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Acceptance testing: Conducting any tests required by the user to ensure that the user community is satisfied with the system.
Access: A precondition for the electronic delivery of services and goods. Stakeholders must have access to remote access devices.
Access channel: An access device plus an associated communication channel.
Access device: A mechanism used to formulate, transmit, receive and display messages.
Accounting information system: The part of the information systems infrastructure devoted to managing information concerning the financial state of the organisation.
Action perspective: The perspective on organisations that focuses on the process of organising.
Activitybased project management: A form of project management in which planning and control is conducted in terms of project activities.
Adaptive maintenance: Changes made to the information system to provide a closer fit between an information system and its environment, the human activity system.
Adjunct community: An eCommunity fostered by a commercial operation.
After-sales service: A primary process in the internal value chain. These are services that maintain or enhance product value by attempting to promote a continuing relationship with customers. They involve such activities as the installation, testing, maintenance and repair of products.
Agent: Something (usually a person, group, department or organisation but possibly some other information system) that is a net originator or receiver of system data.
Aggregation: This type of relationship serves to collect a set of different classes into one unit or aggregate.
Application: A term generally used as a synonym for an ICT system or another piece of software designed to perform a particular function.
Application service provider: A company supplying a software service as an application.
Application software: Software designed for a particular set of tasks in an organisation.
Association: An association relationship establishes a connection between the instances of classes and is defined by cardinality and optionality.
Auction: A form of commercial exchange involving bidding.
Authentication: The process of identifying an actor to a system.
Authority: Legitimated power in that those over whom it is exercised accept it.
Authorisation: The facilities available for enforcing database security.
Awareness: A precondition of electronic delivery. Stakeholders must be aware of the potential benefits.
B2B: Business to business. See supply chain.
B2B eCommerce: The use of e-Commerce in the supply chain.
B2B IOS:An interorganisational information system used to connect businesses.
B2C: Business to consumer. See customer chain.
B2C eCommerce: The use of eCommerce in the customer chain.
B2C IOS: An interorganisational information system used to connect businesses to customers.
Back-end ICT infrastructure: The ICT systems used to support the core information systems of the business.
Back-end ICT system: A core ICT system involved in manipulating the key data for the organisation.
Back-end information system: A core transaction processing information system concerned with supporting the internal processes of an organisation.
Back-end information systems infrastructure: The core set of transaction processing information systems in organisations.
Balanced scorecard: A popular form of organisational evaluation which benchmarks against an holistic measurement system.
Bandwidth: A measure of the amount of data that can be transmitted along a communication channel in a unit of time. Normally measured in bits per second.
Benchmarking: Sometimes called competitive practices benchmarking. The process of comparing performance against other comparable organisations or processes.
Bespoke development: The development style in which an organisation produces a new information system to directly match its requirements.
Bit: An abbreviation of binary digit – one of the two digits (0 and 1) used in binary notation.
Branding: The process of using some form of sign to identify a product or service.
Bricks and mortar businesses: Businesses in the sense that they have a physical presence, usually buildings where they can be located.
Broadband: A term generally used to describe a highbandwidth communication channel.
Browser: A program that allows users to access and read Web documents.
Bulletin board: Web facilities that permit users to post items to a central access area.
Business case: The case made for the utility of an information system.
Business model: Specifies the structure and dynamics of a particular enterprise, particularly the relationship between different stakeholders, benefits and costs to each, and key revenue flows.
Business process: See organisational process.
Business process re-engineering: An organisational analysis approach to redesigning business processes.
Business strategy:See organisation strategy.
Buyer-oriented B2B: The consumer opens an electronic market on its own server and requests bids.
Byte: A set of eight binary digits/bits.
C2C eCommerce: Consumer to consumer eCommerce. ICT enablement of aspects of the community chain.
Capacity: See bandwidth.
CAISE: See computer aided information systems engineering.
Cardinality: Establishes how many instances of one entity are related to how many instances of another entity.
Cash commerce: Occurs when irregular transactions of a one-off nature are conducted between economic actors. In cash commerce the processes of execution and settlement are typically combined.
Chain of command and control: Refers to the relationships of power and authority established in the organisation between its members.
Character set: A scheme for representing symbols in binary notation.
Chat: Technology enabling near-synchronous many-tomany communication over the Internet.
Chief information officer : A term for the executive-level manager in the organisation responsible for informatics.
CIO: See chief information officer.
Cisco: A leading firm in the market for inter-networking equipment.
Class: See object class.
Clicks and mortar businesses: Businesses that still maintain a physical presence but also offer services and products that are accessible online.
Clicks-only businesses: Businesses that have emerged entirely in the online environment.
Client: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Clients sponsor and provide resources for the construction and continuing use of an information system.
Client–server: An applications architecture in which the processing is distributed between machines acting as clients and machines acting as servers.
Closed system: A system that does not interact with its environment.
Commerce: A process consisting of pre-sale, sale execution, sale settlement and after-sale activities.
Communication channel: The medium along which messages travel.
Communication software: Software enabling the interconnection of computer systems.
Communication subsystem: That part of an ICT system enabling distribution of the processing around a network
Communication technology: Technology used for communications.
Communications subsystem: Layer of an ICT system concerned with communications.
Community chain: Based on informal social networks of individuals, a major force underlying C2C eCommerce.
Comparator: A mechanism that compares signals from sensors with control inputs.
Competitive position: An organisation takes up a particular position in a market defined by its activities and relationships with its competitors, suppliers, customers and regulators.
Competitor: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Key organisations in the same industrial sector or market that compete with an organisation.
Computer aided information systems engineering (CAISE): ICT that is used to aid automation of aspects of the development process.
Concept: The idea of significance. The collection of properties that in some way characterise a phenomenon.
Conception: See systems conception.
Conceptual model: A model that represents a universe of discourse at a high-level. Used within soft systems approaches to refer to a high-level model of key activities.
Configuration management: The process of controlling the changes made to an information system over time.
Consensus participation: A design group is formed as in representative participation, but representatives are elected by staff and given the responsibility to communicate group decisions back to staff.
Construction: See systems construction.
Consultative participation: Decision making is still in the hands of systems analysts and systems designers, but a great deal of staff at every level are consulted before decisions are made.
Consumer: An actor (individual, group, organisation) which consumes a good or service. See customer.
Consumer behaviour: The behaviour of consumers, and particularly their decision making, in the commercial process.
Content management: The organisational process that manages the maintenance of Web-based material.
Contract: An agreement between actors which is enforceable in law.
Control: The mechanism that implements regulation and adaptation in most systems.
Control inputs: Special types of input to a control process that define levels of performance for a system.
Control subsystem: The subsystem that regulates the behaviour of a system it is monitoring. Also known as a control process or mechanism.
Cookie: A data file placed on a user’s machine by a Web browser. Used by an organisation’s ICT system to monitor interaction.
Corrective maintenance: Changes made to correct previously unidentified system errors.
Correspondence failure: Lack of correspondence between objectives and evaluation.
Cost advantage: This essentially aims to establish the organisation as a low-cost leader in the market.
Cost–benefit analysis: The process of assessing whether or not the process of developing an information system (or any other project) is a worthwhile investment.
Credit-based payment systems: Systems modelled on conventional payment mechanisms such as cheques and credit cards except that signatures are digital rather than physical.
Credit commerce: Irregular transactions occur between trading partners and the processes of settlement and execution are separated.
Critical success factor: A factor that is deemed crucial to the success of a business.
CRM: See customer relationship management.
Culture: The set of behaviours expected in a social group.
Customer: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Consumers of an organisation’s products or services.
Customer chain: The chain of activities that an organisation performs in the service of its customers.
Customer profiling and preferencing: A mechanism of customising online products and services for the customer based on detailed information captured about the customer.
Customer relationship management: The set of activities devoted to managing the customer chain.
Customer relationship management system: An information system devoted to managing all interactions of a customer with an organisation.
Customer resource life-cycle: A strategic planning framework developed by Ives and Learmonth. Also useful in defining elements of the customer chain.
Customer-facing TPS: Transaction processing systems that interface with customers.
Data administration: The function concerned with the management, planning and documentation of the data resource of an organisation.
Data flow: A pipeline through which packets of data of known composition flow.
Data management: The set of facilities needed to manage data.
Data management layer: That part of an ICT system concerned with data management.
Data mining: The process of extracting previously unknown data from large databases and using it to make organisational decisions.
Data model: An architecture for data or a blueprint of data requirements for an application.
Data privacy: Ensuring the privacy of personal data.
Data protection: The activity of ensuring data privacy.
Data security: The process and technologies associated with ensuring the security of data.
Data store: A repository of data.
Data subsystem: That part of an ICT system concerned with managing the data needed by an application.
Data type: A categorisation of data defining the format and operations for it.
Data warehouse: A type of contemporary database system designed to fulfil decision-support needs. It uses large amounts of data from diverse sources to fulfil multidimensional queries.
Database: An organised pool of logically related data.
Database management system: A suite of computer software providing the interface between users and a database or databases.
Database system: A term used to encapsulate the constructs of a data model, DBMS and database.
Database/website integration: The technologies associated with integrating database systems with websites.
Datum: A unit of data.
DBMS: See database management system.
Decision making: The activity of deciding on appropriate action in particular situations.
Decision support database: Databases used to support organisational decision making.
Decision support system (DSS): See executive information system.
Demand chain: See customer chain.
Design: See systems design.
Designation: See symbol.
Developer: See producer.
Development failure: Failure of an information system project while in development.
Development information system: An information system designed to support the development process.
Development method: A specified approach for producing information systems.
Development organisation: That specialist form of organisation charged with producing an information system.
Development process: A human activity system concerned with developing an information system.
Development technique: A technique used to guide activity in a phase of the development process.
Development toolkit: The methods, techniques and tools available to the development organisation.
Differentiation strategy: A strategy undertaken by an organisation to differentiate its product or service from its competitors.
Digital cash: A type of non-credit-based payment system.
Digital certificate: Sometimes referred to as digital signature, used to authenticate parties in an eCommerce transaction.
Digital convergence: The convergence around digital standards allowing interoperability of digital technologies on a global scale.
DDigital divide: The phenomenon of differential rates of awareness, interest, access, skills and use of ICT by different groups in society.
Direct conversion: An implementation approach in which the new system directly replaces the old system.
Direction: A property of a communication which refers to the direction of the data flow between sender and receiver.
Disintermediation: The process available though electronic markets of enabling companies to sell directly to customers.
Division of labour: The way in which tasks and responsibilities are assigned to members of an organisation.
Domain name: A hierarchical naming convention for identifying host computers on the Internet.
Double-loop feedback: A system in which monitoring of single-loop feedback systems and the environment triggers examination and possible revision of the principles upon which a control system is established.
EBusiness: Electronic business, the conduct of business using information and communication technology. A superset of eCommerce.
ECommerce: Electronic commerce. The conduct of business commerce using ICT such as that supporting the Internet.
ECommunity: Electronic community, either a traditional community enabled with ICT or a virtual community.
Economic actor: An agency that engages in economic exchange.
Economic environment: The markets within which an organisation competes. An economic system is the way in which a group of humans arrange their material provisioning.
Economic relationship: The relationships of exchange between economic actors.
Economic system: See economic environment.
EDI: Electronic data interchange. A set of standards for the transfer of electronic documentation between organisations.
DEffectiveness: A measure of the extent to which the system contributes to the purposes of a higher-level system.
Effector: Components of a control process that cause changes to a system’s state.
Efficacy: A measure of the extent to which a system achieves its intended transformation. See also utility.
Efficiency: A measure of the extent to which a system achieves its intended transformation with the minimum use of resources.
EFT: Electronic funds transfer, a means for transferring money between financial repositories such as banks or bank accounts.
EFTPOS: Electronic funds transfer at point of sale, a form of EFT where the purchaser is physically at the point of sale.
EIS: See executive information system.
Electronic delivery: The delivery of services and intangible products over communication networks.
Electronic government: The use of ICT to enable government administrative processes.
Electronic hierarchy: A hierarchy in which exchanges on a one-tomany basis are conducted using ICT.
Electronic payment system: A system for the electronic transfer of monetary data.
Email: Electronic mail. The transmission and receipt of electronic text messages using communication networks.
Email protocol: A communication protocol for the transfer of electronic mail.
EMall: Electronic mall, a collection of eShops.
EMarket: Electronic market, a market in which economic exchanges are conducted using information technology and computer networks.
EMarketing: Electronic marketing, the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services using electronic channels.
Empirics: Branch of semiotics concerned with the physical characteristics of a communication channel.
Employee-facing information systems: Transaction processing systems that interact with employees of an organisation.
ENabled community: A traditional community supported by ICT.
Encryption: The process of encoding and decoding messages to ensure their security in transmission.
End-user: That stakeholder group that uses an information system to conduct work.
Enterprise resource planning system: A software package consisting of a set of IT systems which are integrated to form an infrastructure for an organisation.
Environment: Anything outside the organisation from which it receives inputs and to which it passes outputs.
DEProcurement: Electronic procurement. A term used to refer to ICT-enablement of key supply chain activities.
ETHICS: Mumford’s sociotechnical design method.
Executive information system (EIS): An information system designed to support highlevel, strategic decision making in organisations
Expectation failure: The inability of an information system to meet a specific stakeholder group’s expectations.
Explicit knowledge: Readily accessible, documented and organised knowledge.
Extension: See referent.
Extranet: Allowing access to aspects of an organisation’s intranet to accredited users.
Feasibility study: That part of systems conception concerned with assessing the feasibility of developing an information system.
Feedback: The way in which a control process adjusts the state of a system being monitored to keep it within specified limits.
File: A physical data structure.
Firewall: A collection of hardware and software placed between an organisation’s internal network and an external network such as the Internet.
Five forces model: A strategic planning framework attributed to Porter and Millar.
Formalism: See representation formalism.
Formative evaluation: A form of information systems evaluation concerned with monitoring the developing functionality and usability of a product.
Fourth-generation language: A high-level programming language used to develop an information system.
Fragmentation: A measure of the degree to which data and processing are fragmented amongst information systems.
Front-end ICT infrastructure: The organised collection of ICT systems interacting with key stakeholders.
Front-end ICT system: An ICT system that supports a front-end information system.
Front-end information system: An information system which interacts with internal or external stakeholders of the organisation.
FTP: File transfer protocol, a protocol for transferring files over communication networks.
Functional requirements: Expected features of an information system.
Functionality: What a system does or should be able to do.
General systems theory: An endeavour which attempted to study the properties and behaviour of all systems.
Generalisation: This type of relationship establishes levels of abstraction between object classes.
Gigabytes: 1,000,000,000 bytes (billion).
Global information system: An information system that operates across the globe.
Globalisation: The process by which organisations are operating across the globe.
Goods: Tangible or intangible objects produced by organisations.
Grammar: Rules that control the correct use of a language.
Hardware: The physical (hard) aspects of ICT consisting of processors, input devices and output devices.
Hierarchy: An important systems concept in which a system can be decomposed to various levels of detail.
Holistic thinking: Thinking about the properties of whole systems rather than their parts.
Homeostasis: The process of ensuring that a system remains regulated within defined limits.
Homeostat: A mechanism for ensuring homeostasis.
Horizontal portal: Portal that attempts to serve the entire Internet community, typically by offering search functions and classification for the whole of Web content.
HTML: Hypertext markup language, a standard for marking up documents to be published on the WWW.
HTTP: Hypertext transfer protocol, an object-oriented, stateless protocol that defines how information can be transmitted between client and server.
Human activity system: A logical collection of activities performed by a group of people.
Human activity system design: Design which includes job design, team design and procedure design.
Human resource management: A secondary process in the internal value chain, involving the recruiting, hiring, training and development of employees.
Hybrid implementation: Information systems implementation that phases in particular components as replacements or pilots major modules of the system.
Hypermedia: The approach to building information systems made up of nodes of various media (such as text, audio data and video data) connected by a collection of associative links.
Hypertext: A subset of hypermedia concentrating on the construction of loosely connected textual systems
ICommerce: Internet commerce, the use of Internet technologies in support of eCommerce.
ICT: See information and communication technology.
ICT infrastructure: The set of interrelated ICT systems used by an organisation.
ICT strategy: The process of managing the current ICT infrastructure and implementing a new ICT infrastructure.
ICT system: A technical system, sometimes referred to as a ‘hard’ system. An organised collection of hardware, software and communications technology designed to support aspects of an information system.
Impact: A precondition of electronic delivery. Use of remote access mechanisms must reach a critical threshold driving a virtuous cycle.
Implementation: See systems implementation.
Implicit knowledge: Knowledge accessible through querying and discussion but needing communication.
Inbound logistics: A primary process in the internal value chain involving the receipt and storage of raw materials and the distribution of them to manufacturing units.
Inconsistency: A measure of the degree to which data is held or processed differently across information systems.
Informatics: The study of information, information systems and ICT as applied to various phenomena.
Informatics field: The academic study of informatics issues and problems.
Informatics infrastructure: The sum total of information, information systems and ICT resources available to the organisation at any one time.
Informatics management: The process of putting information, information systems and ICT plans into action.
Informatics planning: The process of defining the optimal informatics architecture for an organisation.
Informatics practice: The practical application of informatics knowledge and skill in organisations.
Informatics profession: The bodies exercising control over informatics practice.
Informatics service: The organisational function devoted to the delivery of informatics services.
Informatics strategy: A definition of the structure within which information, information systems and information technology are to be applied in an organisation.
Information: Data interpreted in a meaningful context.
Information centre: A structure for the informatics service in which the service acts as a centre of expertise for other business units.
Information and communication technology (ICT): Any technology used to support information gathering, processing, distribution and use. ICT consists of hardware, software, data management technology and communication technology.
Information and communication technology infrastructure: See ICT infrastructure.
Information and communication technology strategy: See ICT strategy.
Information and communication technology system: See ICT system.
Information economics: An approach to information systems evaluation that attempts to include the evaluation of intangible as well as tangible benefits.
Information economy: An economy in which information is both important and essential to effective performance.
Information infrastructure: Definitions of information need and activities involved in the collection, storage, dissemination and use of information in an organisation.
Information management: That part of informatics management concerned with the management of information.
Information security: The process of protecting information systems from criminal or unwanted activity.
Information society: A term very loosely used to refer to the effect of ICT, information systems and information generally on modern society.
Information strategy: That part of an informatics strategy concerned with specifying the information need for the future in an organisation.
Information system: A system of communication between people. A system involved in the gathering, processing, distribution and use of information.
Information system development: The process of developing an information system.
Information system development method: A defined approach to developing information systems.
Information system model: A representation of an information system.
Information systems infrastructure: The entire set of information systems used by an organisation.
Information systems management: The process of managing the current information systems infrastructure and implementing the information systems strategy.
Information systems planning: The process of defining an information systems architecture.
Information systems portfolio: A list of current systems in the information systems architecture or future systems in the information systems strategy.
Information systems strategy: That part of an informatics strategy concerned with specifying the future control of an information systems infrastructure and implementation of new elements of this infrastructure.
Input: The elements that a system takes from its environment.
Input device: A device concerned with the input of data.
Input subsystem: The part of a computer system concerned with the input of data.
Institutional perspective: The perspective on organisations that treats them as wholes or units.
Intangible goods: Goods that fundamentally can be represented as data and hence can be delivered to the customer electronically.
Intangible services: Services that fundamentally comprise information and hence can be delivered to the customer electronically.
Integration testing: Testing of all related systems together once a complex system has been assembled as a complete unit.
Intension: See concept.
Interaction failure: The argument that if a system is heavily used it constitutes a success; if it is hardly ever used, or there are major problems involved in using it, it constitutes a failure.
Interactive digital television: A remote access device. A combination of digital television and an up-channel using conventional telephony.
Interest: A precondition of electronic delivery. Stakeholders must be interested in using remote access channels for electronic delivery.
Interface subsystem: The part of an ICT system concerned with managing the user interface.
Intermediary: Sometimes known as a channel organisation. An organisation that mediates between other organisations in the value network.
Intermediation: The process of introducing intermediaries or channel organisations into the supply or customer chain.
Internet: A set of interconnected computer networks distributed around the globe.
Internet auction: An auction conducted over the Internet.
Internet service provider (ISP): A company supplying connections to the Internet.
Interoperability: A measure of the degree to which information systems can be coordinate and collaborate.
Interorganisational information system: A form of information system that is developed and maintained by a consortium of companies in an area of business for mutual benefit.
Intra-business eBusiness: The use of ICT to enable internal business processes.
Intranet: The use of Internet technology in a single organisation.
IP address: Internet protocol address, a unique identifier for the computers on a communications network using TCP/IP.
ISDN: Integrated service digital network, a broadband communication channel for the local loop.
Iterative development: In this model systems conception triggers an iterative cycle in which various versions of a system (prototypes) are analysed, designed, constructed and possibly implemented.
Job analysis: The analysis of the content and relationships of current jobs in terms of both organisational and individual objectives.
Knowledge: Knowledge is derived from information by integrating information with existing knowledge.
Knowledge codification: The representation of knowledge for ease of retrieval.
Knowledge creation: The acquisition of knowledge from organisational members and the creation of new organisational knowledge.
Knowledge management: Consists of knowledge creation, knowledge codification and knowledge transfer.
Knowledge transfer: The communication and sharing of knowledge among organisational members.
Law of requisite variety: See requisite variety.
Linear development: The phases of development are strung out in a linear sequence with outputs from each phase triggering the start of the next phase.
Local area network (LAN): A type of communication network in which the nodes of the network are situated relatively close together.
Local loop: The communication channels between the local telephone exchange and the customer.
Location strategy: A strategy that involves the organisation attempting to find a niche market to service.
Main memory: ee primary storage.
Maintenance: See systems maintenance.
Management: A key control process for organisations.
Managementfacing information systems: Front-end information systems used by management. See management information system, executive information system.
Management information system (MIS): A type of information system supporting the tactical decision making of managers.
Market: A medium for exchanges between buyers and sellers.
Marketing and sales: A primary process in the internal value chain. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational goals. Sales is the associated activity involved in the management of purchasing activities of the customer.
Marketing channel: A channel for the communication of marketing messages.
Megabyte: 1,000,000 bytes (million).
Mega-package: See enterprise resource planning system.
Message: A stream of symbols that is coded as signal.
Method: See information system development method.
MIS: See management information system.
Modelling approach: Constructs, notation and principles of use for modelling.
Modulation: The process by which variety is introduced into a signal.
MP3: Motion Picture Experts Group-1 Level 3. A format that employs an algorithm to compress a music file, achieving a significant reduction of data while retaining near CD-quality sound.
Multichannel access centr: A organisational hub for various access mechanisms.
Multimedia kiosk: A remote access device. Specialist access points to services provided on the Internet.
Napster: A software application that enables users to locate and share digital music in MP3 format
Negative feedback: Process in which a monitoring subsystem monitors the outputs from a system and detects variations from defined levels of performance. If the outputs vary from established levels, the monitoring subsystem initiates actions to reduce the variation.
Newsgroup: Technology for enabling threaded discussions between many-to-many users.
Non-credit based payment systems: Systems designed to encourage the exchange of micro-payments electronically.
Non-functional requirements: Constraints set on the development of an information system.
Non-repudiability: A user of an ICT system should not be able to deny that they have used the system for a commercial transaction.
Norm: An expectation of human behaviour.
Object: A real world thing which can be uniquely identified. A package of data and procedures
Object class: A grouping of similar objects.
Object-oriented: A term applied to programming languages, design methods and database systems to mean providing support for constructs such as objects, classes and abstraction relations such as generalisation and aggregation.
Ontology: That branch of philosophy concerned with theories of reality. Also used as a specification for a domain or universe of discourse.
Open system: A system that interacts with its environment.
Operating system: A piece of system software concerned with the management of all other applications on a computer system.
Operational management: The lowest level of management, involved with making structured decisions with detailed data.
Operational research: A discipline devoted to applying scientific methods to the problems of management.
Operations: A primary process in the internal value chain involving the transformation of raw materials into finished products.
Optionality: Establishes whether all instances of an entity must participate in a relationship or not.
Organisation: A social collective in which formal procedures are used for coordinating the activities of members in the pursuit of joint objectives.
Organisation culture: The set of behavioural expectations associated with an organisation.
Organisation information model: A high-level map of the information requirements for an organisation.
Organisation planning: The process of formulating an organisation strategy.
Organisation process: A set of activities cutting across the major functional divisions in organisations, by which organisations accomplish their mission.
Organisation process model: A high-level map of organisational processes
Organisation strategy: The general direction or mission of an organisation.
Organisation structure: The set of objects of relevance to an organisation plus the relationships between these objects.
Organisation theory: That body of knowledge concerned with defining the key features of organisations.
Organisational analysis: The process of analysing and redesigning key business processes or human activity systems.
Organisational culture: The set of behavioural expectations associated with an organisation.
Outbound logistics: A primary process in the internal value chain involving the storage of finished products in warehouses and the distribution of finished products to customers.
Output: The elements that a system passes back to its environment.
Output device: A device that outputs data.
Output subsystem: The part of a computer system that outputs data to the user or to another device.
Outsourcing: The strategy in which the whole or part of the informatics service is handed over to an external vendor.
Package development: Process in which an organisation purchases a piece of software from a vendor and tailors it to a greater or lesser extent to meet its own demands.
Packet-switched network: A communications network which employs packet-switching protocols and technologies. Data is broken into individual packets which are disseminated over a communications network through the application of routers.
Parallel implementation: An implementation approach in which two systems, the old and the new system, run in parallel.
Partner: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Key organisations in the same industrial sector or market that participate in a partnership arrangement with an organisation.
Payback period: Payback is calculated on the basis of Payback = Investment – cumulative benefit (cash inflow)
Payroll information system: The back-end information system dealing with the payment of employees.
Perfective maintenanc: Changes made to an information system which make improvements but without affecting its functionality.
Performance: The degree to which a system reaches specified levels.
Personal computer: A computer used on the desktop and normally devoted to individual computing use. Also used as a remote access device.
Physical design: The process of detailing the major elements of how a system will work on a computer system.
Physical flow: This represents the flow of tangible or physical goods and services such as foodstuffs and automobiles.
Political environment: The external environment of the organisation concerned with power and its exercise.
Portal: An entry point for users into the WWW.
Positive feedback: The process in a which a monitoring subsystem increasing the discrepancy between desired and actual levels of performance.
Post-mortem evaluation: A variant of summative evaluation concerned with assessing the reasons for and lessons from information systems failures.
Power: The ability of a person or social group to control the behaviour of some other person or social group
Pragmatics: The study of the general context and culture of communication.
Preconditions for electronic service delivery: A range of social factors, expressed in a sequence, which affect the likely take-up of the electronic delivery of goods and services.
Preventive maintenance: Changes aimed at improving a system’s maintainability such as documentation or improving the fl exibility of an information technology system.
Primary storage: Storage of data in media that can be directly acted upon by the central processing unit (CPU) of the computer, such as main memory or cache memory. Primary storage usually provides fast access to relatively low volumes of data.
Privacy: See data privacy.
Process: A transformation of input into output. In information systems modelling a process is a transformation of incoming data flow(s) into outgoing data flow(s).
Process failure: This type of failure is characterised by unsatisfactory development performance.
Process/ information matrix: A matrix which relates classes on an organisation information model against processes on an organisation process model.
Process map: See organisation process model.
Process mapping: See process modelling.
Process modelling: The activity of analysing and specifying major organisational processes.
Process redesign: See process re-engineering.
Process re-engineering: The process of analysing, redesigning and implementing organisational processes.
Procurement: A secondary activity in the internal value chain. The process of purchasing goods and services from suppliers at an acceptable quality and price and with reliable delivery.
Producer: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Teams of developers that have to design, construct and maintain information systems for organisations.
Productbased project managemen:t A form of project management in which project planning and control are focused around information systems products.
Production: The set of activities concerned with the creation of goods and services for human existence.
Productivity paradox: The paradox that organisations that have invested significantly in ICT do not appear to have experienced significant improvements in productivity.
Programming language: A language for instructing a computer system.
Project control: The process of ensuring that a project remains on schedule, within budget and produces the desired output.
Project escalation: The process in which decision makers become locked in an irrational course of action.
Project management: The process of planning for, organising and controlling projects.
Project organisation: The structuring of staff activities in projects to ensure maximum effectiveness.
Project planning: Determining as clearly as possible the likely parameters associated with a particular project.
Prototyping: The development approach in which prototypes are produced.
Public key infrastructure: An infrastructure for ensuring the security of electronic transactions which includes procedures for managing the assignment and storage of digital keys, and ensuring they are used only by legitimate holders.
Purchase-order processing information system: The information system that records details of purchase orders to suppliers.
Record: A physical data element composed of fields.
Redundancy: A measure of the degree to which data is unnecessarily replicated across information systems.
Referent: That which is being signified. The range of phenomena referred to.
Regulator: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Groups or agencies that set environmental constraints for an information system.
Reintermediation: The process in electronic markets of new intermediaries developing between buyers and sellers.
Relationship: An association between entities or classes.
Repeat commerce: The pattern in which regular, repeat transactions occur between trading partners.
Representative participation: A design group is formed made up of representatives of all grades of staff with systems analysts. The representatives however are selected by management.
Requirements analysis: The stage in the database development process that involves finding out data requirements.
Requirements elicitation: See requirements analysis.
Requisite variety: Only variety can absorb variety. For full control of the system it is monitoring a control subsystem should contain variety – a number of states – at least equal to the system under control.
Return on investment (RoI) : The benefit gained from investment in a project. It is calculated using the equation: RoI= average (annual net income/annual investment amount).
Ring network: A network topology in which network devices are connected in a loop.
Risk analysis: The identification, estimation and assessment of risk.
Role: A package of behaviour associated with a particular social situation.
Root definition: A way of specifying organisational processes in the soft systems method.
Routers: Hardware and software technology that directs packets to their indicated destination along a communications network.
Rules subsystem: The part of an ICT system concerned with application logic.
Sales-order processing information system: The information system that records details of customer orders.
Satisficing: The term used by Herbert Simon to describe the characteristics of human decision making that is adequate rather than idealised.
Scenario: A narrative description of what people do and experience as they try to make use of computer systems and applications.
Scientific management: An approach to management thinking created by Frederick Taylor.
Search engine: A system that allows users to locate websites by matching keywords.
Secondary storage: Storage of data that cannot be processed directly by the CPU. It provides slower access than primary storage but can handle much larger volumes of data. Two of the most popular forms of secondary storage are magnetic disk and magnetic tape.
Secure socket layer (SSL) : Netscape’s attempt to offer a secure channel of communication. It is a framework for transmitting sensitive information such as credit card details over the Internet.
Security: See data security.
Semantics: The study of the meaning of signs.
Semiosis: The process of using signs.
Semiotics: The study of signs and sign-systems.
Sense and respond: A systems view of the organisation which emphasises adaptation to environmental change.
Sensor: A mechanism that monitors the changes in the environment of a system.
Service: An activity delivered to a stakeholder.
SGML: Standard generalised markup language, a generalised markup language for describing the formatting of electronic documents.
Sign: Anything that is significant. Normally made up of symbol, concept and referent.
Single-loop feedback: A simple feedback process in which the performance plans for a system remain unchanged.
Social capital: The productive value of people engaged in a dense network of social relations. Social capital consists of those features of social organisation – networks of secondary associations, high levels of interpersonal trust, reciprocity – that act as resources for individuals and facilitate collective action.
Social environment: The external environment of the organisation concerned with society.
Social infrastructure: The social infrastructure for eBusiness consists of those human activity systems central to supporting the conduct of eBusiness. These include competencies in planning, management, development and evaluation.
Social network: A network of people and social relations.
Sociotechnical design: The parallel design of both technical and social systems.
Sociotechnical system: A system of technology used within a system of activity.
Soft system: Collections of people undertaking activities to achieve a purpose.
Soft systems methodology: The approach to organisational analysis created by Peter Checkland.
Software: The non-physical (soft) aspects of information technology. Software is essentially programs – sets of instructions for controlling computer hardware.
Spamming: The process of sending unsolicited emails to large numbers of people.
SQL: See structured query language.
Stakeholder: The group of people to whom an information system is relevant.
Stakeholder analysis: Analysing the types of and impact of stakeholders on information systems.
Stakeholder involvement: Involvement of stakeholder representatives in the development of an ICT system.
Stakeholder participation: Involvement of stakeholders both in the development of the ICT system and the work surrounding its use.
Stakeholder resistance: The resistance of stakeholder groups to the introduction of an information system.
Stakeholder satisfaction: The state of satisfaction expressed by a stakeholder group in an information system.
Star network: A network topology in which network devices are connected to a central computer.
State: The state of a system is defined by the values appropriate to the systems’ attributes or state variables.
Stock control information system: An information system for recording details of inventory.
Storage: The part of a system concerned with the representation of data.
Storage device: A device that persistently represents data.
Storage subsystem: The part of a computer system concerned with the persistent representation of data.
Strategic analysis: The process of determining the organisation’s mission and goals.
Strategic choice: The process of generating strategic options, evaluating them and selecting a suitable strategy to achieve the selected option.
Strategic evaluation: The form of information system evaluation concerned with assessing the utility of an information system prior to development.
Strategic implementation: Determining policies, making decisions and taking action.
Strategic information system: An information system that delivers competitive advantage.
Strategic management: The top level of management, concerned with making unstructured decisions based on heavily summarised data.
Strategy: The art of a commander-in-chief; the art of projecting and directing the larger military movements and operations in a campaign.
Structuration: The process by which human action both produces and reproduces social structure, and also how social structure both informs and constrains human action.
Structured query language (SQL) : A database sub-language. A standard for performing data manipulation, data retrieval and data control work with relational DBMS.
Subculture: The set of behavioural expectations associated with a part of a larger social grouping.
Suboptimisation: Optimising the performance of a component subsystem independently will not necessarily optimise the performance of the system as a whole.
Subsystem: A coherent part of a system.
Summative evaluation: The form of information system evaluation that assesses the worth of a system after implementation.
Supplier: A key type of organisational stakeholder. Organisations that supply goods and services to an organisation.
Supplier-facing information systems: Transaction processing systems that interface with suppliers.
Supplier-oriented B2B: Producers and consumers use the same electronic marketplace. Essentially the same as B2C eCommerce.
Supplier relationship management: The management of supply-chain activities. Sometimes referred to as supply chain management.
Supplier relationship management system: An information system devoted to managing all interactions of a supplier with an organisation.
Supply chain: The chain of activities that an organisation performs in relation to its suppliers.
Supply chain management: The collection of an organisation’s activities devoted to management of the supply chain.
Symbol: That which is signifying something.
Synchronisation: A property of a communication channel. The degree to which the sender and receiver of messages participate in the process at the same time.
Syntactics: The part of semiotics devoted to the study of the structure of signs and sign-systems.
Syntax: The operational rules for the correct representation of terms and their use in the construction of sentences of a language.
System: A coherent set of interdependent components which exists for some purpose, has some stability, and can usefully be viewed as a whole.
System documentation: A description of the structure and behaviour of the ICT system for developers.
System lag: A delay between the issuing of a control signal and the adjustment of the system process to it.
System software: The collection of programs that coordinate the activities of hardware and all programs running on a computer system.
System testing: Testing of an entire system as a unit.
Systems analysis: The part of the development process devoted to eliciting and representing the requirements for systems.
Systems conception: The part of the development process devoted to assessing the investment potential and feasibility of systems.
Systems construction: The part of the development process devoted to constructing systems.
Systems design: The part of the development process devoted to designing the functionality of systems.
Systems engineering: A systems discipline concerned with the production of large, complex physical artefacts.
Systems implementation: The part of the development process devoted to delivering the system into its context of use.
Systems maintenance: The part of the development process devoted to maintaining systems.
Systems thinking: See general systems theory.
Table: The major data structure in the relational data model.
Tacit knowledge: Knowledge accessible only with difficulty through elicitation techniques.
Tactical management: Middle management which interfaces between strategic and operational management.
Tactics: Tactics belongs only to the mechanical movement of bodies set in motion by strategy.
Tangible goods: Goods that have a physical form and cannot be delivered to customers electronically.
Tangible services: Services that have a physical form and cannot be delivered to customers electronically.
Task analysis: Specifying the precise organisation of tasks associated with the use of a computer system.
TCP/IP: Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol is the communications model underlying the Internet.
Technical infrastructure: The supporting infrastructure of ICTs for eBusiness.
Technique: A systematic activity within the development process.
Technological frame: A collection of underlying assumptions, expectations and knowledge that people have about technology and its use.
Telecommunication carrier: An organisation that provides the telecommunication infrastructure for communications.
Telecommunication device: A piece of hardware that permits electronic communication to occur.
Telecommunication media: Media used for the transmission of data in communication networks.
Telecommunication service: See telecommunication carrier.
Telephony: A category of access device which includes fixed audio and video telephones as well as mobile telephones and fax machines.
Terabyte: 1,000,000,000,000 (trillion) bytes.
Testing: Part of systems construction. Ensuring that an information system is working effectively.
Theory X: According to this theory the average human being is perceived as disliking work and hence avoiding it wherever possible. The average human being avoids responsibility and has little ambition.
Theory Y: According to this theory physical and mental effort are important and natural human functions. If humans are committed to certain objectives they will exercise self-direction and self-control. The capacity to exercise imagination, ingenuity and creativity are widely distributed in the population.
Third-generation programming language: Also known as high-level language. A programming language two steps removed from assembly language.
Three-tier architecture: A client–server architecture divided into three layers: interface, business and data.
Tool: Software used to aid the development process.
TPS: See transaction processing system.
Transaction: A logical unit of work. A transaction transforms a database from one consistent state to another consistent state. Transactions are major ways of recording service delivery.
Transaction processing system (TPS) : A type of information system supporting the operational activities of an organisation.
Transaction subsystem: The part of an ICT system concerned with communicating between the interface and rules subsystem and the data subsystem.
Transactional data: Data that records events taking place between individuals, groups and organisations.
Tunnelling technology: Technology that involves the transmission of data over the Internet using leased lines to the local ISP. With the use of encryption, authentication and other security technologies such an approach can be used to produce a virtual private network (VPN) over a wide area network.
Unit testing: Testing of individual programs or software modules. .
Universal resource locator (URL) : A unique identifier for a document placed on the Web.
Usability: An information system’s usability is how easy a system is to use for the purpose for which it was constructed.
Usability engineering: An approach that focuses on assessing, evaluating and testing the usability of ICT systems, with the aim of improving the design of the user interface.
Use: A precondition of electronic delivery. Stakeholders must regularly use remote access mechanisms in core areas of life.
Use case model: A use case model provides a high-level description of major user interactions with an information system.
Use failure: Failure of an information system after a period of use.
Use setting: A concept that includes the information-handling behaviours of stakeholders using a particular access device in a particular place.
User documentation: A source of reference for users to turn to when puzzled about aspects of the use of an ICT system.
User interface: The part of an ICT system that allows the enduser to use the system.
Utility: The worth of an information system in terms of the contribution it makes to its human activity system and to the organisation as a whole.
Value: A general term used to describe the outputs from an organisation.
Value added network (VAN) : A type of communication network in which a third party creates and maintains a network for other organisations.
Value chain: A series of interdependent activities that deliver a product or service to a customer.
Variety: A measure of the complexity of a system; the number of states a system can assume.
Vertical portal: An entry point to the WWW, that provides the same functionality as a horizontal portal but for a specific market sector.
Viable system: A term used by Stafford Beer to describe a system capable of surviving in a volatile environment.
Virtual community: A community consisting of a network of actors on a communication network.
Virtual organisation: An organisation built on an ICT infrastructure that enables collaborative eWorking amongst members. Also referred to as a network organisation. Characterised by a fl at organisational hierarchy, formed around projects and linked by ICT.
Virtual private network (VPN) : A form of network which employs tunnelling technology to secure data transmission over the Internet.
Vocabulary: A complete list of the terms of a language. See syntactics.
Volume testing: Testing the application with large amounts of data and use.
WAP: See Wireless application protocol..
Web page: Generally used to refer to the presentational aspect of a web document.
Web portal: A web page designed to be an entry point for users into the WWW.
Website: A logical collection of HTML documents available on the WWW.
Wide area network (WAN) : A type of communication network in which the nodes of the network are geographically remote.
Wireless application protocol (WAP) : An open international standard for application layer network communications in a wireless communication environment.
Word: One or more bytes treated as a unit.
World Wide Web (WWW) : A set of standards for hypermedia documentation. It has now become synonymous with the Internet.
XML: Extensible markup language, a metalanguage for the definition of document standards.
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