Managing Computers in Large Organizations

Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html
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THE USER ERA 128
and automation technologies demands individuals skilled in both fields.
The Army is engaged in developing programs that will train such persons.
6. Define the relative roles of users and data processing professionals. The
increase in the ability of users to perform their own data processing
functions has led to friction between these two groups. Yet both need to
play key roles. Specifically, the professional should: design, develop,
and manage the common user network; develop software that satisfies
the needs of more than one agency or activity, such as payroll and
budget; develop and enforce standards throughout the organization;
establish and staff the organization's information center, which instructs
users on new tools; provide fourth-generation software tools; and act as
the database administrator, ensuring that every data element has a single
owner who has identified procedures for its use. Finally, this
professional should develop a procedure to provide visibility for userdeveloped
software. The Army has developed a software clearinghouse
that will function in two ways. Users can find out if software already
exists that meets their requirements before initiating new development.
Professionals can use the clearinghouse to identify software products
that are candidates for standardization.
7. Establish standards. In the public sector establishing standards is the
only real way to ensure both economic and effective systems
development. Although the computer industry has defined standards in
certain areas, it has not formulated standards in other areas for purely
business reasons. The Army has set its own standards in five broad areas:
Languages. COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC and Ada (for battle-field
systems) are established standards. SIMSCRIPT, LISP, C, and PASCAL
are other languages that have been used for specific and obvious functions.
Data Base Management Systems (DBMS). The Army has a variety of
DBMSs. On most of its large IBM mainframes, DATA-COM D/B is
used. For the future the Army believes that the solution lies in the creation
of a simple but standard data manipulation language. The software behind
the language could be developed to manage databases using hierarchical,
network, or relational procedures. With such a solution present databases
could be preserved.
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