Semiotics in Information Systems Engineering

by Kecheng Liu

Overview

Semiotics, a well established discipline of signs and their use in human and computer communications, is increasingly recognized as important to understanding information systems and computing in general. This important new resource examines a set of semiotic methods for information systems development. Kecheng Liu offers well balanced coverage of recent theoretical investigations and practical applications. He introduces the MEASUR approach for requirements elicitation, analysis, and representation and illustrates the methods in three major case studies. In these cases he demonstrates how information systems can be developed to meet business requirements and to support business objectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521118194
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/06/2009
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr Kecheng Liu, Fellow of the British Computer Society, is a full Professor and holds a Chair of Informatics and e-Business in Business School. He is the Director of Informatics Research Centre (irc.rdg.ac.uk), one of the departments in the Business School, University of Reading, UK. He has published over one hundred papers in journals and conferences, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He has chaired conferences, written 1 and edited 5 books in the field of informatics and organisational semiotics. He has also been responsible for several research projects. He is Visiting Professor at Fudan University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Dalian University of Technology and the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Science, all in China. He has been invited to deliver lectures in information systems and semiotics in Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech, France, Hong Kong, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; Part I. Semiotic Framework and Methods: 2. Understanding semiotics; 3. A semiotic framework for information systems; 4. A semiotic approach to information systems development; 5. Knowledge representation and information analysis; 6. Semantic analysis; 7. Pragmatics and communication; 8. The social layer: modelling organisations as information systems; Part II. Applications: 9. From semiotic analysis to systems design; 10. Semantic temporal databases; 11. Normbase: a new approach to information management; 12. Case study: development of a land resources information system; 13. Case study: development of a test construction system; Appendix A. Semantic templates and surrogate specification; Appendix B. LEGOL applications in the CRIS case; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

Review of the hardback: '… an excellent overview of a rich and complex research program in the analysis, specification, and design of information systems … will be of interest to researchers in information systems methodologies. In educational settings, it will be useful ancillary reading in a project-oriented course on information systems design, and might be the central text, if the course in fact adapts the MEASUR methodology.' H. Van Dyke Parunak, Computing Reviews

From the Publisher