What is the ADEPT Analysis Framework?

  • Defined: For our purposes, is a set of ideas and assumptions used to organize our thinking about a system within an organization from many perspectives. [paraphrased from Information Systems [4th edition] by Steven Alter, p.43].
  • The ADEPT Analysis Framework will be used to assist analysts to understand the system under examination from different perspectives.
  • These perspectives are:
    • Activities
    • Data
    • Environment
    • People
    • Technology
  • The results of this analysis will be used as the starting point for creating models of the system - both the SLDC and UML.

Activities

  • Defined: are the major steps for performing the business process.
  • Business Process:
    • Defined: are related steps that combine to complete the business process that was designed to create value for both internal and external customers.
    • i.e., Accounts Payable is a business process whose sole function may be to track the payables to various creditors and provide information in the form of reports.
    • From our perspective, this part of the analysis can form the basis of our DFD’s (Data Flow Diagrams) and Use Cases.

Data

  • Can take the form of preformatted data items, text, sound, pictures, video
  • Quality and availability of information determines what activities and methods are feasible
  • Data: are facts, images, sounds that may or may not be pertinent to a particular task
    • Hard data: clearly defined data generated by formal systems
    • Soft data: intuitive or subjective data obtained from informal means (talking to someone, opinions)
  • Information: data whose form and content are appropriate for a specific task
  • Knowledge: the combination of instincts, rules, ideas, that determine the actions we take and the decisions we make

Environment

  1. Products & Services
    • Physical things, information and services that the work system produces for its customers
      • Tangible things => bicycles, ketchup, etc.
      • Services => housekeeping, legal advice, etc.
      • Market niche => quality, cost, reliability
  2. Competition
    • Government or private sector, number of competitors, government controls (i.e., regulatory constraints), nature of the customer, seasonal or steady throughout the year

People/Stakeholders

  • Those who enter, process, or use the information produced within the system
  • Human infrastructure: support, training
  • Questions from this perspective:
    • Is there an organization chart, and, if so, what does it look like?
    • What does the informal organizational structure look like?
    • What is the corporate culture like?
    • What is the skill level of these people? How involved are they? How committed to the process are they?
  • Users:
    • Defined: the people who actually perform the steps or activities within the process
  • Customers:
    • Defined: Are people who use and receive direct benefits from the products and/or services produced by the system
    • Internal: people within the same organization, and not necessarily in the same department, who receive benefit from the output from the system
    • External: people who purchase the product or service from the company
    • Government and Other: agencies who receive tax information and other information from the company
      • Can include external groups that receive information required by law or be membership in industry groups
  • Stakeholders:
    • Defined: people with a personal stake in the system and its information who are neither customer or users:
      • System sponsors
      • Champions

Technology

  • Is the software, hardware and other tools and equipment used by the users in the performance of their tasks
  • Technology is viewed as part of the infrastructure if it is shared among many work systems:
    • Technical infrastructure: i.e., networks
    • Information infrastructure: codified information that is shared across a company
  • Hardware:
    • Bar-code scanners, computers, file servers, telecommunications equipment, networks
  • Software:
    • Computer programs and operating systems that tell the hardware what to do
  • Other

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