CIS 405B

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CIS 405B
Systems Analysis and Design
Mohammad B. Ayati, Ph.D.
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405B, the integrator
Visual BASIC
Production/Operations Management
JAVA
C
Finance
Economics
Networking
Systems Admin
Marketing
Data Comm
Accounting
Hardware Software
405A, 405B
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Charting the Course

• Establishing Communication
• Matching expectations Understanding Each Others
  Views
• Harmonizing Teaching and Learning
• Significance of Terminology
• Introducing Systems Analysis and Design

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What kind of Education are we after?
All these jobs are necessary and equally
respectable. Do not confuse the level of work and
the value of human being or the critical role of
the person in the organization.
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Congruency in Your Present Education Program

• How can we make Systems Analysis and Design
  (SAAD) course congruent with your purpose of your
  present educational program?

The purpose of your present education program.
The question leads to
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Matching expectations Understanding Each
Others View

• Are you going to write programs?
• Are you going to develop software?
• Are you going to run the IT Depart.?
• Who needs
• Systems Analysis and Design knowledge?

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Matching expectations
Understanding Each Others View How can we make
this course congruent with your purpose of your
present educational program?

• A Central Issue of MIS Education is
• What Blend of Generalist Training and
  Specialist Training is Needed?

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Are you to become a generalists or a
specialists?

• Q Does it matter in my study?
• A Yes, because different blends of topics,
  concepts, and skills (how-to-dos) are needed for
  different educational purposes.

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Defining

• Specialist
• Knows few things in depth.
• Focuses on how-to-do
• Master of perfecting an operation?

• Generalist
• Knows something about many things.
• Focuses on what should be done.
• Master of integration?

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Note

• Generalist vs. specialist is not a black or white
  issue, but a spectrum between two focuses. It is
  an example of a complex and multi-dimensional
  issue?
• Every professionals knowledge-base has a blend
  of general and specialized knowledge.
• Every job requires a blend of general and
  specialized knowledge.

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Note How did the dichotomy emerged? An
Organizational Perspective

• Public administrators, politicians, and community
  leaders coordinate the work of the community and
  of the society. These coordinators have to know
  something about many things. They are
  generalists jack of many trades, but far more
  importantly, they are masters of integration.
  ('jack of all trades and master of none' is not a
  description of a generalist its a description of
  an aimless professional student or hobbyist.)
  Therefore, one can say that the specialization of
  a generalist is his/her skill of integration in
  his/her field. A generalist's focus is on 'what
  should be done a specialist's primary focus is
  on how to do it. We have been advancing in both
  directions. We have developed many new field of
  specialization as well, we have advanced our
  skills of coordination.

• A long time ago in human history, we learned that
  we can do better if each of us concentrated on
  doing the same thing over and over. We became
  specialists in various tasks, fields, and areas.
  However, soon we realized that some of us have to
  coordinate the work of others in order for the
  group, organization, community, or the society to
  work more efficiently and effectively. A foreman
  coordinates the work of his/her crew. Managers
  coordinate the work of their unit executives
  coordinates sections and finally the
  organization.

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From an Organizational Perspective, How has the
dichotomy emerged?

• Efficiency of the group-work
• Individual work evolved into group work
• Needs for coordinating works and workers.
• The dichotomy emerged along with the
  organizational pyramid

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The magic of specialization

• The magic of specialization is that when we do
  the same thing over and over again, we learn it
  so well that we recognize its pattern, and soon
  we create machines to do those sequences
  automatically and less expensively. As a result,
  the machine is fast advancing into and capturing
  the job base of those whose specialization
  consists of clearly defined and repetitive tasks.
  For those workers, the umbrella of job security
  has largely been removed or ruptured even a
  strong union could not save them from the
  advancement of machines. So far, factory, farm
  and office workers, and more recently,
  programmers have been the target. (Who is next?)
  Moreover, machines, including software, are
  constantly being updated, renewed and reinvented,
  and have made the work of the operator or the
  programmer a challenge. Now he has to find out
  quickly, by himself, how to use the machine. It
  is economically infeasible to wait for someone to
  hold his hand in training. Life expectancy of
  machine-specific-knowledge is very short (
  whether it is hardware or software.)

• Thus we redefine specialization as the skills of
• Know-how,
• Doing things which require imagination, talent,
  and intelligence beyond what the machine can
  offer,
• Using the available specialized learning
  resources (manuals, reports, books, electronic
  mediums, etc.) to find out, by themselves, how
  various machines (hardware and software) work,
• Discovering patterns of repetitive tasks and
  creating (designing and developing) machines
  (hardware and software) to do those tasks,
• Coordinating the work of machines, operators,
  programmers, and operational unit
• (See the work force pyramid on the next three
  slides)

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How does technology push the specialist into the
realm of the generalist.

• Exact recognition of work sequence lays the
  ground for automation.
• Machines take over large parts of the bottom of
  the pyramid.
• Specialties deepen and widen.
• Coordinating tasks become a bigger part of the
  job

EXE VP Associates
See next Slide
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Generalists vs. Specialists
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Generalists vs. Specialists
Tasks and performers in the organizational pyram
id
After Industrial Age
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General vs. Specialized knowledgeFrom the
perspective of the individuals knowledge-base
When we look at knowledge-base of the individual,
we see a different pyramid actually a dual of
the organizational pyramid Here, the base of the
pyramid is individuals general knowledge which
leads to the pick of his/her specialization. It
is said that the Pyramids have endured time
because they have a large and stable base. A
professional will endure his/her time if he/she
has a large base of general knowledge. (Please
see next slide)
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General vs. Specialized knowledge From the
perspective of the individuals knowledge-base

• A reverse (dual) model

A set of workable specialized knowledge
A base of general knowledge
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In short

• For two reasons, a business analyst / manager
  must understand the virtue of general vs
  specialized knowledge and skill
• In the organization, his ever present job is to
  blend generalists traits with specialized talents
  to fit the job at hand.
• In his/her own professional development, again,
  he/she is after that particular blend which is
  needed at that stage of professional growth.

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Dealing with ambiguity Take Generalist vs.
Specialist discussion as a sample of complex and
multi-dimensional issues

• Multi-dimensional issues are inherently
  ambiguous. There is no black and white
  distinction between many issues
• The exercise of professional education is to
  delve into ambiguity and bring out clarity.
• Requires responsible and sincere
• communication.

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Charting the Course

• Establishing Communication
• Matching expectations Understanding Each Others
  Views
• Harmonizing Teaching and Learning
• Significance of Terminology
• Introducing Systems Analysis and Design

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What these scenarios have to do with your MIS /
SAAD / Data base, course of study?
Two Approaches to Learning, Two Scenarios

• Scenario 1 Your Relative, Mary, is not feeling
  well. She has come to Los Angeles to see a
  specialist. She has never been to Los Angeles
  before. She is staying with you. From your
  residence to the clinic there are 3 blocks. You
  tell her how to get there, right, left, and
  straight. Next, she wants to go to the pharmacy,
  next, to the physical therapist. After a while
  she feels better. She gets a job in Los Angeles.
  Piece by piece, address by address, she leans her
  way around. After some years, she will know Los
  Angeles, like the palm of her hand.

• Scenario 2 Michael, a sun of a friend of your
  father, has come to Los Angeles to find a job
  from a neighboring country. He has never been to
  Los Angeles before. He is intelligent and has
  almost a high school education. He gets a job as
  a taxi driver. He needs to learn the whole city
  in a hurry. What method would you advise him to
  follow to be able to do his job? After few
  months, by choice or by necessity, he may move to
  New York. Can he use that method to, quickly, be
  productive a taxi driver in New York, and may be
  in New Jersey, etc?

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Two Approaches to Learning, an example
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The Nature of this course

• A system course built on many disciplines.
• A none procedural, a design course
• A critical thinking course.
• This system course can not and should not be
  linearly and sequentially structured.

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Course Objective

• To enable the student to create or participate in
  creating Business Application Software
• To make students effective agents of automation
  who will pursue automation of business processes
  wherever it is optimal.

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Agents of automation

• will find out
• if it is optimal to automate,
• how far to pursue automation, and
• how to employ what technology to develop the
  automated system

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The Job of Systems Analyst

• Identify the Preconditions for Automation
• Technological Feasibility
• Can you break down the complex process into its
  precisely known simple elements ?
• Economical Justifiability
• Can you
• Reduce costs ?
• Reduce risks ?
• Improve quality?
• Capture new market?

Key terms repetitiveness, voluminous, safety
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Charting the Course

• Establishing Communication
• Matching expectations Understanding Each Others
  Views
• Harmonizing Teaching and Learning
• Significance of Terminology
• Introducing Systems Analysis and Design

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(No Transcript)
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Constantly Look for the Focus and the Structure
of the course

• It is not immediate
• It is not obvious
• It reveals itself
• to involved students

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Focus Keeping your eyes on the ball!

• Always ask
• where are we go?
• what are we getting on the way?
• Q What do you do when you are lost into a detail
  map, what do you do?
• A You go to the general map, the basics, the
  square one

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• ? Syllabus