Choose one problem  Develop a ‘one paragraph’ solution for the problem including examples.

 1. “It’s hard to focus on what we want to achieve. I look at what our real competitors, the convenience stores, are doing and think we should copy that. Then a hundred customers come in, and I listen to each of them, and they say we should keep our little store the same, with friendly clerks and old- fashioned cash registers. Then, when I pick up a copy of SuperMarket News, they say that the wave of the future is super grocery stores, with no individual prices marked and UPC scanners replacing clerks. I’m pulled in so many directions I can’t really settle on a strategy for our grocery store,” admits Geoff Walsham, owner and manager of Jiffy Geoff’s Grocery Store. In a paragraph, apply the concept of permeable organizational boundaries to analyze Geoff’s problem in focusing on organizational objectives.

2. Write seven sentences explaining the right-to-left relationships in Figure 2.8.

3. Draw an entity-relationship diagram of a patient–doctor relationship. a. Which of the types of E-R diagrams is it? b. In a sentence or two, explain why the patient–doctor relationship is diagrammed in this way.

4. You began drawing E-R diagrams soon after your entry into the health maintenance organization for which you’re designing a system. Your team member is skeptical about using E-R diagrams before the design of the database is begun. In a paragraph, persuade your team member that early use of E-R diagrams is worthwhile.

5. Neil is a decision maker for Pepe’s Atlantic Sausage Company. Because there are several suppliers of ingredients and their prices fluctuate, he has come up with several different formulations for the various sausages that he makes, depending on the availability of particular ingredients from particular suppliers. He then orders ingredients accordingly twice a week. Even though he cannot predict when ingredients will become available at a particular price, his ordering of supplies can be considered routine. a. On what level of management is Neil working? Explain in a paragraph. b. What attributes of his job would have to change before you would categorize him as working on a different level of management? List them.

6. Many of the people who work at Pepe’s (Problem 5) are extremely dedicated to Pepe’s and have devoted their lives to the company. Others feel that the company is behind the times and should use more sophisticated production systems, information systems, and supply chain management to make the company more competitive. Members of a third group feel that what they do is unappreciated. Describe the various subculture in words. Assign them a name based on their emotions.

7. Alice in the human resources department at the Cho Manufacturing plant is constantly being asked by employees how much is taken out of their paychecks for insurance, taxes, medical, mandatory retirement, and voluntary retirement. “It takes up to a few hours every day,” says Alice. She would like a Web system that would allow employees to use a secure logon to view the information. Alice wants the system to interface with health and dental insurance companies to obtain the amount remaining in the employee’s account for the year. She would also like to obtain retirement amounts saved along with investment results. Alice has a high regard for privacy and wants the system to have employees register and give permission to obtain financial amounts from the dental insurance and retirement companies. Draw a use case diagram representing the activities of the Employee Benefit system.

8. Write up a use case scenario for the use case diagram you constructed for Cho Manufacturing.

9. What level are you creating your use case at? Choose one of the four altitude metaphors and explain why you chose it.

10. Create a context-level data flow diagram for the Employee Benefit system in Problem 7. Make any assumptions about the data to and from the central process. Do you find this to be better or not as good at explaining the system to Alice than the use case and use case scenarios?

11. Draw a use case and write up a use case scenario for getting two or three email accounts. Think about the steps that are needed to ensure security.