INFO 380 - April 6, 2004 - Organization Style & Its Impact on IS
Notes By: Fortier, Egaas, Prins

Information Systems are Everywhere

Organizations
    > Organizations are composed of interrelated and interdependent sybsystems
    > System and subsystem boundaries and environments impact on information system analysis and design

Organizations as Subsystems
    > see slide...
    its a venn diagram with
        production
        Sales
        IS
    and it has "input" at top and bottom, and "output" at left and right
    arrows from IS to production
        production to Sales
    Can be thought of as puzzle pieces as well. In input into one will be an input into another.

Organizational Environment
    > Community environment
        - Geographical
            * don't find yourself up a creek without a paddle
        - Demographics (education, income)
            * the level of education of the people you're working with
    > Economic environment
        - Market Factors
        - Competition
            * find out what compeditors are doing in order to better compete
            * don't just give marginal improvement when a canned package could be used to do a better job
    > Political environment
        - State and local government    
            * taxes, record keeping

Open and Closed Systems
    > Systems are described as either
        - Open
            * Free-flowing information
            * Output from one system becomes input to another
        - Closed with restricted access to information
            * Limited by numerous rules
            * Information on a need to know basis