Showing papers in "Ibm Systems Journal in 1982"

Strategies for information requirements determination

Abstract: Correct and complete information requirements are key ingredients in planning organizational information systems and in implementing information systems applications. Yet, there has been relatively little research on information requirements determination, and there are relatively few practical, well-formulated procedures for obtaining complete, correct information requirements. Methods for obtaining and documenting information requirements are proposed, but they tend to be presented as general solutions rather than alternative methods for implementing a chosen strategy of requirements determination. This paper identifies two major levels of requirements: the organizational information requirements reflected in a planned portfolio of applications and the detailed information requirements to be implemented in a specific application. The constraints on humans as information processors are described in order to explain why "asking" users for information requirements may not yield a complete, correct set. Various strategies for obtaining information requirements are explained. Examples are given of methods that fit each strategy. A contingency approach is then presented for selecting an information requirements determination strategy. The contingency approach is explained both for defining organizational information requirements and for defining specific, detailed requirements in the development of an application.

The EPISTLE text-critiquing system

Abstract: The experimental EPISTLE system is intended to provide "intelligent" functions for processing business correspondence and other texts in an office environment. This paper focuses on the initial objectives of the system: critiquing written material on points of grammar and style. The overall system is described, with some details of the implementation, user interface, and the three levels of processing, especially the syntactic parsing of sentences with a computerized English grammar.

Office-by-example: a business language that unifies data and word processing and electronic mail

Abstract: The age of the nonprogrammer user of computing systems is at hand, bringing with it the special need of persons who are professionals in their own right to have easy ways to use a computing system. Through the programming language discussed in this paper, executives and other office personnel can perform data and word processing and communications via terminals. This language, called Office-by-Example, provides rich and powerful access to the computing system computation, data base, communication, and display facilities. Discussed and illustrated by examples are a two-dimensional screen editor, triggers, and data bases, as well as word processing, electronic mail, customized menus, and application development.

Business systems planning and business Information control study: a comparison

Abstract: The area of enterprise analysis is in its formative stages. As the technology continues to mature and as industry evolves to later stages of learning with regard to managing data, the demand for greater levels of sophistication in enterprise ananlysis will increase. Enterprise-level dependencies will have to be identified and protected to provide for systems and data integration. Limited information systems resources will have to be effectively allocated. Short-term and long-term trade-offs will have to be made in determining the information system resource investment strategies. Holistic models of the business will be required to support the management planning and control apparatus. These issues will become more pressing over time and will precipitate substantial increases in the body of knowledge concerning enterprise analysis.

Management considerations for an information center

Abstract: This paper discusses what should be done in setting up an Information Center as part of an Information Systems group within a business organization. The Information Center is defined, including a user's viewpoint. Three key areas--the mission, organization and position, and staffing--are addressed. A procedure on how to initiate the center is presented. In general, the paper shows what an Information Center environment can be and how it might fit into a business organization.

IMS/VS: an evolving system

Abstract: The Information Management System, IMS, began in the mid-1960s as a batch-only data base system that was known then as Data Language/I (DL/I). IMS was introduced in 1969 as IMS/360, a program product for the System/360. As the System/360 evolved into System/ 370, including support for virtual storage, the operating system evolved into OS/VS2, OS/VS2, and then MVS. At the same time, IMS evolved to become IMS/VS. The Information Management System has continued to be adapted to new requirements, especially those of interactive, on-line operations that require data communications. Recent advances in the following categories of IMS/VS functions are discussed in this paper: Fast Path, Data Sharing, System Logging, Data Base Recovery Control, on-line changes in system environment, Intersystem Communications, MVS Common Services Area usage, and architectural restructuring.

OPAS: an office procedure automation system

Abstract: This paper discusses an experimental system being developed to support office automation. The emphasis of the paper is on a technology that allows people to automate their office and business activities. Specifically, using forms as the interface, the authors propose a powerful data manipulation and restructuring facility that not only allows users to extract and manipulate data in the forms, but can be used to interface between new and existing applications as well. Since business and office procedures are not discrete activities, but a structured sequence of activities, a means to define and execute procedures is required. Such means is described in this paper along with its model and an example of its application.

JANUS: an interactive document formatter based on declarative tags

Abstract: This paper describes the architecture of an experimental document composition system named JANUS, which is intended to support authors of complex documents containing mixtures of text and images. The JANUS system is highly interactive, providing authors with immediate feedback and direct electronic control over page layouts, using a special two-display workstation. Authors communicate with the system by marking up their documents with high-level descriptive "tags." A tag definition language is provided whereby new tags may be defined and the format of each tagged object may be controlled.

Enterprise information analysis: cost-benefit analysis and the data-managed system

Abstract: Enterprise information analysis studies have highlighted a gradual change in the data and information processing environment--a change in systems design and implementation from stand-alone, applica...

The document interchange architecture: a member of a family of architectures in the SNA environment

Abstract: DIA, although oriented to an office systems application, can be a general-purpose language used to interchange information and control requests among applications in a distributed processing environment. DIA is defined to be both semantically and syntactically extendable in order to have a long life.

How a computer should talk to people

Abstract: This essay deals with a very down-to-earth topic: the things computer programs or systems say to people--in particular, computer messages for users. It is the product of the author's experience as a programmer and technical writer and editor. It puts together a lot of common-sense insights into the philosophy of creating good computer messages, how people think and feel around computers, how to analyze the situations in which people need a message, what to say in a message and how to say it, why imagination is invaluable for creating and evaluating messages, what technical questions must be answered in order to design and build a program or system that can talk effectively to people.

SNA flow control: architecture and implementation

Abstract: To allow better network utilization, Systems Network Architecture (SNA), the IBM data communications architecture, includes flow control procedures to guard against data overrun to devices and to prevent network congestion. The measurement of "congestion" used by SNA to regulate traffic flow is performed by various SNA products. This paper describes the flow control protocols in SNA and the implementation of these protocols in the Network Control Program (ACF/NCP/VS Release 3).

How data flow can improve application development productivity

Abstract: Use of the data flow technique is a key to increasing the productivity of the application developer. It allows greater independence between functions of an application, which substantially improves the ease with which functions can be reused and can greatly reduce complexity. These two advantages alone can provide a substantial increasein productivity, even with today's tools. The independence also makes it easier to understand and deal with the functions, thus making it easier to prototype, develop, test, and change them. Each of these tasks can be much easier when each function can be dealt with independently of the other functions in any particular program

Supporting business systems planning studies with the DB/DC data dictionary

Abstract: Traditionally, Business Systems Planning (LISP) studies have been conducted using manual techniques. This paper describes one approach for computer assistance to such a study. The Extensibility facility of the IBM DB/DC Data Dictionary is shown to satisfy the requirements for the capturing of and subsequent reporting on BSP study data. The possibility of extending this approach to follow-on software development activities is discussed. General overviews of the Business Systems Planning methodology and the IBM DB/DC Data Dictionary are also provided.

Towards an integrated development environment

Abstract: Problems of application-system cost, control, and effectiveness can best be addressed by highly consistent development and execution environments. This paper examines some relevant new approaches (systems description languages, new data models, application generators, and very-high-level languages), discusses the need for additional integration, and outlines a particular integration direction. This direction is intended to illustrate both the kind of consolidation needed and some of the problems involved.

A case study of office workstation use

Abstract: This paper describes the use of the Office Analysis Methodology to study a research office environment in order to determine requirements for an advanced office workstation. The research site environment is unique in providing an opportunity to observe a natural growth pattern in the use of advanced technology. Specific workstation requirements are identified and are being implemented. Interesting observations are reported in the following areas: categories of secretarial work, use of existing workstations, influence of a community of users, access to shared services, and efects on productivity and organizational behavior.

The design rationale of the system/38 user interface

Abstract: This paper is a discussion of the rationale behind the design of the software user interface of the System/38. It presents the design approaches used to produce a highly usable interactive system. The three primary system user interfaces are also presented, showing how the approaches were used in their design.

Technique for assessing external design of software

Abstract: Discussed is a methodology of creating and using scenarios to assess completeness, correctness, consistency, and usability of the external design of computer software. Scenarios are paper tests of the specifications of software being designed. The approach is an outside-in, user-oriented evaluation of programs. The technique requires no machine time to perform the evaluation. As a result, defects are identified and changes are recommended early in the design phase of software development, at the time when defect removal costs are lowest.

Modeling distributed processing across multiple CICS/VS sites

Abstract: Modeling is a useful method to aid a planner in designing the interconnection of a number of systems for distributed data processing. In the implementation in this paper, a computer-based model for sites using CICS/VS is discussed. The model permits the system definition to be adjusted, taking into account such aspects as the number of sites, their interconnections, and workloads, so that a satisfactory configuration can be obtained.

Analytic queuing model for CICS capacity planning

Abstract: In recent years there has been a growing need to develop techniques and tools for computer installation capacity planning. This paper presents both a tool, in the form of an analytic queuing model, and a methodology for performance analysis and capacity planning. Although general in its approach, the model was developed specifically for the CICS/VS environment.