1.2 Understanding Information Systems

The information systems (IS) discipline underlies the intersection of organizations, people, and information technology. Information technology is a means to an end which is defined by the context in which it is being used. In the business management context, IS are developed to support the organizational processes that are performed by people. Therefore, the design of IS must incorporate many reference disciplines as indicated in the Venn diagram below:

As indicated in this diagram, IS draws from many core disciplines and crossover, or reference, disciplines including business management, economics, data science, organization behavior, psychology, human-computer interaction, computer science and engineering, and information technology. Why does the IS field need to draw from so many disciplines? To answer this, let’s begin with a high-level discussion of organizations and business management.

Organizations exist in marketplaces with varying goals of survival, profit, philanthropy, and more. Achieving these goals requires that a great many sets of actions, or business processes, be executed in a coordinated sequence. Business processes can be separated into high-level areas (e.g., accounting, marketing, management and strategy, operations, purchasing, etc.) that can be further broken down into very granular forms (e.g., process payroll, balance ledger, etc.). The exact nature of the business process—from high-level or coarse granularity to low-level or fine granularity—depends on the organization’s specific goals, the chosen strategies for achieving those goals, and the structure of the organization. IS should be developed to support, or fit with, each of the unique processes, structures, and goals of the organization. As a result, IS professionals must have business acumen; in other words, they must understand how businesses operate, meet customer needs, compete in their marketplace, and become profitable, which is the domain of business management and economics disciplines.

The people who work within the organization to achieve its goals represent another IS variable, one with potentially greater variance than the organization itself. People work within organizations for a variety of personal and professional goals (e.g., to make a living, to fulfill a purpose supported by the organization, or for enjoyment) which may or may not be in line with organizational goals. People are unique and vary greatly, each with different habits and perceptions of social norms. As a result, two people may have two entirely different patterns of behavior for completing a task. If IS supports only one type of person, other patterns (and people) may be inhibited. Therefore, developing a successful IS incorporates a degree of human psychology. IS professionals need to understand not only how people think and work but how they will influence, and be influenced by, the formal organizational characteristics. This is the discipline of organization behavior—another key ingredient to developing successful IS.

With this understanding of organizations and people, it is easy to see the importance of implementing a flexible and agile IT infrastructure. The IT infrastructure includes the hardware, software, and networking technology used to create, store, share, analyze, and otherwise manage the information used to complete business processes. It forms the foundation upon which an organization’s information systems and IT services are built. Clearly, to be effective, an IS professional must also be up to date on the wide world of IT capabilities that are constantly changing and improving. This means that she or he needs to have some expertise in the fields of computer science and engineering.

But there is more. Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have completely changed the realm of possibilities with information systems and technology. In order to integrate these capabilities into state-of-the-art systems, IS professionals have had to become competent with the many new data science capabilities that have emerged over the last decade. No longer is it enough to simply understand how to collect, store, and manage data. We must also understand how to harness the power of data for tackling what has become known as “wicked” problems, which are complex and multifaceted issues that are difficult to define and even harder to solve. These problems are characterized by their resistance to resolution due to incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.

However, no matter how intentional an organization is about implementing the perfect IS, the “people” factor is the ultimate wild card that will always use IS in ways that were never expected. This is because people are creative and learn in very unique ways. Although an IT may be built with a particular use in mind, people will adapt and find new ways of using technology that the IT creators never considered or intended. As a result, people represent a volatile variable that must be supported by technology in order to help the people achieve organizational goals and support business processes. This is the domain of the human-computer interaction discipline.

Okay, that is seven unique reference disciplines: management and economics, data science, organization behavior, psychology, human-computer interaction, computer science and engineering, and information technology. How can one person become an expert on all of those topics by the end of a bachelor’s degree? The answer is: you won’t. And no one will expect you to. However, you can learn enough to understand how to solve practical and relevant problems. At first, those problems will be small and require only a basic understanding of all (or many) of those disciplines. But over time, and with experience, you will develop deeper levels of expertise and a unique blend of knowledge that will make you valuable to many organizations. Over the course of your education and career, you will become an expert in skills, domains, and technologies that other IS professionals will not. Each IS professional has the opportunity to uniquely contribute to the field of IS by pursuing the paths that are of most worth or interest—and these vary from organization to organization, person to person, and problem to problem.