The design requirements of office systems

Automation of office work constitutes a new growing appl ication of information systems. The original characteri stics of an Office Information System (OIS) in comparison with a conventional information system imply the need for devel opi ng new design methodol ogies and model s, which are cl assified and discussed in this paper. OIS are not just document management systems (or word processing systems), 1.e., they do not consider only, or mainly, static aspects of data: they are in fact more general information systems where documents are only one of the many elements of the system. In addition, while conventional IS are often applied to support operational activities, office work shows many different facets, and therefore it is not reduci bl e to a set of operatl onal activities. Correspondi ngly, whil e the main phases that are commonly recognized in the design of a conventional IS (such as requi rements analysis, requi rements specification, logical design, optimization and implementation, system eval uatl on and . modification) can be transferred al so to OIS design, the , conceptual models for requirements specifications, on which the early design phases are based, should instead be changed in order to allow the specification of particular aspects of an OIS. Such aspects include new functionalities, such as filtering of data, reminding of activities to be performed, scheduling of manual and automatic activities, and communication; some specific types of data are also needed in an OIS: groups of data (documents and dossiers), unstructured and incomplete data, sophisticated handling of time, and of compl ex situations, distributed data, office workers roles. Other particular aspects are related to the fact that an office system is intrisically evol uti onary, and with the usage of the system: highly interactive, integrating different functions, requiring great flexibility with possible interruptions of tasks and with a high number of exceptions arising during the work. *This paper is forthcoming in ACM Transactions on Office Information Sy stems.

[1]  S. Peter de Jong,et al.  The System for Business Automation (SBA): Programming language , 1976, Commun. ACM.

[2]  Michael Hammer,et al.  A very high level programming language for data processing applications , 1977, Commun. ACM.

[3]  Michael D. Zisman.  Use of production systems for modeling asynchronous, concurrent processes , 1977, SGAR.

[4]  Diane C. P. Smith,et al.  Database abstractions: aggregation and generalization , 1977, TODS.

[5]  Moshé M. Zloof.  A Language for Office and Business Automation , 1979, Data Base Design Techniques II.

[6]  Clarence A. Ellis,et al.  Office Information Systems and Computer Science , 1980, CSUR.

[7]  Michael Hammer,et al.  Design principles of an office specification language , 1899, AFIPS '80.

[8]  Carolyn L. Cook.  Streamlining office procedures: an analysis using the information control net model , 1980, AFIPS '80.

[9]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  A language facility for designing database-intensive applications , 1980, TODS.

[10]  Gernot Richter.  IML-Inscribed Nets for Modeling Text Processing and Data (Base) Management Systems , 1981, VLDB.

[11]  Moshé M. Zloof.  QBE/OBE: A Language for Office and Business Automation , 1981, Computer.

[12]  Fred J. Maryanski.  Office Information Systems , 1981, Computer.

[13]  Andrew B. Whinston,et al.  Internal Accounting Controls in the Office of the Future , 1981, Computer.

[14]  J. Barron,et al.  Dialogue and process design for interactive information systems using Taxis , 1982, COCS.

[15]  B. Konsynski,et al.  A Model for Specification of Office Communications , 1982, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[16]  Najah Naffah,et al.  Office Information Systems , 1982 .

[17]  John L. Barron.  Dialogue and process design for interactive information systems using Taxis , 1982 .

[18]  Dennis Tsichritzis,et al.  Form management , 1982, CACM.

[19]  S. Gibbs.  Office information models and the representation of 'office objects' , 1982, COCS.

[20]  Moshé M. Zloof.  Office-by-Example: A Business Language that Unifies Data and Word Processing and Electronic Mail , 1982, IBM Syst. J..

[21]  Marcos A. Bernal,et al.  OfficeTalk-D: An experimental office information system , 1982, COCS.

[22]  Vincent Y. Lum,et al.  OPAS: An Office Procedure Automation System , 1982, IBM Syst. J..

[23]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  Strategies for Information Requirements Determination , 1982, IBM Syst. J..

[24]  Gerald R. Barber,et al.  Supporting organizational problem solving with a work station , 1988, TOIS.

[25]  R. McAfee,et al.  An OIS model for internal accounting control evaluation , 1983, TOIS.

[26]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  How do people organize their desks?: Implications for the design of office information systems , 1983, TOIS.

[27]  Henk Sol,et al.  Information Systems Design Methodologies: A Comparative Review , 1983 .

[28]  Giampio Bracchi,et al.  SOS: a conceptual model for office information systems , 1983, DATB.

[29]  Daniele Nardi,et al.  Modeling the office structure: A first step towards the Office Expert System , 1984 .