Challenges of Information System ?

Challenges of Information System ?

Although information technology in advancing at a blinding pace, there is nothing easy or mechanical about building and using information systems.

There are five key management challenges in building and using information systems:

1. Obtaining business value from information systems.
2. Providing appropriate complementary assets to use information technology effectively.
3. Understanding the system requirements of a global business environment. 
4. Creating an information technology infrastructure that in flexible enough to support changing organizational goals; and  
5. Designing systems that people can control, understand and use in a socially and ethically responsible manner. 

Read More

What is Information System

What is Information System ?

An information system cab be defined technically as a set of inter related components that collect (or retrieve), process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. In addition to supporting decision making, coordination and control, information systems any also help managers and workers analyze problems, visualize complex subjects, and create new product. 

Information system contain information about significant people places, and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it. By information we mean data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings. Data, in contrast, are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organization or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people cab understand and use.

Three activities in an information system produce the information that organizations need to make decisions, control operations, analyze problems and create new products or services. These activities are input, processing, and output.

Input – Captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external environment. 

Processing – Convert this raw input into a more meaningful form.

Output – Transfers the processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used. Information systems also require feedback, which is output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage. 

Read More

Data and Information

Data and Information

Data refer to facts. Data can be not only numeric but also text, image, or voice.

Word information (as commonly used) is a very imprecise term with several common ideas:

• It is the processed data
• It has an element of surprise value 
• It has a value in the decision-making process.

Information refers to data having meaning within a given context i.e. useful or relevant data. Information can be defined as:

"It is the data that has been processed into a form which is meaningful to the recipient, and is of real or perceived value in current or prospective decisions".

Data are more than the raw material of information systems. The concept of data resources has been broadened by managers and information system professionals. They realize that data constitute valuable organizational resources. Thus, you should view data, as data resources that must be managed effectively to benefit all end users in an organization.

The data resources of information systems are typically organized into: 

• Data bases that hold processed and organized data.
• Knowledge bases that hold, knowledge in a variety of forms such as facts, rules, and case examples about successful business practices. 

For example, data about sales transactions may be accumulated, processed, and stored in a web-enabled sales database that can be accessed for sales analysis report by managers and marketing professionals. Knowledge basis are used by knowledge management systems and expert systems to share knowledge or given expert advice on specific subjects. 

Read More

Quality Focus in Higher Professional Education

QUALITY FOCUS IN HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

 Post-liberalization, there has been a significant expansion in Higher Education. The number of Universities, Colleges &  Students  all present us a very impressive statistics. It was requirement of the Nation and we have made a good beginning. However, in this numerical expansion – certain very important dimensions of Higher Education have taken a back seat, unintentionally. With the exception of just a few, Quality of Higher Education Institutions ( HEIs ) leaves much to be desired. Relevance of the offered Programs in most of our HEIs has not fully served the interests of the students. After all, what use is an Institution, if it does not serve the interests and meet the expectations of students !  If students are not served, whom are we serving; certainly NOT the Nation. Also, if our Education System does not arrest the social evils amongst the graduates, least I can say is that Education has served its intent only partially.

Also, the  unprecedented expansion in Higher Education has been only in some select fields such as Engineering, Medicine, Management, Architecture, Pharmacy, etc.  It is also clearly visible that most of this expansion is by Private or Self Financed Institutions, whether Colleges or Universities. It is a fact that per unit cost of such quality Professional Education is far higher than the paying capacity of average Indian Family.  Under the situation and with practically no support from the State, the quality of such Education is a real challenge. In my views, even “Make in India”, will be meaningful only if superimposed with Quality Professional Education and blended with “Innovate India”. However, it requires a judicious balance and adequate importance to Creativity, Innovative Ideas & Positive Attitude. That emphasis only can ensure what is absolutely necessary today.

Read More

Software Development Success

Software Development Success


Software development success based on the development of good software consistently and this goodness is multidimensional which is divided into user and developer perspective. The success of any project is based on the iron triangle such as cost, time, and quality. The criteria for success are: delivery stage (process) doing it right and post delivery stage (system) getting it right, which is now shifted as: quality, scope, time, and cost; and there are main five dimensions for success: 1) people, 2) process, 3) technology, 4) project, and 5) organization.
For successful software development, user and developer play an important role because user provides an idea and image of software product which is developed by developer. This section considers successful software development on developer point of view only.
Software development is a complex activity that required technical and managerial tool to manage the software project successfully. There are five main essential factors which affect the successful software project: 1) Start on the right foot means plan properly, 2) Maintain momentum used to maintain or rebuild team effort, 3) Track progress using a conceptual model blueprint buildup that people can see, 4) Make smart decisions means make good decisions to fulfill user requirements, and 5) Institutionalize post-mortem analyses used to learn from their past mistakes.
Project manager is attentive to control working of project and plan a strategy for project success. There are technical and non technical factors which affect project success. There are three types of critical success factors (CSFs) of software project such as: people (7 CSFs), process (16 CSFs), and technology (3 CSFs). There are various situational factors which affect project management such as: clear requirements and objectives, effective project management skills, user involvement, proper planning, and good quality management.

Effective risk management used to implement a successful project by using time, cost, and effort. The success of any project can be measure by resource utilization. The reason of the projects failure can be directly related to the area of risk management undertaken. Further the point of risk management process undertaken during a project impacts directly on the success of the project. Effective risk management should be always undertaken during the project lifecycle to increase project success. There are various situational factors which affect risk management for project success such as: effective and efficient utilization of resources, definition of clear goals, project team performance, and acceptance by the customer.
Existing models of CSFs of software projects have less concentration on communication, team, and product related factors. A conceptual model of CSFs for software projects categorizes the success factors. There are various situational factors which affect conceptual model such as: communication skills, ability to manage people well, company morale, business process reengineering, team capability, and leadership.
Contingency fit model developed by Ahimbisibwe, Cavana, and Daellenbach compare traditional plan based method and agile methodologies. They identify good decision making lead to project success and identify or categorize CSFs. There are total 37 CSFs for software development success. There are various situational factors which affect contingency fit model such as: organizational culture, vision and mission, relative project size, realistic schedule, up to date progress reporting, and clear assignment of roles and responsibilities.
After software product development, project success is analyzed. Main indicator for any project success is: project and its environment which affect productivity. There are various situational factors which affect project success analyses such as: time, budget, functionality, quality, need, product, user satisfaction, and team satisfaction. To achieve project success a balance relationship established and implemented in software projects.
New product success (NPS) holds importance for every software company. Over the past decades, Meta analytical method has been used to summarize empirical findings on NPS factors. There are lots of factors such as: product, strategy, process, marketplace, and organizational characteristics. Situational factors which affect software development success are shown in Table.

Table : Situational Factors That Affect Software Development Success

Software Development Success	Situational Factors
Project Management	Clear requirements and objectives, Effective project management skills, User involvement, Proper planning, and Good quality management
Risk Management	Effective and efficient utilization of resources, Definition of clear goals, Project team performance, and Acceptance by the customer
Models Conceptual Model Contingency Fit Model	Communication skills, Ability to manage people well, Company morale, Business process reengineering, Team capability, and Leadership
	Organizational culture, Vision and mission, Relative project size, Realistic schedule, Up to date progress reporting, and Clear assignment responsibilities of roles and
Project Success Analyses	Time, Budget, Functionality, Quality, Need, Product, User satisfaction, and Team satisfaction

There are various success factors for software development specified in Table, which is affected by various situational factors. Project management is used to manage the project successfully. Risk management suggests how to utilize the resources to perform effectively. Conceptual and contingency fit model is used to find out the CSFs and shows the importance of these factors for project success. A project success analysis is used to analyze project success. Project management is most important than others because using accurate project management we can develop successful software product. 

Read More

Software quality depends on software development process

Software quality depends on software development process;


Software process affected through various situational factors internally. Situational factors are important to consider at the time development to develop a quality product. Quality of software product depends on software development process phases. Each phase has an individual impact on software quality attributes. Software product evolves over their lifetime because the evolution of software product is a continuous and natural process in which software must respond to developing and changing requirement, architecture, and environment. To develop a mature and effective process lot of resource is required, every software organization want to achieve that at a minimum cost and time. This can be achieved when they effectively utilize knowledge and experience. At present knowledge management is an area where a quality product is developed. Software design is the one of the most essential phase of the software process to achieve quality in the software product. Design patterns are reusable solutions to general design problems that are estimated to improve various quality attributes. Software programming languages are having an important role to develop a quality product. It is essential to choose a programming language based on software requirement. The success of software product directly related to users who use the software. Usability of a software product is the one of the most important quality attributes for a user. Usability of a software product can be achieved using software process. 

Read More

Political versus bureaucratic corruption

Political versus bureaucratic corruption 

Political or grand corruption takes place at the highest levels of political authority. It is when the politicians and political decision-makers (heads of state, ministers and top officials), who are entitled to formulate, establish and implement the laws in the name of the people, are themselves corrupt.

Political corruption can thus be distinguished from bureaucratic corruption, which is corruption in the public administration, at the implementation end of politics. This “low level” or “street level” corruption is what citizens will experience daily, in their encounter with public administration and services like hospitals, schools, local

Political corruption is usually supported by widespread bureaucratic or petty corruption, in a pyramid of upward extraction. And corruption in high places is contagious to lower level officials, as these will follow the predatory examples of, or even take instructions from, their principals. This is why a strict definition of corruption as a deviation from formal rules, and a particular focus on bureaucratic corruption alone, can be misleading.

Bureaucratic corruption can be controlled and restricted when there is a political will and political ability to implement the necessary regulations.

Read More