Process Improvement: The Societal Iceberg

Information Systems (IS) are integrated systems for providing information to support operations, processes, management analysis and decision-making functions in an organisation [1]. The IS area is characterised by rapid technical change and innovation. In recent years there has been a shift in IS from technological to managerial and organisational issues. This shift has led to increased interest in how environment and innovation interact. In software quality improvement efforts there has also been a shift from technical to managerial, organisational and people issues concentrating on the process rather than on the product. It is widely accepted that emphasis has to be placed on process quality as a means of achieving product quality. In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of IS from the managerial and social viewpoint identifying the societal elements, their interacting and their effects on information.