Title

Chapter 2

Understanding Organizational

Style and its Impact on

Information Systems

Key Points and Objectives

1. Organizations are complex systems composed of interrelated and interdependent subsystems.

2. System and subsystem boundaries and environments impact on information system analysis and design.

3. Systems are described as either open, with free flowing information, or closed with restricted access to information.

4. A virtual organization is one that has parts of the organization in different physical locations. They use computer networks and communications technology to work on projects. Advantages of a virtual organization are:

A. Reduced costs of physical facilities

B. More rapid response to customer needs

C. Flexibility for employees to care for children or aging parents

5. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) describes an integrated organizational information system. The software helps the flow of information between the functional areas within the organization.

6. A context level data flow diagram is an important tool for showing data used and information produced by a system. It provides an overview of the setting or environment the system exists within: which entities supply and receive data/information.

7. Entity-relationship diagrams help the analyst understand the organizational system and the data stored by the organization.

8. There are three types of entities:

A. Fundamental entity, describing a person, place or thing

B. Associative entity (also called a gerund, junction, intersection or concatenated entity), joining two entities. It can only exist between two entities.

C. Attributive entity, to describe attributes and repeating groups.

9. Relationships are shown with the crow’s foot notation and can be:

A. One to one

B. One to many

C. Many to many

10. The three...