Name: Ruth Ann S. Basnillo                                                                                    6/17/2008

Section: O0A

Book: Systems Analysis and Design Fifth Edition

Reference No: QA 76.9 S88 K45 2002

Authors: Kenneth Kendall

               Julie Kendall

Quote: Members of the subsystems need to realize that their works are interrelated.                   Neither subsystem can properly accomplish its goals without the other.

Review:

ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS

Organization is a complex system with many departments and business units (subsystems) which are linked by people working together. The subsystems composed of smaller interrelated systems serve specialized functions which include accounting, marketing, production, data processing, and management.

One quality of all systems and subsystems is that they are interrelated and interdependent wherein if one element of a system is changed or eliminated, the rest of the system’s elements and subsystems are also impacted.

All systems process inputs (whatever it takes from its environment) into outputs which are actually returned to its environment to fulfill its purpose. Processes include verifying, updating, and printing.

Another aspect of organization as systems is that there is a line that marks the inside and the outside of the system and which sets off the system from the environment. This line is what we call boundary.

The conceptual boundary includes or considers all components of the system that provides input to the system and that which is influenced by the output for the system.

Meanwhile, a system is controlled in the form of feedback wherein all organizations use planning and controlling to manage resources effectively. The ideal system, however, is one that self- corrects or self regulates in such a way that decisions on typical occurrences are not required.

Anything external to an organization’s boundaries is considered to be an environment. This is where inputs are taken and outputs are returned. Among these environments are the environment of the community, the economic environment, and the political environment. Systems are also said to have the concept of internal openness and closedness. Openness refers to the free flow of information within the organization wherein ideas flow from the outside of the boundary while closedness is characterized by many limitations and with numerous rules. Open systems must interact with the environment to survive, closed systems need not.

Virtual components possessed by the entire organization or units of it permit adaptation to changing project or marketplace demands. Enterprises like this use networks of computer and communication technology to bring specialized works in remote areas together electronically to work on projects. The use of virtual components help reduce cost of physical facilities, more rapid response to customer needs, and helping virtual employees fulfill their familial obligation to children or aging parents.

It is important actually for systems analysts to take a systems perspective to broadly clarify and understand the businesses they would encounter. It is also important that not only them but also the members of the subsystems realize that their works are interrelated, meaning, neither subsystem can properly accomplish its goals without the other. And for those employees who are promoted to a higher rank, it is important that they know that overemphasizing their prior functional information requirements can create danger in all sorts of businesses.

New technologies are also being integrated into traditional systems and an enterprise resource planning system or ERP is one example of an integrated organization wherein its goals is to integrate different information systems within the corporation. But it should be understand that implementing it may be frustrating because it is difficult to analyze a system currently in use and fit the ERP model to that system. Analysts, then, need to be aware of the magnitude of the problem they are tackling when trying to implement ERP packages.