Part I

Discuss the questions listed below:

1. An organization often has distinct roles for handling different domains of its business. How do you think the required skill sets and organizational role of a general manager, functional manager, CIO, and end user differ? Explain why it is critical to the success of modern firms that general and functional managers be directly involved in IS and IT decision making. Why are modern firms increasingly selecting CIOs from managerial ranks rather than from technology ranks?
2. Provide an example of two organizations in which you think a similar IS would engender two different outcomes. Explain why.
3. IS can generate both positive and negative unintended results. Do you agree or disagree? Justify your answers by providing examples.

PART II

Information Infrastructure and Systems

In this week, your task for the final project is to research in the South University Online Library and on the Internet to identify a case study of your choice with a pertinent information system application.

Some examples could be: a health care organization, such as a health care insurance company, a major hospital, or medical laboratory; an academic institution, such as a university or a professional institute; a commerce and transportation center, for example a major airport, or maritime port; a transportation carrier, such as an airline company, a railroad company, or even a car transportation service; a network service provider, such as a telecommunications service carrier/provider, an Internet and voice digital service provider, or a cloud service provider; a major media organization, such as television network, or a multimedia service operator; an industry firm that manufactures products, such as a computer products manufacturer, a car manufacturer, or a hardware manufacturer; a major retailer, for example a food retailer, a home maintenance retailer, or clothes outlet; an entertainment complex, such as a hotel, a vacation resort, or a large recreation and entertainment complex; a financial institution, for example a banking system, a credit card service, or an investment trading service.

The above are examples to guide you with your research, but you are not limited to these areas. It is important that you arrive at your own case study based on your personal interests, and that it is well suited for an information systems analysis. Some criteria that you should consider in arriving at your case study are listed below:

1. Your case study may be based on an actual company or organization, using facts from research, or it could be based on a fictional company or organization that you entirely define yourself as a hypothetical case with your own assumptions.
2. Your case study must require an underlying information system as an essential element for its operation.
3. The information system must be reasonably complex. One way to determine whether an information system is reasonably complex is to think in terms of entities and relationships that you will need to model. Even without knowing exactly how the data model will look, having some early notion of how many entities and relationships you should expect to model the information in your case will give you an appreciation for your case’s complexity. A reasonable complexity would be at least ten entities and ten relationships.
4. At some point in your research you must be able to think in terms of use cases for your information system. Think of use cases as transactions that different end users will invoke when interacting with your information system. At the time you select your research area and define your case study, you need not know exactly the use cases you will be working with, but you should have some appreciation for the types of scenarios that you will explore as you progress with your project.
5. Finally, you must submit your area of study to the professor via e-mail and have your professor’s approval that you may go ahead with your selection.

Once you have selected your study area and case, and have received approval from your professor, you may proceed to the next steps described below. Create a report that focuses on the IS used to support the operation of your organization in your case study and answer the following questions.

• What events trigger the flow of information in and out of your system?
• What tracking mechanisms are in place?
• What technologies are being used for tracking the underlying events?
• What is the information infrastructure for handling the information flow?
• Diagrammatically represent the flow of information between your organization and adjacent entities (for example, these could be suppliers, customers, support organizations, government agencies, or partnering organizations).
• What security mechanisms are in place for obtaining information on events pertaining to your case study?
• What security mechanisms are in place in the organization? Who handles violations of organizational policies? What is the range of their responsibilities? Who do these officers respond to? Which office oversees the operations of the business for your organization?
• What are brokers? What types of precautions are taken in order to establish minimum trust with brokers?
• Which standard organizations or governmental agencies oversee the operation of your organization?

Submission Details:

• Create your report in approximately 5–7 pages in a Microsoft Word document and save it as W1_A3_LastName_FirstInitial.doc.
• Cite any sources you use using correct APA format on a separate page.