Page 582 - Using MIS

550 Glossary

Support activities In Porter’s value chain model, the ac- layer. Programs are written to implement the rules of a par-
tivities that contribute indirectly to value creation: pro- ticular protocol. 224
curement, technology, human resources, and the firm’s Team surveys Forms of asynchronous communication in
infrastructure. 88 which one team member creates a list of questions and
Swift Apple’s new programming language for OS X and iOS other team members respond. Microsoft SharePoint has
applications. 136 built-in survey capability. 51
Swim-lane layout A process diagram layout similar to swim Technical feasibility Whether existing information technol-
lanes in a swimming pool; each role in the process is shown ogy will be able to meet the requirements of a new informa-
in its own horizontal rectangle, or lane. 464 tion system. 469
Switching costs Business strategy of locking in customers by Telediagnosis A remote access system used by health-
making it difficult or expensive to change to another prod- care professionals to provide expertise in rural or remote
uct or supplier. 95 areas. 236
Symbian A mobile client operating system that is popular Telelaw enforcement A remote access system that provides
on phones in Europe and the Far East, but less so in North law enforcement capability. 237
America. 128 Telesurgery A remote access system that links surgeons to
Symmetric encryption An encryption method whereby the robotic equipment and patients at a distance. 236
same key is used to encode and to decode the message. 405 Terabyte (TB) 1,024 GB. 118
Synchronous communication Information exchange that Test plan Groups of action and usage sequences for validat-
occurs when all members of a work team meet at the ing the capability of new using software. 475
same time, such as face-to-face meetings or conference
calls. 48 Text mining The application of statistical techniques on text
streams for locating particular words, patterns of particular
System A group of components that interact to achieve some words, and even correlating those word counts and patterns
purpose. 11
with personality profiles. 241
System conversion The process of converting business ac- The Internet The public collection of networks used for
tivity from the old system to the new. 475
transmitting data, worldwide. 214
Systems analyst IS professionals who understand both busi- The Singularity The point at which computer systems be-
ness and technology. They are active throughout the sys- come sophisticated enough that they can create and adapt
tems development process and play a key role in moving their own software and hence adapt their behavior without
the project from conception to conversion and, ultimately, human assistance. 373
maintenance. Systems analysts integrate the work of the
programmers, testers, and users. 460 Thick-client application A software application that re-
quires programs other than just the browser on a user’s
Systems development life cycle (SDLC) The classical pro- computer; that is, that requires code on both client and
cess used to develop information systems. The basic tasks server computers. See also native application. 126
of systems development are combined into the following
phases: system definition, requirements analysis, compo- Third-party cookie A cookie created by a site other than the
nent design, implementation, and system maintenance (fix one visited. 381
or enhance). 466 Threat A person or organization that seeks to ob-
Systems thinking The mental activity of making one or more tain or alter data or other IS assets illegally, without
models of the components of a system and connecting the the owner’s permission and often without the owner’s
inputs and outputs among those components into a sensible knowledge. 390
whole, one that explains the phenomenon observed. One of Three-tier architecture Architecture used by most
four key skills for nonroutine cognitive thinking. 8 e-commerce server applications. The tiers refer to three
Table Also called files, groups of similar rows or records in a different classes of computers. The user tier consists of us-
database. 165 ers’ computers that have browsers that request and process
Web pages. The server tier consists of computers that run
Tablets Computing device that allows interaction through a
flat touch screen. 116 Web servers and in the process generate Web pages and
other data in response to requests from browsers. Web
Target The asset that is desired by a security threat. 390 servers also process application programs. The third tier is
TCP/IP protocol architecture A protocol architecture hav- the database tier, which runs the DBMS that processes the
ing five layers and one or more protocols defined at each database. 220