Designing Management Information Systems

Designing Management Information Systems using Merise method

Conceptual Processing Modeling (CPM)

CPM associated with MIS contains processes detail in operations and complex
operations in simple operation, sequences and finality of these processes. There are shown
the components through a graphical formalism: actors, source events (if these are
synchronized, will be generate activities and operations), emission conditions, rules and
results.
It is interesting to observe frequency and its capacity (the maximum number of
occurrences) for an event.

Example:
 external event, generated by the evolution of the system – receive of payments
documents, currency payments, determining calling of specific/certain activities, ie
payment transactions or inter/intra banking settlements
 internal event - creating payment schedule determines payment of rates and interest
rates at deadlines either by the client or by withholding amounts from the current bank
account.

Operation
Any field reacts to stimuli. The behavior of the field is highlighted by operations
being executed. The operation is an action/lots of actions that are executed as a result of
the trigger events synchronized that will produce events result. A related aggregate of
triggering events, synchronization, operations with activities and events result
form/determine a block operation.
Operations can be decomposed into specific elementary operations for a domain. For
each operation we are interested about actions, conditions for emission/issued results,
events result, time of operations.
Types of elementary operations: decisions, actions on data (variables).

Operation code Name of operation

Actions

Emission rules
R 1 | R2 | R3 | | Rn

E1 E2 E3 Em Event results
 Designing Management Information Systems

Synchronization
Synchronization expresses the fact that an operation can be triggered under certain conditions
only - the simultaneous existence of two or more triggering events. These events are linked in
a mathematical expression with Boolean operators. The system analysis must start from the
real and concrete data, and therefore synchronized events must be valid, i.e. to present times
in their dynamics and evolution when can take certain values or range and be synchronized
with other events, so as to make possible certain operations.

Synchronization may have several forms:

 synchronization is off when there is no event belongs to the triggering relationship;
 synchronization is waiting when there are only some of the events that belongs to the
triggering relationship;
 synchronization is active when all events of the triggering relationship occur and the
operation will be triggered/started

Processes
Processes are complex ensemble of operations executed in response to events, and which
produce successive results to achieve a final goal.
The designing of an conceptual processing model must consider compliance with
rules and developing stages.
We must take into account the following rules:
- every player issue at least one event and receives at least one result
- any operation is triggered by an event from a synchronization or a result
- synchronization involves processing of logical expressions
- any result is a message to an actor or an event for a synchronization or an action.

The steps must be follow in the development of CPM:

 identifying actors and triggering events;
 build events-results table;
 description of processes, complex operations and elementary operations;
 set up synchronization relationships;
 set up results and associated messages;
 set up conditions for achieving results;
 model verification and validation.

Example of block operation for the loan activity.

 Designing Management Information Systems

Documentatie BILANT GARANT II

utilizare
credit

Cerere de BALANT A
pe 3 luni Adev. Venit
credit

a b c d e f

abcde
f

Op1 | ACORDAREA SI RAMBURSAREA CREDIT ELOR BANCARE

- analiza si avizarea documentatiei de creditare de catre inspector credite

- analiza si avizarea documentatiei de catre seful serviciu credite

- intocmire contract de credite

OK
NOT OK

Documentatie de Contract de
credit credit
 Designing Management Information Systems

Logical Designing
Logical Communication Model (LCM)

LCM aims to set up the data organization in the system. For this purpose, the following
criteria will be taken into account:
 size of the company;
 nature and specificity of MIS;
 distribution in time and space of MIS processing;
 type of organization of the company (headquarters, branch offices, branches, agencies,
representative offices);
 architectural design of the building where is the company headquarter.

There are used two major types of organizing data: relational databases and distributed
databases.
LCM involve to determine the type of architecture, DBMS and query languages used.

The Client-server architecture is the most common met architecture in financial and banking
applications.
The Client-server architecture occur as an architecture on several levels.

Level 1 Client-Server Architecture involves a FS (file server) and a WS (workstation). FS

contains the database and the specific banking and financial applications, and WS contains a
communication interface with FS only. For each user and WS the system adminbistrator will
be given specific access rights.
In this case, the upgrade for application re easy, but can occur downtime for FS, which will
affect the answers to the WS requests.

Database Server
Client Level
Application
Logics
Interface
Database

Example:
For intra-banking settlements, the bank employees from customer service (accounts-transfers)
process documents submitted by the customer (payment orders, checks) using applications
installed on FS. In this time there are online updated the customer account balances so that
any employees can use subsequently the real customer account.

Level 2 Client-Server Architecture differs in that the WS have stored financial and
banking applications and FS will contain the database. The WS requests to the FS will be
send using a query language (SQL).
 Designing Management Information Systems

This structure involve to share application on dedicated/specialized WS for certain activities

(loan, accounting, administrative), applications that is not necessary to be visible and
accessed by other services other than those directly concerned.

Client Level
Database Server
Interface

Application Database
Logics

Example:
The loan officers are not interested in calculating return on investment or profit tax calculated
by economists from accounting department. Neither these are not interested in granting the
preliminary stages of credit-debt ratio analysis, collateral, payment schedule calculation for
different periods of credit etc.
Running independently the application from WS not impairing the MIS operations when
updating applications, blockage or malfunction of WS.

The disadvantages are reflected in that a developed/upgraded application must be

implemented on all WS that request it, taking into account their specific features (hardware
and software), which involve more expenses in terms of resources (human, financial, time).

Level 3 Client-Server Architecture have three levels of connection.

Client Level Application Database

Server Server

Application
Logics Database
Interface
Services

The application server store the application logics, forward the requests from Client to Server
and results to this queries from Server to Client. This prevents overcrowding and blocking
data server because the application are developed on the application server. Implementation
and updating the applications will be faster, the applications can be implemented in different
programming languages, depending on customer requests. In case of complex MIS with a
large number of WS and large databases is proposed sharing application between multiple
application servers and sharing databases between multiple database servers or within the
current server using different criteria (e.g. frequency calling).
 Designing Management Information Systems

Web browser
Client

Application Web Server Tranzaction

Server Monitor

Databases Servers

We can use client-server architecture with multiple levels, which include application
servers, database servers, Web servers, transaction monitors, etc due to the development of
financial and banking systems and the expansion of internet financial services.
Peer-to-peer architecture uses distributed computing principles for the implementation of
applications and databases. Network devices perform functions of FS (which, in reality, there
are distinct). Systems are very flexible so that any WS can be regarded as FS.

Logical Data Model (LDM)

LDM provide transforming of CDM to a logical structure of database, determining the

order of updating database and order of listing outputs MIS in several phases:

a) CDM transformation using rules to pass through CDM from existing LDM according
to the cardinality of the CDM;
b) set up the order of updating database starting from LDM weightings and a matrix
containing the weightings;
c) set up the order of listing the outputs of the system using graphical method.

Example:

We obtain the following scheme for loan activity from previously proposed MCD, applying
the rules to pass from CDM to LDM:

Clients (CNP_cl, Name_cl, First_name_cl, District_cl, City_cl, Street_cl,

No_cl, Building_cl, Appartment_cl)
Contracte (No_contr, Date_contr, Value_contr, IR_contr, Period_contr,
CNP_cl)
Endorsers (CNP_e, Name_e, First_name_e, District _e, City _e, Street _e,
No_e, Building _e, Appartment _e)
Endosers (No_contr, CNP_e)
Payments (Type_doc, No_doc, Date_doc, Ammount_doc, Exp_doc,
 Designing Management Information Systems

CNP_cl, CNP_g)

Rules to pass from CDM to LDM: