What you MUST know before learning database

systems development

• Information Age– Bill Gates (how much rich?), List of GDP– Major TANGIBLE product of Microsoft– Information age phenomena

• Population of “facebook.com” : 800 million active user• US: 310 million• Average American relies on more than 300 computers per day• 45 - 50 Fortune 500 companies are IT• $490 – credit card number and PIN• $147 – driver’s license number

Why study MIS?

Why study MIS?

• Globalization – Dramatic increase of global management

• Organizational Change– Downsizing (less hierarchical)– Less traditional middle management

• Speed – Impossible without IT

1. Information Age– Unthinkable without data– About 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes) of data

generated in 2011– And 50 times by 2020 (90 zettabytes)– Data generated by 2.1+ billion websites, SNS, online

banking, Amazon…..– Population of “facebook.com” : 800 million active user

• US: 310 million

Why study database?

2. SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) Act of 2002– Mandates strict reforms to improve financial

disclosures to prevent accounting fraud.

– Accounting frauds by Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom (see the next slide) in the early 2000s.

Section 409 –– Requires disclosure to the public on a

“rapid and current” basis of material changes in an organization’s financial condition.

– impossible without fast, accurate, and responsive database systems

Why study database?

• Fierce competitors to AT&T and Sprint• Used to have:

– 88,000 employees– 60,000 miles of telephone lines around the world– Revenue of $40 billion

• Collapsed because of the accounting fraud– $11 billion– One of the biggest (second: Lehman Brothers,

ENRON)• A main trigger

– Simple: fail to integrate four different billing DB systems

• Kaiser: Northern, CA vs Southern, CA

WorldCom scandal

Another example

• Denver Airport Baggage Logistics IS– Twice the size of Manhattan, NY– 10 times wider than London airport

– Scheduled to open Oct 1993– Delayed 16 months because of DB problem– Data integrity problem – delivering luggage to

wrong place– Original price: $1.7 billion– Final cost: more than $ 5 billion

Stakeholders: Players in the Systems Game

• A stakeholder is any person who has an interest in an existing or proposed information system. Stakeholders can be technical or nontechnical workers. They may also include both internal and external workers.– System owners– System users– System designers– System builders– Systems analysts (project managers)

System Owners

System owners – information system’s sponsor, usually responsible for funding the project of developing, operating, and maintaining the information system.

– Top Management (CEO, CFO, CIO…)

Primary Concerns - how much will the system cost? - how much value or what benefits will the system return to the business?

System Users

System users – a “customer” who will use or is affected by a system on a

regular basis

• Primary concern: get the job done using the system– Internal users

• Clerical and service workers, technical and professional staff, supervisors, middle managers, and executive managers

– External users• suppliers, partners, online customers

System Designers and System Builders

System designer – a technical specialist who translates users’ business requirements and constraints into technical solution.

– DBAs, Network architects, web designers, security experts…

System builders – a technical specialist who constructs information systems and components based on the design specifications generated by the system designers.

– Programmers (applications, systems, and DB), network administrators, web masters..

Systems Analysts (can be you!)

(DB) Systems analyst – a specialist who studies the problems and needs of an organization to determine how people, data, processes, and information technology can best accomplish improvements for the business.

Roles:− Bridge (facilitator: next slide) between management

and technical specialist− Understand both business and computing− Initiate change within an organization− Ultimately, a problem solver

The Systems Analyst as a Facilitator

Skills Needed by the Systems Analyst

• Ideal SA (or CIO) for museum: with art background– financial services: Econ, business entities: MIS, supply

chain logistics: logistics

• Good interpersonal communication skills– Business writing class

– Technical business skill class

• Good interpersonal relation skills

• Flexibility and adaptability

• Working knowledge of (existing and emerging) IT

• Computer programming experience and expertise

• General business problem-solving skills