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Information Systems
Managing Information
Information system
Software that helps the user organize and analyze data
Electronic spreadsheets and database management systems
Software tools that allow the user to organize, manage, and analyze data is various ways
Have you used a spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets
A software application that allows the user to organize and analyze data using a grid of labeled cells
– A cell can contain data or a formula that is used to calculate a value
– Data stored in a cell can be text, numbers, or “special” data such as dates
– Spreadsheet cells are referenced by their row and column designation
– Suppose we have collected data on the number of students that came to get help from a set of tutors over a period of several weeks
Spreadsheet Formulas
The power of spreadsheets comes from the formulas that we can create and store in cells
– When a formula is stored in a cell, the result of the formula is displayed in the cell
– If we’ve set up the spreadsheet correctly,
– we could add or remove tutors,
– add additional weeks of data,
– or change any of the data we have already stored and the corresponding calculations would automatically be updated
– Formulas make use of basic arithmetic operations using the standard symbols (+, -, 2, *, and /)
– Spreadsheet functions
– Computations provided by the spreadsheet software that can be incorporated into formulas
– Range
– A set of contiguous cells specified by the endpoints
Spreadsheet Analysis
Can you name eight tasks that a spreadsheet might be used to perform?
Possible tasks a spreadsheet could perform:
• Track sales
• Analyze sport statistics
• Maintain student grades
• Keep a car maintenance log
• Record and summarize travel expenses
• Track project activities and schedules
• Plan stock purchases
Spreadsheets are also useful because of their dynamic nature, which provides the powerful ability to do what-if analysis
– What if the number of attendees decreased by 10%?
– What if we increase the ticket price by $5?
– What if we could reduce the cost of materials by half?
Database Management Systems
Database
A structured set of data
Database management system (DBMS)
A combination of software and data, made up of a physical database, a database engine, and a database schema
Physical database
A collection of files that contain the data