1.

We often define a failed information system as one that is not aligned with the needs of the
organization. Identify a phase during the Systems Design Life Cycle that you think contributes to
the alignment of the Information System with the organization and explain what activity (ies)
that takes place during that phase promotes alignment. Feel free to use the phases I defined in
class or those defined by the text. Also, consider using an example to help illustrate your point.
The systems development lifecycle consists of systems analysis, systems
design, programming, testing, conversion, and production and maintenance. Systems
analysis is the phase where the problem that the organization is trying to solve is analyzed.
Technical specialists identify the problem, gather information requirements, develop
alternative solutions, and establish a project management plan. Business users provide
information requirements, establish financial or operational constraints, and select the
solution. During systems design, technical specialists model and document design
specifications and select the hardware and software technologies for the solution. Business
users approve the specifications. During the programming phase, technical specialists
translate the design specifications into software for the computer. During the testing phase,
technical specialists develop test plans and conduct unit, system, and acceptance tests.
Business users provide test data and scenarios and validate test results. During the
conversion phase, technical specialists prepare a conversion plan and supervise conversion.
Business users evaluate the new system and decide when the new system can be put into
production. During the production and maintenance phase, technical specialists evaluate
the technical performance and perform maintenance. Business users use the system and
evaluate its functional performance. Each activity and phase explained above must
contribute to the alignment of the system with the organization.

The advantages of using this method for developing information systems

include it is highly structured; it has a rigorous and formal approach to requirements and
specifications and tight controls over the system development process; it is appropriate for
developing large transaction processing and management information systems and for
developing complex technical systems. The disadvantages include it is very costly and
time-consuming; it is inflexible and discourages change even though requirements will
change during the project due to the long time this method requires; it is ill-suited to
decision-oriented applications which can be rather unstructured and for which requirements
may be difficult to define.
Implementing the practice management application using an ASP model
provided an end-to-end managed solution, which eliminates many of the technological
barriers at clinics. It also replaces the costly one-time investment with an affordable
monthly subscription fee. The ASP system from Microsoft provided a scalable architecture
that can easily and remotely handle large numbers of concurrent users, saving both time
and money. In addition to losing all the benefits of the ASP service model, in-house
development would require permanent expert staff, in-house development and maintenance
teams, and require clinic to implement expensive technological solutions.

2. Your employer, White Knuckle Airlines (WKA), has tasked you with designing a database to
help them manage some of the data that they accumulate during the course of business.
Specifically, upper management thinks that if the firm could develop a better method of
scheduling flight crews and flights, and matching passengers to those flights, they would be more
competitive. Your task is to develop the database design, somebody else will handle the analysis
and matching algorithms (unless youd like to volunteer).Some parameters:
each flight crew stays together for at least a year, so pilots are not managed individually. A
flight crew is managed as a discrete entity.

 the airline only has one type of aircraft, so each flight crew can fly any flight on the schedule
(a major simplification that I expect a great deal of gratitude for).Your job is to answer the
following questions:
a. What entities will you define for your database? For each entity, identify the primary key and at
least three additional attributes.

Primary keys will be appointed for:

Flight Crews; Scheduled Flights; and Passengers of the Individual Flights.
Attributes will be listed in the categories or tables of:
Flight Crew: Flight Number, Passenger Number, Itinerary
Flight Number: Flight Crew, Flight Number; Itinerary
Flight Schedule: Flight Crew, Flight Number, Itinerary
Fight Schedule: Flight Crew, Passenger Number, Flight Number foreign key will be assigned to
the Flight Number and Itinerary for the purpose of checking passengers upon departure and at
the point of destination
b. Describe the relationship between the flight crews and the scheduled flights? Which entity
contains the foreign key and what is it?
The table for the Flight Crew and the Flight Number foreign key will be linked Flight Schedule
and the number of hours for each flight crew is automatically tabulated as to avoid overscheduling of hours for a flight crew so as to avoid conflicts of scheduling as well as avoiding
flight- hour restrictions for these crews
c. Describe the relationship between the scheduled flights and the passengers. If there is a foreign
key, where should it be located? If there is no foreign key, describe fully how you will create the
relationship?
The table for the passenger and flight schedule will be linked flight Number for check passengers
boarding pass and flights are departing the flight at point of departures and destination points

d. Write an SQL query that will extract the itinerary for passenger #12345.

Select distinct from PASSENGER. Passenger, PASSENGER. Itinerary, site from Flight
NUMBER where passenger=12345

3. The slides on global IT discussed the impact of socioeconomic issues on the globalization of
business. Select one socioeconomic issue, either from the slides or your own knowledge, and
describe how it supports, or reduces, global business.
There are some classical issues that have always been issues in doing business
internationally:
Language: we understand that not everybody speaks English, but we should also recognize that
simple translation of web pages and other electronic documents is not sufficient, either. We must
make sure that the language used is of the proper type (formal vs. informal, regional differences
and slang) and is presented in the way considered proper in the context.
Culture: closely related to language. We must ensure that information is presented in a way that
is comfortable and trusted. In some cultures, electronic information carries much less validity
than written or spoken information. Certain cultures regard some content as offensive or
sacrilegious. Other cultural issues include working conditions. For example, trying to get work
done between 2-4:00 PM in France is difficult, but they routinely work until 8:00 at night.
Legal/Political Issues: There are legal restrictions on the inflow of certain information (Saudi
Arabia) or the transmittal of certain information (China). Some countries restrict the origin of
web content to be mostly domestic (France). Some countries do not accept electronically-signed
contracts.

Infrastructure: Two decades ago, it was difficult to accomplish large scale data transfer to many
parts of the world due to minimal or non-existent bandwidth. Today, some countries look at the
US as having terrifyingly slow cell and Internet service (Japan and S. Korea, among others).
Knowledge base: In decades past, American firms would look to open a plant overseas but had to
send Americans to staff it because the requisite technical or business knowledge was not
available locally. Today, US firms are opening manufacturing, design, and R&D facilities
overseas because they cant find sufficient talent domestically.

While the issues still exist, though in somewhat different forms, we now understand that the
global environment of today was brought about by a much larger set of conditions than simply
wanting to open markets. Organizational: Though not a new concept, outsourcing of
organizational processes became much more popular, except that these processes were now
being moved offshore (offshoring). While most of the processes moved outside the country were
relatively low-wage, low-value added tasks, a rising percentage represent the firms core
competences. For instance, Motorola has opened an R&D facility in China to take advantage of
both lower costs and relatively high levels of technical knowledge.

References:
Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane Price. Laudon. Management Information Systems: Managing the
Digital Firm. Upper Saddle River, NJ: P, 2012. . Print
http://www.formsthatwork.com/files/Articles/5F.pdf
http://www.jidaw.com/article3.html
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070220193855AAZuhUY)