top quality frozen food, but our customer’s aren’t enthusiastic.Measurement:65% of our customers rate it average or good even though our factory defect rate is only.003%Interpretation: Our manufacturing process does (or doesn’t) seem O.K., but we do (or don’t) need to improve customer satisfaction.


Infrastructure, Perspective #3

• Infrastructure: Essential Resources shared with other systems.

• Infrastructure failures may partially be beyond the control of people who rely on it (e.g. power outages).

• Evaluation is difficult because the same infrastructure may support some applications excessively and others insufficiently.

• Critical mass, having enough users to attain desired benefits, may be a key infrastructure issue.

• Distinguish between infrastructure and the supporting technology (laptops used in the sales process vs. used for company e-mail).



• Technology can be infrastructure if it is outside the work system, shared between work systems, owned and managed by a central authority, or when details are largely hidden from users.

• Business professionals are often surprised at the amount of effort and expense absorbed by human infrastructure.



CUSTOMER

Technical and human infrastructure the customer must have to use the product

PRODUCT

Infrastructure related to information content

Infrastructure related to physical content

Infrastructure related to service content



BUSINESS PROCESS

Infrastructure related to internal operation of the process

Infrastructure related to inputs from other processes

Infrastructure related to transferring the product to other processes



PARTICIPANTS

Shared

human infrastructure

INFORMATION

Shared

information infrastructure

TECHNOLOGY

Shared

technology infrastructure


Context, Perspective #4.

• The organizational, competitive, and regulatory environment surrounding the system.

• The environment around the system may create incentives and even urgency for change.

• The personal, organizational, and economic parts of the context have direct impact through resource availability.

• Even with enough monetary resources, context factors ranging from historical precedents and budget cycles to internal politics can be stumbling blocks.

• Incentives

• Organizational Culture

• Stakeholders


Context, Perspective #4



CUSTOMER

Issues in the customer’s environment that may affect satisfaction or use

Business and competitive climate

PRODUCT

Substitute products

Ways the customer might bypass this type of product altogether



BUSINESS PROCESS

Organizational culture

Concerns of stakeholders

Organizational policies and initiatives

Government regulations and industry standards



PARTICIPANTS

Incentives

Other responsibilities and job pressures

INFORMATION

Policies and practices regarding information sharing, privacy, etc.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology policies and practices

Technology that may become available soon


Risk, Perspective #5

• Risks: Foreseeable Things that can go wrong in terms of:

– accidents and malfunctions

– computer crime

– project failure

(To be considered again in Chapter 13….)



CUSTOMER

Customer dissatisfaction

Interference by other stakeholders

PRODUCT

Inadequate or unreliable products

Fraudulent products



BUSINESS PROCESS

Operator error

Sloppy procedures

Inadequate backup and recovery

Mismatch between process requirements and participant’s abilities

Unauthorized access to computers, programs, data



PARTICIPANTS

Crime by insiders or outsiders

Inattention by participants

Failure to follow procedures

Inadequate training

INFORMATION

Data errors

Fraudulent data

Data theft

TECHNOLOGY

Equipment failure

Software bugs

Inadequate performance

Inability to build common sense into information systems


Systems Analysis

• Systems Analysis is different for the business professional than from the system builder.

• Technical vs. non-technical.

• Think of what will happen in the future when systems building tools become more effective for non-programmers.


Steps in systems analysis for business professionals


Defining the Problem

• Identify the purpose of the analysis and scope of the work system.

• Tradeoffs - broad vs. narrow.

• Constraints

• priorities

• system snapshots


Using the WCA for a “System Snapshot”


Definitions of Topics in a System Snapshot

CUSTOMER

Product used by: Internal or external customers who use or receive direct benefit from the product

Other stakeholders: People who have a significant stake in the work system or its product even though they do not use the product directly and do not participate directly in the work system

Infrastructure requirements: Infrastructure the customer should have to use the product effectively



PRODUCT

Information content: The aspects of the product that consist of information

Physical content: The aspects of the product that consist of physical things

Service content: The aspects of the product that consist of services performed for specific customers



BUSINESS PROCESS

Major steps: Listing the major steps in this business process

Rationale: The overriding idea or approach that determined the process would be performed using the current approach rather than another

Processes providing inputs: External processes outside the work system that produce inputs of information, physical things, or services needed in order for this business process to operate

Processes receiving the product: The customer’s processes that receive and use the product of this work system



PARTICIPANTS

People who perform the work

Shared human infrastructure

INFORMATION

Created or modified within this system

Received from other work system

TECHNOLOGY

Technology within the system

Shared technology infrastructure


The 10 Issues in the Work-Centered Analysis Method

Systems analysis step

1. Define the problem

2. Describe the current work system in enough depth

and

3. Design potential improvements

4.Decide what to do

Corresponding issues for thinking about a system

Issue 1: Problem Definition

Issue 2: Improvements from product changesIssue 3: Improvements from process changesIssue 4: Improvements related to work system participantsIssue 5: Improvements from better informationIssue 6: Improvements from better technologyIssue 7: Improvements from shared infrastructureIssue 8: Improvements related to the business contextIssue 9: Improvements from risk reduction

Issue 10: Recommendation


Common Systems Analysis Pitfalls Related to Elements of the WCA Framework


Common Pitfalls - WCA Elements

• Customer– ignore customer and the fact that the customer should evaluate the

product.

– Treating managers as customers even though they don’t use the

product directly.

• Product– forget that the purpose is to produce a product or service for a

customer.

– Forget that the product of a work system is often not the product of the organization.



• Business Process– Define process so narrowly that improvement is of little consequence.– Define process to widely that it is too complex.– Confuse business process measures(consistency and productivity)

with product measures (cost to the customer and quality perceived by customer).

– Think of business process as theory and ignore its support by participants, information, and technology

• Participants– ignore incentives and other pressures– focus on users rather than participants.



• Information– assume better information generates better results.

– Ignoring the importance of “soft” information not captured by formal systems.

• Technology– assume better technology generates better results.

– Focus on the technology without thinking about whether it makes a difference in the work system.


Common Pitfalls - Five Perspectives

• Architecture

– over emphasis on architectural details

– confusion related to people’s roles

• Performance

– Tendency to ignore performance

– tendency to exaggerate the scope of work system performance.

• Infrastructure

– Tendency to ignore infrastructure issues


Common Pitfalls - Five Perspectives

• Context– tendency to ignore incentives, organizational

culture, and non-participant stakeholders when designing systems.

• Risks– tendency to assume system will operate as

planned.

cis 465 - wca framework 1 basic concepts the work centered analysis framework

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