Information Syetems Development and Data Modelling Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations

8/13/2019 Information Syetems Development and Data Modelling Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations

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ook Reviews

Information Systems Development and Data Modeling:Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations Rudy Hirsch-heim, Heinz K. Klein, and Kalle Lyytinen. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press; t 995 : 289 pp. Price: $44.95.(ISBN: 0-521-37369-7.)Kirschheim, Klein, and Lyytinen have done a valuable ser-vice by tying together a series of related research lines into asingle thread andperhaps as importantlyall of the researchthread histories into a single volum e. Synthesis of research frommore than 800 references provides a single integrated look atthe manner in which information systems and data modeling

methodologies have evolved. The authors should feel proud ofthis significant integration accomplishment.An extensive presentation of systems development method-ologies stresses the importance of understanding the breadth ofmaterial covered. My guess is that most IS researchers wouldbe hard pressed to name the seven types of information systemdevelopment methodologies as: formal live-cycle approaches,structured approaches, prototyping and evolutionary ap-proaches, sociotechnical participatory approaches, sense-mak-ing and problem formulation approaches, trade union led ap-proaches, and emancipatory approaches. A similar treatment ofthe evolution of data modeling draws parallels between theevolution of systems development and data m odeling methodol-ogies. The key point is that both have be en shaped by rivalcon cern s. Com peting schools of thought have developed dif-fering approaches to both information systems development anddata mod eling. These scho ols differ greatly as to what constitutedevelopment activities and how should they be acco mplishedleading to differing methodology goals and means.The text presents a comprehensive treatment of the philo-sophical foundations of systems development and data modelingmethodologies. The authors note how system s developmentassumptions can be reflected in developer behaviors and/or beenforced by methodologies but that these assumptions certainlyaffect the systems that are dev elop ed. They define two classesof assumptions: those about the way developer's come to ac-quire knowledge required to develop systems; and those relatingto the developer's view of the social and technical worlds inwhich the system exists. Analysis of these assumptions yields

four development paradigmsdescribing functionalist , socialrelativist, radical structuralist, and neohumanist infonnationsystems development. These are compared on a number ofpoints for both information systems development and data mod-eling.The third topic area links the theoretical concepts to theapproach specific assumptions derived by topic area two. Fourdevelopment paradigms are detailed to permit more detailedexamination of the each's affect on systems development. Fourmethodologies are systematically evaluated, populating a matrixwith according to their respective: key actors; narrative; plot;and assumptions on one axis and the techniques: analysis scope;

1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

life cycle coverage; approach to uncertainty; methodology'sdefined environment; respective objectives; and data modelingapproach on the other axis. The four methodologies examinedare: information systems planning, prototyping, soft systemsmethodology, and the professional work practices approach.The chapter summary includes two figures on the common anddifferent aspects of the methodologies. These provide a clearcompare and contrast of the alternative development ap-proaches.The authors report several conclusions and consider twoimplications on IS research and practice. First, recognizing thatthere is conflict as to the nature of IS research that has focused

on analysts specific assumptions about users and themselves.The authors argue the danger of this approach because^unlikescientific disciplinesthe research foci are conscious beingsand researchers have not found satisfactory ways of examininghuman com munity-based behavior with mathematical and natu-ral science-based methods. Second, academic practices promotefunctionalism, typically excluding alternative perspectives. Theliterature analysis indicates the vast majority of research hasbeen focused on fact-based approaches as per the functionalistparadigm. They suggest perhaps more research should be fo-cused on the alternative approaches as a means of addressingsome of the deficiencies associated with the functionalist ap-proach. Indeed, the author's note this is a situation where theacademic community is falling behind more progressive indus-try practices that have understood the need and are movingbeyond strict, functional-based approaches to systems develop-ment and data modeling. As the authors state at the text's con-clusion: If our philosophical journey metaph orically speak-ingto reach beyond functional has any merit, it is becausemany prac titioners have also embarked on a journ ey arriving atthe same place, but they do not know where they are or howthey got t i iere.

While the text contents are quite valuable, I also found thetext particularly frustrating in two ways. First, the text containsdiffering amounts of materials covering many of the topics. Forexample, presenting 12 pages on the seven information systemdevelopment methodologies made the presentation feel awk-wardly detailed with followed by 4 pages devoted to data model-ing evolution. This pattern is repeated in later chapters withlarge sections on some topics and much smaller section onothers. There is approximately three times as much discussionof infonnation system development methodologies as there ison data modeling. While the uneven presentation is confusingto readers, it is consistent with the text's goals of illustratingthe problematic nature of historical information systems devel-opment practices and their study.

In defense of the authors, reducing the detail of the informa-tion system development coverage would have been difficultbecause it is already quite compact. The authors decision topresent so much information system development materials canbe justified in the interest of research covera ge com pleteness.Extending the data modeling discussion would have cloudedthe points, and because data modeling hasn't the history ofinfonnation system development, differing coverage amounts


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reinforces the authors' point. Nevertheless, the uneven coverageis awkward. In addition, the coverage presents a some alterna-tive techniques are more widely practiced and/or developedthan in fact they arepresenting a if understood to representthe state of current system development practices. The secondsource of frustration is that the entire text suffers from use ofdifficult languag e. The entire text is written in dense acad emesethat is simply inaccessible to mainstream information systemsdevelopers and data modelers. A final rewrite with the help ofa technical editor could have improved (and a subsequent edi-tion can still improve) the writing to make it more readableand thus more useful to the target audience. This is especiallyunfortunate in that one of the central themes of the text is theneed for resolving communication difference between informa-tion systems developers and users. And in this sense the author'sdidn't heed their own advice. The entire text would benefitfrom this treatment, and the result would be that a much wideraudience would be able to access its important contents.

Peter AikenDepartment of Information SystemsVirginia Comm onwealth UniversityRichmond VA 23284-4000E-mail: [email protected]

Symbolic Projection for Image Information Retrievai andSpatial Reasoning Shi-Kuo Chang and Eriand Jungert. Lon-don: Academic Press; 1996: 324 pp. Price: $39.95. (ISBN: 0-12-168030-4.)Image processing is an area that encompasses a wide rangeof research topics such as image coding and storage, imagemanipulation, pattern and object recognition, etc. Several bookshave been written on major topics like image manipulation andpattern recognition. However, at the time this review is written,Chang and Jungert 's work seems to be the only book currentlyavailable that offers systematic coverage of symbolic projectionand spatial reasoning in the context of image retrieval.The book starts with a quick attempt at exposing the funda-mental idea of symbolic projection using intuitive examplesand putting the work into the context of image processing andretrieval. The rest of the book takes the initial idea introducedin the beginning chapter and gradually extends and refines itinto a more abstract formalism. The book appears to be carefullyorganized to ease a reader's first encounter with a rather compli-cated, if not difficult, subject without being overwhelmed andhindered by too much mathematical details.The main portion of this book is divided into three distinctparts: Part I introduces the notions of symbolic projection, im-age segmentation, and 2D string representation; Part II givesadvanced theories of generalized symbolic projection andspatial reasoning in algebraic form; P art III extends the theo ryof Symbolic Projection to deal with various issues in activeimage information systems design and to facili tate 3D spatialreasoning.Part I consists of Chapters 2-6. Chapter 2 highlights thebasics of image coding and data structures in preparation forprojection string generation. Chapter 3 formalizes the basic con-cepts of symbolic projection and 2D strings introduced in Chap-ter 1. Projection string generation and 2D string matching algo-rithms are also given in this chapter. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5further develop the ideas introduced earlier, define generalized2D strings as the basis for integrating numerous variations of

2D strings, and introduce logical operators and spatial relations.Chapter 6 describes some 2D string-based image database sys-tems to demonstrate typical applications of the theory of Sym-bolic Projection to image information retrieval.Part II includes four chapters, namely Chapters 7- 10 . C hap-ter 7 describes algebraic properties of 2D string manipulationand transformation in the form of an ima ge algebra . A theo-retical concept of em pty space ob ject is defined, followedby presentation of various laws of generalized empty space,object manipulation, unification, and operator precedence.Chapter 8 deals with transformation of various types of projec-tion strings and representations of object relations into and fromgeneralized 2D strings. Object rotation based on the image alge-bra is also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 9 discusses thedeficiencies of Symbolic Projection in representing line andpoint objects (direction, and distance). Slope projection, pathprojection, and polar projection are presented to demonstratehow Symbolic Projection can be extended to solve these defi-ciencies. Finally, in Chapter 10, a number of different ap-proaches to qualitative spatial reasoning are described. Al-though in the introductory section of this chapter the authorssuggest that Sy mb olic Projection also includes other character-istics that made it suitable for various forms of spatial reasoningand in particular for qualitative spatial rea son ing (p . 179 ),this aspect is not addressed in any notably substantial form.Part III consists of five chapters. The first chapter in this part.Chapter 11 is a sketchy review of existing image processing/retrieval systems with emphasis on their visual querying inter-face design. Chapter 12 introduces the concept of active in-dexing for content-based image infonnation retrieval. An exper-imental image retrieval system based on the technique of activeindexing is also described to demonstrate the use of this concept.Chapter 13 extends the theory of 2D Symbolic Projection to3D situation by giving a sequence of definitions and theoremsregarding 3D projection string generation and manipulation.Chapter 14 presents the concept of a-tree, a symbolic hierarchi-cal representation of a 3D space, based on the 3D SymbolicProjection theory developed in the previous chapter. The finalchapter of the book first propo ses a taxonomy -like classificationof various image indexing techniques, then gives a survey ofcurrent existing image processing systems, and ends with avery brief discussion of the future research directions in imageinformation systems without much specifics.

In general, the book amounts to a reasonably good integra-tion of theories and concepts in the area of image indexing andan effective condensation of the research in Symbolic Projectionand Spatial Reasoning, if not too much of the latter. While itcovers the major theories, concepts, and techniques, the authors'survey of the field is by no means complete. A quick searchreveals several nontrivial references not mentioned anywherein the book but apparently within its reachable scope (Cohn,1995; Frank, 1996; Shanahan, 1995; Stein & Medioni, 1992a,1992b; Venkatesh et al . , 1995; Williams, 1995; Zimmerm ann &Freska, 1996).The auth ors' exp osition is not very difficult to follow, and thebook is relatively easy to read, thanks to its rich diagrammaticillustrations and clear focus and organization of chapters. Never-theless, too many a typesetting error and occasional appearanceof undefined symbols prove to be distractive. The captions inFigure 1.3 are too sm all for the comfort of reading . Also, lack ofexplicit definition of the conce pt ob je ct doe sn't help either,although the word is heavily used throughout the book. It isnot always clear whether the word ob jec t refers to a physical3D entity, or a fiat sh ad ow pattern recorded in an image, ora segment of a recognized pattern after cutting.Finally and more importantly, it seems that there are threegeneral approaches to image indexing and retrieval, at differentlevels correspondingly. Images can be indexed and searched


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Information Syetems Development and Data Modelling Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations