CHAPTER 7: META MODELING CONCEPTS GENERIC FRAMEWORK II: SELECTING

METHODS AND TOOLS

LEGACY SYSTEM

 Established organizations will be concerned with running system that have be in operation for
some times.
 Legacy system:
o Originally developed as early as the 1960s & 1970s
o High volume transactions processing application running on mainframe computer.
o Frequently written in the Cobol programming language that using structured files rather
than database system.
o High maintenance cost (many changes involved and become more complex). Data processed by the
o Use obsolete hardware and software, poor documentation. system may be
maintenance in
o Lack of people support with the knowledge required to maintain them. difference files which
have incompatible
structure. (Out of date,
inaccurate, incomplete,
data duplication)
 Alternative to continued maintenance or replacement is to:
o Reverse engineer
 Software tools to analyze the operational programs
1st
commercial  in term of rules and procedures that them embody.
relational
database on
 Oracle has modules designed to reverse engineer program
relational  Renaissance methodology presents one approach to adapt legacy system to
language
conform new vision.
o Forward engineer
More recent version of the
 Modify them so that they conform to new standards. programming language /
restructure (program code,
modules, data source [file to
database])

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SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

 Concerns the use of sound engineering principles, good management practice, applicable tools
and methods for software development.
 Solution to the software crisis
O Ability to maintain programs
O Fulfill the growing demand for larger and more complex program
O Increased potential of hardware which has not been exploited fully by the software
Better designed
Genuine
 Now software engineering generally been accepted as programs
advance Improved
Making them software
Improvement to quality
easier to
programming
maintain &
practice
reliable

 Key elements of software engineering

O Functional decomposition
 Complex process is broken down into increasingly smaller subsets.
o Program design
 Top module (control) separate to lower level (input, output, validation,
processing)

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AUTOMATED TOOLS

 Due to IS development process are repetitive or rule based.

 Modern software tools that assist in IS development. (Example: decision table, project control
package [Microsoft Project], toolset [any integrated computer software system that is
specifically designed to support management of IS development] )
o Graphic facilities for modeling and design
o Automated documentation
o Code generation from system specification / from the models designed using the tool
o Automatic audit trail of all changes
o Critical path scheduling with resource availability (project control)
o Automatic enforcement of the standards of a chosen development methodology

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 CHAPTER 7: META MODELING CONCEPTS GENERIC FRAMEWORK II: SELECTING
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COMPONENT DEVELOPMENT
Sometime
described  Component = a physical packaging of executable software with a well-defined and published
as black interface.
box
Incl. executable code, source code, Indicates that a component is
designs, specification, test , somehow available in a marketplace
documentation (purchase/downloaded)

 Benefits:
o To develop an application can thread / link together a series of component that will
form the application they require.
o Cheaper and quicker to develop from scratch
o Component tested and matured in the marketplace (error removed)
o Industrial strength / ready to use
o Component can be removed and replace with others to enhance the functionality ->
meeting changing & evolving requirement

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 CHAPTER 7: META MODELING CONCEPTS GENERIC FRAMEWORK II: SELECTING
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SECURITY ISSUES

 Purpose = > Maintain business continuity

(Breaches of security can damage the business in a financial sense and damage its
reputation. Eg. bank)

 Breaches of security:
o Malicious
 Fraud
 Espionage (Spying)
 Vandalism
 Sabotage
o No malicious
 Disk crash
 Fire and flood
 Human error
 Inadvertent misuse
 Information security aims to safeguard:
o Confidentially
 Ensures that information is accessible / disclosed only those authorized to
access.
o Integrity
 Accuracy and completeness of information and processing method.
 Reflecting their trustworthiness
o Availability
 Ensure authorized uses have access to information and associated assets when
required.
 Control:
o Software validation routines and testing procedures (data accuracy).
o Encryption (confidential data)
o Password (access to information)
o Firewall & virus protection (security software)
o Strict ‘need to know’ basis (employee access information)
o Password & fingerprint (ensure user)
o Physical locking / human security checks (theft of hardware)
o Regular reporting (account use of system)
o Plans to recovery (regular backup) Training Material
o Follow professional codes of conduct
o Good documentation PIC

Security Procedure

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 CHAPTER 7: META MODELING CONCEPTS GENERIC FRAMEWORK II: SELECTING
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT

 Database has to be organized & integrated

O Expected to be used by a number of users in different ways.
 Database Management System (DBMS)
O Software which handle the many accesses to the database
O Store Data
On storage devices
Data Relationships

O Efficient data retrieval => retrieval of that data when the application require it

So important data resource of the business is

used effectively

O Potential architecture for database system:

External View
View of data as
Separation of ‘seen’ by application
different views of programs and users.

the data enables. Subset of conceptual

model

Conceptual View
Express entity model
Data
Independence
(Possible to Internal View
change the Describes how and
where data are
conceptual view stored
without changing
external view)

 Benefit of data independence

O Increase data shareability
 Avoid ‘data redundancy’ -> costly especially organization with large amount of
data
 Then data can be managed and shared
 Data resource needs to be control to ensure good integrity
 Computer system must be powerful for a large number of users are accessing
the database concurrently
O Increase data integrity

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 Easier to ensure data correctness and ‘up-to dateness’ with many users
accessing the database
O Increase speed of implementing applications
 Can concentrate on the processes involved in the application
 No to worry about collection, validation, sorting and storage of data
 Accessing the data will be easier because DBMS will handle the manipulation
features
O Ease data access by programmers and users
 Programming language easy for computer programmers to learn and use
 Eg. Cobol (earlier)
 Eg. Query language
O Increase data independence
 Possible to change the logic of the programs without having to change the file
definition => programmers productivity is increased.
 Data store only once => can have different user view
O Reduce program maintenance
 Only need to change the database and the data dictionary (or system
repository) for any changes such as new data types added, format, new access
methods.
O Provide a management view
 Information can be presented in
 Timely (regular basis or ‘one off’ nature)
 Accurate
 At the required level (department, division)
O Improve standard
 To impose standards for
 File creation, access, update
 Control – unauthorized access
 backup

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DATA WAREHOUSE AND DATA MINING Data is non-volatile

- It is fixed and does not
 Database - organized collections of related data need updating
- Update data add to
 Data warehouse – much larger collection of data warehouse
- Do not replace the old
data

 Data mining software

O Picks out patterns and correction in the data
O Can explain an observed event / condition
O Confirm a hypothesis
O Explore for unexpected relationship
Drilling down = going into more detail
 Data warehouse system Tool: OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
Tool: OLAP )
O Extract the data
O Transform it into a consistent format for the system
O Clean the data so that it is reasonably accurate
O Store, link and maintain the data in the data warehouse ready for use

 Business Intelligence
O Describe the successful use of the data for an organization
O Eg. patterns related to customers demography (class, income, age, postcode) => for
customer relationship management
O Eg. credit card company use data mining to detect unexpected purchase

 SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science)

O It is a data mining tool
O Studies people / company behavior and characteristic
 Generates predictive models deployed in order to optimize company
relationship with customers.

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CONCLUSION

 Legacy system
o Systems that have been in operation for some times
o Many well perform critical processes
o Problem:
 High maintenance cost
 Use obsolete hardware and software
 Poorly documented
 Lack support people with knowledge required to maintain them

 Software engineering
o Concerns use of sound engineering principles, good management practice, application
tools and methods for software development.

 IS can be developed from component

o Drivers
o Internet utilities
o Software development software
o Security
o Database

 Security important in all stages of IS development and operational

o Breaches of security
 Malicious
 Non malicious

 Database
o An organized and integrated collection of data

 DBMS
o Software that validates, stores, secures, displays and prints the data in ways that user
required.

 Data warehouse
o Large collections of related and unrelated data

 Data mining
o Attempts to identify business trends / improve customer relationship manage using
software tools.

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