Defining information systems as work systems: implications for the IS field

Abstract

The lack of an agreed upon definition of information system (IS) is one of many obstacles troubling the academic IS discipline. After listing a number of definitions of IS, this paper defines IS as a special case of work system as defined in Alter (1999a). This definition has many desirable characteristics: it is easy to understand; differentiates IS from information technology (IT); covers totally manual, partially automated, and totally automated ISs; links to a life cycle model that generates many insights about development and implementation problems; provides a simple guideline that helps in interpreting common IS/IT jargon; and has other useful implications related to IS concepts, IS terminology, and the analysis and design of ISs. The paper presents the proposed IS definition and evaluates the definition in terms of simplicity, clarity, scope, systematic power, explanatory power, validity, reliability, and fruitfulness. An Appendix summarizes previously published concepts and two frameworks that flow from the proposed definition and are useful for appreciating many points in the evaluation section.

Keywords:

• information system
• work system
• definition of information system
• IS discipline
• IT antifact

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven Alter

About the author

Steven Alter is Professor of Information Systems at the University of San Francisco. He earned a Ph.D. from MIT and extended his thesis into one of the first books on decision support systems. He served for 8 years as Vice President of Consilium, a manufacturing software firm that went public in 1989 and was acquired by Applied Materials in 1998. His research for the last decade has concerned developing systems analysis concepts and methods that can be used by typical business professionals and can support communication with IT professionals. His 2006 book, The Work System Method: Connecting People, Processes, and IT for Business Results, is a distillation and extension of ideas in 1992, 1996, 1999, and 2002 editions of his information system textbook. His articles have been published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, IBM Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Interfaces, Communications of the ACM, Communications of the AIS, CIO Insight, and many conference proceedings.