Management Information Systems Commons^™

Extending A Systems Analysis Method For Business Professionals, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Despite having been explored, described, theorized, and measured in hundreds of IS research articles, frequent difficulties related to user participation and business/IT communication persist in relation to project management, specification of requirements, implementation in organizations, business/IT alignment, and IS failures. We report on an extension of a long term design sci-ence research project that previously demonstrated a possible path toward ad-dressing these longstanding problems by empowering business professionals to analyze systems in business terms rather than in formalisms for IT specialists. Previous research demonstrated that most of 75 working business professionals with extensive business experience were able to use the …

Using Work System Theory To Achieve Greater Business Value From Erp By Exploring Alternative Design Spaces, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper explains how various aspects of work system theory (WST) can be applied to achieve greater business value from ERP by assuming that the underlying "design spaces" encompass much more than the features, configuration, and limitations of ERP software. It uses WST concepts to identify directions for achieving business value that might not be considered thoroughly in ERP implementations that focus primarily on converting from legacy software to ERP software.

This paper starts by summarizing basic premises concerning the relationship between work systems and ERP. Focusing on the context of ERP usage, it explains the elements of the two …

Reconciling The Social/Human And Technical/Material In Is Research Without Trying Too Hard, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This contribution to the SIGPHIL workshop on reconciling the social and technical in IS research proposes a sociotechnical approach that addresses many issues related to the long-standing duality of the social/human versus the technical/material. It shows that a sociotechnical approach based on work system concepts 1) highlights and potentially bypasses extremely basic ontological stumbling blocks in IS research, 2) incorporates many of the topics and concerns of the original sociotechnical school, 3) illuminates issues related to the duality of the social/human versus the technical/material, and 4) addresses these topics using concepts and terminology that are much easier to understand than …

The Work System Method: Systems Thinking For Business Professionals, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Public Comprehension Of Published Data - Technology To The Rescue?, Paul Lorton Jr

Business Analytics and Information Systems

There is a need for the public to monitor the efficacy of what the public funds. This certainly was the view in 1989 when the voters of California passed Proposition 98 – the Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act.

Since the passage of Proposition 98, every public K-12 school in California has published and distributed a School Accountability Report Card (SARC) as hard copy sent home to the parents and, as the revised law compelled, made available on the internet.

Did the use of this technology (i.e., the internet and the infrastructure it requires) realize its purpose – to inform? …

Defining Information Systems As Work Systems: Implications For The Is Field, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The lack of an agreed upon definition of information system is one of many obstacles troubling the academic information systems discipline. After listing a number of definitions of IS, this paper defines information system as a special case of work system as defined in Alter (1999a). This definition has many desirable characteristics: It is easy to understand; differentiates IS from IT; covers totally manual, partially automated, and totally automated information systems; links to a life cycle model that generates many insights about development and implementation problems; provides a simple guideline that helps in interpreting common IS/IT jargon; and has other …

Service System Fundamentals: Work System, Value Chain, And Life Cycle, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Service systems produce all services of significance and scope, yet the concept of service system is not well articulated in the service literature. This paper presents three interrelated frameworks as a first cut at the fundamentals of service systems. These frameworks identify basic building blocks and organize important attributes and change processes that apply across all service systems. Although relevant regardless of whether a service system uses IT, the frameworks are also potentially useful in visualizing the realities of moving toward automated service architectures. This paper uses two examples, one largely manual and one highly automated, to illustrate the potential …