| André Leclerc | informatics consultant |
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Process of dividing the whole into its parts or components for further examination. (“Divide and conquer”)
“Data Analytics” is a process used to analyze data sets to extract meaningful conclusions, such as trends, patterns and statistics, intended to help organizations make the right decisions.
“Big data” is a broad term for extremely large data sets that may be scrutinized and analyzed to reveal patterns, trends and associations of interest to an organization’s business.
Those data sets are usually so large or complex that their management is beyond the ability of traditional data processing tools.
Business components of an information system are those components that implement the essential business functions of that information system. To that end, they embody all of the system’s data and implement all of its data management operations. Also, it is essentially those components that work together to carry out all of the system’s use cases.
To embody the data and implement the data management operations, the business components of an information system have properties carrying the data and methods operating on those data. Properties are also known as data fields, elements, attributes or characteristics, and methods are also know as operations.
The business components also need to be assembled together or associated with each other in order to implement all of the data management operations and carry out all of the use cases of the information system, as many of those operations and use cases might require the cooperation of many different components.
In its most basic form, a business glossary is a software application used to communicate and govern an organization’s business concepts and terminology. &nbps;The business glossary is the core application enabling the governance of data.
Business intelligence is the application of data, technology, and analytics to the production of information that can be used for decision-making purposes.
An organization’s business model takes the form of hierarchical charts, definitions and matrices.
The hierarchical charts decompose the organization’s functions, services, structures and activity areas into progressively finer ones.
The matrices are used to match the various elements of the business model, at a given level, to get, for example, an understanding of who does what, who uses which information, and which information is used and produced by the various services.
An informatics plan builds more matrices for the purpose of matching elements of a business model to elements of the organization’s information technology infrastructure. Business models are a pre-requisite to the development of informatics plans.
See also Business Plan, Informatics Plan and Model.
A business plan is a plan detailing an organization’s strategies and plans for ensuring the continuation of its operations and the fulfillment of its mandate for a certain period of time.
The period of time covered by a business plan is usually limited to between one and three (3) fiscal years.
The five (5) main sections of a business plan are:
An organization’s business plan should drive that organization’s informatics plan, to ensure that business needs, not the information technology, be the main driving force behind the informatics plan.
See also Informatics Plan and Business Model.
A factor that directly influences costs.
An output that we want to measure in terms of costs.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a set of computer applications designed to help organizations manage data on their clients for the purpose of retaining them by offering them a better service.
Salesforce CRM from Salesforce.com, SAP CRM from SAP SE, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM from Microsoft, are well-known examples of CRM software.
Facts, opinions, observations, etc. Data is processed to produce information.
Data comes in various shapes, such as text, numbers, graphics, images, video, sound, etc.
Since all information systems manage data, it is the data being managed that is the main source of differentiation between information systems. One system can, for example, manage data on human resources (people) while another manages data on financial resources (accounts, budgets, etc) and yet another manages data on physical resources (buildings, vehicles, computers, etc). The operations performed by those different information systems on their respective data are very similar. All information systems have to input, validate, add, store, secure, update, delete, search, select, display and disseminate data. However, the data being managed differ from one system to another.
There are five (5) main categories of data:
A database is a repository of data requiring special software called database management software in order to be accessed, used, modified, administered and maintained.
The data objects stored in a database are of various types, including basic data types such as numeric, alphabetic and alphanumeric, and, in the case of some databases, more complex data types such as pictures and sounds.
Those data objects are not only stored in a database but also identified, indexed, keyed, clustered and organized in various ways by the database management software so as to ease and control the access, use, modification, administration and maintenance of the stored data.
The database management software usually runs on one or many servers that are dedicated to it. Those servers may even, sometimes, be dedicated to specific databases. See the definition of server. When dedicated to the management of databases, those servers are called database servers.
The database management software comes with numerous utilities to assist database administrators in setting up databases, in maintaining them and in administering them.
See also Software and Data Warehouse.
Repository of data on objects that themselves carry data. For this reason, the data contained in a data dictionary is often called metadata.
See also Data and Data Model.
Data governance is a set of processes that ensures that important data assets are formally managed throughout the enterprise, including the process of maintaining high standards of data quality across that enterprise. Data governance guarantees that data can be trusted and that people can be made accountable for any adverse event that happens because of poor data quality. It is about putting people in charge of preventing and fixing issues with data, so that the enterprise can become more efficient. Data modelling is an important piece of data governance as it is through the practice of that discipline that we can ensure that our data is defined and designed the way it needs to be.
See also Data Stewardship.
Model of perceived or future information needs, in terms of data entities, elements and relationships.
A data model usually takes the form of entity-relationship diagrams accompanied or supported by a data dictionary. Modelling data is critical to understanding its meanings, its interrelationships, and its rules.
Data stewardship is the formalization of accountability for the management of data.
See also Data Governance and Data Steward.
A data steward is a person who is knowledgeable about the data in a certain subject area and who is responsible for the care and appropriate use of that data.
See also Data Stewardship.
A repository of data that can be quickly and easily turned into decision support information and that comes from different data sources.
A data warehouse’s data sources are usually operational databases and systems that are based on different technologies, not connected to each other, and not easily accessible to the users of the data warehouse.
See also Database.
Doing the right thing.
To be productive, one must first be effective. See the definition of Productivity.
Doing it right.
To be productive, one must also be efficient. See the definition of Productivity.
An enterprise data model is a representation of all the data that is important to an organization, and of all the rules governing that data, made in a way that is completely independent of how the data is sourced, stored, processed or used.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a category of business management software, typically consisting in a suite of integrated applications sharing a common data base, that an organization can use to automate many, if not most, of its business processes.
PeopleSoft from Oracle, SAP ERP from SAP SE, and Microsoft Dynamics ERP from Microsoft, are well-known examples of ERP software.
A guideline is typically a collection of “recommendations” or “suggestions” in specific areas based on experience or best practices.
Guidelines are not requirements to be met as policies are, but they usually are strongly recommended.
Policies may refer to guidelines to justify some of their rules.
Informatics is the science or art of automating the management and processing of information via the use of technology, including both hardware and software components, and via the use of techniques, methodologies, guidelines, standards and procedures.
Informatics is used in all domains of human or business activity where there is a requirement to manage and process information.
An informatics plan is a plan detailing an organization’s strategies and plans in the area of informatics for a certain period of time.
The period of time covered by an informatics plan is usually limited to between one and three fiscal years.
The four (4) main sections of an informatics plan are:
An informatics situation’s assessment is a qualitative and quantitative description of what is currently available in terms of informatics support to the organization’s business. This assumes that a model of the organization’s business is available. See the definition of business model.
An organization’s informatics plan should be tied to that organization’s business plan, to ensure that business needs, not the information technology, be the main driving force behind the informatics plan.
Information is processed data that is significant to at least one user. See the definition of Data.
An information system is a collection of interrelated components that input, process, store and output information needed to complete some tasks or achieve some goals.
As long as it inputs data, does something with that data and generates some new data, it is an information system.
Any system, whether it is an information system or a transportation system such as an automobile, is comprised of components that are somehow assembled together in order to perform certain functions.
The components of information systems fall into three (3) categories depending on the functions that they implement:
Use case scenarios describe the interactions between an information system and its users for the purpose of achieving certain goals or of producing certain results.
See also Informatics.
Something, someone or service transformed by a process to produce one or many outputs.
The quality or quantity of an input is usually measurable.
Reference data are sets of values or classification schemas that are referred to by systems, applications, data stores, processes and reports, as well as by occurrences of master data and of transactional data.
Examples include lists of valid status codes, state abbreviations, official languages, transaction types, product categories and general ledger accounts.
Master data describe the people, places and things that are involved in an organization’s business.
Examples include people, such as customers, employees, vendors and suppliers, places, such as work sites, sales territories and office locations, and things, such as accounts, products, assets and document sets.
Transactional data describe internal or external events or transactions that take place as an organization conducts its business.
Examples include sales orders, invoices, purchase orders, shipping documents, passport applications, credit card payments and insurance claims.
Historical data contain significant facts, as of a certain point in time, that should not be altered except to correct an error.
Temporary data are data that are not viewed by humans and that are kept in memory only for technical purposes, usually to speed up processing.
The term “Metadata” literally means “data about data”. Metadata is data that helps people understand and manage their data resource so that it can be fully utilized to meet their current and future information requirements.
Examples of metadata include the names, descriptions and physical characteristics of data elements, the rules used to validate the assignement of values to those data elements, examples of valid values that could be assigned to those data elements, and the names of the organizations that are the custodians of the data elements.
See also Data Dictionary.
A model is a representation of a perceived or foreseen reality done for the purpose of communicating an existing situation or a vision, experimenting with alternatives, or predicting behaviours.
An organization chart models an actual organization, a floor plan of a building is a model of an actual layout of real walls, partitions, equipment and furniture, and a database model is a representation of a real database.
A model can be more or less precise in its representation of reality. For example, a picture of an automobile is a less precise model of that automobile than a working prototype of that same automobile is, whatever the size of the prototype.
Using the above definition of a model, a prototype is simply a model exhibiting more realism, interaction or usage possibilities than other types of models such as textual descriptions, pictures, charts and diagrams.
A model allows requirements to be defined, assumptions to be verified, and alternatives to be tested and compared.
See also Business Model.
An ontology is a set of statements, written in a specific natural language, that define the properties of certain concepts, the relations between them, and the logical rules governing their use.
Something, someone or service that is the direct result of the transformation of one or many inputs by a process.
The quality or quantity of an output is measurable.
Quantitative or qualitative measure of an output’s production, expressed in a particular unit of measure and compared against a particular prescribed standard or benchmark. There are three (3) types of performance indicators:
A policy is typically a document that outlines specific requirements or rules that must be met, and consequences of not satisfying those requirements or of not abiding by those rules.
Policies are usually very specific but not always well communicated.
Policies may refer to guidelines to justify some of their rules.
Group of related activites, tasks or actions, performed according to some pre-defined manual or automated procedure, and contributing to the transformation of inputs into outputs.
Productivity = Effectiveness + Efficiency, in that order.
A project is a set of well-defined activities and deliverables having one or many common objectives within the boundaries of a well-defined scope.
A project must be defined, planned, organized and controlled as its activities unfold. See the definition of Project Management.
A project has a definite start and end, otherwise it is not a project but rather a service, line of business or programme.
All projects are characterized by objectives, activities, deliverables, stakeholders, impacts, critical success factors, constraints and requirements. The constraints and requirements can be of a financial nature (budgets), of a human nature, or be related with materiel, time or technology.
Also, projects may have different contractual requirements depending on the number and importance of their resource requirements.
Project management is a set of activities that can be classified into three (3) separate phases.
In order to plan the project, the project manager must define the activities of the whole project, at a level of detail that is sufficient enough to make reasonable global estimates, to acquire or reserve the required resources, and to allow management to decide on the appropriateness of going ahead with the project. The relationships and dependencies between the various phases, steps, activities and deliverables of the project must be clearly established in the project plan.
At the end of each major phase or step of a project, the project manager must compare the results obtained during that phase or step to the ones that were anticipated for that same phase or step. If the project is not yet finished and adjustements are required, the project manager must make those adjustments to the project plan and produce a new detailed plan for the following phases or steps.
The project manager must acquire all of the resources (human, financial and materiel) required to complete the project, and set them up in such a way as to allow them to fulfill the project’s goals.
The project manager must monitor the activities of the project team against the project plan, record accomplishments, problems and issues as they arise, and take the appropriate actions to eliminate the problems.
The project manager must coordinate, supervise and facilitate the work of the project team.
Also, the project manager is usually the main interface between the sponsors, clients and users of the project, and the project team. As such, the project manager may have to:
See the definition of Project.
A prototype is a model exhibiting a high degree of realism, interaction, usability and functionality. There are three (3) types of prototypes:
A prototype should not be used as is for production purposes. It can and should, however, be kept for re-use by other development projects.
See also Software.
Quality assurance is a set of activities that can be classified into two (2) separate subsets.
The quality assurance specialists must monitor the activities of the project against the project plan and against accepted standards for carrying such activities, including, if one is used, the methodology underlying the project plan.
Any problem, issue or deviation should be documented and communicated to all parties involved. The related substantiations, decisions and resolutions should also be documented and communicated to all parties involved.
The quality assurance specialists must ensure that all deliverables produced by the project team:
See the definition of Project.
A record may or may not be in machine readable format.
It may, for example, be any correspondence, memorandum, book, plan, map, drawing, diagram, pictorial or graphic work, photograph, film, microfilm, sound recording, videotape, machine readable record, and any other type of document, regardless of physical form or characteristics, and any copy thereof.
Something, someone or service used or consumed by a process to transform inputs into outputs.
The usage or consumption of a resource is measurable.
Software is what makes all computers, whether personal or not, the peripherals that are connected to them and the networks that connect all of that hardware together, usable by people to complete some tasks. There are two major categories of software:
See also Software Tool.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. That software is typically accessed by its users via the Internet or an Intranet, using a web browser.
Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP SE and Microsoft are well-known examples of companies offering some of their software products as a service.
An executable software program or utility that is used to conduct maintenance, monitoring or administrative tasks on computing or networking equipment.
See also Software.
A standard is typically a collection of requirements in specific areas, which requirements must be met by everyone in the organization.
For example, you might have a standard in the area of word processing that prescribes a certain type of layout or a certain template to be used for all documentation of a certain type.
An organization usually enforces the use of its standards via its policies.
Taxonomy is the science of naming, categorizing and classifying things in a hierarchical manner, based on a set of well defined criteria.
A use case is a series of interactions between an information system and its users for the purpose of achieving certain goals or of producing certain results.
Use cases usually take the form of scenarios in which actors having certain roles or responsibilities perform certain actions in order to achieve certain goals or produce certain results. The information system itself is one of the main actors, but it is not the only one.
Use cases are all about required functionality and user goals.