Question: HYPERCASE ® EXPERIENCE 2

"You seem to have already made a good start at MRE. I'm glad you met Snowden Evans. As you know, you'll be reporting directly to him during your consulting project. As his administrative assistant for the last five years I can tell you a lot about the company, but remember that there are a number of ways to find out more. You will want to interview users, observe their decision-making settings, and look at archival reports, charts, and diagrams. To do so, you can click on the phone directory to get an appointment with an interviewee, click on the building map to view the layout of the building, or click on the corporate Web site to see the functional areas and formal hierarchical relationships at MRE.

"Many of the rules of corporate life apply in the MRE HyperCase. You can walk freely in many public areas. If you want to tour a private office, however, you must first book an appointment with one of our employees. Some secure areas are strictly off limits to you as an outsider since you could pose a security risk.

"I don't think you'll find us excessively secretive, however, because you may assume that any employee who grants you an interview will also grant you access to the archival material in his or her files as well as to current work on their desktops or screens.

"Unfortunately, some people in the company never seem to make themselves available to consultants. I suggest you be persistent. There are lots of ways to find out about the people and the systems of MRE. Creativity pays off. You'll notice that the systems consultants who follow their hunches, sharpen their technical skills, and never stop thinking about piecing together the puzzles at MRE are the ones who get the best results.

"Remember to use multiple methods-interviewing, observation, and investigation-to understand what we at MRE are trying to tell you. Sometimes actions, documents, and offices actually speak louder than words!

" There are many ways to graphically depict the system. The analyst should choose among these tools early on to get an overview of the system. These approaches include drawing context-level data flow diagrams, capturing relationships early on with entity-relationship diagrams; or drawing use case diagrams or writing use case scenarios based on user stories. Using these diagrams and techniques at the beginning of analysis can help the analyst define the boundaries and scope of the system, and can help bring into focus which people and systems are external to the system being developed.

Entity-relationship diagrams help the systems analyst understand the entities and relationships that comprise the organizational system. E-R diagrams can depict a one-to-one relationship, a oneto-many relationship, a many-to-one relationship, and a many-tomany relationship.

The three levels of managerial control are operational, middle management, and strategic. The time horizon of decision making is different for each level.

Organizational cultures and subcultures are important determinants of how people use information and information systems. By grounding information systems in the context of the organization as a larger system, it is possible to realize that numerous factors are important and should be taken into account when ascertaining information requirements and designing and implementing information systems. HYPERCASE

1. What major organizational change recently took place at MRE? What department(s) was (or were) involved? Why was the change made?

2. What are the goals of the Training and Management Systems Department?

3. Would you categorize MRE as a service industry, a manufacturer, or both? What kind of "products" does MRE "produce"? Suggest how the type of industry MRE is in affects the information systems it uses.

4. What type of organizational structure does MRE have? What are the implications of this structure for MIS?

5. Describe in a paragraph the "politics" of the Training and Management Systems Department at MRE. Who is involved, and what are some of the main issues?

6. Draw a use case diagram representing the activities of the Webster Design group at MRE when developing site and facility master plans (use the MRE Web site to obtain your basic information).