Select an organization such as a mid-sized manufacturing company, a familiar organization in the service sector such as a hospital or bank, or the company you work for. Arrange to meet with the IS manager (or other key IS person) and ask the questions listed below. Be sure to inform the IS manager that you will be using this information for a class assignment.
What are some mainstream applications that the company uses that support business operations? (Example: human resource management, material requirements planning, and financial accounting.)
Were these applications predominantly developed internally or were they purchased from an outside vendor or vendors?
What is the mix between file processing and database processing for these applications?
If a database approach is used, is the data shared among the applications?
Does the organization have system flowcharts (or similar documentation) that portrays much of this information?
What naming standards exist across these applications? If so, ask to have a copy of these flowcharts to include with the paper.
How are the naming standards enforced? If there are naming standards, ask if you can review these standards to see if they are consistent and uniform.
In a three to four page paper (not including cover page), write about the results of the meeting. Your paper should include the following:
The name and brief description of the organization
The results of the questions asked
Copies of the system flowcharts
Analysis of the naming standards
Are they consistent and uniform?
If there are no naming standards in the organization, develop some guidelines the organization could potentially use.