Element K

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Five different types of IT systems that your company may employ for use in operations begin with (TPS) transaction processing system. This handles all of the daily routine transactions in an efficient and accurate manner. Some examples of this type of system include billing systems to process invoices, production and purchasing in order to calculate material requirements, inventory systems that track movements in and out of the business, and payroll systems to calculate the employee's payroll and tax payments.

The second type of system is a (DSS) decision support system as this is designed to assist management in the decision making process when there is uncertainty of a projected outcome. This system will comprise techniques and tools so that information may be gathered and analyzed for any options and alternatives. Often the use of spreadsheets and databases will be included in this type of system in order to determine what-if scenarios.

Number three in the different types of systems is the (MIS) management information system. The data is generally taken from the TPS in order to summarize it so that reports may be generated helping to assist management in their decision making process.

Another system type is the (ESS) executive support system, which is designed to assist the senior management in strategic decisions for the company. It is similar to the MIS in that it gathers, analyses, and summarizes the information from external sources. The difference being that this type of system uses graphs and charts in order to summarize the status of the key activities to the business.

The last type of system that should be mentioned is (KMS) knowledge management system. This type of system is designed to create and share information. By creating expertise and knowledge of the business from employees then allowing the sharing it fosters further opportunities for the company. These often contain the knowledge in word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Internet pages in order to share the knowledge.

Question 1

There are many questions that are important, which need to be addressed when determining the exact requirements of the system. These include what are the objectives that we are trying to accomplish through such a system? What is the scope as this will define those things that are and are not part of the system? In analyzing the scope we must look at objects, activities, interfaces, and variations. What business activities does the system need to perform as these will inform us of all functional requirements? The last question that should be addressed what are the information requirements in order to maximize the functionality of the system? Once we have obtained the answers to these questions we discover the objectives describe what it is that they want the system to accomplish. The scope will determine what