Assignment 1 1. Information technology is hardware, software, and services used by people to be connected to others for the use of sharing, managing, and communicating information.

2. Business Profile is electronic citation that provides information such as registration number, entity name, business activities, registration date, owners and charges of an entity.
A business process is a collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service or product to a client that can be documented and described.
A business process model is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers.

3. There are 5 main components of an information system hardware, software, data, processes and people. People are the stakeholders, which is who have an interest in the information system and sometimes are called the end user.

4. Explain the difference between vertical and horizontal systems packages. A horizontal system is a basic software package system that can be adapted to common business processes like inventory and payroll. A vertical system is customized to meet the unique needs of a particular business, industry, or organization.

5. How do companies use EDI? What are some advantages of using xml? EDI is the exchange of information in a standard format between computers without any human intermediary. XML is cheap to implement and cheaper to deploy via the Internet, while being intuitive, easy to read.

6. Describe five types of information systems, and give an example of each.
Enterprise computing systems support company-wide data management. Airline reservations systems
Transaction processing systems process data generated by day-to-day business operations. Customer billing systems
Business support systems provide job-related information support to users at all levels of a company. Inventory reordering systems
Knowledge management systems simulate human reasoning by combining a knowledge base and inference rules that determine how the knowledge is applied. Technical support knowledge base
User productivity systems provide employees at all organizational levels with a wide array of tools that can improve quality and job performance. Database management systems

7. Describe four organizational levels of a typical business and their information requirements.
Top management - needs information for strategic planning, those that affect the company's future survival and growth.
Middle management - needs information for tactical planning.
Lower management - needs information for day-to-day operational plans.
Operational employees - need information to handle tasks and make decisions that were assigned previously to supervisors.

8. Describe the phases of the systems development life cycle.
Systems planning - begins with a systems request describing problems or desired changes in an information system or business process and ends with a report that describes business considerations, reviews anticipated benefits and costs, and recommends a course of action based on economic, technical, and operational costs.
Systems analysis - begins with requirements modeling where business processes are described and defined, goes on to data modeling, process modeling, and object modeling to develop a logical model of business processes the system must support, and ends with a system requirements document that describes management and user requirements, alternative plans and costs, and recommendations.
Systems design - involves identifying all necessary outputs, inputs, interfaces, and processes; designing internal and external controls, including computer-based and manual features to guarantee that the system will be reliable, accurate, maintanable, and secure. Ends with a systems design specification that is presented to management and users for their review and approval.
Systems implementation - programs are written, tested, and documented and the system is installed and ready for use. This phase also involves a systems evaluation to determine whether the system operates properly and if costs and benefits are within expectations.
Systems operation and support - involves maintenance to correct errors and adapt to changes in the environment, such as new loan rates. Also involves enhancements to provide new features and benefits.
Waterfall model is best suited for large projects with large developer team. Spiral model works best for complex projects which might require changes in the middle of the development process.

9. Explain the use of models, prototypes, and CASE tools in the systems development process.
Models, prototypes, and CASE tools enable systems analysts to plan, design, and implement information systems. These are tools that can help systems analysts synthesize input from several sources into designs that will meet everyone's needs. Pros are more flexibility than waterfall, immediate feedback, and less defects in the final product. Cons are immediate feedback might result to scope creep, documentation might be left behind, and daily stand-up meeting takes a toll.

10. What is object oriented analysis and how does it differ from structured analysis? Object-oriented analysis groups items that interact with one another, typically by class, data or behavior, to create a model that shows the intended purpose of the system as a whole. Structured analysis is both the physical and logical layers of the computer application. These are the data flows, data models, structure charts, and state models.