SOFTWARE

 Computers are directed to perform each operation by a set of instructions, which define the operation
to be performed, and the data or device needed to carry it out.
 The various types of sequence of instructions, which are actually put into the computer to perform a
given task are collectively known as SOFTWARE (program)
 Software is intangible: we can only see the hardware on which it is carried. To use an analogy, our brain
(a physical organ of the body) represents hardware but our ideas (which can be communicated but
never seen or touched) represent software.
 It is worth reinforcing the point that hardware is nothing without software. All the supposedly
'hardware' items detailed in the section above require software to make them work. Some are highly
software-intensive, such as speech synthesis in which the hardware elements are relatively simple.
There are three broad types of software:
A. System Software: which controls the basic internal operations of the computer system.
B. System Development Software: the programming languages that are used to build other
software.
C. Application Software: which does useful work by carrying out a particular task or application.
This can be divided into:
- General purpose application software (often called office automation (OA) applications) which
can be used in any part of an organization.
- Application-specific software, which is used by specific organizational users for specific
purposes.

A. System Software

Operating System (OS) Software: controls the basic operations of the computer. This includes: managing the
interface between computer and user (that is the connecting link between the computer and the human);
controlling input, output and storage; and managing files in the memory and on disk, error reporting: detect
and report any system or command errors. Common Operating System: MS DOS, Windows, UNIX, LINUX.

When application software is being used on the computer, the operating system assists it. In these cases,
we can think of the OS as sitting between the application software and the computer hardware
Other System Software Technologies
1. Utility Programs: perform specialist system management tasks such as detecting and removing
computer viruses, reporting on the performance of the computer system, or scanning a disk for
damaged or unused areas.
2. Communications System Software: controls the sharing of resources and communication of data
between computers on a network. The main component is the network operating system (NOS). Some
ordinary operating systems now have a NOS embedded within them
Other Relevant Definitions
3. Single user operating system software: allow only one user to utilize the resources of a single-user
computer system. A typical example is DOS (Disk Operating System).
 4. Multitasking: the ability of operating systems to run more than one task at the same time. oor
example, they allow you to enter data into a database at the same time as printing a document from
your word processing package. This makes it easy to move data from one application to another, e.g. to
take a graph created by your spreadsheet and put it into a report document being created by your word
processor.
5. User-friendliness: a measure of how easy any software program is to learn and to use
6. Graphical User Interface (GUI): traditionally, operating systems were used by typing in commands from
the keyboard. Modern operating systems provide a GUI that is operated using a mouse. GUIs are
sometimes referred to as WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and a Pointing device) interfaces because
they consist of Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers. The significance of this technology in the adoption
of new information systems can often be lost, but GUIs have spearheaded use of IT in many areas
because they reduce the skill and time barriers so significantly. GUIs involve two interface modes
menus: textual and icons : on-screen objects
7. Other Interface Modes:
a. Question prompts: a question presented by the computer to which the user provides the
answer. oor example, the question 'Save Changes Before Quitting? Yes/No'. These help to guide
users and are quick and easy to learn and use, but they are inflexible.
b. Forms/dialogue boxes: a preset layout on screen with blanks that are filled in. oor example, a
box requesting the name of a file to be saved. These are fairly quick and easy to learn and use.
They are inflexible, but deliberately so since they help guide the users through certain processes
more than any other mode.
c. Direct commands: control of the system by directly typing in a command. oor example,
pressing the keys 'Ctrl' and 'S' simultaneously to save a file. These take time to learn and can be
forgotten. However, they are the quickest mode to use and can be very flexible, so experienced
users like them.
d. Natural language: a command typed in that is close to human conversation. oor example, 'List
all files saved last Tuesday'. This takes little time to learn, is easy to use and quite flexible. It can
be particularly powerful for new users.

B. System Development Software

These are the programming languages that allow you to create the instructions that make up a
computer program. Software development tool is a computer program that software developers use to create,
debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications. There are five main types of
programming language.

Other System Development Software

a. Web Authoring Tools: software development tools that help produce documents for the World Wide
Web.
b. Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE): a software environment that aims to automate as much
as possible of the process of software development, from initial analysis of problems through to
creation of the final software program. Using CASE allows designers, code writers, testers, planners,
 and managers to share a common view of where a project stands at each stage of development. CASE
software is often associated with methods for the development of information systems together with
automated tools that can be used in the software development process.
c. Object-Oriented Programming Languages: software development tools that allow easy manipulation of
combined data/process items called 'objects'. OOP makes it easy to maintain and modify existing code
as new objects can be created with small differences to existing ones.
d. Visual Programming Languages: languages that allow the development of software through use of a
GUI rather than by just typing in programming instructions.

Approaches to software development: in all there are four different ways in which software is developed or
obtained:
• Software package: buying a ready-made program 'off-the-shelf'.
• Customization: modifying an existing software package to suit a particular user's needs.
• Custom-built: creating an entirely new piece of software from scratch.
• Re-engineering: modifying an existing custom-built piece of software

C. Application-Specific Software

General Application Software in Common Use

• Word Processing Software: supports the creation, storage and manipulation of documents on the
computer, including text and images. The single most widely used application of computers.
• Database Management Software: supports the storage, organization and selective retrieval of data.
Database management systems (DBMS) are often supplied with a fourth generation programming language
(such as SQL: Structured Query Language) that assists with the production of reports or retrieval queries.
• Spreadsheet: supports the manipulation of numerical data, including calculation, analysis and graphical
output. Spreadsheets are based on an on-screen matrix of 'cells' into which numerical (or other) data can
be typed. They are used particularly for financial and statistical work.
• Electronic Mail (email) Software: transmits and receives messages or files between one computers to
another. Email requires the computer to be connected to a network.
• Web Browsing Software: used for accessing documents and other products and services on the Web and
the Internet

Other General Purpose Application Software

• Desktop Publishing (DTP) Software: a more powerful and sophisticated version of word processing
software. It has recently been somewhat compromised by the increasing power of word processing
programs.
• Graphics Software: allows the create and manipulation of graphics and drawings. Like DTP, this has been
squeezed by the increasing graphical capabilities of word processing and spreadsheet programs. One
continuing use is presentation graphics software that can produce slides or overhead projections.
• Statistical Packages: Statistical packages are software for data analysis and report writing purposes.
oeatures include: interactive facilities for storage and retrieval of data from various sources, data entry and
 modification services, elementary and advanced statistics, report writing, graphics, and online tutorial and
help facilities. Examples include: SAS, SPSS, Micro Stat, PSTAT, MiniTab, Statistica.
• Project Management Software: supports the planning, monitoring and control of projects.

Application-Specific Software in Common Use

• Basic Data System (BDS): captures, processes and stores the data that is fundamental to the formal
operation of the organization. The most common form is the transaction processing system (TPS) which
records the day-to-day, repetitive operational transactions of the organization, such as those involving the
payment or receipt of money.
• Management Information System (MIS): provides reports that assist with the managerial monitoring and
control of organizational functions, resources or other responsibilities. oor example, software to assist
monitoring of expenditure from departmental budgets.
• Decision Support System (DSS): provides analytical modeling capabilities to assist with managerial planning
and the making of decisions in ill-structured situations. oor example, software to assist the financial appraisal
of potential new projects.

Other Application-Specific Software

• Executive Information System (EIS): provides the information and other functions necessary for strategic
decision making. oor example, software to assist long-term human and financial resource planning.
• Group Decision Support System (GDSS): provides data-gathering, analysis and reporting functions to help a
group of people make a decision in an ill-structured situation. oor example, software to assist negotiations
between management and unions.
• Expert System (ES): encodes human expertise as facts, relationships and rules and applies these to problem
solving. oor example, software to advise which type of social security payment, if any, an applicant is eligible
for. Expert systems are part of a wider group of decision-prescribing systems that take decisions themselves or
suggest the optimum decision to users. Expert systems are also part of a wider body of computer applications
called artificial intelligence (AI). As its name suggests, AI seeks to recreate the process of the human mind
using machines and it also includes natural language processing, speech recognition and synthesis, machine
translation, computer vision, and robotics.
• Specialist Support Systems: these assist the work of particular professional specialists. oor example,
professional designers may use computer-aided design (CAD) packages.
• Geographic Information System (GIS): stores and manipulates data relating to places on the earth's surface.
oor example, a system that maps the existence and exploitation of natural resources in a country.
• Functional Information System: combines the functions of more than one information system to support the
specific activities of one functional organizational area at different management levels. oor example, an
accounting information system might combine a transaction processing system to capture accounting data
with a management information system and a decision support system to provide support to different types of
management accounting decision. Most MIS and DSS receive their data from a TPS or other basic data system.
Indeed, some MIS and DSS are created just by adding a different interface onto an existing basic data system.
• Cross-Functional Information System: integrates various different functional information systems. oor
instance, information systems covering the main functions of the organization can be linked up with each other
and with external information. They may then form the main inputs to an executive information system, which
is a type of cross functional information system.
• Inter-organizational information systems (IOS): these are systems that are used to facilitate business
transaction and information interchange among different organizations. An earlier example is Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) but most recent eCommerce and eBusiness systems have this feature\

Application-Specific Software Trends:

This software has an increasing capacity to support and/or automate human capabilities. They have seen an
increasing addition of user-friendly interfaces, and of communications capabilities. Another trend is the shift
from silos of function and organization specific information systems to integrated information systems that
integrate not only different units of an organization but also an organization’s partners.