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44 Part 1 • SyStemS analySiS FundamentalS

Review Questions

1. What are the three groups of organizational fundamentals that carry implications for the development
of information systems?
2. What is meant by saying that organizational subsystems are interrelated and interdependent?
3. Define the term organizational boundary.
4. What are the two main purposes of feedback in organizations?
5. Define openness in an organizational environment.
6. Define closedness in an organizational environment.
7. What is the difference between a traditional organization and a virtual one?
8. What are the potential benefits and a drawback of a virtual organization?
9. Give an example of how systems analysts could work with users as a virtual team.
10. What are enterprise systems (ERP)?
11. What is the main difference between doing business process analysis for ERP and other types of
systems?
12. What problems do analysts often encounter when they try to implement an ERP package?
13. What are the two symbols on a use case diagram, and what do they represent?
14. What is a use case scenario?
15. What are the three main parts of a use case scenario?
16. What are the four steps in creating use case descriptions?
17. What are the five altitude metaphors for describing use case on different levels? What do they
represent?
18. What does a process represent on a context-level data flow diagram?
19. What is an entity on a data flow diagram?
20. What is meant by the term entity-relationship diagram?
21. What symbols are used to draw E-R diagrams?
22. List the types of E-R diagrams.
23. How do an entity, an associative entity, and an attributive entity differ?
24. List the three broad, horizontal levels of management in organizations.
25. How can understanding organizational subcultures help in the design of information systems?

Problems

1. “It’s hard to focus on what we want to achieve. I look at what our real competitors, the conve-
nience stores, are doing and think we should copy that. Then a hundred customers come in, and
I listen to each of them, and they say we should keep our little store the same, with friendly
clerks and old-fashioned cash registers. Then, when I pick up a copy of SuperMarket News, they
say that the wave of the future is super grocery stores, with no individual prices marked and
UPC scanners replacing clerks. I’m pulled in so many directions I can’t really settle on a strat-
egy for our grocery store,” admits Geoff Walsham, owner and manager of Jiffy Geoff’s Grocery
Store.
In a paragraph, apply the concept of permeable organizational boundaries to analyze Geoff’s prob-
lem in focusing on organizational objectives.
2. Write seven sentences explaining the right-to-left relationships in Figure 2.8.
3. Draw an entity-relationship diagram of a patient–doctor relationship.
a. Which of the types of E-R diagrams is it?
b. In a sentence or two, explain why the patient–doctor relationship is diagrammed in this way.
4. You began drawing E-R diagrams soon after your entry into the health maintenance organization for
which you’re designing a system. Your team member is skeptical about using E-R diagrams before
the design of the database is begun. In a paragraph, persuade your team member that early use of E-R
diagrams is worthwhile.
5. Neil is a decision maker for Pepe’s Atlantic Sausage Company. Because there are several suppliers
of ingredients and their prices fluctuate, he has come up with several different formulations for the
various sausages that he makes, depending on the availability of particular ingredients from particu-
lar suppliers. He then orders ingredients accordingly twice a week. Even though he cannot predict
when ingredients will become available at a particular price, his ordering of supplies can be consid-
ered routine.
a. On what level of management is Neil working? Explain in a paragraph.
b. What attributes of his job would have to change before you would categorize him as working on a
different level of management? List them.