Information Engineering (IE) or Information Engineering Methodology (IEM) is an approach to designing and developing information systems. It has a somewhat chequered history that follows two very distinct threads. It is said to have originated in Australia between 1976 and 1980, and appears first in the literature in 1981 in the Savant Institute publication 'Information Engineering' by James Martin and Clive Finkelstein. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) Dr James Martin (born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England) is a Consultant and Author, was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for his book Clive Finkelstein is acknowledged worldwide as one of the "Fathers" of Information Engineering (IE having developed its concepts from 1976 - 1980 based on original
Information Engineering first provided data analysis and database design techniques that could be used by database administrators (DBA’s) and by systems analysts to develop database designs and systems based on an understanding of the operational processing needs of organizations for the 1980s. Data analysis is the process of looking at and summarizing Data with the intent to extract useful Information and develop conclusions Database design is the process of producing a detailed Data model of a Database. A database administrator ( DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a Database. A systems analyst is responsible for researching planning coordinating and recommending Software and system choices to meet an Organization 's Business
The Finkelstein thread evolved after 1980 into the data processing (DP)-driven variant of IE. From 1983 till 1986 IE evolved further into the business-driven variant of IE, which was intended to address a rapidly changing business environment. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) The then Technical Director, Charles M. Richter, from 1983 to 1987, played a significant role by revamping the IE methodology as well as designing the IE software product (User-Data} which helped automate the IE methodology, opening the way to next generation Information Architecture. Information architecture ( IA) is the art of expressing a Model or Concept of Information used in activities that require explicit details
The Martin thread was strategy-driven from the outset and from 1983 was focused on the possibility of automating the development process through the provision of techniques for business description that could be used to populate a data dictionary or encyclopedia that could in turn be used as source material for code generation. The Martin methodology provided a foundation for the CASE tool industry. Martin himself had significant stakes in at least four CASE tool vendors - InTech (Excelerator), Higher Order Software, KnowledgeWare, originally Database Design Inc, (Information Engineering Workbench) and James Martin Associates, originally DMW and now Headstrong (the original designers of the Texas Instruments' Information Engineering Facility and the principal developers of the methodology). A software company headquartered in Atlanta GA co-founded by James Martin and run by Fran Tarkenton. At the end of the 1980s and early 1990s the Martin thread incorporated Rapid Application Development (RAD) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and soon after also entered the object oriented field. Rapid application development ( RAD) is a Software development process, which involves iterative development and the construction of Prototypes Business process reengineering (BPR is a Management approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the processes
Information Engineering Methodology is an architectural approach to planning, analysing, designing, and implementing applications within an enterprise. It aims to enable an enterprise to improve the management of its resources, including capital, people and information systems, to support the achievement of its business vision. It is defined as: "An integrated and evolutionary set of tasks and techniques that enhance business communication throughout an enterprise enabling it to develop people, procedures and systems to achieve its vision". Information Engineering has many purposes, including organisation planning, business re-engineering, application development, information systems planning and systems re-engineering.
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The Variants of Information Engineering
There are two variants of Information Engineering (IE). These are called the DP-driven variant and the business-driven variant.
DP-Driven Variant of IE The DP-driven variant of Information Engineering was designed to enable IS Departments to develop information systems that satisfied the information needs of the 1980s - which was largely a DP-driven development environment. Most of the Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools available today support this DP-driven variant of IE.
Business-Driven Variant of IE IE was extended into strategic business planning and developed the business-driven variant of Information Engineering. This variant was designed for rapid change in the client/server, object-oriented environment of the business-driven 1990s. Business-driven IE is documented in the later books by Clive Finkelstein.
Stages in the Information Engineering
Information Strategy Planning The fundamental objective of Information Strategy Planning (ISP) is to develop a plan for implementing business systems to support business needs.
Outline Business Area Analysis The OBAA answers a range of questions related to implementation of a business area. Select tasks to include in a particular project that provide support for business decisions and objectives. Specific information needs and priorities for the business area are needed.
Detailed Business Area Analysis The purpose of a DBAA project is to provide detailed models as a solid basis for system design. The methodology helps find the right answers to the right questions. Applying the methodology is never an end in itself.
Business System Design The purpose of a Business System Design project is to specify all aspects of a system that are relevant to its users, in preparation for the technical design, construction, and installation of one or more closely related databases and systems. The key tasks are therefore structured to produce unambiguous consistent specifications, with the volume of detail necessary to make planning and technical design decisions.
Technical Design A Technical Design project prepares an implementation area for construction and installation. The key tasks are structured to produce a system and database that meet the user's acceptance criteria and are technically sound.
Construction The objective of the Construction stage is to produce a system, as defined in the technical specification, on time and within budget. The system should be of an acceptable quality, and contain all necessary operating and user procedures. The task is complete when the acceptance criteria for the business system are met.
Transition Transition is defined as the period during which newly developed procedures gradually replace or are interfaced with existing procedures. The execution of a Transition project obviously demands a thorough understanding of both the system to be installed and the systems to be replaced.
Techniques
Some techniques that are used during an IE project are:
Entity analysis identifies all the things that the enterprise may want to hold data about. The analysis classifies all of the things into different entity types, revealing how they relate to each other. Which is being described in the entity model.
Function analysis and process dependency takes a function (a major business activity) of the enterprise and breaks it down into elementary business processes. From this, two diagrams are prepared: the process decomposition diagram, which shows the breakdown of a business function, and the process dependency diagram, which shows the interdependencies of business processes.
Process logic analysis describes the sequences of actions carried out by a business process and shows which data are used by each action.
Entity type lifecycle analysis describes the significant business changes to entities and confirm that processes have been modelled to effect these changes
Matrix cross-checking creates cross-references between data objects and processes to verify that they are necessary and complete.
Normalization provides a formal means of confirming the correctness of the entity model.
Cluster analysis helps define the scope of design areas for proposed business systems.
Data flow and data analysis makes a comparison possible between the business area models and the systems currently supporting this area, these current systems are analyzed using data flow and data analysis techniques.
Software Tools Supporting Information Engineering
Information Engineering Facility (IEF) from Texas Instruments Software. Texas Instruments ( better known in the electronics industry (and popularly as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA This was subsequently sold to Sterling Software and then to Computer Associates. It still exists, in an evolved form within the Advantage suite. As of 2006 referred to as ALL:Fusion Gen, capable of generating J2EE and JAVA web applications in addition to legacy client/server and mainframe platforms.
Information Engineering Workbench (IEW) Later renamed to Application Development Workbench (ADW) from KnowledgeWare. A software company headquartered in Atlanta GA co-founded by James Martin and run by Fran Tarkenton. Knowledgeware was also acquired by Sterling Software. The product no longer exists.
Others included Bachman's Data Analyst, Excelerator and others. See Computer-aided software engineering for more info. CASE (Computer-aided Software/System Engineering refers to the methods dedicated to an engineering discipline for the development of information systems together with automated tools
The business-driven variant of IE is supported by Visible Advantage, an Integrated CASE (I-CASE) tool and by Visible Advisor, a hypermedia Methodology product.
Metastorm's ProVision product provides support for many types of modeling techniques using a repository based tool.
Visio provides diagramming support to some of the Martin techniques.
Books and Papers
1. Martin, James and Clive Finkelstein. Nov 1981. "Information Engineering", Technical Report (2 volumes), Savant Institute, Carnforth, Lancs, UK.
2. Macdonald, Ian. 1986. "Information Engineering" in "Information Systems Design Methodologies", ed TW Olle et al, North-Holland.
3. Macdonald, Ian. 1988. "Automating the Information Engineering Methodology with the Information Engineering Facility", in "Computerized Assistance during the Information Systems Life Cycle", ed TW Olle et al, North-Holland.
4. Finkelstein, Clive. 1989. "An Introduction to Information Engineering : From Strategic Planning to Information Systems". Sydney: Addison-Wesley.
5. Martin, James. 1989. "Information Engineering" (3 volumes), Prentice-Hall Inc.
6. Hares, John. 1992. "Information Engineering for the Advanced Practitioner", Wiley.
References
- The Complex Method IEM
- Rapid Application Development
- Training Information Engineering Hogeschool Utrecht, Netherlands (Dutch)
- Study of Information Engineering in Hamburg (Bachelor and Master)
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