Video Transcript: People

hello everybody. Welcome back to the Introduction to Information Systems. We  are in week eight already talking about people this week, which is my very one  of my favorite topics, and I'm really excited to share it with you. So let's go  ahead and start in prayer, as we do, sir, if you'd like to join me, Dear Heavenly  Father, like to thank you for bringing bringing us all together, and so fittingly, this  week, in a in the topic of all the people involved in in a whole industry, we know  that we have so many brothers and sisters in Christ who are working together  for common goals, and I'm just I'm so proud that we're able to bring that  fellowship into our workplaces and make those connections with other people,  and hopefully we can take some things that that we learn here and advance that that purpose. So thank you for that opportunity to to meet in this way and to be  able to make those connections with other people and serve you better. In your  heavenly name. We pray Amen. We have been really focusing on the  technology side of those components of information systems. So if you recall,  we are going to there were five components of an information system. The first  three were under that technology umbrella. Now we are bringing it back to the  people. We are in the fourth component of an information system with the  people. We're going to wrap up with the process next week. So we are going a  little bit out of order in the textbook, because for some reason, they have  process first, I like to keep it in the order of the components we've been  studying. So you might need to flip around just a bit to make sure you're in the  correct I believe this is chapter 10 in your textbook, but we are going to talk  about it in module in row in week eight, about the people and all the people that  come together, that are that make it possible for us to study information  systems. And moving on here, we're going to talk about our learning outcomes.  So hopefully, by the end of this week here, let me pop this up here. There we go. Hello. We're going to, at the end of this chapter, or the end of this this week, of  this video, we're going to be able to describe each of the different roles that are  that exist for the design, the development and the use of information systems.  All of us play a role in this, whether we are a formal professional in the IT space, or whether we are simply an end user. So we all have a role to play in that we're  going to understand the different career paths that are available to those who  work with information systems. Some might be on your radar already, some you  might not know about yet. So I would love to share those career paths with you,  and maybe something will strike your interest. I had no idea that I was going to  be on a career path that would include information systems in such a big way,  and so just just learning about the options sometimes kind of lets you feel a  calling that you might not have felt before. So we're going to look into those  career paths. We're going to explain the importance of where information  systems function is placed in an organization, and then ultimately, the different  types of users of information systems, because there's lots of lots of user types.  So these are all, this is the human side of information systems. I hope you enjoy

this module. It's a little less technical than some of the previous modules, and so it's kind of nice to have a break from the technical stuff. So here we go, people.  So people imagine information systems. They develop them, they support them.  

And people, of course, use information systems. So here's who actually  develops the information systems. Okay, so these people are generally technical here. I'm going to move my picture so you can see the whole thing. Generally a  technical background. They have a background in programming or analysis,  information security, database design. Just about everybody who works in the  creation of Information Systems probably has a degree, a bachelor's degree, in  computer science or in information but not necessarily a requirement, not  necessarily the case. So the process of creating information systems. And we're  going to talk about two weeks from now, but these are some of the jobs and  some of the people that are involved in that creation. So we're going to we're  going to dive into that. We can see that at the top left, we are looking at the  system analysts. I'm sorry, the top right, excuse me. You see that red piece of  pie there? 16% of the field is system analyst. So here's what a system analyst  does. A system analyst, and I'm not going to read here verbatim, but So prior to  analyzing the problem or the system concern, the analyst is going to clearly  identify and gain approval for the project to work on. They're going to identify  who the stakeholders are and make the plan to monitor that project. So the  analysis phase of the project can be broken down into five steps. So the system  analyst is really in charge of these five steps, which aren't on the slide here, but  it's going to be they're going to seek out and identify the details of what needs to happen. They're going to specify the requirements of what would make a  successful project. They're going to decide which requirements are the most  important and prioritize those. They're going to create a dialog showing how the  user interacts with the existing system. So kind of what the what the existing  system is, and then they're going to ask users, finally, to critique the list of  requirements that have been developed. So finally, that system analyst is really  going to get user input, which is a big part of their job. So if those kind of things  appeal to you, that you like to kind of lead projects in that way and identify who  your stakeholders are going to be, you're going to make a plan and monitor that  project through the analysis phase. If that sounds like something that would  really be calling to you, maybe system analyst is something that you would  really enjoy doing. Next we're going to talk about programmers and developers.  And programmers, we can see here on the slides how they spend their time and writing and coding and computer, I'm sorry, programming language. They're  going to fulfill the design specs that are given to them by the analyst. So the  analyst decides what needs to be done, they give those instructions to the  programmer or the developer to actually fulfill those specifications. A  programmer can work alone or as part of a team. It kind of depends on the  project and the preference and they understand complex processes and the 

intricacies of the programming languages themselves. So this is a pretty  technical career path of a programmer or a developer, and that might be  something that calls to you. This is certainly something that does not speak to  me personally, but it's always good to know what your your kind of limitations or  your interests are, so that you can make those good, informed decisions on  what you'd like to study next. We're going to talk about computer engineers, and there are so many different kinds of computer engineers. We're going to look at  hardware, software, systems and network engineers here that fall under that  computer umbrella of engineering. So the hardware engineer what they're going  to do? A hardware engineer designs hardware and tests components like  microprocessors or routers or networks, and many times, a hardware engineer  is at the cutting edge of computing technology. It's an exciting job. There's  always something brand new that you are, you know, engineering or making  new hardware. Other times, your job would be to re engineer some existing  component that isn't up to par anymore. It's not working as fast as it used to, or  it needs to use less power than it's using. So you're going to re engineer those  things, and again, that would be working on the physical hardware components.  Likewise, next we have the software engineer. And this person is going to tend  to focus on a specific area of software, like maybe they're working on operating  systems, maybe they are working on networking or databases or applications,  and they're going to use three primary skill areas. So see if this speaks to you,  computer science, engineering and math. So software engineers are again, on  the technical side, and that might be something that's calling to you, the systems engineer is next, and that is going to be someone who takes components that  are designed by other engineers and makes them all work together, focusing on  the integration of the hardware and the software together. So an example of that is if you build a motherboard for the computer, the processor, the memory, the  hard disk, they all have to work together. So a systems engineer has experience with all kinds of different hardware, software knows how to integrate them and  how to create new functionalities. So this, this person is probably very  experienced, and if you're looking at the different salary ranges of engineering, it would make sense that a systems engineer, because they have to have such  advanced knowledge of the hardware and the software side, that the systems  engineer earns substantially more money. And we're talking about a network  engineer, finally, and this is someone who understands the networking  requirements of an organization, and then they design a communication system  to meet those needs. So they're using networking hardware and software.  Sometimes it's referred to as a network, a network operating system, but they  design both local area networks as well as wide area networks. So it's LANs and WANs that we talked about a couple modules ago. Next we have our  Information Systems Operations and administration. So this is going to be those  side, if you wanted to be more of a someone who is on the administration side. 

So we have computer operators. We have database administrators, help desk  and support and training. So just real quickly, about a computer operator. This is  going to be the person who oversees the mainframe computers and data  centers. Some of if this was used, some of your duties would be to keep the  operating systems up to date, ensure that there's always enough available  memory and disk storage, providing redundancies for things like electricity and  internet connection and backing things up. You're kind of just making sure that  the computers are running exactly the way they should be. The next one there,  that database administrator that's going to be the person who designs and  manages the databases for an organization, seems pretty straightforward, right? They consult with systems analysts and programs that require access to the  databases to get their project done. So a lot of times, they're pulled into other  project teams to be a help there so that the organization can fully harness the  power of those databases. Next, we have our help desk, or support analyst. This is most mid sized to large organizations have their own IT help desk, and so the  Help Desk is a front line of support for any IT or IS users in the organization. If  they need assistance, many times, this person is going to be a junior level  employee, they can answer basic issues. And then if something really rises, they can rises to the level that it would need a more senior level of the team or a  support analyst. They can go ahead and you know, escalate that, but you can  always start working the help desk with kind of those, those basic kind of  questions, and then as your certainly, as your bank of experience grows, you  would be able to have those bigger problems escalate to you. Finally, we have a trainer. And this is a computer trainer, conducts classes of course to train people how to use computer skills. So if a new ERP that the enterprise resource  planning software is being installed, then part of the process is that we need to  train everybody how to use it, right? So a trainer is going to work for a software  company, probably, and be contracted to come in, train all their employees,  answer questions, give some training sessions, or maybe, if your organization is big enough, they would have their own trainers on staff to be able to do that, and not necessarily for the for the company itself. So in order to be successful as a  trainer, you just need to be able to communicate your technical expertise and  concepts really clearly. And of course, have patience as people are learning new softwares and air systems. All right, so management within Information Systems is the last one we're going to look at. And this is going to be like the CIO, the  Chief Information Officer we're going to look at things like. So the CIO is going to be the face of the it with department within the organization. And you know, in  part of that decision making with other higher leaderships, in the leadership  positions in the C suite, the head of the information systems function is called  the Vice President of Information Systems in a lot of places, or the CIO that  we're talking about the Functional manager. Next on your list, there is an  Information Systems organization. As it becomes larger, many of the different 

functions are grouped together. They're led by a manager, and these functional  managers report to the CIO most of the time, and they manage employees  specific to their functions. So what I mean by that what an example is, in a really big organization, there's going to be groups of system analysts who report to a  manager of those system analysts for that function. So for more you know, for  how that might look, we're going to be talking later in the chapter about how  information systems are organized. So depending on how big your organization  is these, these functional managers might be necessary. I know there's a lot  highlighted here. We're just going to go down ahead to project manager,  because this is going to be, if this is you, and you're in the management role in  IS and you choose to be a project manager, this is going to be someone who is  making sure that the project is on time, is on budget. Maybe you're  implementing a new system, or you're you're getting everyone changed to a new type of hardware, and you need to work with with all your stakeholders and  provide status updates and charts, which we're going to be talking about. Our  charts to make sure that we are on budget and on time like on our schedule,  you're going to have to be able to really clearly communicate those tasks and  resources to make sure that everybody who needs updated has the information  they need. So just because you're a project manager, it doesn't mean you have  authority over the team. You're not in charge of them, you're just in charge of  their work for that project. So having good, really good people skills is extremely  important. Being organized is extremely important. If this is something that calls  to you, there are advanced certificates you can get. One is a Project  Management Professional or PMP, and this is something that you can do. You  need to get, Oh, hello. You need to provide just documentation that you have  enough competency. You need to have hours and hours in the field that are  documented that you have really had the experience necessary to be leading  teams. And there's a pretty extensive exam that also happens. So you you pay  to take this exam, and you can be also a PMP or a Project Management  Professional through PMI, the Project Management Institute. So it's a formal  certification that is available to you, if that's something that sounds like a calling,  that that you would like to see those projects through from start to finish. How  did we look at other career paths here? Well, we can try. There we go. A lot of  these we already just talked about. So we look at the two tracks here, the  technical track or the management track. So again, we're talking about the  people involved behind the scenes in information systems. So we look at those  kind of how they're how they're categorized, into the technical people and the  management people. Of course, we know that some of those jobs on the  technical track will need managerial skills, and we know that some of those roles on the management track will definitely need to have some technical chops as  well, but that's just the way that they are categorized, just to kind of keep them  delineated. Alright, so we're going to talk about outsourcing and and how it 

happens and why it happens, and if it's a good idea for you and your  organization. So with outsourcing, you know, frequently an organization needs a really specific set of skills, but not necessarily forever, maybe a limited time  when you are working on a project. So it doesn't make sense to recruit and hire  a new person for this very limited time when they have a very limited skill set. So outsourcing that to a third party would make sense. So it can be used in a lot of  different situations within IS functions, if you need someone to design or create  a new website, but something that has a beginning and an end date, such as  just executing a function. If you're upgrading the ERP system within your  organization or your enterprise, you want to make sure that it has a start and  end. You might not necessarily want to again, hire a whole new person and go  through that HR process. You might outsourcing. Might be a good way that you  can have more people on your team and be selective with the people on your  team, but not necessarily permanent. So some people see that as a cost cutting, move and contract out, you know, contract out whole groups or departments  through outsourcing. And of course, there are pros, like the cost savings, also  some downsides in terms of the company culture, the organizational culture,  when you have people kind of coming and going, as opposed to if they're really  invested and have more skin in the game as a as a permanent employee, when  there's not an end date to the contract. So pros and cons of outsourcing, but you will see these concepts again, and knowing some things that are great and  some things that are lacking in that strategy of outsourcing. We are going to  wrap this up with our different types of information systems users. And this is  going to be you. It's going to be me. We are all users of information systems,  like we talked about, hardware, software, all these things that come together,  networking and data, we are all consumers of these things, and so we are likely  going to fall into one of these categories as a type of is user. So we have  innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and then laggards. So as we're going through this kind of think about which one, which one you might be.  So we've got up here and innovators. These are going to be the first people to  adopt the new technology, and they're willing to take risks. They're usually kind  of younger. They usually have the highest social class, strong financial liquidity.  Their social they have the closest contact with scientific sources, interaction with other innovators. Their risk tolerance is high, so they're willing to just kind of  jump right into the deep end. They're going to adopt that new technology. Maybe it'll ultimately fail. We don't know yet. It's not proven, but these are those.  They're they're considered innovators, like we said, the financial liquidity helps.  The financial resources help absorb these failures. If they do go ahead and  make the leap, they commit, they adopt a new technology, and then it doesn't  live up to expectations, which can happen pretty easily if you're in the innovation stage. Next we have those early adopters, and again, these are going to be  those who adopt innovation soon after a technology has been released, it's been

proven a little bit. It's been around the block. These individuals have the highest  degree of opinion leadership among other adopter categories, which means  these early adopters can influence the opinions of the largest majority which is  going to be coming up next, I happen to live with someone who falls into this  category which is more tolerable than being in the first category. For sure, there  is less risk involved as being an early adopter as opposed to an innovator.  Characteristics of this, of these early adopters, necessary, you know, not  necessarily, but, but some characteristics of this are going to be younger in age,  processing, again, the financial liquidity that you're able to take a risk and and  purchase early and adopt early, having advanced education, being more socially aware. These adopters are more discreet in their choices and innovators are  and they realize that judicious, judicious choice of adoption is going to help them maintain a central communication position. So they they understand the risks  involved in the first category, and they know that they'd like to be in that early  adopter category. Next on the list is a little more moderate. It's the early majority. And individuals in this category are going to adopt an innovation after it's been a while, they're going to let it go around the block a few times make sure it's tried  and true and proven. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the  innovators and early adopters. They're not standing first in line and camping out  to to acquire this technology. They're still in the early majority here, but this  group tends to be slower in the adoption process. They have contact with those  early adopters. Maybe they've been influenced, but they're still going to wait a  while. They have a below average social status. I'm sorry, that's that's the next  category. This group tends to be slower in the adoption process, and they have  they seldom hold positions of opinion leadership in a system where they're kind  of right there in the middle, where. You would where you would think their  opinion leadership would be, right in the middle of this list. The next we have the late majority. Late Majority will adopt an innovation after the average member of  society. They are not in one of those first categories whatsoever. They're going  to wait. They have a high degree of skepticism. They have below average social status, typically not a lot of financial liquidity. So they're going to be a little more  selective, or a lot more selective, in the technology that they adopt. They're not  willing to take those risks, like some of the other groups. They are in contact with others in the late majority and the early majority, but they show very little opinion of leadership, little opinion leadership in the category. They're not, they're not  going to be writing articles about this technology and trying to be on any leading  trend. They are truly just waiting until it's a less risky, more valuable solution.  And then finally, lastly, we have the laggards. I know some people who belong in this category as well. These individuals are the last to adopt an innovation.  Unlike all the other people we talked about in the previous categories, these  have no opinion leadership about the topic, and typically have an aversion to  change. Tend to be a little older, advanced in age, tend to be focused on more 

traditional and likely have the lowest social status, low financial liquidity. They're  not going to be taking risks and buying stuff before they know it's exactly what  they need. They want to read all the reviews they want years of data points to  make sure it's exactly what they want, and usually only in contact with family  and close friends, not necessarily with some of the other the other groups that  we've mentioned. So with these types of IS users. Where do you fall? I'm I think  I'm in the early majority. If I had to pick one, I don't like to be the very last to get  something, but I'm certainly not in a hurry when it comes to adopting a new  personal technology. I owned a business for quite a while, and as part of my  business, I was a little less risk averse, so I would probably be in the early  adopters category. Organizationally, professionally, but personally, I would find  myself in that third category, the early majority. So where do you fall? Think? To  think through that and ask yourself if there's a difference between your  professional decisions and your personal decisions as well. We are already at  the summary here. So we've gone through all the different kinds of people who  are involved in designing information systems, who are in charge of the  components of IS, all those career paths, and we know that the world of  information technology is changing so fast that Hello again, that new roles are  being created all the time. So there's probably things that you could be doing in  a career five years from now that aren't on this list because they don't exist yet.  And so there's jobs that and careers that are on this list that are probably  currently being completely phased out as the technology changes. It changes so quickly. So hopefully during this chapter, you got a good idea of the importance  of the people component of the information systems behind the scenes creating  these tools and all the jobs that are, I say, jobs, but the different roles that are  really put together to make these information systems possible. And then, of  course, all the different kinds of users that are the end users that are include you and me. So thank you so much for sticking with me, and I'm really looking  forward to next week, when we're rounding out the very fifth component of  information systems, and week nine, that's business processes. So we already  talked about the hardware, we talked about the software, we talked about the  data. That's technology. We just covered people, and next week we're going to  round it out with process. So thank you so much, and we'll see you soon.