Glossary/Exam Flashcards
What are Boundaries in the context of systems?
Boundary - delineates what is considered inside or outside of a system.
What is chaos?
Chaotic - refers to a kind of order without periodicity (that is, without being cyclical or periodic). Some deterministic systems (where there is only one possible next state of the system given its current state and the rules governing it) which are highly sensitive to initial conditions are capable of generating apparently random behaviour - a paradigm known as the butterfly effect.
What is Co-evolution and why is it important?
Co-evolution - Reciprocal influence; entities evolving in the context and under the influence of other entities and circumstances. Co-adaption is similar. There is a need to consider co-evolution between social and technical components as a process in pursuit of organisational objectives. Lack of proper consideration of co-evolution between the social and the technical can result in legacy systems.
What are complex adaptive systems?
Complex adaptive systems - are systems that not only are capable of exhibiting emergent behaviour at different levels in the hierarchy through self organisation, but that also display self organising adaptation; modifying themselves in response to changing conditions. Put simply, CAS are capable of learning to adapt to new situation and therefore display creativity, making them highly robust, especially to environmental factors. A notable example of such as system, arguably the epitome of such systems, is you; every human is an, extremely advanced, complex adaptive system.
What is complexity in IS systems?
Complexity - In terms of IS, describes systems that: give rise to unpredictable behaviour, involve many components; interactions; and feedback loops, have decentralised control, and are non-decomposable into their constituent subsystems. In contrast to simple systems that have: predictable behaviour, few components; interactions; and feedback loops, centralised control, and are decomposable into their constituent subsystems. Note, complicated systems can be confused with complex systems, however, they differ in that ultimately they can be decomposed into their subsystems.
What is the edge of chaos?
Complex systems belong to Class IV and are said to exist at the edge of chaos, that is, in the region between Class II and Class III systems. It has been argued that one of the principle characteristics of systems belonging to Class IV is creativity, the ‘edge of chaos’ lying between periodic order and chaotic disorder. Creativity should here be understood in its technical sense – the production of structures that can survive and propagate for an arbitrarily long time.
What is emergence?
Emergence - the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that properties and behaviours emerge from systems, sometimes unexpectedly. A system displays emergence when properties emerge at higher levels that are not present in the individual components. Local dynamics at the component level generate global dynamics at the emergent level while emergent global dynamics constrain local dynamics.
In the context of systems, what is the environment?
Environment - in a systems context, anything that is relevant to a system, but outside of it.
What is evolutionary change?
Evolutionary - Incremental change over time.
What is failure in IS?
Failure - A failed IT system does not meet the objectives of the organisation that uses it or the objectives of the other key stakeholders.
What is the Formal System Model (FSM)?
Formal System Model (FSM) - The FSM is a key part of the Systems Failures Approach. It defines a formal model into which systems should be able to fit. Comparing systems to this model can be
an effective way to identify issues with the design. In particular, various points of failure.
What is feedback?
Feedback - feedback is when the output of a system is looped back into the input in some way. Feedback can be used to help systems adapt and can be positive (reinforcing) or negative (dampening). Feedback can help systems to exist at the edge of chaos and therefore exhibit creativity.
What is Hierarchy/Level?
Hierarchy/Level - an important part of understanding systems is that they are nested; systems contain subsystems that contain further subsystems. The selection of what constitutes the system being examined, the components that comprise it, and the environment in which it operates, defines the level at which analysis takes place.
In terms of systems, what is interconnectedness?
Interconnectedness - Describes the level of interconnection between and within systems.
What are the levels of analysis and what methods are used to explore them?
Levels of analysis - the organisational context is split into levels for analysis. These are: the macro/far external context, the micro/immediate work context, and the meso/near external context and near internal context. STEEPLE is generally used to analyse the macro and ‘upper’ meso contexts (the external contexts), while resource analysis and personal analysis are used to analyse the lower meso (near internal) and micro (immediate work) contexts respectively. Finally SWOT is often used to analyse the entire organisation context.
What are linear systems?
Linear systems - obey the superposition principle (in systems theory the idea that sum of the net response to multiple stimuli is the sum of the response to those systems individually) and therefore if we break the system down and study all its parts in isolation we can fully understand it and its outputs.
What are non-linear systems?
Non-linear systems - do not obey the superposition principle and therefore we cannot understand them by understanding all of their component parts. The behaviour of such systems more about the properties of the interaction between the parts than properties of the components themselves.
What are open systems?
Open systems - Systems in which the boundary is porous.
What is the organisational context?
Organisational context - The organisational context is the sphere in which a professional works. It is made up of four zones, counting down: the far external context, the near external context, the near internal context, and the immediate work context. These zones are divided in half by the organisational boundary, between the near external context and the near internal context. Both the near internal context and the immediate work context fall within the organisational boundary, while the other two fall outside it.
What is personal analysis?
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What is power?
Power - The module identifies three different types of power: dispositional - a set of abilities, agency based - the ability to bring about change or cause events, and facilitative - the ability to achieve goals and get stuff done. Both Hobbes and Lukes interpret power as the ability of an agent to do things, while both Foucault and Machiavelli see power as relational, something that a given person has over another, and as a hierarchy.
What is resource analysis?
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What is scientific reductionism?
Scientific reductionism - The idea that complex systems can always be reduced to their constituent subsystems, in order to make them easier to study.
What is Self-organisation?
Self-organisation - Refers to the ability that some systems have to organise themselves or their components into more ordered forms without the influence of outside agency. Agile systems are often touted as having the benefits of self organisation due to reduced micromanagement and control.
What is simulation?
Simulation - The process of modelling the results of inputs into a system via computer modelling.
What is a sociotechnical system?
Sociotechnical - Systems are made up of both social aspects, organisations and people, and technical aspects, both hardware and software.
What are stakeholders?
Stakeholders - anyone with an interest in the success or failure of the system; anyone that holds a stake in the system.
What is STEEPLE? What are the dimensions? How is each dimension examined? And when is it useful?
STEEPLE - analysis examines each of the Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, and Ethical aspects of the organisational context in turn. For each dimension the most salient facts are identified, then they are analysed in terms of threats or opportunities, and finally they are prioritised according to their impact, significance, risk, and the resources available. STEEPLE is seen as a useful way to understand the organisational environment and as a way to ensure that a good range of factors have been considered in an analysis.
What are structures in terms of power?
Structures - in terms of power, frameworks, such as legal, financial, governmental, or educational spheres in which individuals can exercise power.
What are sub-systems?
Sub-systems - systems within systems.
What is success?
Success - The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
What is a successful system?
Successful system - Meets the objectives of the organisation that uses it and the objectives of the other key stakeholders. Note that the clearer the objectives of the system are the easier it becomes to assess the success of the system.
What is SWOT analysis?
SWOT analysis - examines a set of opportunities (O) and threats (T), often gleaned from a prior STEEPLE analysis, against a set of strengths (S) and weaknesses (W). This is done on a 2 by 2 grid by asking the questions: How do I use these strengths to take advantage of these opportunities? How do I overcome the weaknesses preventing me from taking advantage of these opportunities? How do I use these strengths to reduce the risk and impact of these threats? How do I address the weaknesses to combat these threats?
What is a system?
System - An organised set of component technologies, people, and organisations combined for a purpose
What is the systems Failures Approach?
Systems Failures Approach - A way of thinking about systems in terms of their contexts and socio-technical nature for the purpose of understanding why they fail and how to prevent failure. The
systems failure approach consists of seven stages: Pre-analysis, identification of significant failures, system selection, system modelling, comparison, further analysis, synthesis.
What is systems thinking?
Systems thinking - The study of systems and their nature.
What is technology?
Technology - The product of design and craft based on accumulated knowledge for the purpose of solving a problem.
What was Era 1 and what were its key characteristics?
Era 1 (1960s-70s) was the so called pre-methodology era. Probably the most common method was the waterfall/iterative method. Focuses on operations research backdrop, scientific/OO, emphasis on precision.
What was Era 2 and what were its key characteristics?
Era 2 (late 70s to early 80s) was the early methodology era. Arguably the most influential method was SLDC. In era 2 emphasis towards process, data, and behaviour linked in a lifecycle, and the imposition of a rational structure on human activity. An emphasis on getting requirements done, if you get the requirements right everything flows from there. An emphasis on functional requirements (technical requirements) over user requirements (often ill defined).
What was Era 3 and what were its key characteristics?
Era 3 (late 80s to 90s) was the methodology era. In era 3 designers began to focus on the messy side of IS in practice; the sociotechnical aspects. This led to the rise of sociotechnical thinking and Soft Systems Methodology. Large and complex methods focusing on understanding human activity in systems, and allowing human activity to impose order on logical processes. Sociotechnical systems are prominent.
What is Era 4 and what are its key characteristics?
Era 4 (2000s+) became the post methodology era. Era 4 is in many ways a reaction to era 3, with many organisations throwing off complex methods in favour of more adaptable approaches. Era 4 has led the the rise of new methods such as AGILE and SCRUM, while older methods such as SSM and SSADM are still being used. While it is still poorly defined, because we are living in it, fourth era methods seem to be lightweight and team focused, while modular design, and adaptability are the main focuses.
What, simply, is the story of the Eras of IS methodology?
The story of the eras is, 1:precision->2:data/process/behaviour->3:structure/sociotechnical->4:people/teamwork/modular.
What is Agency?
Agency - in terms of power, the ability of someone or something to act as a cause to exert effect on its environment. In the module, systems and organisations are considered able to posses agency.
What is AGILE?
Agile - is in some ways a reaction to older era 3 methods. Agile uses an interactive ‘time-boxing’ approach to emphasise adaptability, speed, and change. Agile strongly emphasises teamwork and collaboration. The modular nature of the agile time box approach allow a level of experimentation and adaptation. For example, if the work completed in a time box, once presented to the client, is not actually useful, it can easily be abandoned at little cost. This is intended to allow sufficient flexibility for systems to meet the moving target of evolving requirements specifications.
What is availability?
Availability - is the probability that a system will be functioning at any given time, sometimes expressed as ‘mean time between failures’ and or ‘mean time to repair’. A = MTBF/(MTBF + MTTR)
What is captology?
Captology - is the study of Computers as persuasive technology. Captology is interested in how computers can be used to change attitudes and behaviours.
What is computer ethics?
Computer ethics - is the study of the ethical dilemmas and circumstances that arise in computing. There has long been a debate about whether computer ethics is special and original in some way or simply the outworking of more traditional ethics in a different set of circumstances. Those in favour cite concepts such as logical malleability, ubiquity, and invisibility as reasons why computer ethics is unique.
What is consequentialist ethics?
Consequentialist ethics - also known as, teleological ethics, sees morality as the net of the sum of the consequences of an action. Consequentialist ethics is problematic because there is always insufficient information to make such a judgement, to be able to make an accurate judgement of the net effect of an action would require omnipotence, and crucially because of its historical tendency to excuse the most brutal and barbaric of actions in the name of the “greater good.”
What is corporate social responsibility?
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What is The Critical Approach?
Critical - In terms of the “critical approach” describes approaches that attempt to reshape society to put power in the hands of the disadvantaged. This thinking has its roots in Karl Marx.
What is dependability?
Dependability - in terms of redundant systems, refers to a subjective judgement of the level that a system can be depended on. As an imprecise subjective measurement ‘dependability’ is often divided into a number of more specialised characteristics – for example, ‘reliability’, availability, ‘safety’, ‘security’ and ‘maintainability’.
