Business systems and organizational implementation

Business Systems

The author is asked to answer to four questions spanning two chapters regarding business systems and how to improve them. The author is asked how to overcome user knowledge of their tasks and habits being monitored, the ten guidelines that should be applied during a JAD session, what unique rules apply to drawing context diagrams and explain what the term DFD consistency means and an example of the same. The author will provide those in the order listed above.

The best way to get the best and most accurate indication of what tasks are normally done and in what way is to make sure the people being observed do not know they are being observed. Whether it be observations made from someone that is not deemed to be monitoring them or whether it be through ways that are not direct such as keystrokes, camera monitoring and other subtle ways that re not noticeable and known but are still accurate in determining what is really going on and why. Another great way is to directly ask people what is going right, what is going wrong and what can be done to make things better. If the questions are predicated based on improving things for everyone involved, the users whose habits are needed will be more accurate as opposed to if they think they're being directly watched.

As for the components of a good JAD session, there are much more than ten that would be applicable and proper, but the author will limit it to the ten. The author of this repot would suggest the proper participants being involved, all advice and feedback being constructive (as opposed to accusatory or otherwise non-productive), a firm picture of the current state of affairs, a firm picture of where things need to end up, the steps involved to get from point A to point B, a definition of success of the project and the associated factors, strong organization of the sessions, a skilled facilitator of the sessions, good materials and presentation items and a meeting environment that is free from distractions and other detractors from the sessions.

Chapter Six

As for context diagrams, there need to be a few things present that are unique or at least fairly unique to context diagrams. There need to be clear entities and defined relationships. There also needs to be classifications such as autonomous, cooperative, active and passive categories. There needs to be a clear and defined flow to the diagram and it needs to be a complete and accurate representation of the system being assessed and looked at.