AIMA Assignments: contact us for answers at assignmentssolution@gmail.com

IS09

                                         Management of Information Technology

(For CNM Cases)

                                                                     Assignment II

Assignment Code: 2016IS09A2                                                     Last Date of Submission: 30^th April 2016

                                                                                                   Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

                                                                          Section-A

1          Explain the 10 underlying principles of Group support Systems and expert systems.

2          Information System (IS) development is an iterative process and it consists of many identifiable stages.                               What   stages   define    ‘the way things are’  and  ‘the way things should be’. Describe these stages with                                appropriate examples.

3          Write short notes on:

a)                  Group Support system

b)              Executive Information Systems

c)               Open System

d)              Forward Chaining

4          Why  is a Distributed Support System (DSS) insufficient by itself and how did the           addition of the EIS make                 it effective.

Section-B

Case Study

Raashi Manufacturing is a medium-sized manufacturer with annual sales of Rs. 50 million per year. It is primarily a job-shop manufacturer, known for its ability in custom manufacturing projects primarily involving metal fabrication .In an effort to improve Raashi information systems, D S Vasu, vice president of information systems, recently brought in a new systems development manager, K K Raina from a competitor. Mr. Raina had a reputation for doing innovative things in the area of information systems development. The general and top management of his previous employer was extremely pleased with the types of information systems support that they had received. Mr. Raina had been particularly successful in implementing a prototyping development in the systems analysis design process as a way to more accurately refine end-user requirements and cut short the systems development process. Having joined Raashi Manufacturing, Mr Raina wanted to implement the technologies and techniques that he had been so successful with prior to joining Raashi Manufacturing, but he ran into a serious problem. The systems analysis and design staff has recently gone through a revamping of their systems development methodologies. They had a rather substantial systems development methodology that had evolved over the years, and in their most recent revision, they had incorporated the latest structured techniques into their old methodology. Having been involved in its development, the staff had a strong commitment to the methodology. In assessing the methodology, Raina quickly decided that it was entirely too procedure and rule-oriented and was exceptionally time consuming to use as a systems development guide. The staff also had made no provision for incorporating heuristic or prototyping techniques into their systems development methodology. In a staff meeting, Mr. Raina raised prototyping concepts with the staff, but their response was immediate defensive. Most of them had not heard of a prototyping technique, but felt it was a way to develop systems for sloppy designers who did not have enough discipline to do it right. They stated that if a sloppy approach to systems development, such as prototyping, was to be used, you would have to be willing to give up the rigor and discipline of good formal procedures and good structured techniques. Overall, their general response was quite negative.

Mr. Raina feels he has a tricky situation on his hands. He knows a better way to approach systems development, but he does not want to get cross-wise with the systems analysts and design staff, many of whom are senior to him in experience in systems development. He knows that if he tries the heuristic approach and it fails, there’s going to be a lot of “I told you so”. He’s also concerned that if he pulls the young designers off to the side and works with the methodology, it might cause a division among the staff and some serious hard feelings that could be detrimental to the two young analysts.

Questions:

a)            Identify the problem in this case study.

b)            Comment on the proposal of Mr. Raina for developing an information system using prototyping methodologies.

a)                How would you manage the situation at Raashi Manufacturing?

b)                Assume Raashi Manufacturing is to make a digital company. How differently would you go about selecting development methods for developing MIS? Discuss.