Speaking Notes

PADM 5500

February 18, 2010

Dr. Neubauer

WHERE WE ARE:

The midterm is next week. I must report midterm grades next week.
The midterm will cover chapters 1 through 5 in each of our two textbooks plus additional materials in speaking notes and classroom presentations and Lab assignment 1.

This is a preliminary model of preparing a new library book to be shelved in the appropriate library collection. Notice that "log in book" and "catalog item" are modeled as sub models. This allows you to "manage" the complexity of the diagram. The use of Route and Station modules (available on the Advanced Transfer template) also help keep the model easier to understand. There are two things I want you to realize in this regard.

1) That processes can be NESTED inside other processes. Nesting is a way to make it possible to design and build COMPLEX SYTEMS. It is a form of mental ABSTRACTION. From a high-level perspective it is enough to be able to say, "I know what this module does." You can then "DRILL DOWN" into the specific module and see that inside it is another entire process "in there." It is possible for complex systems to be DEEPLY NESTED, like a set of Russian dolls.

2) That an Arena sub-model can be a SERVICE in the sense of Service Oriented Architecture. In other words, when an organization "runs" this process it "calls out" to one or more other organizations in the process of performing the process. Usually when we think of OUTSOURCING we think of outsourcing ENTIRE PROCESSES. What is now possible is to outsource small parts of processes rather than entire processes. There may be some advantages to this in terms of cost savings and the ACCOUNTABILITY of the organization for the work for which it is responsible.

CHAPTER 6 OF BARRETT AND GREENE

What they mean by "standards" here is not exactly the same as what technical people mean by standards. To a technical person, a standard is a technical standard, such as the shape of a port or the voltage of an electronic part. There is a standard way to draw a bath tub on a blueprint. If every architect uses the same symbol new home owners are less likely to be for a surprise.

There is apparently today a lack of standards regarding how Web browser interpret Javascript, for example. Operating systems apparently do not conform to exact standards either. When there are "known issues" regarding IE 8 running over Windows 7 (both Microsoft products) we know we have serious problems.

This chapter is more about "business architecture" and the degree to which some central authority forces all the departments to buy the same kinds of hardware and software.

For example, in Georgia all the state universities are required to use WebCT for online course offerings. Is that good?

What about Real Player? Is there any reason for it to be used today when Flash Player is also available?

What about Word Perfect? Should we accommodate the few people who cannot or will not migrate to Microsoft Word?

What about people like me who resist migration from Office 97-2003 to Office 97?

How often should an organization "upgrade" its applications? Was is the cost of migration? What are the costs of sticking with older applications? WHAT ARE THE SECURITY IMPLICATIONS?

People who program WEB APPLICATIONS should not have to write a lot of extra code to detect the user's OS and browser and then write variations of the same code for every COMBINATION OF OS AND BROWSER (and version of each). Arrrgggggg! STANDARDS ARE GOOD but only if there are not many of them!

These are some of the benefits of "standardization" within organizations.

minimize training costs
help insure systems work together
bulk purchase discounts

Here are some of the problems with "standardization."

yet another evidence of a highly centralized bureaucracy
possible failure to accommodate specialized needs and preferences
if a vender goes out of business, you may be sunk (for example, Wang)
possible lack of competitive pricing
possible inability to adopt innovative new things

I suppose requiring every city or county in a state to use the same ERP would be the form of "standardization" on a very large scale.

The best ground is almost certainly, "in all things moderation."

So what do you do when someone insists that he or she must have Word Perfect? If the "middleware" exists to translate the resulting files, it may not be a big deal. If "diversity" interferes with the cooperation needed to get the work done efficiently, then it may well be a big deal. The burdens of "being different" should be handled by the one being different. Everyone else should not be required to accommodate the difference. IN THIS CASE, CONFORMITY AND UNIFORMITY ARE PROBABLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN technological "diversity." When file formats are swapped something is likely to be lost in the translation.

Macs and PC's can coexist "peacefully," although most businesses run on PC's. Macs are stronger in areas such as multimedia production.

MIDDLEWARE is the duct tape of IT systems. It can do wonders but it can be VERY COSTLY TO MAINTAIN. It is better if you are linking things together that were written to the same standards and were designed with the intention of working with one another.

STAIR AND REYNOLDS, CHAPTER 6

Structured and Unstructured Data (and related applications)

There are different kinds of Management Information Systems (MIS systems) and the kinds tend to be useful at only one level of management.

LEVEL OF MANAGEMENT	TYPES OF MIS SYSTEMS
Strategic	Data warehouses Data visualization Process simulations OLAP applications Executive Information Systems
Tactical	Report generators Document management systems Time clocks Automated computations Digital dashboards -- systems monitoring
Operational	Expert systems OLTP systems Document management systems Desktop training Robots

Systems using structured data are most useful for "street level bureaucrats."

Systems using unstructured data are most useful at the strategic (policy) level of the organization.

Computers are really good with structured data. They can be programmed to play chess because the rules are clearly known.

If the facts are not known, or the rules cannot be clearly stated, human judgment and intuition become necessary.

The distinction between data and knowledge

data are facts
knowledge is the aggregation of facts in a meaningful context
relational databases are great for storing and retrieving data
it is up to people to make the translation from information into knowledge
Knowledge Management (KM) is about moving information in an organization into the minds of the people who need to know it. It is about shared situational awareness, for example.

OLTP and OLAP applications

transaction processing systems support sequences of activities that happen many times over
decision support systems are designed differently because they have a different purpose
most relational databases support transactions. They are volatile and therefore must be designed for EASE OF UPDATE. For this reason, the design of them is HIGHLY NORMALIZED. In other words, there and many "skinny" tables and very little redundant storage of data among the tables.
a DATA WAREHOUSE stores historic data for strategic DECISION MAKING purposes. Data warehouses tend to be VERY LARGE. Because they are so large, PERFORMANCE is more of an issue than is ease of update. To improve performance they are designed to be STRATEGICALLY DENORMALIZED. In other words, there is some redundant storage of data so that the computer does not have to work so hard to answer a question.
OLTP applications usually "run over" highly normalized relational databases.
OLAP applications may "run over" strategically renormalized data warehouses.
The data in a data warehouse comes from one or more OLTP systems and is usually updated once a day. The process is called an ETL. ETL stands for extraction, transformation and load. There is specialized software available to do this.
Data warehouses are not based on relational databases. They are based on DIMENTIONAL DATABASES. Dimensional database design is beyond the scope of this course. It is enough to say that data warehouses are INTENTIONALLY DENORMALIZED in structure for the sake of PERFORMANCE.

	Type of database	Design criteria	Design intent
database supporting OLTP applications	relational database	highly normalized	Performance
data warehouse supporting OLAP applications	dimensional database	strategically denormalized -- "star design"	Ease of update

	Kind of data	Size of database	nature of database
database supporting OLTP applications	"right now"	relatively small	volatile -- like boiling water on a stove
data warehouse supporting OLAP applications	historical	huge	stable -- you add to it but what is there does not change

Document management systems plus representation of forms using XML

this may just mean scanning paper documents into Adobe .pdf files for storage and retrieval -- limits need for acres of filing cabinets
this also may mean use of XML markup to store the data in documents in a way that computers can "understand"
a document (form) is really just a complex data structure. XML is a good way to manage complex data structures using simple ASCII code. ASCII code is all characters.

A FORM IS REALLY A DATA STRUCTURE. Business processes are almost always "form driven." By representing the data on forms using XML (and a schema that defines the structure of the code), BUSINESS PROCESSES CAN BE MORE EFFECTIVELY AUTOMATED. HTML is a tag language that tells WEB BROWSES how to DISPLAY information on a screen. XML is not about DISPLAY. XML is about THE MEANING of the data. For example, every book MUST have a title and can zero, one or many authors. When the sending application and the receiving application are using the same XML SCHEMA the meaning of the data can be interpreted correctly.

Source of code below: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms762271(VS.85).aspx

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<catalog>

   <book id="bk101">

      <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author>

      <title>XML Developer's Guide</title>

      <genre>Computer</genre>

      <price>44.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date>

      <description>An in-depth look at creating applications

      with XML.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk102">

      <author>Ralls, Kim</author>

      <title>Midnight Rain</title>

      <genre>Fantasy</genre>

      <price>5.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-12-16</publish_date>

      <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies,

      an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen

      of the world.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk103">

      <author>Corets, Eva</author>

      <title>Maeve Ascendant</title>

      <genre>Fantasy</genre>

      <price>5.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-11-17</publish_date>

      <description>After the collapse of a nanotechnology

      society in England, the young survivors lay the

      foundation for a new society.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk104">

      <author>Corets, Eva</author>

      <title>Oberon's Legacy</title>

      <genre>Fantasy</genre>

      <price>5.95</price>

      <publish_date>2001-03-10</publish_date>

      <description>In post-apocalypse England, the mysterious

      agent known only as Oberon helps to create a new life

      for the inhabitants of London. Sequel to Maeve

      Ascendant.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk105">

      <author>Corets, Eva</author>

      <title>The Sundered Grail</title>

      <genre>Fantasy</genre>

      <price>5.95</price>

      <publish_date>2001-09-10</publish_date>

      <description>The two daughters of Maeve, half-sisters,

      battle one another for control of England. Sequel to

      Oberon's Legacy.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk106">

      <author>Randall, Cynthia</author>

      <title>Lover Birds</title>

      <genre>Romance</genre>

      <price>4.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-09-02</publish_date>

      <description>When Carla meets Paul at an ornithology

      conference, tempers fly as feathers get ruffled.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk107">

      <author>Thurman, Paula</author>

      <title>Splish Splash</title>

      <genre>Romance</genre>

      <price>4.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-11-02</publish_date>

      <description>A deep sea diver finds true love twenty

      thousand leagues beneath the sea.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk108">

      <author>Knorr, Stefan</author>

      <title>Creepy Crawlies</title>

      <genre>Horror</genre>

      <price>4.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-12-06</publish_date>

      <description>An anthology of horror stories about roaches,

      centipedes, scorpions  and other insects.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk109">

      <author>Kress, Peter</author>

      <title>Paradox Lost</title>

      <genre>Science Fiction</genre>

      <price>6.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-11-02</publish_date>

      <description>After an inadvertant trip through a Heisenberg

      Uncertainty Device, James Salway discovers the problems

      of being quantum.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk110">

      <author>O'Brien, Tim</author>

      <title>Microsoft .NET: The Programming Bible</title>

      <genre>Computer</genre>

      <price>36.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-12-09</publish_date>

      <description>Microsoft's .NET initiative is explored in

      detail in this deep programmer's reference.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk111">

      <author>O'Brien, Tim</author>

      <title>MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide</title>

      <genre>Computer</genre>

      <price>36.95</price>

      <publish_date>2000-12-01</publish_date>

      <description>The Microsoft MSXML3 parser is covered in

      detail, with attention to XML DOM interfaces, XSLT processing,

      SAX and more.</description>

   </book>

   <book id="bk112">

      <author>Galos, Mike</author>

      <title>Visual Studio 7: A Comprehensive Guide</title>

      <genre>Computer</genre>

      <price>49.95</price>

      <publish_date>2001-04-16</publish_date>

      <description>Microsoft Visual Studio 7 is explored in depth,

      looking at how Visual Basic, Visual C++, C#, and ASP+ are

      integrated into a comprehensive development

      environment.</description>

   </book>

</catalog>