Information and Organizations

Information and Organizations

Course Description

The value and importance of information to organizations, how it is used, stored and processed; emphasizes the uses of information technologies of various kinds, the benefits of the technologies, and the associated costs and problems; use of desktop applications.

Information is often viewed as a strategic asset and critical to improvements in quality, productivity and competitive advantage. This course aims to develop an understanding of why information is considered so important. It examines the ways in which information flows through, is processed, and is stored in typical organizations such as businesses, hospitals, or government departments. It emphasizes the uses of information technologies of various kinds in handling such information, the benefits of the technologies, and the costs and problems associated with their use. It also includes some history of the evolution of the use of information technologies in organizations and speculation on future trends. The course includes practical experience with personal productivity applications such as presentation graphics, spreadsheet and database, use of the Internet, and HTML programming.

Topics include:

· Roles of information and information technology

· Roles of people using, developing and managing systems

· Cost/value and quality of information

· Analysis of knowledge work and its requirements

· Knowledge work productivity concepts

· Application versus system software

· Database features, functions and architectures

· Systems concepts

· System components and relationships

Textbook

The following is the required textbook for the course:

Principles of Information Systems, by Ralph M. Stair & George W. Reynolds, published by ITP, 1999 (ISBN: 0-7600-1079-x)

Lecture Notes

1. Chapter 1 – Introduction to Information Systems 2. Chapter 2 - Information Systems in Organizations 3. Chapter 3 - Hardware, Input, Processing, and Output Devices 4. Chapter 4 - Software: Systems and Applications Software 5. Chapter 5 - Organizing Data and Information 6. Chapter 6 - Telecommunications and Networks 7. Chapter 7 - The Internet, Intranets, and Extranets 8. Chapter 8 – Transaction Processing, Electronic Commerce, and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems 9. Chapter 9 - Management Information Systems 10. Chapter 10 - Decision Support Systems 11. Chapter 11 – Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems 12. Chapter 12 – Systems Development