2.2.1 System Analysis and design 2.2.1.1 System
A System is a group of elements, components, or devices that
are assembled to serve a common purpose. In a technological system, this refers
to all hardware, software, networks, cables, peripheral equipment, information,
data, personnel, and procedures (i.e. all technology resources) that comprise a
computer environment.
2.2.1.2 Information System
A set of people, procedures and resources that collects,
transforms and disseminates information in an organization; a system that
accepts data resources as input and processes them into information products as
output; a system that uses the resources of hardware, software and
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people to perform input, processing, output, storage and
control activities that transform data resources into information products; a
purposefully designed system that brings data, computers, procedures, and
people, etc. It means an interconnected set of information resources under the
same direct management control that shares common functionality. A system
normally includes hardware, software, information, data, applications,
communications, and people.
It is also an organized collection, storage, and presentation
system of data and other knowledge for decision making, progress reporting, and
for planning and evaluation of programs. It can be either manual or
computerized, or a combination of both. The organized collection, processing,
transmission, and dissemination of information in accordance with defined
procedures, whether automated or manual. Information systems include
non-financial, financial, and mixed systems.
2.2.1.3 Automated information system
An assembly of computer hardware, firmware, and/or software
configured to collect, create, communicate, compute, disseminate, process,
store, and/or control data or information. In telecommunications, the term
automated information system is an assembly of computer hardware, software,
firmware, or any combination of these, configured to accomplish specific
information-handling operations, such as communication, computation,
dissemination, processing, and storage of information. Included are computers,
word processing systems, networks, or other electronic information handling
systems, and associated equipment.
2.2.2 Computer Software
Software is a generic term for organized collections of
computer data and instructions, often broken into two major categories: System
software that provides the basic non-task-specific functions of the computer,
and Application software which is used by users to accomplish specific
tasks.
System software is responsible for controlling, integrating,
and managing the individual hardware components of a computer system so that
other software and the users of the system see it as a functional unit without
having to be concerned with the low-level details such as transferring data
from memory to disk, or rendering text onto a display. Generally, system
software consists of an operating system and some fundamental utilities such as
disk formatters,
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file managers, display managers, text editors, user
authentication (login) and management tools, and networking and device control
software.
Application software, on the other hand, is used to accomplish
specific tasks other than just running the computer system. Application
software may consist of a single program, such as an image viewer; a small
collection of programs (often called a software package) that work closely
together to accomplish a task, such as a spreadsheet or text processing system;
a larger collection (often called a software suite) of related but independent
programs and packages that have a common user interface or shared data format,
such as Microsoft Office, which consists of closely integrated word processor,
spreadsheet, database, etc.; or a system software, such as a database
management system, which is a collection of fundamental programs that may
provide some service to a variety of other independent applications.
Software is created with programming languages and related
utilities, which may come in several of the above forms: single programs like
script interpreters, packages containing a compiler, linker, and other tools;
and large suites (often called Integrated Development Environments) that
include editors, debuggers, and other tools for multiple languages.
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