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Application Development

List ways that CDS has done a good job with their policy on ISM. Also list bad methods.

The company seems to have the people and the business. Operations management is handled by each division which most likely has both good points and bad. The company’s background also states that the focus was data processing and not management information systems, this is a minus. The management’s experience was with production and not information, which is a minus. The managers also worked by observation and not formal reports which I would believe you would use both, making another minus. The DSS systems were a plus with the downloading from the mainframe being a plus. The company was applying MRP and MRP-II which would include the company with other good size corporations. The modeling process ~ linear programming etc.. was a plus. The computer products division was contributing 2/3 to the total products, this needs to be looked at and technique transferred to other divisions.

2. Does CDS set a good example for its customers in terms of how it uses its own products?

First comment would be yes, they apply DSS, OAS, AIS, MRP, MRP-II, MIS, Modeling and apply this pretty much across the enterprise. Also EIS which downloads data daily from the mainframe shows me that someone in MIS has a clue~sense~brain etc…. Their computer’s use E-mail, Voice mail, Multimedia and audio applications, seems like a modern operation to me in terms of applying technology. The firm is always advancing on new ideas, and equipment.

List Advantages of the top-down and bottom up approach, and their departments.

Organizational systems are top down to use responsibility and someone to take responsibility. The human element will often go around responsibility if it is not their idea. Managers are asked for their input or the theory is explained to them for their approval so that the goals have a better chance of reality. If everyone applied their-only ideas things would not be as structured. These strict rules are changing toward some of the Japanese techniques which ask the worker and not the CEO for input. The ideal method I believe is a combination of both inputs with communication being the method of choice. With the work group bottom up method, once again I believe the best approach is the multi-input reasoning and decision making one. If a company is going to optimize it’s resources , why not get input from the employees, are they not resources also.

Assuming a problem, where does it exist.

With divisions acting as individual companies with their own inter systems and goals, would be my first stop for analysis with problems. Also top management who does not use computers are not setting a good example for others and actually are telling lower management that the computers are not critical or serious. This lets old stereotypes continue in there existence. Anytime developer’s design systems without feedback and desires by management it is only a manner of time before failure occurs. The marketing system failure was attributed directly to this. I believe this failure was a throw-in by the authors since other information in the case tells me this would not of occurred. Anyway this problem stood out like a sore thumb, ~ lacking input from the actual users. Also managers might not know what they want and internal operations should verify the knowledge level of these entities ~ managers. The Input screen development was important, but what about the output screen, is this not the bottom line?

Was Sterns right that MKIS was more of a DSS than a MIS ? explain

Yes, MIS reports are not always as specific as a DSS report is. DSS reports are a sub-topic of MIS. MIS applies across the board to all divisions today while DSS are still filtering into some divisions tomorrow. The optimal situation will be a combination of the two across the organization. Perhaps a DSS will download data from a MIS report and apply that data for a more specific work group application. Much like a executive information system works in this case. MIS covers structured questions while DSS work more with semi-structured ones.

List the personnel involved in the failure of the marketing system.

John Sterns was the easiest person to blame. When in reality it was every one else.

Gene Washington, Alton Fox, Research Personnel.

There was one area I believe that john acted deviate in and that was making the development have a bottom up design which got around administration review procedures. That said, the other people listed above should of caught such an elementary mistake as not getting user input. I am going to put blame on all parties involved, with any disciple actions occurring to John first for the fact that he knew and on purpose went around built-in checking tasks of the organization.

What should of happened in above question.

Any main system development should go through some type of review and documentation process. This as well as future updates from corporate on the system. Otherwise upper management might never know that resources are not being applied. John might think that marketing is a work group feature, however it is a critical ~ corporate one. The CEO him or her self should be informed of tactics and ideas of such a important application. To apply to the case at hand, Gene along with the other mentioned people should of had meeting with john and the users along with meeting without him. Feedback should be obtained in other ways also. Research should be done, perhaps on other companies techniques and past histories.

What would I do to fix the problem.

First , no information system is created unless all top management is aware as well as a committee formed to oversee the need and the development of the information system. People like John are assets to the company , however like any complicated combinations such as business and humans, check features must be put into place and operated.

To take some of this load off the developer, surveys and interviews could be split up among different resources.

The customer is always right, in this case the users are the customers. I do believe that there should be some type of inter-organization system that teaches managers about different reports and what they explain. The focus would be toward the business at hand and it’s industry. Like several skills of the present times, only change is guaranteed and management as well as developers must keep up with the latest applications. As with most things, it comes down to communication. If you have it, you have a chance.

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