Information System Quality Management: A Theoretical Approach

Prof. G. N. Isayev

Information System Quality Management: A Theoretical Approach

© Isayev G.N., 2019

© Animedia Company, 2019

BBK 32.973

G87

UDC 681.3.338.45

Isayev, Georgy: Information System Quality Management: A Theoretical Approach,

1 vyd. Praha, Animedia Company, 2019

ISBN 978-80-7499-346-6 (online: epub)

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. Theory and Methodology of Information System Operational Quality Improvement

1.1. Information System Operational Quality Problem. Research Review

1.2. Defining the Information System Operational Quality Improvement Paradigm

1.3. Methodological Concepts of Information System Operational Quality Improvement

Conclusions

Chapter 2. The Information Systems Operational Quality Improvement Semantical Model Development

2.1. The Terms Representation of Information System Operational Quality Improvement

2.2. Descriptive Modeling of Information Systems Operational Quality Improvement

Conclusions

Chapter 3. Development of Mathematical Models for Information System Operational Quality Improvement

3.1. The Generic Model of the Information System Operational Quality Improvement

3.2. Model for the Determination of the Information System Operational Quality Indicator Set

3.3. Analysis Model of the Information Systems Operational Quality Assessment Indicator Values

3.4. Generalized Indicators and Their Weight Coefficients Determining Model

3.5. Automatic Error Detection and Correction Model in Table Documents

Conclusions

Chapter 4. Information Systems Operational Quality Improvement Models Experimental Research

4.1. InfSys Operational Quality Improvement Model Experimental Research Problem Definition

4.2. Model Examination Data Processing

4.3. Models and Experimental Results Adequacy Assessment and Analysis

Conclusions

Chapter 5. Comprehensive InfSys Operational Quality Management System Synthesis

5.1. Comprehensive InfSys Operational Quality Management System Goals, Problems and Functions

5.2. Structure of the Comprehensive InfSys Operational Quality Management System

5.3. Comprehensive InfSys Operational Quality Management System Data Processing

5.4. Comprehensive InfSys Operational Quality Management System Creation

Conclusions

Conclusion

Reference list

Appendix

Appendix 1. Information System Operational Defect Detection and Registration

Appendix 2. InfSys Operation Defect Detection Log

Appendix 3. Information Codifiers from Detected Defect Log Filling

Appendix 4. Automatic Error Detection and Table Document Indicators Validity Recovery Algorithm and Software

Appendix 5. Analysis of the Information System’s Operational Quality Assessment Indicator Values

Appendix 6. List of Acronyms

PREFACE

At the beginning of the third millennium, humanity is facing a variety of social problems related to the so-called information society. The civilized world is unthinkable without the extensive use and development of advanced information technologies and systems. Development and operation of information systems (InfSys) requires significant resources. It emphasizes the importance of securing an efficient return from the resources invested. An InfSys developer faces many fundamental and applied issues, including how to secure the required InfSys efficiency level; what quality assurance methods and tools are available, if any; if they are available, how to apply them to a specific project; how to solve problems related to the development of quality assurance methods and tools; what serves as an integrating quality improvement tool; what is the structure and strategy of developing such tools; and what is information system quality management? InfSys developers lack answers to such questions, which leads to many problems ultimately related to InfSys quality improvement. The core problem is the creation of information system quality management theory and strategy.

This research uses a comprehensive approach to the problem. It is therefore reasonable to apply the comprehensive InfSys quality improvement theory and strategy to InfSys quality management issues. Perhaps for the first time, the InfSys quality management problem has been investigated comprehensively and completely with a lot of case studies. The book's author has been working in this field for many years.

The InfSys quality management concept covers a range of tasks. The study presents definition, mathematical modeling, and simulation of the InfSys quality improvement processes. A comprehensive information system quality management system (IS QMS) has been developed with structural and parametric synthesis methods and models. IS QMS is a tool for proactive and continuous quality management in information systems. The IS QMS design and operation problems have been solved considering its core properties: goal selection, tasks, functions, structure, data processing technology, evaluation criteria, development trends, etc.

It is obviously impossible to exhaustively investigate all the problems in just one book. It would be desirable to expand the coverage of IS QMS development tools.

Validity of the findings and applicability of the proposed methods and tools have been verified through experiments and actual implementations at a number of domestic and international organizations.

The monograph is intended for a wide range of experts in the IT industry, science, education, manufacturing, management, and business who develop, operate InfSys, and improve their quality. The work can be used in academic process and as textbooks for students majoring in Applied Computer Science, Computer Science for Business, Information Technologies and Systems, Automated Information Systems, and other related fields. All this clearly shows the need for improving InfSys quality and for publishing this monograph.

V.R. Serov

Prof., doctor of technical Sciences,

Honored worker of science of the Russian Federation

INTRODUCTION

Information systems (InfSys) are being widely adopted in today’s world. Significant resources are allocated for InfSys design, development, and operations. Still, investments in InfSys do not always bring expected returns. It is even more relevant for management InfSys. Quite often, commissioned InfSys show below-than-expected performance in operation and do not meet the project requirements. The most critical aspect of InfSys performance is to provide accurate, complete, up-to-date information to the user. Using low-quality information results in reduced quality of decisions made and reduced operational management efficiency.

There is also a social side of InfSys quality. Poor InfSys performance hinders the IT industry development, impairs the software competitiveness, and damages the developer’s and the country’s prestige. Due to natural resource depletion, there is an urgent need to switch from inorganic to organic growth and to new solutions supporting InfSys quality. Against the social background, the InsSys quality assurance can be seen as an institutional problem.

The best minds have always paid great attention to quality as a social development factor. I. A. Ilyin, a Russian philosopher, stated, The only way out, and the means of salvation for the Russian people, is coming back to high quality, the culture of quality, since the way of quantitative growth has been tried and exposed, while we see any quantitative illusions are dispersing into nothing. We believe and we know that Russia will rise from decay and humiliation and enter the new age of prosperity as soon as the Russians realize that quality is the only way to salvation [4].

The international community has taken certain measures to solve the quality issues. ISO 9000 international standards [41,42,130-132] set general quality requirements. The first revision of the ISO 9000 standards was released in the late 1980s. The standards define requirements to quality assurance systems. The new branch of quality management emerged. Quality management is an efficient tool for InfSys quality improvement. Internationally, the advanced quality management strategies are based on the TQM (total quality management) approach [1, 4, 125].

A specific series of international and national standards offer detailed coverage of quality issues related to InfSys. Such current standards as ISO/IEC 15288. Systems and software engineering. System life cycle processes, GOST R ISO 9001-2001 Quality management systems. Requirements, and others contain general requirements to intelligent system component quality management processes applied along the system’s life cycle. The standards facilitate better InfSys performance. They are applicable to any InfSys and any organization.

Today, it is very clear that in order to be a social progress leader, a country should efficiently solve the problem by creating and applying high-quality information. The following Russian and international researchers have contributed a lot to this field: Belonogov G.G., Gilyarevsky R.C., Danchul A.N., Druzhinin G.V., Kolin K.K., Kostogryzov A.I., Kurbakov K.I., Lipaev V.V., Maltseva S.V., Nadezhdin E.N., Sergeeva I.V., Serov V.R., Sinavina V.S., Telnov Yu.F., Tikhonov A.N., Kharkevich A.N., Chereshkin D.S., Cherny A.I., Edmans A., Eppler M., Herget J., Kahn B.K, Marchand D., Schutz T., Skalski D., Freytag J., and many others.

Note that modern manufacturing is getting more complicated with a higher output. These and other factors have led to more and more demanding InfSys quality requirements at every lifecycle stage: design study, development, implementation, and operation. The operation stage is long-term and the most down-to-earth one. The InfSys development costs are supposed to be returned at this stage. For historic reasons, InfSys operation quality is mostly improved with disconnected InfSys refinement solutions. Still, such solutions are poorly integrated; the quality of their structure and applications often deteriorates due to the lack of a system-based approach and a concept of InfSys operational quality. There is a widening gap between need for comprehensive improvement of the decision quality on the one hand, and inadequate operational quality of existing InfSys that support such decision-making on the other hand. To close the gap, the multiple, sometimes perfect but poorly-integrated processes, methods, and tools shall be integrated through certain system logics. Such systems should be rather creative; for instance, it should be able to actively affect the InfSys operational quality as a whole and the quality of its components. The complicated InfSys operational quality (ISOQ) problem related to organizational issues can be solved in a number of ways. The most reasonable way seems to be the development of the implementation of a theory and methodology for InfSys operational quality improvement (ISOQI). In terms of ISOQI, many quality improvement issues can be solved including information system quality management (ISQM) at their development and operational stages.

There is a distinct contradiction between the InfSys quality improvement paradigm based on disconnected tools and a paradigm based on a scientifically sound approach. InfSys quality improvement has come to the point when a transition from silo, disconnected tools to a system of theories and tools is required. It is time to change the paradigm.

The general objective of this book is to present the results of studying and developing ISQM fundamentals and methods within the framework of InfSys operational quality improvement. The study results are a set of ISOQI simulation models, methods, and tools.

To reach the study objective, we have considered and solved the following theoretical and applied problems:

Theoretical problems:

1.    InfSys quality assurance review; identification of the most promising ISQM theories and methods.

2.    Developing a hierarchical structure of the paradigm as an InfSys operational quality improvement model. It is a foundation of the ISQM theory. It consists of basic definitions, properties, structure and processes shaping the sequence and methods of solving problems, the scope and content of the subject matter.

3. Developing the structure and implementation procedure for InfSys operational quality management as the basic methodology components: principles, structure and logic, models, methods, and tools.

4. Developing a number of concept, mathematical, and computer simulation models being basic components of the comprehensive InfSys operational quality management theory and methodology. The models are:

·  models of structural and parametric synthesis of an InfSys quality management system, and its components

·  a generalized model of automated InfSys operational quality management being a foundation for the creation and development of particular InfSystm operational quality management (ISOQM) models

·  a model of automated InfSys operational quality estimation

·  a model of automated InfSys operational quality assessment consisting of a number of particular models: a model of automated identification of the primary InfSys quality indicators using cluster analysis applied to statistical data on the InfSys failures; a model of automated identification of generalized InfSys quality indicators with regression analysis of the indicator vs. InfSys failure relations

5. Developing a method for creating a comprehensive InfSys operational quality management system (CISOQMS) as a new generation of automated information and control system that performs a comprehensive analysis and continuous improvement of information and engineering InfSys aspects (in real time) and its organizational aspects (offline).

6. Developing a method for analyzing a multidimensional structure of InfSys operational failures based on a set of models, ISOQ categories, document templates, computer-aided data processing guidelines.

7. Developing a method for generating definitions of ISQM terms with a set of accepted rules, hierarchy, and tables with each term’s tokens, property recognition for each token, and creating the term definition.

8. Experimental assessment of the proposed automated InfSys operational quality management models, methods, and tools in order to prove their applicability.

9. Developing guidelines on comprehensive InfSys operational quality management.

Engineering problems:

10. Developing a method for monitoring automated data processing. In contrast to the existing ones, the method shall automatically find and restore authentic values in real time with no human intervention.

11. Developing a model of interaction between automated CISOQMS data processing and controlled InfSys matching the structural and parametric ISQM synthesis model.

The problem under consideration is comprehensive, so a wide range of methods, tools, and software is required. Fundamental and theoretical problems shall be solved though creating and applying the proposed models. The models are created with system analysis, system theory, information system theory, control theory, mathematical statistics and probability theory, qualimetry, etc. Computer models are developed and used for conducting simulations.

Each category of problems contains a so-called object of research. In this work, the object is a certain group of categories. These categories embrace InfSys development and operation processes, data processing processes, and control systems. The paper considers different scopes of the object categories and classes. The scope depends primarily on the problem being solved, the available knowledge about the object, its class, etc.

There is also a subject of research. While an object can belong to a great variety of real-world categories such as nature, society, and thinking, a subject of research is a much smaller category. As a rule, in any research, the subject of research is a part of the object. A research subject is a certain part; it is an aspect of the object.

In this study, the subjects of the research are the properties, structures, and relationships of information processes and systems within the InfSys quality management domain. Certainly, the book covers each of these categories to various extents and scopes. The scope depends on the required model adequacy and accuracy level. For instance, information systems are the core subject, so a wide range of InfSys is covered, and their semantic, syntax, and pragmatic properties are analyzed.

Chapter 1. Theory and Methodology of Information System Operational Quality Improvement

In the system-based approach framework, quality management should be considered in the ISOQ context. The InfSys quality management problem cannot be solved without defining theoretical and methodological conditions that identify a necessary and sufficient ISOQI epistemology. It is even more so at the early stages of research. The necessary and sufficient conditions can be defined through developing a structure and a paradigm of the ISOQI methodology [98,101,185].

Availability of a discourse covering the ISOQ problem structure and content significantly contributes to successful solving of the ISOQI problems. In this aspect, development of the paradigm shall be aimed at creating consistent ISOQ theory and methodology since these categories are interrelated. The initial stage defines the ISOQI paradigm structure. This stage shall be taken after the current research review.

1.1. Information System Operational Quality Problem. Research Review

To better analyze the present state of the problem and to identify the tasks to solve, we shall consider the evolution of InfSys quality management processes, methods, and tools in 10-year leaps.

1. The first data on improving quality of some automated data processing components appeared in the 1960s. A significant event was the publication of The Fundamentals of Scientific Information by A. Mikhailov, A. Cherny, R. Giluyarevsky in 1965. The monograph offered the first systematic approach to the subject, methodology, properties, laws, and processes related to scientific information. It was the period when the first automated information systems for management and administration applications were developed.

2. In the 1970s, research of information value began. For example, On Information Value by A. Kharkevich [192] defines the information value concept and the properties of its quality. Under the automated management system development project by the Russian Ministry of Higher Education, the Main Computer Center and a number of universities conducted research and prepared a regulatory framework with system-level solutions for InfSys quality management including data reliability issues, etc. [60-65,174,185].

Automated Management System Operational Quality Assessment by V. Sinavina was published in 1973 [177]. The monograph proposes an approach to statistical information reliability verification using actual figures provided by the USSR’s National Automated Statistic System. In the electronics industry, an automated research and development information system (a subsystem of an industry-oriented automated management system) quality assessment was performed. The evaluation indicators were selected with a heuristic approach [161]. There was a number of studies in terminology standardization, categorization of engineering and economic information, and software development for automated data processing [25, 26]. The first monograph on management documents unification for document quality improvement was published [147].

3. In the early 1980s, Characteristics of Software Quality by Barry W. Boehm et al. was translated into Russian [10]. A monograph [157] on improving data reliability in InfSys at each information processing stage was published. The monograph on computer systems performance evaluation [191] was also published at that time. Standards for the unified document management system, document processing, paperwork, and record keeping terminology were developed [28, 29]. Software applications that checked incoming documents and improved data reliability were implemented [162]. The experience of some USSR/Russian companies is worth mentioning. For instance, in the 1980s under the Automated National Publishing Coordination System (ANPCS), the R&D project (headed by Prof. V. Serov) conducted by the USSR National Publishing Board, Dept. of Scientific and Engineering Information, Computer Science School and the personnel of the Computer Center at the Moscow National Archival Science Institute developed and implemented an automated system for managing document processing quality with ANPCS operated by the USSR National Publishing Board [70-82,136,137,140]. The system was specifically designed to manage the ANPCS operational quality including data acquisition, collecting and processing the InfSys issues, assessing the InfSys quality, etc. The quality assessment was qualimetric. The key indicators were identified analytically using cluster analysis and the statistical distribution of malfunctions. Since it was discovered that the system had meta information properties, it enabled its operation using the controlled ANPCS resources. The results were presented as R&D reports, design documents, and industry standards [72,180,181].

At that time, Prof. V. Finn (Soviet Institute for Scientific and Technical Information) et al. published a paper on the DCM method for automated hypothesis generation [5]. This efficient method was intended to improve InfSys quality and functional properties through intellectualization. The DCM method can be used to forecast the properties of structured objects stored in databases (DB) and knowledge bases (KB) when the information is incomplete.

The paper by D. Chereshkin and V. Babantsev, Fundamentals of Information Theory, Forecasting, and Controls [194], came out in 1984. It presented information processes as applied to international relations. The quality of international conflict resolution is assumed to be dependent on the quality of information, particularly, on its degree of reliability and rate of incoming messages about conflicts. We believe this paper is worth noting because it used messages about conflicting parties’ actions as an objective indicator for quantitative assessment of the conflict quality. However, the sequence of receiving messages is not considered.

In 1987, an algorithm for automated error detection and software-driven recovery of true table values and its software implementation was duly registered with the USSR National Register of Algorithms and Software [79]. Prior to that, the software was examined at the Register of Algorithms and Software, USSR Ministry of Higher Education. Distinct from other incoming document verification systems, the software not only detected erroneous data, but automatically estimated their true values and replaced erroneous values with true ones, notifying the computer operator.

IBM Labs performed an experimental research and heuristically identified some scientific information flow quality indicators [201]. It is noteworthy that back at that time a few papers appeared proposing conceptual methodology of automated scientific and managerial information processing quality management as applied to the quality of education in the Scientific Information major [67-82,138].

Moscow Railroad Engineering Institute hosted a cross-industry seminar on information quality. The International IT Academy opened the Dept. of Information Quality. Some universities began issuing collected papers on information quality problems [81].

4. In the 1990s, in spite of the political turmoil, the InfSys quality improvement research continued. A notable event was the monograph by G. Druzhinin and I. Sergeeva, The Quality of Information [49], and the speech on data quality consideration for InfSys development and maintenance [176]. The monograph presented a systematic approach to information quality issues. The book led to the development of several standards and regulations on confidential information quality [36-38]. Some quality standards and regulations for certain ISOQI aspects were also published at that time [34-39,126-129].

  At that period, there were other research projects related to InfSys quality assessment. The papers by A. Kostogryzov et al. [150] considering output information quality evaluation and assurance in managerial automated control systems have become milestones. The estimation includes measuring quality indicators that vary with time. For instance, data processing flaws are detected and rectified. The quality indicators were identified heuristically.

 In 1996, Yu. Arsky, R. Gilyarevskym I. Turov, and A. Cherny published the fundamental research Infosphere: Information Structures, Systems, and Processes [6]. The monograph covers the concept of infosphere and some aspects of its quality, such as end-user performance, relation to its value (utility), etc.

 In 1998, the joint research conducted by the German experts from Humboldt University of Berlin was presented as Online-Informationsressourcen Und Mitteln (Online Information Resources and Tools) monograph [222]. The author of this book was one of the co-authors. My contribution was largely based on the concepts presented in the paper [208]. I developed the monograph’s structure and wrote extensive papers on improving quality of information resources and other ISOQI categories. The R&D project results were also used in a tutorial published in German and Russian. The tutorial covers simulation of ISQM-related problems [87,209,210].

5. Theoretical and applied research in InfSys quality continued in the first decade of the twenty-first century. A number of works used a systemic approach to ISOQI problems such as the quality of scientific information source construction and operation [90], comprehensive InfSys quality management systems, etc. [98,108]. A number of simulation models and devices related to ISOQI have been patented [111-113].

 Striving for a systematic solution to the standardization problems has led to the fact that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has converted its Software Engineering subcommittee into the Software and Systems Engineering (SC7 JTC1) subcommittee. Russian experts, including A. Kostogryzov, have contributed to the development of ISO/IEC 15288-2002. Systems Engineering - System Life Cycle Processes [135]. It became yet another reason for further InfSys quality assessment research. Specifically, in Russia, this kind of research on software engineering and software quality was carried out by A. Vendrov and V. Lipayev [16,154].

Prof. K. Kolin, a prominent expert in social aspects of computing, published the paper Fundamentals of Computing: Social Computing [148]. The paper presents the author’s opinion on the development of computing, and its social and economic effects. The paper offers examples of correlations between breakthrough changes in computing methods and hardware, and life quality. One of them is the effects of TV programs on the quality of real-life perception.

In 2001, Prof. G. Ross published his monograph on managerial and economic system simulation [172]. The book proposes a multi-dimensional vector containing summarized quality indicators for such systems. The set of indicators is formed heuristically. The book includes graph-based models of business process management that use advanced information technologies.

A significant event in 2002 was the publication of a work by the System Analysis Institute, Russian Academy of Science (edited by Prof. D. Chereshkin) on  information security management [163]. It is a landmark book that applies system analysis to information security issues. The most interesting points in the context of the problem under consideration are those related to information security problem solving methodology, data property identification, etc.

Same year I. Sokolov et al. published their work on the concept of the Unified Information System, Russian Academy of Sciences [179]. The work covers system-level issues of determining goals, objectives, functions and structure of the above-mentioned InfSys considered as InfSys quality assurance categories.

In 2002, the InfSys quality assessment research was continued with a monograph by A. Kostogryzov et al. that presented the KOK simulation