Issues with TPS Systems

Year 12 IPT 2018

The Changing Nature of Work

• nature of work changed significantly in last decades due to computer TPS’s
• the types of jobs and new industries
• the way the work is undertaken
• More people are working longer hours, in more highly skilled and stressful jobs - affects health of society
• Automation of jobs and manual operations, eg those that were previously performed by clerks
• loss of jobs
• Removes repetitive tasks; less boring jobs
• Internet allows online transactions - less social interactions
• Allows employees to monitor performance
• may lead to unfair job losses to increase efficiency
• Increased pressure and stress

The need for alternative non-computer procedures

What has to happen inside a business if a transaction processing system fails? It make take time to recover any lost data or repair any damage to software and physical hardware. In the meantime there has to be some form of operation for the business. In larger centralised systems there are usually backup generators and redundant communication lines at complete mirrored sites. However for a smaller system there isn’t the availability to those solutions. The alternate solution is usually in the form of a paper-based system while having to wait for replacement of the old/damaged hardware and software.

Bias in Data Collection

• Bias is an inclination or preference that influences the collecting process
• The selection of data to be collected can be bias, as when incomplete data is collected it can reflect an inaccurate impression of the wholistic data
• E.g. If a loan company chose to base someone's income only on the last few tax returns, expecting it to remain consistent over time, some people, more specifically people like business owners, may adjust their income over that period to suit their expenses, leaving the data inaccurate.
• Locating and identifying a suitable data source for collection can cause issues if the selected source is skewed one way or another
• E.g. Many companies, to achieve optimum practicality and affordability, survey people over the internet in order to create a depiction of the whole population not considering that internet users do not represent all elements of the population and have their own specific characteristic.
• The collecting process needs to take into account the likely perceptions of those on whom the data is being collected
• E.g. If people were answering a survey by the Australian Taxation Office they would assume the nature of their responses to be personal to them whereas answering a survey for the Australian Bureau of Statistics they would perceive their responses to be completely anonymous.

Data Security, Integrity and Quality issues

Data Security

Data security is an important issue in relation to transaction processing systems. If data is not secured correctly, many issues can arise such as the leakage of sensitive data. Some methods implemented to combat security issues include:

• Passwords: Passwords are used to confirm the identity of any users that attempt to access the system.
• Anti-Virus Software: Anti-Virus software is used to prevent data breaches through viruses and other virus-like software.
• Audit Logs: Audit logs can be implemented into a TPS to allow for participants to track the source of any data/changes in the system, which discourages any unauthorised data modification by users.

Data Integrity

The integrity of data within a TPS is important to the operation of said TPS. The integrity of the data reflects its accuracy. Some methods used to maximise data integrity include:

• Data Validation: Validating data at the time of entry ensures that data is reasonable and meets criteria.
• Data Verification: Regular checks on data that is collected and stored within the system matches and continues to match the source of said data.
• ACID Properties - Ensuring that data is complete (Atomicity), is not inconsistent (Consistency), does not affect other transactions (Isolation) and completed transactions are permanent (Durability).
• Minimisation of Data Redundancy: Reducing the amount of duplicated data within the system.

Data Quality

Data quality concerns how reliable and effective the data is to its origin. For example, if a survey is undertaken, but participants did not answer honestly, data integrity would be high, but the quality would be low. Data quality issues can also present themselves with the combination of different systems.

Data can be accurate, but not of a good quality. Consider two databases that store the same data in different ways. If both databases have the same information, then they both have good integrity, but which database has the better quality data, because they are stored in different ways, one database may have more/more relevant data in relation to the record, and therefore has the higher quality data.

CONTROL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PARTICIPANTS

• Control is the act of influencing or directing activities
• Management assigns tasks and then quite legitimately expects employees to complete these tasks in a timely and accurate fashion.
• Most would agree that it would be reasonable for managers to monitor the activities of those that they manage, however what level of monitoring is reasonable? Should management control Internet access or be able to read all email messages? Is it reasonable to monitor phone calls or remotely view a users desktop? Audit trails allow management to track which records individuals have accessed; when is such tracking reasonable?
• Motivated employees are less likely to engage in undesirable activities and are much more likely to focus on work.
• When employees are assigned to boring and repetitive tasks they lose motivation and then quite naturally seek to engage in other non-work related activities. When this occurs management too often imposes authoritative controls such as excessive monitoring in combination with negative consequences in an attempt to enforce control. Such measures further reduce motivation resulting in even stricter controls being imposed - a downward trend emerges.
• A more sustainable management style encourages trust and motivation employees take to responsibility for work they complete.