Computer-aided modeling and analysis techniques for determining business information systems requirements

The paper deals with the problem of determining the information requirements or needs of a business organization. Characteristics of the problem are discussed and several forms of models based on concepts in elementary matrix algebra and graph theory are described. We construct boolean matrices representing either data usage or creation by a process or function in a business organization. Products of the two matrices are represented as directed graphs to depict the flow of information. Two procedures are described for realizing the solutions obtained from the analysis. The applicability to other related areas of information systems research is discussed and an example is presented.