A structured information system design for a
newspaper organization: a case study
by MOHAN R. TANNIRU
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
along with their interdependencies, and provide a logical
specification of his/her requirements. This specification may
then be used as input to an automatic program generator for
detailed system design or it can be treated as a sub-schema
in a data base environment.
The discussion here is organized into four sections. Following this introduction, section one briefly describes the
case under consideration (newspaper industry) and its representation as a hierarchical data model. We will also discuss
here some of the basic terminology and notation that will be
followed in later discussion. Section two develops a methodology for the system design under two activity classifi.cation schemes. Section three suggests the approach that
will be used to the actual system implementation. Section
four illustrates some of the expected benefits of using this
approach along with some issues that need further study.
INTRODUCTION
Designing an information system, whether it is one of decision making or decision supporting, often starts with the
identification of the objectives of the system. Information
is then generated and processed to meet these objectives.
In many transaction processing systems (also known as lifestream systems or programmed systems) the objectives are
expressed in terms of reports, both scheduled and ad hoc
(output design). The content portion of this output design
is used to determine the information needs. Some of this
information may be computed internally (process design) or
input directly from an external source (input design).
This seemingly simple structure to the design ofinformation
systems, however~ becomes more complex as the problem
becomes unstructured. The absence of a structure is often
due to lone's inability to identify, a priori, the demands that
will be imposed on the system (objectives of the system),
or to ascertain the appropriateness of various mechanisms
used in achieving these objectives, or both. One's inability
to identify the demands on the system makes the input design
difficult and the lack of an acceptable procedure for achieving these demands makes the process design dynamic. An
example of this is a planning system. Here the objectives are
numerous, conflicting and changing constantly, and the
methodologies used to achieve those objectives vary significantly in their scope, precision and complexity. This is one
of the reasons for the design of support systems for planning.
The design of these support systems is often complex and
no standard methodology exists, as of today, for the design
of these systems.
Significant research has been done in the top-down design
oflarge complex programs [1], and in the automation of system design from a set of user specifications [2,3,4]. The use
of top-down approach to program and system design provides a modular approach and, thus, reduces the consistency
and maintenance problems. It was shown [5,6] that similar
benefits can be drived by relating the top-management's
goals/objectives, expressed as functions of the chart of accounts, to various decisions made in the firm usin~ standard
financial flows of the firm. The objective of this study is to
develop a framework that can be used to accept a planner's
requirem.ents in terms of planning and operational activities
A HIERARCHICAL DATA REPRESENTATION
The major objective of a newspaper is to disseminate news
to various subscribers at a relatively low cost and the extent
of coverage that can be provided, to a large extent, depends
on the financial strength of the organization. Much of this
financial strength is derived from the advertising dollar that
it can generate as a major source of its revenues, and this
in turn depends on the amount of circulation. Four major
decision centers in an organization of this type are: Circulation (subscription, paper distribution, and handling starts/
stops); Production; Editing; and Advertising (display and
classified advertiser selection and billing).
The financial strength is evaluated by creditors and/or
investors in a manner similar to one chosen for any money
making organization, i.e., by observing various financial ratios. Since loyalty of subscribers often plays a greater role
in this business, the circulation department's functions play
a critical part in ensuring accurate billing and reliable distribution. This becomes rather important when there are
competing newspapers catering their service to same market.
Problems related to this activity were the ones that initiated
this study. However, top management's recognition that a
comprehensive system has to be designed ultimately for
proper integration encouraged us to view the system in its
23
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
National Computer Conference, 1980
24
entirety for the purposes of design. The actual implementation will be done one module at a time with the first module
being the one associated with circulation decisions.
The financial state of this organization is represented by
a hierarchical structure shown in Figure 1. The nodes of this
tree structure correspond to various stock and flow (Balance
Sheet and Income Statement) accounts used by the orga-
c
c
C
V
C
X
M
E
~--UNIT
A LE L E CA OA FA CL LL RE CE C AR PPINR SR D SL VSLCASINVME FF AT AP NP STLPWHAEXUSRCNIDIVCS -
E
R
1
C
D
A
C
----oJ
T
v
t
~
S
'---
ASSET
LIABILITIES AND EQUITIES
LIABILITIES
EQUITIES
CURRENT ASSETS
OTHER ASSETS
FIXED ASSETS
CURRENT LIABILITIES
LONG-TERM LIABILITIES
RETAINED EARNINGS
COMMON EQUITY
CASH
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
PRE-PAID INSURANCE
NOTES RECEIVABLE
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVABLE
DONATIONS
SUBSCRIPTION LIST
VALUE OF SUBSCRIPTION LIST
CUM. AMORTIZATION OF SUB. LIST
INVENTORY
MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT
FURNITURE AND FIXTURES
AUTOMOBILES AND TRUCKS
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
NOTES PAYABLE
SHORT-TERM LOANS
PAYROLL WITHHOLDING
ACCRUED EXPENSE
UNEARNED SUBSCRIPTION REVENUES
CURRENT YEAR NET INCOME
DIVIDENDS PAID
COMMON STOCK
2
P
i~
r
S
R
~
-
E
p
k
c
H
nization. The state of this system at time ((b l ) correspond
to the vector of values of each of the states (nodes) in the
system at time (. The state of the system changes from time
(to (+ 1 due to system flows (arcs) that correspond to various
monetary activities within the firm. To be consistent with
the accounting conventions, a flow is said to affect two states
at the same time. The convention adopted here is that the
~
s
b
p,
3 ----'
p
~
p
~
'--------- 5
PS - PREFERRED STOCK
APC- ADDITIONAL PAID-IN CAPITAL'
BVM- BOOK VALUE 'OF MACHINERY
CDM- CUM. DEP. ON MACHINERY
BVF- BOOK VALUE OF FURN. & FIXTURE
CDF- CUM. DEP. ON FURN. & FIXTURE
BVA- BOOK VALUE OF AUTOS &TRUCKS
CDA- CUM. DEP. ON AUTOS &TRUC~S
S - SALES
OPE- OPERATING EXPENSE
SS - SUBSCRIPTION SALES
DS - DEALER AND STREET SALES
DA - DISPLAY ADVERTISING
CA - CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
II - INTEREST INCOME
MS - MISCELLANEOUS SALES
DR - DONATIONS REVENUE
SW - SALARIES AND WAGES
PT - PAYROLL TAXES
UT - U.C. TAXES
R - RENT
PH - PHONE
OS - OPERATING SUPPLfES
MI - MILEAGE
TE - TRAVEL AND ENTERTAINMENT
PE - POSTAGE EXPENSE
SP - STATIONERY AND PRINTING
ME - MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSE
CLE- CONTRACT LABOR EXPENSE
E-CIR - EXPENSES FROM CIRCULATION
E-PR - EXPENSES FROM EDITORIAL
E-ADV - EXPENSES FROM ADVERTISING
E-ADM - EXPENSES FROM ADMINISTRATION
CC - CARRIER COMMISSIONS
CMC- LND CLASS MAILING CHARGES
VEX- VEHICLE EXPENSE
ER - EQUIPMENT RENTAL
LS - LABEL SUPPLIES
CADC- CIRCULAT~ON ADVERTISING COMMISSIONS
TYC- TYPESETTING AND COMPOSITION
CTS- CAMERA AND TYPESETTING SUPPLIES
ELE- EQUIPMENT LEASE SPACE
PCP- PRODUCTION PRESS CHARGES
PHS- PHOTOGRAPHIC SUPPLIES
WSR- WIRE-SERVICE RENTAL AND SUPPLIES
SCE- SYNDICATE CONTRACT EXPENSE
JEX- JANITORIAL EXPENSE
CLE- CLEARING
SDE- SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DUES-EDITORIAL
,
ADA- ADVERTISING COMMISSION TO ADVERTISERS
SDA- SUBSCRIPTION AND DUES BY ADVERTISING
PAT- PAYROLL TAXES
UCT- U.C. TAXES
UTE- UTILITIES EXPENSE
LAE- LEGAL AND ACCOUNTING EXPENSE
PAD- PROMOTION AND ADVERTISING EXPENSE
INE- INSURANCE EXPENSE
DPE- DATA PROCESSING EXPENSE
BCH- BANK CHARGES
RME- REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE EXPENSE
DEX- DEPRECIATION EXPENSE
INTE-INTEREST EXPENSE
AMS- AMORTIZATION OF SUBSCRIPTION LIST
PPT- PROPERTY TAX
Figure I-A hierarchical structure representing the financial state.
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
A Structured Information System Design
starting node of the flow was affected negatively by the flow
amount (credit entry in accounting) and the sinking node of
the flow was affected positively by the same amount (debit
entry). This means that all the asset and expense accounts
in b vector have a positive balance, and liability, equity and
revenue accounts have a negative balance with the total always adding to zero. This representation thus treats debit
entries which correspond to increases in asset accounts or
decreases in liability/equity accounts as positive and vice
versa.
This network representation yields an algebraic equation
(1) that relates the state at t + 1 to state t.
(1)
The flow vector f corresponds to various monetary flows
(Table I) and the effect of any single flow on the states is
shown via a systems matrix S. Each column of this matrix
shows a flow's positive, negative or zero effect on respective
states. As an example, the flow-corresponding to 'acquisition
of equipment for cash' has a column in S-matrix as shown
below.
[0 0 .. -1 .. + 1 .. + 1 .. + 1 0 -1. .. ]'
ALE .. CA .. FA .. ME .. BVM ... C
Note here that the cash and current asset nodes have a negTABLE I.-A Non-Exhaustive List of System Flows
Description of the Flow
Directi')n of Flow
from/to (Cr/Db)
700
Subscription Sales - Cash
SS/C
702
Subscription Sales - Credit
SS/SR
704
Advertising Commission
C/CADC
706
Cancellation
C/SS
708
Carrier Commission
C/CC
710
Dealer Subscription - Credit
DS/SR
712
Postage Charges for Distribution by Mail
C/CMC
714
Mileage Charges for Distribution
C/VFX
716
Label Supplies - Mail Distribution
C/LS
718
Rental Charges on Equipment
AP/ER
720
Salaries and Wages - Circulation
AP/SW
722
Phone Expense - Circulation
AP/PR
724
Operating Supplies - Circulation
AP/OS
726
Mileage - Other - Circulation
c/m
728
Travel and Entertainment - Circulation
C/TE
730
Postage - General - Circulation
C/PE
732
Stationery and Printing - Circulation
C/SP
734
Miscellaneous Expense - Circulation
C/ME
736
Contract Labor Expense - Circulation
AP/CLE
738
Rent Expense - Circulation
C/R
750
Photographic Supplies
C/PHS
752
Wire Service Rental & Supplies
AP/WSR
754
Syndicate Contract Expense
AP/SCE
756
Janitorial Expense
AP/JE
25
ative entry (credit entry) and book value of equipment, machinery & equipment and fixed assets have a positive entry
(debit entry). All other nodes are not affected and, thus, have
a zero entry. It is also important to note that the identification of a set of widely used system flows in the organization predefines the interface between states and flows
through the definition of'S'. The matrix E is simply an identity matrix with the diagonal elements corresponding to
states that do not accumulate between t and t + 1 set to zero.
If the increments in t correspond to the reporting period (one
year), then all the entries in E corresponding to income statement items are set to zero. This completes'the description
of the graphical and algebraic representation of the financial
state of the system.
Decisions made at various levels in the organization affect
the states of the system through a set offlows. By identifying
these 'decisions centers,' one can partition the flow vector,
f. This, in turn, will modularize the state vector and provide
a structure for the design. The methodology used for this
partitioning is discussed in [7] and will only be applied to the
case discussed here. The following conventions and terminology are used for clarity in the presentation.
A decision block (D.-block) is associated with a set of decisions that are considered as a unit because these are either
made at a location georgraphically or functionally separated
from others, or considered inseparable in accomplishing a
specific objective that is clearly defined. We will look at each
case in the next section. AD-block, D i , may need either Xb i
and/or Xj for generating an optimal decision. Here X b i and
X j correspond to exogenous state and flow values needed
by D i. This is mainly determined by the decision maker in
cooperation with the recording (accounting) subsystem.
Identifying the flowsf associated with D i , one can generate
sets Wi, Vi and Ui. Here the sets U i and Vi represent the
states that are affected and exclusively affected by decision
i, while Wi={U i - Vi}.
A level block (L-block) is defined as one that contains all
the decisions with same level number. The level number is
determined by observing the input/output interdependency
among various decisions. X b i and X j will automatically generate these level numbers using a simple algorithm [see (7)].
Conceptually the L-block identifies all the decisions that are
either independent and needed together for the next level
decisions, or mutually interdependent (each need inputs
from the other). The structure developed in the next section
will illustrate these two cases.
THE DESIGN ALTERNATIVES
In the last section we have seen the typical financial state
and the type of system flows applicable to the firm under
consideration. Some aggregation of the states was introduced for clarity of the presentation and this in no way will
affect the design. An example of such an aggregation is
CASH which appears in many reporting documents in a more
detailed form such as 'cash in bank,' 'cash in bank-payroll'
and 'petty cash.' This amount of detail serves no additional
purpose but to depict the realism needed for certain reporting
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
26
National Computer Conference, 1980
LEVEL
functions-a sub-objective of the total system. Let us now
proceed with the identification of the design structure under
two specific cases. These should illustrate not only the procedure used in the development of the structure but also the
critical issues that played a role in the selection strategy for
implementation. The implementation will be discussed in the
next section.
4
Case 1
5
The first case that is considered involves the identification
of decision centers as they currently exist. Even though
these are not explicitly stated, the responsibility accounting
adopted by the company leads us to the identification of five
major decision centers-circulation, advertising, production, editorial, and administration. These centers are also
geographically separated. An analysis of each center's expenditures, independent as well as overlapping, provides a
clustering of nodes in the financial state as shown in Figure
1. The procedure used to generate this clustering is discussed
in [8] and follows the the natural sequence: activity~flow
(monetary)~nodes affected.
The second step in the structuring process is the determination of the activity interdependence. For the case here
there is an observable dependency between circulation and
production-production requiring information on subscriber
data for scheduling and for evaluating specific charges. Editorial and Advertising centers seem to operate independently of each other as do Production and Circulation except
for the transfer of technical data such as where to display
advertisements and how to organize the news. All the four
centers feed expenditure data to the administrative center'
for allocating fixed charges and for determining financial
charges such as interest, tax and depreciation. Using this
simple flow sequence a structure is generated and is shown
in Figure 2(a). Table II summarizes these observations. Note
here that centers 2, 3, and 4 are flow-independent but the
flows associated with these are all necessary for center 5's
computations.
Conceptually the structure derived from the data in Table
II is a rearrangement of the nodes in the financial state such
that the activities of each decision center are mapped con,..! .... 4- ..... _4-1 ...
~l~tt;Ully
4- .....
tV
.4-L.- C!_ ....... _ ....... ! ...... 1
lUt; I.IUc:lU~l(:U
,....4- ...... 4- ......
~lc:lt~
_C +L .............. ., . . . . 4- ...... __
VI. tUt; ~y ~tt;Ul
......... L~l.....
Ull~,
vv
2
1
1
(a)
LEVEL
4
...... .. +t..._
a t lJl~
same time, reducing the need to maintain large data matrices
at each center. This feature has an appeal since its capability
to reduce the information transfer among units and yet provide needed interface can go a long way in decentralizing
the data base. Another important feature is the flexibility it
provides for testing various organization structures with regard to their usefulness for a specific purpose such as responsibility reporting, planning and managerial reporting.
Under a broader framework each structure may be treated
as a sub-schema (user's view of data) that can be managed
by a data base. One may look at this as a situation where
a user instead of developing a sub-schema with all the set
relationships among records, which is typically the case in
many DBMS systems, develops activity interdependence
among decision centers. The system then generates a sub-
2
1
(b)
Figure 2-A decision oriented hierarchy for cases 1 and 2.
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
A Structured Information System Design
27
TABLE n.-Partitioning by Decision Center in Case I
No.
Decision
Center
f
v
W
X
f
~
Level
No.
1
Circulation
700-738
SS,DS
nodes in
Unit 1
C,SR,AP
nodes in
Unit 6
2
Production
800-830
MS,DR
nodes in
Unit 2
C,AP, INV
nodes in
Unit 6
3
Editorial
750-780
Nodes in
Unit 3
C,AP,
nodes in
Unit 6
2
4
Advertising
850-878
DA,CA,II
nodes in
Unit 4
C,AR
nodes in
Unit 6
2
5
Administrative
900-954
Nodes in
Unit 5
Nodes in
Unit 6,
all leaf
nodes of
Balance
Sheet
schema automatically for DBMS interface. This can be very
useful for personnel in management who are traditionally
comfortable in dealing with financial activities and their interdependence rather than record relationships. Issues related to this will not be elaborated here but will appear in
future work by the author.
Another design strategy is to classify activities not using
the organization structure currently in place (case 1) but by
reclassifying them for better control. Some of the problems
identified in the preliminary and the detailed study of the
systems were mainly due to an overlapping of activities or
improper procedures used for controlling these activities. An
illustration of this is when the circulation center is made
responsible for distribution expenditures while production
is involved significantly in the distribution activity. A greater
logistic problem arises when a central data file is organized
by circulation not in an order (by clllstomer name) that best
meets its objectives such as customer billing and subscription updates but in an order (by zip code) that is needed for
distribution. In order to reduce the overlapping of activities
700,
702,
706
E-CIR
E-PR
E-ED
E-ADV
E-ADM
2
3
and to distribute data based on local need, a reclassification
shown in Figure 3 will be used.
For this decision center classification, the activities are
identified, associated monetary flows determined and a new
ORDER
ROCESSIN
Case 2
1
DISTRIBUTION
EDITORIAL
ADVERTIS I NG
INVENTORY
SUPPLIES
Figure 3-A decision center classification in case 2.
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
28
National Computer Conference, 1980
TABLE ilL-Partitioning by Decision Center in Case 2
No.
Decisi.on
Center
f
v
W
~
Level
No.
X
f
1
Order
Processing
700, 702,
704, 706,
710
SS,DS,
CADC,
BSL
C,S,R
2
Distribution
712, 714,
716, 718
CMC,VEX,
LS,ER
C,AP
700, 702,
706, 710
2
3
Production
800-810
MS,DR,
and nodes
in Unit 2
C,AP,INV
700, 702,
706, 710
2
4
Editorial
750-760
Nodes in
Unit 3
C,AP
1
C
1
-_.
__._-
5
Advertising
850-858
DA,CA,II
Nodes in
Unit 4
I
-----700, 702
706
CC,SW,CLE, C,AP,PWH
PAT
2
6
Payroll
708,
736,
778,
828,
876,
936,
7
Administrative
Operations
PR,MI, TE, C,AP
722, 726
728, 734, ME,PAD,RME
914, 920
and others
corresponding to
similar
charges
from each
unit.
2
8
Inventory
Supplies
724, 732, OS,PE,SP,
INV,BME,
730 and
RFF~BAT
similnr
costs from
each other
unit.
2
9
10
720,
762,
812,
860,
900,
952
AP,C
AdministrativeFinancial
738, 780,
830, 878,
954, 902
••• (except
914, 920)
•••• 1000
R, all
Leaf nodes
nodes in
of Bls
Unit 5
items •
except
PAT, PAD
and RME,
and all
other
leaf nodes.
PlanningFinancial
10011050
CS,PS,APC,
DIV,LL,CA
CA
724, 730
732,
and all
others
...
CA,OA,
FA,CNI
3
4
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
29
A Structured Information System Design
structure is developed. This structure is illustrated in Figure
2(b) and the relevant data is presented in Table III. Note
that the level numbers for centers 4 and 5 can be one instead
of two as assigned here. The selection here is based on computational convenience.
The objective of the study was to implement this structure
and to evaluate the benefits derived using this approach.
Note that the selection of this strategy is primarily based on
the relative importance of the data for cost accountability
and reporting needs. Other structures can be evaluated based
on the overall objectives of the firm and, as mentioned earlier, this methodology for structure design facilitates quick
testing of each structure. The next section will discuss some
of the procedures that will be followed in the implementation.
Each L-block i, say, is associated with an output file that
contains information on b i at that level which is used by the
higher level (i + 1) process to compute b L- V.i+ I using Equation 3. It also contains either f and v, or leads to f and v that
are generated by the D-blocks of that level. Here L3 output
file will then contain either the values of the system flows
and non-monetary variables determined by the decision center 9 (j9,v 9 ) or the name of file(s) that contains them. The
process block associated with level i also performs the mapping of flows in level i to b i using b L- V,i and b J according
to Equation 2. Note that b J = SiJj where Sj, a partition of
S, is induced by the partitioning off.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
The decision center classification and the associated partitioning of the flow vector led us to a structure illustrated
in Figure 2(b). This structure consists of four L-blocks and
ten D-blocks. This section will show how this information
can be used to create a data base that can then be effectively
managed either by the use of DBMS system or by a file
management system. Let us first identify all the information
that needs to be maintained thus far about the structure.
The decision block i at levelj is related to the sub-schema
at that level according to equation (2).
bj=A2jbL-VJ+ ~ A1ib u i
iElj
(2)
Here, b x is the vector of values associated with set x, L is
the set of leaf nodes of the schema (Figure I), A I and A 2 are
the appropriate aggregation matrices, and I j corresponds to
the number of decision centers in level j. For example, the
L-block two contains five D-blocks: 2,3,6,7, and 8. See [7]
for more details on this mapping procedure.
To properly relate the set of D-blocks in one level with
another through a set of sub-aggregation points, a top-down
design is used. The L-block with the largest level number
is designed first and then mapping is done with the D-blocks
of the next level. Equation (3) shows the mapping between
levels i and i-I. The
(3)
identity matrix E has zero entries on the diagonal elements
associated with those states (sub-aggregation points) that do
not transfer any valuable information from level i-I to i.
These states are shown in parentheses in Table IV along with
the breakdown of nodes at each level.
Due to certain resource limitations, only a simple file management system will be designed for implementing this structure. At the end, however, it will be shown how a network
structure can be created from this information for possible
DBMS use. It is apparent at this stage that one needs to
maintain an output file for each level, a file for eachD-block,
a process for each level to do the necessary algebraic mapping and a process for each decision. (See Figure 4.)
D5
Ll
PROCESS
D4
Dl
Figure 4-A mapping structure for the implementation of case 2.
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
30
National Computer Conference, 1980
Level
Decision
Center
4
10
3
9
TABLE IV.-Inter-Level Mapping in Case 2
u*
C, AR. PPI, NR,
SR,
2
1
2, 3, 6
7, & 8.
1, 4,
5.
&
.!!.
ASL. DME.
L-V
CA, OA, FA, CL. CNI
CA, OA, FA, CL, LL,
CNI, DIV, CS, PS,
APC, A, L, LE, E,
RE, CE
BSL, INV, BME, BFF,
CA, OA, FA, CL, CNI,
(OPE, SL, ME, FF,
AT, all leaf nodes
of Figure 1)
BAT, PAT, PAD, RME,
OFF, OAT, AP. NP,
STL, PWD, AEX,USR, !. LL, all
nodes in Unit 5
except PAT, PAD,
and RME
notes in Unit 6
except R, leaf nodes
of S, E-CIR, E-PR.
E-ED, E-ADV.
MS, DR, PAT, PAD,
INV, C. AP,
PWH, BME, BFF,
BAT, modes in
unit 1, 2, and 6
(Except R)
SS, J)S, DA, CA, I I ,
BSL, C, SR, AP,
nodes in units 3
and I~
~,
b
SS, ns, CADC, BSL,
DA, CA, !I, no~es
in units 3 and 4,
C, SR, AR
(E-CIR, ER-PR,S)
(E-ADV, E-ED)
*Underlined node set in U corresponds to set V.
The output fiie associated with each D-biock has aii the
output information of that decision center, both monetary
and non-monetary. The process associated with a decision
center contains model(s) used to compute f. The exogenous
input they need (X b, X j, X J will come either from or through
the output file of the next lower level. Certain procedures
to structure the modelling activity, if linear models are used
to computef(this is feasible in the case of many accounting
functions such as cost allocations, interest and depreciation
computations, and payment and collection procedures), are
illustrated in [9] and will be used appropriately during the
implementation.
The identification of the mappings and the associated file
management can be automated once the system designer
identifies the flow partitioning, the exogenous flow or variable data needed for making each decision, and flow com-
putation (model definition) at each decision center. If a
DBMS environment is used, the relationships can be identified as shown in Figure 5.
One can define this using a network data base. Note here
that all the set relationships and the instances of each record
type associated with a strategy can be automatically derived
simply from a users definition of activity/flow interdependence. This should facilitate a user to define the data instances
. in a language that is familiar to him/her.
At this stage, the actual implementation is not complete
and, hence, the benefits of, or difficulties ih, the design of
systems in this manner cannot be .evaluated objectively. It
is hoped that the modularity provided in this approach will
facilitate a step-by-step approach to the integrated system
design and some of the observations in this regard will be
made in another paper.
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
A Structured Information System Design
INSTANCES
STRATEGY
PRECEDENT
I'
be able to decentralize the data base to meet the specific
needs of the decision center associated with each module.
This decentralization becomes important as the trend continues toward the use of mini-computers and micro-processors to meet the specific needs (ex: advanced modelling
capabilities) of some decision centers. Since most of the financial reporting and planning activities of an organization
are centralized and controlled by top-management, the approach discussed here can transfer only the needed information for modules to the center and still provide for a consistent, modular, and possibly an inexpensive integrated
system.
CASE 1
CASE 2
1~
N
LEVEL
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2 OF CASE
LEVEL 3
1
!~
N
DECISION
DECISION 1
DECISION 4 OF LEVEL
DECISION 5
1
1~
MODEL
31
SEVERAL MODELS
USED TO COMPUTE FLOWS
ASSOCIATED WITH
DECISION 1
Figure 5-A data base schema for storing the planning data.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we have seen how a financial state of an
organization, expressed in terms of chart of accounts and
flows affecting these accounts, can be partitioned into manageable modules (levels and decisions) by using the concept
of decision center identification. With this modularized
structure a consistent mapping among modules both among
levels and within levels can be automatically generated.
Each module can then be designed independently so as to
meet the specific objectives of that module along with the
overall objectives of the organization that are expressed in
terms of the flows originating from this decision center. It
is shown that this structured approach to designing a system
not only facilitates a step-by-step design but also makes the
decentralization of the total data base feasible.
"Integrate Now" approach often comes under criticism
since the identification of a large data bank (data and relations) that serves various users is difficult, and the implementation of such a data base to meet the uncertain and
dynamic processing requirements of these users is expensive. By using this top-down structured approach, the difficulty of data bank identification is reduced since the integration is first limited to the financial flows that are welldefined and crucial to the success of an organization. By
designing each module independently with the knowledge
of the extent of its interface to the total system, one should
SUMMARY
The paper illustrates a top-down design of an information
system for newspaper industry. The basic goals of the organization are used to structure the design process such that
a comprehensive system can be designed to support both
planning and operational activities. The modularity provided
by this structure facilitates not only a step-by-step approach
to the actual imp~ementation of the system but also facilitates
distributed data management that is found to be convenient
for the case under consideration. The integration of the activities is provided by the use of various accounting transaction types that appear in the normal reporting process.
Some other benefits of representing and designing the system
in this manner are also discussed.
REFERENCES
1. Donaldson, James R., "Structured Programming," Datamation. December 1973.
2. Langefors, B., "Some Approaches to the Theory of Information Systems," BIT 3, 1963, p. 229-254.
3. Teichroew, D., "Problem Statement Languages in MIS," Proceedings.
International Symposium of BIFOA, Cologne, July, 1970, pp. 253-270.
4. Nunamaker, Jr., J. F., Konsynski, Jr., B. R., Ho, Thomas, and Singer,
Carl, "Computer-Aided Analysis and Design of Information Systems,"
Comm. of ACM, Vol. 19, No. 12, 1976, pp. 674-687.
5. Tanniru, M., "A Decision Support System for Planning," Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1978.
6. Blim, J. M., Stohr, E. A., and Tanniru, M., "Design of a Corporate Information System," Proceedings of IEEE Conference. Chicago, November, 1977.
7. Tanniru, M., "A Structured Information System for Planning," presented
at the First International Symposium on Policy Analysis an.d Information
.
Systems, and will appear in its proceedings (1979).
8. Stohr, E. A. and Tanniru, M., "The Design ofa Corporate Planning System
Simulator," presented at the ACM Winter Simulation Conference-78,
Miami and appeared in the Conference Proceedings.
9. Blin, J., Stohr, E. A., and Tanniru, M., "A Structure for Computer Aided
Corporate Planning," Policy Analysis and Information Systems. Vol. 2,
No.2, December 1978.
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)
From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)