Chapter 1 Basic Concepts - University of Manitoba

Information Systems for Management * Chapter 1: Basic Concepts * Bob Travica ©

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Chapter 1

Basic Concepts NOTE: All the chapters used in this course are copyrighted including the graphics, with the exception of photos that are takes from the public domain. This means that any use of the text should be accompanied with this citation: Travica, B., Information Systems for Management, forthcoming. In addition, the text cannot be copied by, transferred to, or stored by other parties without permission of the author. As the student in this course, you are granted permission to use the text for study. This chapter covers basic concepts studied in the course. The central concept is that of information system (IS). To arrive at it, we need first to examine the implied concept of information. Is an IS a “system of information,” or it is a system that somehow helps users to get informed? As this concept is related to concepts of data and knowledge, the opening sections will compare and contrast information, data and knowledge. Next, the concept of informing process will be introduced and the role of knowledge in it explored. Main occupational groups in today’s organizations will be differentiated with regard to their focus on data or knowledge or information. The second part of the chapter will examine concepts of IS, IS User, and information technologies (IT). Differences between machine and device as types of IT will be discussed. Basics of computer, as the most important electronic machine, will be described, including crucial devices built into it. Computer software will be the last topic. The chapter will end with questions for review and study.

Data, Knowledge, Information You certainly hear the word “information” many times every day. People in everyday life as well as in organizations usually do not think much before using the word “information.” It is a common habit to call any text, numerical figures, or purposive talk – information. And so a customer address to be entered in a sales management database is called information; the same address stored in the database is also called information; and when outputted on a computer screen or in print this address is again called information. However, notice the term “database” that contains the word “data.” (“Data” is the plural form of “datum”). Ordinary people almost never or rarely cite this word. The word data has been


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associated with computers. Data were combinations of numbers zero and one (called bits) that were used to represent anything that computer processed (words, numbers, graphical symbols, etc.). So for example, a particular combination of eight bits represents the letter “A.” As computers evolved and their user groups expanded, it became important to make a difference between the symbols computers stored and processed and the related content that users processed in the brain. For example, a user expresses a thought in a sentence by typing it on a computer keyboard. This typed sentence is the data that get entered into the computer storage containing various data. Another user retrieves the sentence and tries to understand it. If he succeeds, he is informed; he “gets information” in his brain. Otherwise, no information occurs. When studying IS, it is important to differentiate between data and information in this way. If we assume that information “is provided” as soon as an IS user gets the output from the IS, we could make a mistake. Take a look at this sentence:

Mae'r rhif cwsmer 18 treuliodd bron i dri chant o ddoleri mewn un pryniant, mae'r gwerthiant y mis diwethaf mwyaf.

Is this information? For most people it is not. One can recognize individual letters and one number, and nothing else. These are elementary data. But those that know a foreign language in which the sentence is encoded can certainly understand the information these data convey. The point is that there is no information without knowledge. In this case, the necessary knowledge is that of a foreign language. But note that even the recognition of individual letters is possible only if the reader knows the Latin alphabet, and then knows how to read. The same goes for the number 18 belonging to the number notation accepted in many parts of the world. The reader has to be able to recognize the number. Therefore, knowledge is necessary for interpreting data and understanding what the data mean. This meaning is actually information. Information is a result of interpreting data by engaging knowledge. These relationships are depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Relationships between information, knowledge, and data


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Information versus Data As information is the meaning that results from interpreting data coming from the environment, information is in the head while data can be at the hand. In other words, information is in, while data are out of a person. Information is what you learn, data are what is stored or transferred to you via your cell phone or a print publication. That is the first and apparent difference between data and information. But there are more subtle differences that are very important for business and management. Since knowledge intervenes in inferring information, it follows that that information can be different for different people who are exposed to the same data. Take for example a business analyst who is knowledgeable about business performance indicators. The analyst can recognize if one or more indicators mean undesirable performance. In contrast, a non-trained person may not recognize anything alarming in the same indicators. Apparently, this subjective variation in information can be of a big importance in business. In contrast to variation in information, data are more straightforward. As already mentioned, data are the symbols created by people for communication purposes (e.g., voices, letters, numbers, and pictures). These symbols are standardized in appearance and role. For example, the letters are always written in the same way or with little variation, and they represent predetermined voices. Data and information also differ in terms of quantification. It is possible to measure exactly a quantity of data. For example, look at the number of letters or words in this chapter, or at its size in bytes. However, measuring the quantity of information is less certain. Consider the sentence: “The customer Mary Poppins spent nearly three hundred dollars in one purchase – the largest sale last month!” What quantity of information is implied in this sentence? Is it one piece of information, such as the sales fact conveyed by the entire sentence? Is it perhaps more than one, if the sentence is chunked into pieces? How many? Perhaps two: first, that the largest sale last month was $300; and second, that the customer was Mary Poppins. Could it be three pieces of information, if we count these two plus the realization that the best buying customer was a woman? Subjective variation in quantifying information is possible even when there is an agreement about quantity. In the case that different people agree that the sentence mean just one piece of information, these people may disagree as to what the piece is. One option, as discussed above, is that the whole sentence is that single piece of information. An accounting manager may make such a claim. However, the single information for a sales manager may be just the fact that nearly $300 amounted to the largest sale in the last month. Still, all that a marketing manager may get from the sentence is the best buyer’s name. These differences come from a different expertise each of these managers has, which influences their interest and what they pay attention to. Imagine how uncertain the quantity of information can be learned from an entire sales database that records sales of different products to customers over time. In contrast, the amount of data in such a database can be measured with certainty.


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There are also big differences in economics of data versus information. Data can be priced by accounting for the costs of their production and delivery. Examples are the book price or access fees for a content seller on the Web. This is the seller perspective. From the buyer perspective, the price paid approximates the value of data, and it is the same for all. But valuing information is much harder. It starts with the price or value of data, but then it becomes ambiguous. The seller cannot know what meaning (information) each buyer can figure out from the data sold, and then how valuable it can be for the buyer. As for the buyer, although being in control of data interpretation the buyer may be unable to judge the value of new information right at the moment of learning it. Let us illustrate this uncertainty with the example of finance analyst. If the finance analyst purchases a financial market outlook on the Web, this analyst needs first to digest the document, integrate the information learned into an analysis, and then make an initial and certainly subjective assessment of the outlook’s value. The next step in valuing is with the managers who may use the analyst’s report for making decisions. Their value assessment may not be the same as the analyst’s. The process of assessing a value of this outlook may extend to estimating the effects of the decision once it is implemented. This takes time. Apparently, assessing the value of information is not easy task.

Process of Informing and Knowledge It helps to think of information from the perspective of process. We have already touched on that. As shown in Figure 1, information is the meaning that results from a knowledge-driven interpretation of data. This is called informing process and it is depicted in Figure 2. The informing process starts with data, in this case the data that are in a high state of organization called sales report. The manager observes the report and engages his diverse knowledge trying to understand the report. Knowledge intervenes even in selecting parts of the report to get focused on. A more experienced manager knows which parts really matter and may neglect others. What the manager finally understands out of the report is his information. Apparently, information occurs only at the end of this four-step process. Knowledge is the driver of the informing process. Knowledge will be more discussed in a later chapter, and at this point it suffices to think of it as a complex mental structure that involves memory of concepts, concepts’ relationships including cause-effect ones, and of procedures (knowing how to do something). Within the informing process, knowledge intervenes even in the data intake since it drives human perception. The example of manager’s informing shows this. Or try to think about the problem you may experience when looking at some unfamiliar text. It is usually hard to figure out what to focus on. It is hard even to come up with the questions for clarification purposes. This is so because appropriate knowledge is missing.


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Figure 2. Process of informing

If some content is familiar, that is appropriate knowledge for its understanding is available, the role of knowledge in informing goes unnoticed. When people in everyday life talk about information providing and getting, then an unspoken assumption is that the refereed content is readily understandable to everyone in the same way. But this assumption may be wrong. Differentiating between information and data helps to avoid the mistake. The term “information” is overused today, often without a clear purpose. It clutters screens of computers and mobile devices without contributing to quality of IS design. Often times, however, “information” can be replaced with “data” or “details.” Even a better choice is to mark precisely the genre or kind of particular data. This can help in avoiding confusion as to what is meant by the word “information.” For example, when a student asks an instructor whether “class information is posted,” the student may be thinking of class slides, while the instructor may be thinking of electronic text, class exercises, assignment grades, or of something else. Using a precise label for the content in question improves communication.

Data, Knowledge, and Information in Organizations Most of work in organizations in a modern service economy revolves around data, knowledge and information. Different occupational groups are focused on different items in this triangle, depending on the kind of work they perform and their rights and responsibilities. Main occupational groups in modern organizations are clerks, professionals, and managers. These are the main users of IS. Clerks (secretaries and office assistants) are mostly focused on manipulation of data. They collect data, enter them in electronic IS or paper files, and retrieve them for direct use or for creating reports for managers.


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Professionals (business analysts, engineers, researchers, instructors) are focused on knowledge use and creation. They deploy knowledge in analyzing and resolving professional problems, as business analysts do. They may also generate new knowledge, as is the case with corporate researchers and engineers developing a new product. Managers are primarily focused on information. They get informed via reports that clerks and business analysts prepare for them. Verbal communication is another important channel for managers in their effort to understand and stir organizational reality. A manager at a certain management level also prepares reports for the upper management level defined by organizational structure. In that activity, a manager also has to interpret data from various sources. Note that a particular focal item does not absolutely exclude the other two. While focused on data, clerks need to use specialized knowledge of the organizational entities and procedures for interpreting data whenever it is necessary. An example is maintaining addresses and other details of business partners. But deadlines may press a clerk to work fast without much thinking about the data manipulated. Similarly, professionals also manipulate and interpret data that are part of their expert knowledge-based assignments. An example is human resource analyst that prepares a plan for professional development, for which she has to query management needs and check employee records, among other things. Constantly exposed to reports, business documentation and verbal communication, managers can make sense of all these data by engaging their knowledge of business and of their organization (its operations and strategies, staff, finances, culture, and so on). This is essentially practitioner knowledge, acquired through experience and it is different than knowledge of professionals and of clerks.

Information System In defining information system (IS), we start with a general definition of system. Any system is a set of related parts that work together in order to deliver a certain thing or service. Producing a particular deliverable is the system’s purpose. For example, a car manufacturing system produces a car engine, while a city transportation system delivers transportation service. The interrelated parts of any system are grouped in three functional groups: (1) the input (entry) part, (2) the transformational (processing) part, and (3) the output (exit) part. Any system produces something by taking inputs from the system’s environment and transforming them. For example, an educational system takes students and human, material and financial resources to “transform” the students into educated individuals. When trying to determine the kind (type) of a system, it is useful to start with the character of system deliverable. The reasoning of system parts and inputs then runs backward.


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In the example of educational system, if an educated person is the deliverable, the system must minimally involve the authorities that approve the study completion (the output part), instructional facilities in which teachers work on educational transformation of students (the processing part), and mechanisms for recruiting students and teachers (the input part). Note that the input part of a system is not the same as the system input. The former lies in the system, while the latter is in the environment until taken in the system to be processed. Also, the output part of a system is in the system, while the output from the system is the deliverable a system produces, what defines the system purpose. An IS is also defined by its purpose or deliverable. The technical purpose of IS is to organize and process data. Therefore, the IS deliverable is organized and processed data. Main data organizing and processing operations are data entry, storage, retrieval, modification (changing), creation (e.g., through calculations run on numerical data), transformation (e.g., by formatting text), comparison, sorting, filtering, and deleting. From the business perspective, it is important to define what the purpose of IS is for IS users. The user-related purpose of IS is to maintain, prepare, and deliver data for informing of IS users. Therefore, the IS deliverable is the data to be used for users’ informing. For examples of IS you can check the list of topics studied in this course. Here is one description of IS parts, inputs, outputs, and functioning. Any store has a point of sales system (POSS). It belongs to the IS type called Transaction Processing System. The input of a POSS can be a bar code reader, cash machine and a scale; the processing part is a sales database that can be mounted on a cashier desk’s microcomputer; and the output part is a screen and a printer. The primary input into POSS is a bar code that the bar code reader scans when a cashier brings a bar code label to it. The bar code gets automatically associated with a product ID, name, and price in the POSS product database (it may run off a server serving multiple cashier desks). These pieces of data are read into a temporary storage. Another database for recording sales transactions opens up a new record and stores permanently these details: transaction number, date/time, cashier ID, product ID, and quantity purchased (it is entered via the cash machine or the scale). When the cashier ends the transaction, POSS database multiplies prices and quantities, adds a sales tax, and calculates the total. The output is a total displayed on the POSS screen and on a receipt printed out by the POSS printer. The receipt also contains product names, quantities, and other details outputted from the transaction record and the temporary store. Another output of POSS is invisible to the cashier and customer. It is the product IDs and numbers specifying the quantities of purchased products. These feed into the store’s inventory management system, so that the reduction of inventory is readily tracked. Modern IS are based on computer technology and various electronic devices. Still, note that IS can contain manual components, such as decision making that the IS users carry out. As well, IS may combine electronic machines and devices with paper files as the traditional technology for entering (recording) and storing data. This is popularly called “paper trail.” Apparently, the paper trail has no data processing, transformation, and retrieving capabilities discusses above.


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Rather, these must be performed by people. In contrast, a computer-based IS has such capabilities and relieves people from the corresponding work. Figure 3 shows one view of IS. Computer hardware and software are obvious parts of IS. Examples of technologies are included, such as keyboard in the input part and processors and software for transforming and organizing data in the processing part of an IS. It is less obvious that data are also part of an IS after they are entered into it. In fact, data are the heart of IS. An IS organizes and transforms data into the output presented to IS users. Another not so obvious part of an IS is user procedures. A procedure is a certain way of doing something, usually including steps in a certain sequence. This is similar to the concept of business process used in this course, but the latter is a broader concept and may include many procedures. Procedures are applied to data at the input point (e.g., formatting), to hardware (e.g., entering data in a certain way into the screen of an IS), and to the use of software (how to do these various tasks with data). In fact, software-related user procedures are a big part of IS.

Figure 3. Information system

Do not forget procedures as they are necessary to execute, or an IS would not work as designed or at all. Procedures are also called know-how (or know-how-to-do). So, they are a particular kind of knowledge. In today’s IS-intensive organizations, system procedures are often work procedures. For example, when an accountant updates a file in an Accounting Information System, the system procedures he uses are the part of the accounting job. In other words, accounting procedures are coded in the AIS. Or, when a marketer determines groups of customers by using a Marketing IS, the system procedures she uses make the marketing job. Environment is the surroundings of an IS. The most apparent environment of an IS is the immediate organizational context in which it resides. For example, the environment of marketing IS is a marketing department or a smaller unit. Thinking from the perspective of business process that will be taken in this course, the environment of an IS is the environment of the business process that the IS supports. So, if the marketing process extends out to customers, then the environment of the marketing IS involves the customer context in addition to the marketing department.


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IS are everywhere and so well embedded in organizations and everyday life that sometimes we may not even notice them. An example of IS the students are familiar with is the online course registration system.

IS User

The IS user is a person that uses an IS by manipulating it or by interpreting its output. If direct system manipulation is involved, such as continuous touching of its input devices, the user belongs to the group of primary users. If the user mainly interprets system outputs and possibly occasionally touches the input parts, this is secondary user. Typical primary users are professionals, clerks and lower level managers. Typical secondary users are higher-level managers. Another typology of users differentiates between power user and casual user. The former group possesses high expertise for manipulating IS. The casual users can be familiar with a system but they are not experts. The trend today is to transform secondary users into primary users in order to save the money for software licences. This trend puts a pressure on higher-level managers as the traditional secondary users. In addition, demands of today’s high paced and competitive business reward the proficiency in solving promptly complex business problems. IS expertise is a part of this proficiency. This puts a pressure on professionals as the occupational group to evolve to power users.

Information Technologies In everyday talk, the terms “IS” and “IT” (in the singular form) are often used as synonyms. Technically speaking, this is incorrect. As it has already been discussed, IS is a broader concept that includes IT. In addition, an IS contains many different kinds of IT, not just one. So in this discussion, the acronym IT stands for “information technologies (plural form). Expressed as the formula, IS = IT + data + procedures. But what is IT? We define IT as machines and devices for managing data. Let us explore this definition step by step. Everybody would agree that computer is a kind of IT. It performs many operations on data and does it on its own upon user commands. Computer resembles machines you me be familiar with from various walks of life. Any machine works autonomously, using some source of energy other than human or animal, as long as the energy is supplied or it is stopped. The car engine is an example of mechanical machine that performs a set of functions leading to the production of kinetic energy that powers car wheels. The car engine takes in a fuel, blends it with the air into a combustible matter, burns it, and produces movement of pistons, which makes the crankshaft move and the flywheel rotate continuously. But does a computer keyboard do


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anything similar regarding functional complexity and self-operation? Can it also be thought of as technology, that is, a kind of IT?

Figure 4. Computer is a machine type of IT

Any technology is a means of performing some useful work. Technology replaces human labor to some extent. The computer keyboard apparently performs a useful single function, which is entering alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers) and special characters (slash, dollar sign, etc.) into an IS. If a human operator would do it directly, it would be an extremely tedious job of plugging a pile of electrical conductors into certain sockets; not even to mention the mental effort. Therefore, human labor is much reduced with the deployment of keyboard, although it is still necessary. It can be concluded that the keyboard is also a technology, but one that is less capable than the machine. We will call it “device.” If IT refers to machines and devices for managing data, what does this data management involve? Data management can be understood in terms of operations that have already been mentioned above – data entry, storage, retrieval, modification, creation, transformation, comparison, sorting, filtering, and deleting. The computer machine has evolved since the 1940s. The main computer types are represented in Figure 5. They apparently differ in size. The first computers were mainframes that ruled unchallenged between in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1970s brought first the mid-range computer, and then microcomputers. Computers were becoming smaller and smaller, while their capabilities were growing. It is interesting that the evolving smaller computers exceeded capabilities of the old larger computers. This trend can be explained by Moore’s Law. The co-founder of Intel Corporation that makes microcomputer chips, Moore noticed that the capabilities of computing components doubled in periods of 18 months. For example, a unit of computer storage would double in capacity, the speed of data transfer in a conductor would become twice as fast, data processing in a particular electronic component doubled in speed, and so on. In the 2010s, all these computer types coexist, accompanied by mobile technologies that keep expanding in kinds and numbers.


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Figure 5. Computer types in history: IBM mainframe, DEC mid-range computer, and a prototype of the first Apple microcomputer

Machines and Devices Differentiating between machine and device is not always easy. The classical telephone is a device for communication. It performs a single function of signal transfer and is operated by a human being. The same goes for the cell phone as it does the same, and only uses a different type of network for transferring signals. The cell phone usually combines this basic function with other digital devices (the address list, calendar, camera, etc.); so it looks like an electronic gadget. In contrast, the smart phone has data processing capabilities like those found in a computer. With right applications software, the smart phone can perform like a computer. Mobile technologies such as tablets are usually gadget devices, although some come close to machine. Computer networks contain many electronic devices, such as switch, network, hub, and modem. It may also contain machines, such as specialized computers called routers built into the Internet. Similarly to the concept of IS, a computer network contains many kinds of IT rather than being a single IT. It is necessary that hardware devices, which connect computers, smart phones and local area networks into the Internet, do run TCP/IP software. Note that any electronic device combines hardware and software components. Central Processing Unit Computer as a machine is composed of several devices. We will look at two important devices – Central Processing Unit and computer storage. Central Processing Unit (CPU) (also called just processor) is the heart of a computer (Figure 6). Think of CPU as a factory in which all data processing takes place and central control is executed. The processing capability of CPU resides in a specialized component called Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU). The arithmetic operations are calculations. The logical operations are comparisons (such as bigger, smaller, equal), and decisions made on comparisons (for example, if a certain number is smaller than X, perform operation A; if the number is equal or bigger than X, perform operation B). The control unit monitors and regulates the execution of processing, data traffic in and out of CPU, communications between CPU and the main memory, and so on. One important characteristic


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of CPU is the speed. It is directly related to the speed of computer clock that measured in Hertz and usually readily displayed on boxes of computer products. This measure shows the number of oscillations of electrical current per second. The larger the number of oscillations, the quicker the CPU of a particular brand is. For example, a computer clock with the speed of 2.4 GHz (Giga Hertz), powers the CPU with the electrical current that oscillates 2.4 million times in a second. Computers can have multiple processors. Indeed, it is common today that a personal computer has two processors (dual-core). In a multiple processor computer, processors are specialized for types of data and operations. So for example, one performs general operations on alphanumeric characters, while another is specialized for graphics or for mathematical operations. It is also possible that instead of CPU there are many processors with the same capability. This design is used in computers with parallel processing, which may have thousands of processors. Data processing tasks are shared among processors and executed in parallel, that is, at the same time. This method saves time in performing complex processing operations.

Figure 6. Central Processing Unit for PC (left) and for smart phone (right) Computer Storage Computer storage is important because it stores the data for both the machine’s operations and for the user’s tasks. Computer has two kinds of storage – primary and secondary. The primary storage (RAM, main memory) is part of the central unit. It stores pieces of the operating system needed for handling basic functionality, application software and other pieces of the operating system needed for current user tasks, as well as the data the user works with. The user usually becomes aware of the RAM memory when a screen freezes or the computer slows down. This is because the amount of data loaded in the main memory “jams it.” The operating system must deal with such problems. Sometimes, the only medicine is to reboot the computer, which empties the RAM. The larger the size of RAM, the less is the risk of experiencing this sort of problem. However, buying the largest possible RAM is not economically wise, as RAM is expensive. Thus, the buyer should try to square the RAM size with his or her needs. For example, working with graphics and video requires more RAM than working with alphanumeric data. The secondary storage is larger than the RAM and resides both hidden within the computer and outside in attachable devices. For example, inside the personal computer resides a hard disk. It is encased in the airless metal case and inaccessible to users. Server computers may have a


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whole set of connected disks as the secondary storage. In contrast to this internal storage, the external secondary storage comes in the form of flash memory, CD-ROM, blu-ray disk, very high capacity disks used by commercial storage providers (e.g., Cloud vendors), and so on. The secondary storage is cheaper than the primary storage, and paying for anticipated storage needs, rather than just current ones, is economically wise. Different materials have been used in the history of the external secondary storage. These evolved from punched paper cards tapes, through magnetizing materials, to silicon materials that can be charged, and to the plastics that can be punctuated and exposed to light beams. For example, the flash memory stick (or card) deploys a silicon material that is charged by electrical current as the physical carrier of data (Figure 7). In contrast, the blu-ray disk is a piece of plastic with pits and flat spots encoding the data; the laser beam (light) hits the pits and spots and in doing so reads the data. Regardless of the storage kind, the same principle applies for encoding and reading data. Data are always logical zeroes and ones, which translate into physical states of the closed or opened electrical circuit. In the example of blu-ray disk, if a laser beam hits a flat spot on it, the beam is deflected to a sensor connected to a circuit, and the electricity flows. If the beam hits a pit, however, it gets defused, electrical circuit is not closed, and no electricity flows.

Figure 7. The inside of a USB flash memory stick

Computer Software Software refers to instructions that control operations in a piece of IT. Instructions can be encoded in hardware or loaded into the RAM for execution. There is system software and application software. System software controls directly computer hardware and the user has little contact with it. Examples of this software are MS Windows and Mac OC (both for desktop computers), Apple iOS and Android (both for smart phones), and Unix and z/VM (both for mainframe computers). An operating system is the boss within a computer, as it enables and controls all computer workings. These include input (e.g., input devices that can be used, generation of characters typed on the keyboard), output (e.g., the look of primary screen, communications with printers and computer networks), storage allocations, organization of data (e.g., directories and files), data retrieval, workings of the central processing unit, data transfers within the computer, data types and ranges, and more. An operating system also hosts and reserves storage and processing resources for application software. Computer users usually do not have much business to do with an operating system.


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Application software performs certain functions directly for users. Word processors, spreadsheet software, database software, software for communication, Web browser, computer games, and music and video players are just some examples of application software. Application software must be compatible with operating system, or it would not run. The older term for application software is computer program, which sometimes is still used. Today, abbreviated terms are more in circulation, such as “application” in connection with computers, or just “app” in connection with smart phones. However, note that the word application is also used in various phrases, such as “application of IT” in business, “software application” to a work problem, and even in other (rather confusing) ways.

Questions for Review and Study 1. How is information different from data? 2. When somebody says "I've got information," where actually is that information? 3. What is the role of knowledge in the informing process? 4. What is the purpose of IS with regard to informing? 5. Give two examples of replacing the opaque term "information" used in everyday life with precise terms that specify the genre or subject of particular data. 6. Are IT and IS same things? Why yes or not? 7. What are the criteria for differentiating between electronic machine and electronic device? 8. What is the purpose of IS? Think of a specific IS. 9. Think of an electronic technology you regularly use, and try to determine if it is machine, device, or perhaps device component. 10. What are the more apparent parts of an IS? What less obvious parts? 11. Can you represent graphically the parts and data in the POSS discussed in the chapter? 12. What are the parts of an online course registration system. Think of your experience with such a system at your university. What are the technologies built into that system? 13. What type of IS user do higher-level managers belong to? What is the current trend with regard to managers as IS users?


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14. What type of IS user do professionals belong to? What is the current trend with regard to professionals as IS users? 15. What are the main types of computer? 16. What main parts (devices) are there in a computer? What do they do? 17. For two main software types, give two examples of brand names.

Chapter 1 Basic Concepts - University of Manitoba

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