Ch. 13 Intelligent Information Systems

For some reason, I blame it on ET, the term artificial intelligence is oftentimes associated with aliens. Although we may not be dealing with aliens in Chapter 13, it actually is not that far of a stretch to associate artificial intelligence with that of a very human-like being such as ET. This is because of the very definition of artificial intelligence: related technologies that try to simulate and reproduce human thought behavior, including thinking, speaking, feeling, and reasoning. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies apply computers to areas that require knowledge, perception, reasoning, understanding, and cognitive abilities.

To achieve these capabilities, computers must be programmed to:

1)Understand common sense
2)Understand facts and manipulate qualitative data
3)Deal with exceptions and discontinuity
4)Understand relationships between facts
5)Interact with humans in their own language
6)Be able to deal with new situations based on previous learning.

Unlike information systems, AI technology is concerned with generating and displaying knowledge and facts rather than storing, retrieving, and working with data.

The scope of artificially intelligent technologies can come as a surprise to someone such as myself who has not had much exposure to such technologies. Some applications of the technology include:

-Transportation Industry: American Airlines has an expert systems used to schedule the routine maintenance of its airplanes
-Government: The Internal Revenue Service is testing a new software to read tax returns and spot fraud
-Telecommunications: BT Group has a heuristic search used for scheduling application that provides the work schedules for more than 20,000 engineers
-And much more

Robotics

Robots and robotics are some of the most successful applications of artificial intelligence. Robots first started out in factories and performed well at simple, repetitive tasks that freed workers from tedious of hazardous jobs. However, now robots are being more commonly used in the military and aerospace and medical industries as well as for performing services such as delivering mail to employees.

The attraction of robots is the fact that they have some unique advantages in the workplace compared with humans:

1)They don’t fall in love with coworkers, get insulted, or call in sick
2)They’re consistent
3)They can be used in environments that are hazardous
4)They don’t spy for competitors, ask for a raise, or lobby for longer breaks

Personal robots have attracted a lot of attention lately as they are useful at performing helpful tasks such as helping the elderly, bringing breakfast to the table, cooking, opening doors and carrying trays and drinks.

Expert Systems

Expert systems have been one of the most successful AI-related technologies and have been around since the 1960’s. These expert systems mimic human expertise in a field to solve a problem. In order for them to be successful, they must be applied to an activity that human experts have already handled such as tasks in medicine, geology, education, and oil exploration. An example of an expert system found in the book is PortBlue. PortBlue is an expert system that can be applied to various financial applications including examination of complex financial structures, foreign exchange risk management, and more.

Despite all the hype about expert systems and artificial intelligence, certain criteria must still be met before using AI. Although the systems may be good at what they do, sometimes there is no replacement to humans for subjective reasoning such as that using the five senses such as taste or smell. A robot cannot tell you how good a burger tastes or if a new perfume smells better than the old.

Ch.10 Building Successful Information Systems

If you haven’t realized by this point in class, information systems are vital in almost every business in the modern age. Information systems improve the efficiency of a business’ operations in order to achieve higher profitability, are a major tool for firms to create new products and services, they vastly improve the decision making of top managers, they help achieve a competitive advantage over other businesses and have quickly become a necessity of doing business. Information systems are the foundation for conducting business today.

But where do these information systems come from?

Designing a successful information system requires integrating people, software, and hardware. In order to achieve this necessary integration, designers often follow the systems development life cycle (SDLC). This model is a series of well-defined phases performed in sequence that serve as a framework for developing a system or project.

The Phases

Phase 1: Planning

The planning phase is one of the most crucial phases of the SDLC model. The system designer must understand and define the problem the organization faces making sure that they have come up with the absolute problem rather than minor symptoms created by the problem. The problem can be external or internal: from the customers or the suppliers. An example of an internal problem may be management’s concern for the lack of competitive edge in the market while an external problem may be a supplier noting the inefficiency in inventory control. After the problem has been defined, an analyst assesses the current and future needs of the organization by answering these questions:

1)Why is this information system being developed?
2)Who are the systems current and future users?
3)Is the system new or an upgrade or extension of an existing system?
4)Which functional areas/departments will be using the system?

After this, the analysts must get feedback from users. Their job is to make sure user’s understand the four W’s:

1)Why - Why is the system being designed?
2)Who - Who is going to use the system? What department?
3)When – When will the system be operational?
4)What – What kind of capabilities will the system provide?

Another test an information system must past is called the feasibility study. The feasibility study analyzes a proposed solution’s feasibility and determines how best to present the solution to management; it’s dimensions include economic feasibility, technical feasibility, operational feasibility, schedule feasibility and legal feasibility.

Phase 2: Requirements Gathering and Analysis

In this second phase, analysts define the problem and generate alternatives for solving it. They attempt to understand the requirements for the system and analyze them to determine the main problem with the current system. Requirements can be gathered through interviews, surveys, observations, and much more. The intent of the analysts is to:

1)Figure out what users do
2)How they do it
3)What problems they face in performing their jobs
4)How the new system would address these problems
5)What users expect from the system
6)What decisions are made
7)What data is needed to make decisions, where the data comes from, how the data should be presented and what tools are needed to examine date for the decision makers use

The analyst then uses this information to understand the main problems: defining the projects scope, including what it should and shouldn’t do and then create a document called the “system specifications” which is sent to all key users for approval.

Phase 3: Design

During this phase, analysts choose the solution that’s the most realistic and offers the highest pay off for the organization. They outline the details of the proposed solution and create a document with exact specifications for implementing the system including all aspects to be involved in the information system.

This design phase consists of 3 parts: conceptual design, logical design, and physical design. The conceptual design is an overview of the system and doesn’t include hardware or software choices. The logical design makes the conceptual design more specific by indicating hardware and software. The physical design is created for a specific platform such as an example used in the book, Dell laptops running Windows 7 and Internet Explorer.

Prototyping is a major part of the design phase, where a small scale version of the system is developed, but one that’s large enough to illustrate the system’s benefits and allows users to offer feedback.

Phase 4: Implementation

During this phase, the solution is transferred from paper to action, and the team configures the system and procures components for it. New tasks in this phase include:

1)Acquiring new equipment
2)Hiring new employees
3)Training employees
4)Planning and designing the system’s physical layout
5)Coding
6)Testing
7)Designing security measures and safeguards
8)Creating a disaster recovery plan

Once the information system is complete and ready to be converted, designers can use a parallel conversion, a phased-in-phased-out conversion, a plunge conversion or pilot conversion. In a parallel conversion, the old and new systems run simultaneously for a short time to ensure that the new system works correctly. In a phased-in-phased-out conversion, as each module of the new system is converted, the corresponding part of the old system is retired. In the plunge, or direct cutover, conversion the old system is stopped and the new system is implemented. Lastly, in a pilot conversion, the analyst introduces the system in only a limited area of the organization to see if the system works correctly.

Two alternative approaches to the SDLC approach are self-sourcing and out-sourcing. Self-sourcing is when end users have been developing their own information systems with little or no formal assistance from the information systems team. With the outsourcing approach, an organization hires an external vendor or consultant who specializes in providing development services.

Phase 5: Maintenance

In this last phase, the information system is operating, enhancements and modifications to the system have been developed and tested, and hardware and software components have been added or replaced. As part of this phase, the team gathers information on whether the system is meeting its objectives by talking with users, customers, and other people affected by the new system. If the system’s objectives are not being met, they have to take corrective action to fix the problem.