Explain what collaboration is

·      Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to achieve a common goal, result, or work product. When effective, the group work is greater than individual. Communication and coordination are necessary.

What is the difference/relationship between collaboration and cooperation?

·      Cooperation is people working with each other. Collaboration is people working together for a common objective. Must have cooperation in order to successfully have collaboration

What are the characteristics that make for an effective team, according to Hackman?

·      The team accomplishes its goals and objectives in a way that satisfies the team’s sponsors and clients

·      Over time, the team increases in capability. Working together becomes easier and more effective.

·      Team members learn and feel fulfilled as a result of working on the team.

Explain the three factors that drive collaboration.

·      Communication

o   The communication skills and abilities of group members. The ability to give critical feedback can only improve the product.

·      Content Management

o   If multiple users have inputs in the production and editing of a product, these must be controlled effectively.

o   Information systems play a key role in controlling the access of team members. Ex: admin or read-only

·      Workflow Control

o   Workflow is a process or procedure by which content is edited, created, used, and disposed.

o   The workflow specifies particular ordering of tasks and processing for handling rejected changes as well as dealing with exceptions.

What are the (essential) key skills for collaborators?

·      Enthusiastic

·      Curious and open-minded

·      Says what they think, even if it’s unpopular

Distinguish between synchronous and asynchronous communication

·      Synchronous communication occurs when all team members meet at the same time, such as face-to-face meetings or conference calls

·      Asynchronous communication occurs when team members do not meet at the same time.

What common tools are used for (a) synchronous communication?

·      Shared calendars, invitation and attendance, office applications such as word and PowerPoint, conference calls, webinars, multiparty text chat, Microsoft SharePoint, videoconferencing.

Describe the difference between version management systems and version control.

·      Version management systems track changes to documents ad provide features and functions to accommodate concurrent work. Version management does not provide version control.

·      Version control systems limit the actions that can be taken by any particular user, and they give control over changes to documents to particular users.

Ad hoc group-

·      occurs when team members don’t meet at the same time. Employees who work different shifts at the same location

·      limits the actions that can be taken by any particular user and they do not give control over the changes to the documents to particular users.

·      Understand empathetic versus egocentric thinking and how it impacts communication

o   Egocentric thinking centers on the self; someone who engages in egocentric thinking considers their view as the “real view” or “what really is”

o   In contrast, those who engage in empathetic thinking consider their view as one possible interpretation of the situation and actively work to learn what other people are thinking

o   Egocentric thinking only causes arguments and hassle for everyone involved but empathetic thinking allows you to put yourself in someone else’s point of view and see where they’re coming from, empathetic thinking is the way to go always

o   Characteristics

§  Accurate

·      Which is information based on correct and complete data and it has been processed correctly

·      Most crucial piece without complete correct data the others do not matter

§  Timely

·      Information that is produced in time for its intended use

§  Relevant

·      Is information that directly pertains to both the context and to the subject it references

§  Just barley sufficient

·      Information that is sufficient for the purpose for which it is generated

§  Worth its cost

·      For information to be worth its cost an appropriate relationship must exists between the cost of the information and its value

·      What is the impact, issues with regard to ensuring good information is brought into a system

o   Good information must be brought to a system in order to receive accurate, precise data.

o   Bad information results in inaccurate and possible harmful data for a company

·      What is your role with regard to business processes

o   Problem perspective- view potiental problems and fix them if necessary

o   Activities

§  Are collections of related tasks that receive inputs and process those inputs to produce outputs

§  Activities can be manual  (people following procedures), automated (hardware directed by software) or a combination of both

o   Decision

§  A question that can be answered yes or no

§  Decisions provide branching points within the flow of a business process

o   Roles

§  Are sets of procedures

o   Resources

§  Are people, facilities or computer programs that are assigned to roles

§  One way to improve the business process is to add resources to roles

o   Repository

§  A collection of business records

§  A repository can be a cardboard box, a notebook, a list, an excel spreadsheet a database or even a collection of databases

§  Repositories hold the collective memory of an organization

o   Data flow

§  It’s the movement of a data item from one activity to another activity or to a repository

·      Define a business process

o   Is a network of activities, roles, resources, repositories and data flows that interact to accomplish a business function

o   You can model any organization as a complex maze of interacting business processes

o   Information systems support business processes by implementing activities, by serving as data repositories and by controlling the flow of data

·      [image]

·      What are examples of companies that follow the four organizational strategies? What are the four organization strategies based on Porter's competitive forces?

o   Porter identified four competitive strategies:

§  1.Broad cost leadership across industry (most efficient)

§  2.Narrow cost leadership focused on particular industry segment (most efficient)

§  3.Broad differentiation across industry (most effective)

§  4.Narrow differentiation focused on particular industry segment (most effective)

·      Goals, objectives, culture, and activities must be consistent with strategy

·      Car rental industry

o   An organization can be the cost leader and provide products at the lowest price

o   Or it can focus on adding value to its products to differentiate them those of the competition

o   The organization can employ the cost of differentiation strategy across an industry or it can focus its strategy on a particular industry segment

o   Consider the car rental industry for example

§  According to the first column a car rental company can strive to provide the lowest-cost car rentals to a “focused” industry segment – say US business domestic travelers

§  As shown in the second column a car rental company can seek to differentiate its products from the competition

·      It can do so in various ways such as

o   Providing a wide range of high quality cars

o   By providing the best reservation system

o   Having the cleanest cars etc

§  The company can strive to provide product differentiation across the industry or within particular segments of the industry such as US Business domestic travelers

·      Understand how an organization determines it's goals

o   Organizations examine the structure of their industry and from that develop a competitive strategy that strategy determines value chains which in turn determine business processes

o   The nature of business processes determines the requirements and functions of information systems

o   According to porter, to be effective the organizations goals, objectives, culture and activities must be consistent with organizational strategy

§  In other words, all information systems in the organization must facilitate the organizations competitive strategy

·      Apply Porters value chain to IT and process management.

o   Porter’s value chain is the inputs in IT and the result which is monitored in project management. The chain shows the necessary inputs, some of which are processed in an information system, to produce a product or services. Theses services are monitored through project management.

List the components of a Data flow diagram.

1. Source

2. Process

3. Sink

The movement of a data item from one activity to another or to a

repository.

Understand the different levels of a DFD

1.0 Subprocess

DATASTORE

2.0 Subprocess

SOURCE SINK

* Source sink always to from process. Data store always to from process.

Explain the common problems of a DFD

-Miracles and Blackholes

-Miracles have results but no Input. Blackhole have no Outputs.

What are the three levels of Organizational Decisions?

-Operation: concern day-to-day activities

-Managerial: concern the allocation and utilization of resources

-Strategic: concern broader-scope, organizational issues

Correct

Right Now Low Cost

-Can’t be all because of the allocation of resources, which means you must make a decision based

on the situation

What is a problem?

-A problem is in the perception of the individual or company.

Explain what Work-breakdown structure is and its role within project management.

-Breaks project up into manageable pieces/levels hierarchy of tasks required to complete a

project, each task ends with deliverables, identifies task dependencies, estimate task

duration, cost and labor needed, may be created with project management software

Understand what Critical Path Analysis is and how to determine the critical path.

-Determines the earliest date a project can be completed; to tell critical components, and

where you have slack.

Know the purpose of a Gantt chart.

Distinguish between the logical design and physical design of a system.

Understand the process of (re)designing a system.

-Structured Decision: one for which there is an understood and accepted method for making

decisions. Supported by automated systems

-Unstructured Decision Process: one for which there is no agreed-on decision-making

method. Supported by augmentation info systems

Understand TPS, MIS, and EIS with regard to decision-making.

In organizations, decisions occur at three levels: operational, managerial and strategic.

1. Operational decisions concern day to day activities. Typical operational decisions

are: How many widgets should we order from vendor A? Should we extend credit to

vendor B? In this case TPS (transaction processing systems) come into place.

2. Managerial decisions concern the allocation and utilization of resources. Typical

managerial decisions are: How much should we budget for computer hardware and

programs for department a next year? In this case MIS (managerial information

systems) would come into use.

3. Strategic decisions concern broader-scope, organizational issues. Typical decisions at

this level are: Should we start a new product line? This is where EIS executive

information systems become useful.

What is the distinction between automation and augmentation with regard to MIS?

-Automated Information Systems are those in which the hardware and software components

do most of the work. In the Augmentation Information Systems are those in which humans

do the bulk of the work.

interactions across value activities; Porter’s model of business includes linkages.

are business functions that assist and facilitate the primary activities.

is a way that an organization responds to the structure of its industry.

It can be four strategies: 1- Lowest cost across the industry; 2 – Lowest cost within an

industry segment; 3 – Better product/service across the industry; 4 – Better product/service

within an industry segment

are business functions that relate directly to the production of the

organization’s products or services

has the purpose to extract a and clean data from operational systems and

other sources and to sort and catalog that data for processing by Business Intelligence tools.

- is a data collection that is created to address the needs of a particular business

function, problem, or opportunity.

encapsulate the knowledge of human experts in the form of If/Then rules.

Are information systems that support operational decision making.

Knowledge Checks