Information engineering

Information engineering (IE), also known as Information technology engineering (ITE), information engineering methodology (IEM) or data engineering, is a software engineering approach to designing and developing information systems. Information engineering (IE), also known as Information technology engineering (ITE), information engineering methodology (IEM) or data engineering, is a software engineering approach to designing and developing information systems. Information technology engineering involves an architectural approach for planning, analyzing, designing, and implementing applications. It has been defined by Steven M Davis as: 'An integrated and evolutionary set of tasks and techniques that enhance business communication throughout an enterprise enabling it to develop people, procedures and systems to achieve its vision'. Information technology engineering has many purposes, including organization planning, business re-engineering, application development, information systems planning and systems re-engineering. Information technology engineering used to be known more commonly as information engineering; this changed in the early 21st century, and information engineering took on a new meaning. Information technology engineering has a somewhat chequered history that follows two very distinct threads. It originated in Australia between 1976 and 1980, and appears first in the literature in a series of Six InDepth articles by the same name published by US Computerworld in May - June 1981. Information technology engineering first provided data analysis and database design techniques that could be used by database administrators (DBAs) and by systems analysts to develop database designs and systems based upon an understanding of the operational processing needs of organizations for the 1980s. Clive Finkelstein is acknowledged as the 'Father' of information technology engineering, having developed its concepts from 1976 to 1980 based on original work carried out by him to bridge from strategic business planning to information systems. He wrote the first publication on information technology engineering: a series of six in depth articles of the same name published by US Computerworld in May - June 1981. He also co-authored with James Martin the influential Savant Institute Report titled: 'Information Engineering', published in Nov 1981. The Finkelstein thread evolved from 1976 as the business driven variant of ITE. The Martin thread evolved into the data processing-driven (DP) variant of ITE. From 1983 till 1986 ITE evolved further into a stronger business-driven variant of ITE, which was intended to address a rapidly changing business environment. The then technical director, Charles M. Richter, from 1983 to 1987, guided by Clive Finkelstein, played a significant role by revamping the ITE methodology as well as helping to design the ITE software product (user-data) which helped automate the ITE methodology, opening the way to next generation Information Architecture. The Martin thread was database design-driven from the outset and from 1983 was focused on the possibility of automating the development process through the provision of techniques for business description that could be used to populate a data dictionary or encyclopedia that could in turn be used as source material for code generation. The Martin methodology provided a foundation for the CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tool industry. Martin himself had significant stakes in at least four CASE tool vendors - InTech (Excelerator), Higher Order Software, KnowledgeWare, originally Database Design Inc, Information Engineering Workbench and James Martin Associates, originally DMW and now Headstrong (the original designers of the Texas Instruments' CA Gen and the principal developers of the methodology). At the end of the 1980s and early 1990s the Martin thread incorporated rapid application development (RAD) and business process reengineering (BPR) and soon after also entered the object oriented field. Over this same period the Finkelstein thread evolved further into Enterprise Architecture (EA) and his business-driven ITE methods evolved into Enterprise Engineering for the rapid delivery of EA. This is described in his books: 'Enterprise Architecture for Integration: Rapid Delivery Methods and Technologies'. first edition by Clive Finkelstein (2006) in hardcover. The second edition (2011) is in PDF and as an iBook on the Apple iPad and ebook on the Amazon Kindle.