How should applications be developed?

In his text, Application Development without Pro grammers, James Martin argues that many of the problems of traditional systems development, including long development cycles, formal requirements specification, and formal maintenance procedures, can be overcome by providing users with the tools to develop their own applications. In the environment Martin describes, users will use report and application generators to make queries and to generate reports from existing databases. Working with systems analysts, users will also create prototypes of systems they need. (Martin, 1982, p. 55).

Selecting the appropriate application development methodology

This paper synthesizes many of the recent articles about prototyping and contrasts prototyping with the more traditional systems life cycle approach to application development. As some projects are more suited to one methodology than the other, this paper presents a contingency approach, based on project size and project uncertainty, to selecting the most appropriate application development methodology for a given project.

An investigation of the information center from the user's perspective

This paper reports the findings of a field study conducted to obtain the end-user's viewpoint regarding the Information Center as a concept, and as an organization deployed in the user's own company. The study was conducted during 1985, and involved over 50 end-users in five Fortune 1000 corporations. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain the user's viewpoint on such issues as: the importance of information center services, the effectiveness of those services as delivered in the user's own company, and the use and importance of other sources for similar services. In addition, critical success factors for information centers, and users opinions on the anticipated future need for information center services were also solicited. Results of the field interviews are presented and analyzed, with suggestions made on the conclusions that can be drawn in terms of managing and delivering information center services.

An investigation of database requirements for institutional and ad hoc DSS

Four decision support systems, two institutional and two ad hoc, were investigated. Of primary interest was whether there were differences in the data base component of the institutional and ad hoc DSS. The study's findings suggest that there are differences with practical implications for DSS designers.

Group decision support systems

An exciting new concept is emerging in the area of decision support. This involves the development of computer-based systems for use by groups of people who are jointly responsible for making decisions. Known as "Group Decision Support Systems" (GDSS) they can be useful to committees, review panels, executive board meetings, task forces, and groups of managers who work together on either a regular or one-time basis. The precise design of a GDSS will vary depending on the proximity of group members to one another and the duration of the decision-making session. This paper presents an overview of the GDSS concept and explores issues related to the design, implementation, and study of these systems.

Development of computer-based information systems

It is still too often the case that Computer-Based Information Systems (CIS) are developed behind schedule, over cost, do not do as much as promised, and do not satisfy their users. After 25 years of experience building these systems, why do these troubles continue to arise? A good part of the answer is that the requirements for these systems were never stated accurately and/or completely in the first place. If the requirement statements are erroneous or incomplete, how can the resulting system be expected to perform satisfactorily? In addition, errors caught or requirements discovered in later phases of the system development process can have very adverse affects on cost targets and meeting time deadlines.

A multilevel design architecture for decision support systems

Decision support systems are characterized as special purpose information systems. The deficiencies of existing systems are identified and an ideal system is described. A design architecture based on six levels of abstraction is proposed. Each level is identified with a different user group with different needs and requirements. Level independence, user view and meta-information concepts are introduced in an attempt to cross-fertilize decision science with database theory.

The evolution of information systems development approach

The approach to information systems development is changing. A new approach, prototyping, is gaining popularity among practitioners in the field. Twelve information systems development projects using the prototyping approach were studied. For each project, the project manager and at least one systems analyst were interviewed. The underlying premises for prototyping and the interview findings concerning the advantages, practicability, and organizational requirements of prototyping are discussed in this article. With growing experience in the use of the approach and the broader availability of powerful software tools, it is timely to consider using prototyping for information systems development.

OFFICE WORK

Office work has grown explosively in this century. Once a small occupational category, office work now includes about 40 percent of the American work force. Yet office work continues to be “the familiar unknown”: we worry about its growing size, we are concerned about its productivity, and we design systems to improve it; but our real knowledge of what goes on in the office is very shallow. This article discusses only a few of the many subtle facets of office work that vendors and users must understand to meet the needs of this attractive, but difficult market.