The Nature of Information Systems Practice
ISP Practice
An Information System is defined as:–
Any organised combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, data resources and policies and procedures that stores receives and or transforms information in an organisation.
They have 3 fundamental roles in a business:–
- Support Business Processes
- Support decision making
- Support competitive advantage
Background:–
Every day money and indeed lives are lost through people’s inability to access the information they need to achieve theirs and their organisation’s goals in a timely and efficient manner.
The role of the ISP practitioner is to help shape an organisation’s IT so that it assists in employee’s roles rather than hinder them.
ISP Module
Within this module we will be concerned with practising our existing skills on small projects but have an awareness of the context to which IS sits and the wider implications within industry and publicly funded departments such as the NHS and MOD where bad IS and IT or rather the consequences of such are widely reported in the news media almost daily.
So with that in mind the ISP practitioner approaches his/her role with a mighty responsibility, and must be professional throughout the duration of the projects that he/she undertakes.
In common with the ISP practitioner in industry, during our consultancy project we will undertake these definitive steps:–
Consultancy Project Structure:–
Research:–
—Into the clients existing IS and IT.
—The client’s staff, their skills, abilities and expectations.
—The client’s organisational goals
—Possible solutions, calling on our existing pool of skills.
Propose–
—Present back to the client our agreed (within the team) solution
Plan–
—Our proposed solution
—Break down the solution into finite tasks
—Allocate tasks and deadlines amongst the team
Develop–
—Using software modelling and business modelling methodologies
—A solution bringing together the team’s knowledge and skills
Implement and Test–
—Within the organisation
Support through release–
—Assisting the staff and listening to their comments, and iterate as a result
The core curriculum will follow 3 main themes:–
- Context:in which IS are developed and used
- Technology:available for use in IS
- Development:approaches that guide development of computer systems
