Several technologies are
proliferating the world of information. The complexities that arise when
massive amounts of information in large organizations can lead to
misinterpretations and misuse as they can appear to be illogical and irrational
to anyone trying to understand their value and potential. It is essential to
manage information systems throughout their life cycle for efficiency and
effectiveness to serve their purpose.
The primary purpose of
most business information systems are addressing the requirements of business
applications. Business portfolio of applications can be broadly categorized as
strategic, current operational, and support phase applications. They indicate
the business organization’s priorities to address its current and future needs.
When translated to the information systems world, they are called information
systems or simply systems. Several software, hardware, and network technologies
come into play for designing these applications to meet the requirements of the
business.
In the Information
systems environments, the influence of technology vendors, consultants, product
lines are very overwhelming to evaluate design choices. While the fundamentals
of the purpose of software, hardware, network, information access and storage
are clear to any architect, clarity on the design issues themselves requires
system, architecture and pattern thinking to ensure information flow as if
designed for an optimal, digital supply chain not ignoring the human interface.
Enterprise architecture approach
for business information systems thinking and design enables IT to be viewed as
a system working to bring efficiency and effectiveness to a business
organization. Design patterns form the
basis for an architectural approach to information system design.
Software engineering principles bring discipline and methodology to all phases of information systems development life cycle. Tools and techniques are developed to fit into the various phases. The fundamentals behind this discipline is to adhere to standards and concepts that affect the adaptability and flexibility of systems. The granularity of the concepts increases as the design becomes detailed for the purpose of interactions leading to principles such as abstraction, modularity, and information hiding avoiding redundancy and minimizing risks.
Software engineering principles bring discipline and methodology to all phases of information systems development life cycle. Tools and techniques are developed to fit into the various phases. The fundamentals behind this discipline is to adhere to standards and concepts that affect the adaptability and flexibility of systems. The granularity of the concepts increases as the design becomes detailed for the purpose of interactions leading to principles such as abstraction, modularity, and information hiding avoiding redundancy and minimizing risks.
References:
Chessell,
Mandy & Smith, Harald C.. ( © 2013). Patterns of information
management.
