MGMT 7020   

Technology and Project Management

2. Conceptual Specification

Recap  Week 1

Team Meeting

Technology Module Topic 2:

Concepts & their Specification (for assignment 1)

Picturing a System  (thinking about assignment 2)

Data Specification (thinking about assignment 2)

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Technology Module – Assignments & topics

1. Architecture

2. Specification

3. Systems

5. Design

4. Organisation

6. Futures

Individual Assignment 1: Technology Topic Report

submit

Read the assignment specifications on Wattle. Re-read them as you proceed.

Stay on top of this work – the module is short, the work intellectually demanding 

submit

Team Assignment 2: Technology Case Study Analysis

E

X

A

M

draft

Read the Discussion Forum !

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Searching for literature 

Google

ANU Library access to e-books & journals

Google Scholar

Oxford English Dictionary

Search terms:

use of quotes "..."

synonyms (try a thesaurus)

wordnet

balance being too general with being too specific

The Library can help!   Start here: https:// anulib.anu.edu.au /research-learn/finding-resources 

Set up your research workbench:

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

The Literature Domain 

https://www.rri-tools.eu/-/science-is-not-what-you-think-how-it-has-changed-why-we-can-t-trust-it-how-it-can-be-fixed

Grey literature

Textbook literature

Review papers

Research papers

Wikipedia

(A conceptual framework – one of many possible conceptualisations)

opinion pieces, blogs

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Week 1...The Structure of the Information World    (data, information, knowledge)

religions

The law

vocabularies

Informal 

Formal 

Organic 

Deliberative

institutions

cultures

designs

data

discussions

reports

World 2:

Cognition 

World 1:

Physical Objects and Events 

debates

blogs

theories & models

policies

procedures

rules

social conventions

ontologies

Stable

Ephemeral

hypotheses

Universal

Patterns

Particular

data

Generalised

proposals

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

World 3:

Information 

World 1:

Objects and Events 

World 2:

Cognition 

policeman's 

thoughts

my

thoughts

car

speed

road zone

perception

statements

communication

Motor Traffic Act

reference

GPS

processing

data

Important

Concepts:  

satellite

GPS

hardware

Week 1... The 3-Worlds Model.

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Input

Output

Process

Week 1...  Input-Process-Output  Model.

Storage

Communications

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Internet / web

    

  

dbms

tps

wifi

modem

bluetooth

bi

simulation

dss

Photo

shop

Week 1...  Technical Architecture

Shows you (an actor) taking a photo on a mobile, using Bluetooth 

to transfer it to your computer, editing it in photoshop

and uploaded to facebook via wifi to a modem and cable through 

the internet/web.

There a tps hands it to a dbms which stores it in its database. 

Later, it is retrieved and sent to Cambridge Analytica which 

uses bi software, simulation and a dss to produce information for 

An political advisor (or advertiser) to use in persuading you to vote for

a particular candidate. 

political advisor 

     Key:

tps – transaction processing system

dbms – data base management system

bi – business intelligence system

dss – decision support system

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Technical IT 

Architecture

(physical 

implementation)

Process

input  

Week 1...   Information Systems Architectural Layers 

storage

Human/

Organisation

system

Know-how,

algorithms 

Ontologies, Data, Information

Conceptual 

Architecture

(conceptual

specification)

output

Physical & organisational 

surroundings

The world

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

MGMT 7020   

Technology and Project Management

2. Conceptual Specification

Recap  Week 1

Team Meeting

Technology Module Topic 2:

Concepts & their Specification (for assignment 1)

Picturing a System  (thinking about assignment 2)

Data Specification (thinking about assignment 2)

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Concepts 

There is a critical difference between a 

- a particular thing, and   

- a concept of a 'sort of thing'

A concept is a class, a set, a category which  

groups particular things that have attributes in common

Forms of Concept definition:

- strict, defined by its boundaries, members are in or out

- fuzzy, defined by its core, members are more-or-less in or out

Much of our thinking (world 2) is 

- about concepts

- relating concepts to each other

- relating concepts to particular things

We think in concepts

We talk and read concepts (world 3)

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

An ontology:  'Explicit representation of conceptualization' (Guarino et al. 2009)

Specifying our conceptualisation of a domain .. 

Used  to:

develop common understanding of structures

(e.g. the structure of information among people or systems)

make assumptions explicit 

(to avoid and identify gaps in understanding)

analyse and formalise different types of knowledge 

(e.g. domain knowledge and technical)

uncover missing knowledge 

(to surface biases and weaknesses)

enable machine 'intelligence'

(Trivago)

A formal vocabulary & conceptual framework for a domain  (ie. a semantic network)

A Domain:  A coherent structure of concepts, a field of knowledge, ... 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Rough Preliminary Conceptual Framework 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Conceptual Structure – a taxonomy

A Hierarchy of concepts   https:// en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Taxonomy 

https://www.earley.com/blog/taxonomy-vs-taxonomy-vs-taxonomy

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Conceptual Frameworks

Every statement we make draws on concepts 

Conceptual Structure – example: Building – a Cross-Section Plan

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

1. Find descriptions of the concepts you are interested in (ie. the terms used to describe it)

definitions - dictionaries, indexes and glossaries of textbooks, encyclopaedia,

thesaurii, wikipedia, etc

uses in practice – the literature

note senses     ... begin to narrow relevance by exclusion of out-of-scope senses

A Method for Conceptual Framework Creation 

1b. Look for examples (instances)

Exemplars & Prototypes

Core boundary & non examples (conditions for determination)

Difficult cases

3. Identify surrounding concepts

How are they related?

2. Identify the Taxonomy around the concept 

type hierarchies - find parent(s), sibling and child concepts (see wordnet)

1a. Identify attributes of the concept

how would you recognise an example of the concept in the wild? 

are attributes observable, measurable? (scalar, polar or fuzzy,...?)

(Assignment 1)

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Rough Preliminary Conceptual Framework 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

 

Conceptual Structure – example AI: – Block World 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

  

workshop: ISF19

loc

city: Canberra

[workshop : ISF19]          (loc)         [city : Canberra]

Example: The IS Foundations Workshop 2019 is located in Canberra

Conceptual Framework  Described Formally 1  

A formal ontology and example domain

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

2

2

Conceptual Framework  Described Formally 2  

General Taxonomy (eg. the Standard Upper Ontology, ebXML, ...) :

T  >  event  >  act 

T  >  physical-object >  animate-object  >  person

( (subt) abbreviated to ">", T = top) 

General Relationships:

(agnt) agent 

(attr) attribute

(inst) instrument          

(obj) object 

(part) part

(loc) location

(eg.  [cat] <- (agnt) <- [sat] -> (loc) -> [mat] )

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

2

2

[author] generic concept, there is an author (or [author:*])

[author : Fred] an individual, the author, Fred

Conceptual Framework  Described Formally 3  

Workshop Concepts:

T  >  physical-object >  paper

Workshop Definitions: 

act  >  write  

[write]   ->  (agnt)  ->  [animate]

   ->  (obj)     ->  [paper]

Then we can start using the ontology ...

[author : Fred]  <-  (agnt)  <-  [write]  ->  (obj)  ->  [paper:#27]

[workshop : ISF19]          (loc)         [city : Canberra]

Example from the 'Workshop' domain

Workshop Taxonomy:

"Fred wrote paper number 27"

"paper number 27 wrote Fred"

A machine can detect this invalid statement...

and much more 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

2

2

Concepts & Ontology

The 3 worlds idea can be seen as an 'ontological' theory That is, it posits 3 concepts about the sorts of things that exist: material entities, forces and structures thinking (a process) abstract entities (concepts and relationships)

The  Big  Ideas

Why  Study  These?

Because they specifically underlie the key organisational technologies  and, more generally, underlie our capacity to understand our world!

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

The Structure of the Information World    (data, information, knowledge)

religions

The law

vocabularies

institutions

cultures

designs

data

discussions

reports

World 2:

Cognition 

World 1:

Physical Objects and Events 

debates

blogs

theories & models

policies

procedures

rules

social conventions

ontologies

proposals

Everything we say (and think?) is

framed in terms of Ontology

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

World 2:

Cognition 

World 1:

Physical Objects and Events 

Another  Word about Concepts … ‘levels of conceptualisation’

Substantive Concepts

Concept Framework

More abstract Frameworks 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

MGMT 7020   

Technology and Project Management

2. Conceptual Specification

Recap  Week 1

Team Meeting

Technology Module Topic 2:

Concepts & their Specification (for assignment 1)

Picturing a System  (thinking about assignment 2)

Data Specification (thinking about assignment 2)

   

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Starts to capture the people in the domain – their interests and natures.

Peter Checkland (2000)

Domain Overview:   A Rich Picture

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

 

Domain Overview:   A Rich Picture

Starts to capture the Big ideas in the domain

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

 

Domain Overview:   A Rich Picture

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

 

Domain Overview:   A Rich Picture

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Group Exercise

Last week we started to look at the case study for this semester’s assignment.

Now, using your knowledge of the language of the domain,

start to sketch a rich picture.

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

MGMT 7020   

Technology and Project Management

2. Conceptual Specification

Recap  Week 1

Team Meeting

Technology Module Topic 2:

Concepts & their Specification (for assignment 1)

Picturing a System  (thinking about assignment 2)

Data Specification (thinking about assignment 2)

    

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Data Statements:

The temperature of this room is 22 degrees c

Data & its Modelling

Data

The Object

The Attribute of the Object the data refers to 

D = VAO

(data = value of an attribute of an object) 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

32

https:// www.youtube.com / watch?v =jV-7Hy-PF2Q&frags=pl%2Cwn 

Data & Abstraction

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Data Base Technology

Stores data ! 

eg. the temperature of this room recorded every 10 mins

eg. all the relevant data relating to you is in the student database

How do we tell a machine what the data is about?

(eg. how does it know 22 is the temperature of this room etc) 

We analyse the domain and develop a model of the 

SORT of data we want.

Then build systems to capture the actual data and process it...  

'meta-data'

'data'

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

34

Data model (meta-data):

Diagram of data entities and their relationships 

Not the data itself

Entity-relationship (ER) diagrams:

Data models use basic graphical symbols to show the organization of and relationships between data-entities

Provides a global reference to an organization’s data structures.

Useful for designing a database structure, semantic web, etc.

Data & its Modelling

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

35

Owner

medication

Pet       

Vet       

Practice

Visit

Exercise: 

Write an English sentence equivalent to the E-R diagram below.

(A "Vet" is a Veterinary doctor who looks after animals

A "Practice" is a place where a doctor works)

http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/SQLIntro01CD/page_07.htm

This is a data model – a kind of Conceptual Framework 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Entity (a concept, a set, a class):  

An Entity is a concept identifying a set of Objects 

about which we want to record data.

eg. Employee.   

Employee

Meta-Data – Basic Ideas

Attribute:

An Attribute identifies a property all instances of an entity have. 

eg.

Employee:

employee number

employee name

employee address

employee salary

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

3

Meta-data  &  Data

 Employee Id # Name Address Salary ...   u123456 Schmit ???? 800,000    u752034 Sui ???? 55,000    u953745 Craig ???? 60    

Employee

meta-data

database

attributes

Entity

instance (data about an object)

data value

A Database Table 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

3

Look at your student cards.

Design meta-data for a 'student' entity in the student system

Populate a database with data from your team's students' cards 

Data – Group Exercise

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Data Model Example

Employee

Employs

Department

An event (world 1) establishes a relationship between objects

eg. Schmit was employed by the Management Department on January 1 2017

The 'employs' event generated an instance of the 'Employs' Entity.

A Database Schema (tables & relationships) 

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Draw a data model relating

student and course

Team Data Model Exercise

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Data Model with Data 

 Student Id # Name Photo Expiry date Bar Code   u123456 Fred ???? 31/12/20    u752034 Sui ???? 1/1/21    u953745 Sisira ????     

Student

 Course Id # Semester Lecturer   MGMT7020 1/19 ....   MGMT7086 2/19 ...   INFS2016 1/20 ...   

Course Offering

Enrols

 Student d # Course Id # Semester Grade   u123456 MGMT7020 1/19    u123456 INFS2016 1/19    u953745 INFS2016 1/19    u123456 MGMT7086 1/19    

Data

Data

Data

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Larger Data Model

https://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/73433/magento-database-diagram

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Role of Data in Systems

Transaction Processing 

data retrieval, Instance creation  

Management / Executive Information Systems (MIS/EIS)

data aggregated over time and locations

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

historical data used for prediction, current data for state 

Business Intelligence Systems (BI)

Data Analytics

Big Data

square kilometre array ...

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

5

5

Obtain a “narrative” 

(e.g. from observation, a business analysis, an interview, etc.)

Identify the entities needed 

Look for objects (often nouns) in the narrative

Detect the relationships between the entities

Draw an entity model, showing the entities and relationships between them

Determine the attributes for each entity

Test with data

Data Model Development

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

5

5

The Structure of World 3   (data, information, knowledge/theory)

religions

META DATA

vocabularies

institutions

cultures

designs

data

discussions

reports

debates

blogs

theories & models

policies

procedures

rules

social conventions

ontologies

hypotheses

proposals

The law

Instance data

Particular Thing

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

MGMT 7020   

Technology and Project Management

2. Conceptual Specification

Recap  Week 1

Team Meeting

Technology Module Topic 2:

Concepts & their Specification (for assignment 1)

Picturing a System  (thinking about assignment 2)

Data Specification (thinking about assignment 2)

     

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Technical IT 

Architecture

(hardware & bits)

Processing

Units

input &  

Information Systems Architectural Layers 

storage

Conceptual 

Architecture

output

Physical & organisational 

surroundings

The world

data

devices

Content

(instance data)

meta-data

Systems 

Architecture

Rich Picture

world 3

world 1

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

Assignment 1:  First Team Meeting

Team Meeting  

Work with your team on assignment 2

- Rich Picture

- Data 

- Technical Architecture

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

What to do next ...

Start writing assignment 2 ... it will be a very iterative process!

- Rich Picture

- Data Modelling

- Technical Architecture

Assignment 1

- start mapping the main concepts in the ontology of your topic.

MGMT 7020   Technology and Project Management 

concept-2

relation

concept-1