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In this world of constant change, automation is always struggling to keep up. Every day, you are faced with new tools that promise faster, more accurate, dependable results. The industry that developers serve is competitive and demanding, and it often is challenging to provide your clients with the results they want in the time frame they desire at a minimal cost.
Designer/2000 uses a methodology that works from the top down. The bundled tool set enables you to perform a strategic analysis, detailed analysis, system modeling, and design. The method begins with a process model that analyzes the various business units, the functions they perform, and the order in which they are performed. This methodology of design is very useful in acquiring the full scope of how your system works. Many people in organizations perform routine tasks daily without understanding what occurs before or after their portion of the task. After the members of an organization have a thorough understanding of the process, they can begin to formulate enterprise-wide solutions to automate the process.
After the enterprise is in place, the individual components are identified, and system modeling begins. One application or a full suite may work together to share information and tasks. Designer/2000 offers the capability to organize this information in an easy-to-understand format that uses graphical user interfaces and reporting to provide excellent documentation.
Unfortunately, while this chapter analyzes the requirements and presents the information in Designer/2000, the business is changing; new requirements become a reality daily, and existing conditions suddenly appear not so promising . Developers often must continually change their models and the scope of their projects, which results in exasperation and ineffective cost containment for the company. You can use Designer/2000 to manage these changes and even make them appear seamless to the end user. It is important to get the end users involved in the project in the early stages, so you need a tool logical enough for non-technical individuals to comprehend. Consequently, problems in the systems are identified and dealt with early, and the users receive a product that meets all their requirements.
Although successful information systems (ISs) often contain common attributes, the approaches to attain the end results have changed radically in the past several years . New approaches are being developed, and old, tried-and-true approaches still are used because of their past successes. Because no single approach is suitable for every situation, Designer/2000 supports a wide range of approaches for delivering ISs. It is your responsibility as the developer to match the proper approach with the need of each project. This chapter discusses each approach, all of which are integrated tightly into Designer/2000, and when you should use each of these approaches. In this chapter you'll also learn the installation process to get you started using
Designer/2000.
It's the 1990s. Businesses are downsizing, integrating, merging, and expandingall seemingly in a single step. This often leads to smaller departments with increased visibility and responsibility within the enterprise. At the other end of the spectrum, small businesses can grow from
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two employees to several hundred within a very short amount of time. In either of these situations, the organization may need to investigate Business Process Reengineering (BPR) to develop an IS. BPR often starts with the notion that something is wrong with the integration of the enterprise; this could be caused by downsizing or rapid growth of the company.
This approach often involves integrating multiple departments, each with complex IS needs. Using BPR often promotes an understanding of the overall integration of the enterprise. Although BPR may somewhat resemble more traditional approaches, this methodology incorporates an emphasis on the redesign of processes within the enterprise as well as the way in which those processes interact with each other.
After the diagnosis is complete, you must act on that diagnosis. After the processes are (possibly) redesigned, the process model is of little significance unless you act on it. To achieve a successful implementation using BPR, the redesigned processes and procedures must be implemented. New procedures might be required, or old ones might be changed radically; ISs also must be developed to support those new procedures and processes. You can use each of the following tools to help you diagnose and analyze your system's BPR and possible areas of change: