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42 Part 1 • SyStemS analySiS FundamentalS

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HypeRCase expeRienCe 2

“You seem to have already made a good
start at MRE. I’m glad you met Snowden
Evans. As you know, you’ll be reporting
directly to him during your consulting project.
As his administrative assistant for the past five
years, I can tell you a lot about the company,
but remember that there are a number of ways
to find out more. You will want to interview
users, observe their decision-making settings,
and look at archival reports, charts, and dia-
grams. To do so, you can click on the phone
directory to get an appointment with an inter-
viewee, click on the building map to view the
layout of the building, or click on the corpo-
rate website to see the functional areas and
formal hierarchical relationships at MRE.
“Many of the rules of corporate life apply
in the MRE HyperCase. You can walk freely
in many public areas. If you want to tour a pri-
vate office, however, you must first book an
appointment with one of our employees. Some
secure areas are strictly off limits to you as an Figure 2.HC1
outsider since you could pose a security risk.
“I don’t think you’ll find us excessively Click on keywords in HyperCase to find out more detail.
secretive, however, because you may assume
that any employee who grants you an inter- The three levels of managerial control are operational, middle
view will also grant you access to the archival material in his or management, and strategic. The time horizon of decision making is
her files as well as to current work on their desktops or screens. different for each level.
“Unfortunately, some people in the company never seem to Organizational cultures and subcultures are important determi-
make themselves available to consultants. I suggest you be persis- nants of how people use information and information systems. By
tent. There are lots of ways to find out about the people and the grounding information systems in the context of the organization as a
systems of MRE. Creativity pays off. You’ll notice that the sys- larger system, it is possible to realize that numerous factors are impor-
tems consultants who follow their hunches, sharpen their technical tant and should be taken into account when ascertaining information
skills, and never stop thinking about piecing together the puzzles at requirements and designing and implementing information systems.
MRE are the ones who get the best results.
“Remember to use multiple methods—interviewing, observa- HYPerCase Questions
tion, and investigation—to understand what we at MRE are try- 1. What major organizational change recently took place at
ing to tell you. Sometimes actions, documents, and offices actually MRE? What department(s) was (or were) involved? Why
speak louder than words!” was the change made?
There are many ways to graphically depict the system. An ana- 2. What are the goals of the Training and Management Systems
lyst should choose among these tools early on to get an overview Department?
of the system. These approaches include drawing context-level data 3. Would you categorize MRE as a service industry, a manu-
flow diagrams, capturing relationships early on with entity-relation- facturer, or both? What kind of “products” does MRE “pro-
ship diagrams, and drawing use case diagrams or writing use case duce”? Suggest how the type of industry MRE is affects the
scenarios based on user stories. Using these diagrams and techniques information systems it uses.
at the beginning of analysis can help the analyst define the bound- 4. What type of organizational structure does MRE have? What
aries and scope of the system and can help bring into focus which are the implications of this structure for MRE?
people and systems are external to the system being developed. 5. Describe in a paragraph the “politics” of the Training and
Entity-relationship diagrams help a systems analyst under- Management Systems Department at MRE. Who is involved,
stand the entities and relationships that comprise an organizational and what are some of the main issues?
system. E-R diagrams can depict a one-to-one relationship, a one- 6. Draw a use case diagram representing the activities of The Webster
to-many relationship, a many-to-one relationship, and a many-to- Design Group at MRE when developing site and facility master
many relationship. plans. (Use the MRE website to obtain your basic information.)