Svkm's Narseemonjee Institute of Management Studies

SVKM's NarseeMonjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS)

School of Distance Learning

Subject: Information Systems for Managers

Programme: All Semester: I Marks: 30

Q1. Define the term SYSTEM. Requirement analysis and definition is the foundation for any systems development. It is independent of the approach you take for design. Explain this statement with example.

Ans:

An information system (IS) - or application landscape - is any combination of information technology and people's activities using that technology to support operations, management, and decision-making. In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, algorithmic processes, data and technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.

Some make a clear distinction between information systems, and computer systems ICT, and business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system is typically seen as having an ICT component. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes.

Alter argues for an information system as a special type of work system. A work system is a system in which humans and/or machines perform work using resources (including ICT) to produce specific products and/or services for customers. An information system is a work system whose activities are devoted to processing (capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying) information.

Part of the difficulty in defining the term information system is due to vagueness in