MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND DSS UNIT-IV

DISHA TECHNICAL CAMPUS

FIVE ELEMENTS OF USABLE MIS

Timelines Relevance Accuracy Consistency Completeness

DEVELOP MENT OF MIS

Approach to Management Information System (MIS) Design A classical systems and software engineering approach is recommended to assure the development of a management information system that is fully responsive to a clients performance objectives and resource constraints. This approach includes the following major components:

DESIGNING PHASE
The Business application system demands designing of systems suitable to the application in project. While designing MIS, a general approach has to be followed to cater to the needs of different organizations as per their functions and decisions making requirements. The major steps involved in the design are the following:
Identifying Information needs at all levels of Management: Listing objectives of MIS and anticipated benefits:
a) b) c) d) What is the purpose of the system? Why is it needed? What is it expected to do? Who are the users and what are their objectives?

Identifying systems constraints. Internal : The internal constraints are viewed in terms of:
a) b) c) d) e) Top management support. Organization policy Man power needs and availability Cost and resources Acceptance.

DESIGNING PHASE Contd.

External : The external constraint are mainly concerned with a) Customer oriented b) Government policy. c) Competitor oriented Determining Information needs and resources: The type of information which is required at various times and for various purposes depends on two factors: Personal Managerial attitudes like knowledge of information systems, managerial style, perception of information needs, etc. of the individual manager. b) Organizational Environment like nature of the company, level of management, structure of the organization. The sources of information may be categorized as follows: Internal sources. External sources. a)

DESIGNING PHASE Contd.

Developing alternative conceptual design and selecting one: The alternative concept of a system can be evaluated on the basis of the following. a) Compare anticipated performance of the conceptual design with respect to objective of the system developed earlier. b) For quantified comparison amongst systems, prepare a preliminary costeffectiveness data for the system. c) Examine the quality of database and information to be made available. Study the number of operations, dispersions and duplication of files and potential breakdown points. d) Expands the conceptual designs in greater detail if none of these provide a preferred design. Preparing the conceptual design report: The conceptual design report is a proposal prepared for the expenditure of funds and possible changes in the organizational set-up.

DEVELOP MENT OF MIS

Systems implementation: It includes forms development, specification of data collection and entry procedures, development of editing and quality control procedures, software coding and testing, development of training materials and training, integration of the software components with other system components (e.g., personnel, communications, data transfer and assembly, report preparation and distribution, feedback), and systemlevel testing. Systems operation and support, which includes not only routine operating procedures but also provision for on-going system financing and management, quality control, software maintenance and updating, personnel training, and system maintenance and improvement (including periodic review of system performance and diagnosis and correction of problems)

Approaches of MIS Development

There are seven approaches, which are used for developing MIS:

1. Top down approaches: Here top management takes the lead in formulating objectives, policies and plans and communicates them down the line to middle and supervisory management for translating them into reality. 2. Bottom up approaches: This approach consist of the following steps:
i. Individual functional applications are planned separately consisting of transaction processing, updating of files and simple reports. ii. Files of various functional applications are integrated by means of indexing and chaining into a database. iii. Various functions are added to operate on the database at management level.

Approaches of MIS Development

iv.

v.

Integration of models into a model base having a wide variety of analysis, decision and planning models. Strategic planning data and planning models are added to the information system.

3.

Integrative Approach: This approach permits managers at all levels

to influence the design of the information system. Here evaluation, modification and approval of top management continues, till a final design is acceptable to all levels.

4.

Traditional Approach: Here activities are performed in sequence.

Each activity is undertaken only when the previous activity is completed.

5.

Prototyping Approach: In order to avoid any possible delay,

prototyping approach is used. The goal is to develop a small or pilot version, called a prototype, which is built quickly and at lesser cost with the intention of modifying it when need arises.

Approaches of MIS Development

6.

End User Development Approach: With the increasing

availability of low cost technology, end user development is popular in many organizations. Here the end user is responsible for system development.

7.

Systematic Approach for development in small organizations:

In a very small organization, no MIS professional will exist. They develop systems using the following steps:
a. b. c.

d.

Identify requirements. Locate, evaluate and secure software development. Locate, evaluate and secure hardware. Implement the systems.

DSS CLASSIFICATIONS Model-driven DSS

A model-driven DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of financial, optimization and/or simulation models. Modeldriven DSS use limited data and parameters provided by decision makers to aid decision makers in analyzing a situation, but in general large data bases are not needed for model-driven DSS. Early versions of model-driven DSS were called modeloriented DSS by Alter (1980), computationally oriented DSS by Bonczek, Holsapple and Whinston (1981) and later spreadsheet-oriented and solver-oriented DSS by Holsapple and Whinston (1996).

DSS CLASSIFICATIONS Data-driven DSS

In general, a data-driven DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of a time-series of internal company data and sometimes external and real-time data. Simple file systems accessed by query and retrieval tools provide the most elementary level of functionality.

Data warehouse systems that allow the manipulation of data by computerized tools tailored to a specific task and setting or by more general tools and operators provide additional functionality.
Executive Information Systems are examples of data-driven DSS (Power, 2002). Initial examples of these systems were called dataoriented DSS, Analysis Information Systems (Alter, 1980) and retrieval-only DSS by Bonczek, Holsapple and Whinston (1981).

DSS CLASSIFICATIONS Communications-driven DSS

Communications-driven DSS use network and communications technologies to facilitate decision-relevant collaboration and communication. In these systems, communication technologies are the dominant architectural component. Tools used include groupware, video conferencing and computer-based bulletin boards (Power, 2002). In the early 1980s, academic researchers developed a new category of software to support group decision-making called Group Decision Support Systems abbreviated. In 1989, Lotus introduced a groupware product called Notes and broadened the focus of GDSS to include enhancing communication, collaboration and coordination among groups of people. Notes had its roots in a product called PLATO Notes, written at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois in 1973 by David R. Woolley. In general, groupware, bulletin boards, audio and videoconferencing are the primary technologies for communications-driven decision support. In the past few years, voice and video delivered using the Internet protocol have greatly expanded the possibilities for synchronous communications-driven DSS.

DSS CLASSIFICATIONS Document-driven DSS

A document-driven DSS uses computer storage and processing technologies to provide document retrieval and analysis. Large document databases may include scanned documents, hypertext documents, images, sounds and video. Examples of documents that might be accessed by a document-driven DSS are policies and procedures, product specifications, catalogs, and corporate historical documents, including minutes of meetings and correspondence. A search engine is a primary decision-aiding tool associated with a document-driven DSS (Power, 2002). These systems have also been called text-oriented DSS (Holsapple and Whinston,1996).

DSS CLASSIFICATIONS Knowledge-driven DSS

Knowledge-driven DSS can suggest or recommend actions to managers. These DSS are person-computer systems with specialized problem-solving expertise. The "expertise" consists of knowledge about a particular domain, understanding of problems within that domain, and "skill" at solving some of these problems. These systems have been called suggestion DSS (Alter, 1980) and knowledge-based DSS. In 1965, a Stanford University research team led by Edward Feigenbaum created the DENDRAL expert system. DENDRAL led to the development of other rule-based reasoning programs including MYCIN, which helped physicians diagnose blood diseases based on sets of clinical symptoms.

DSS CLASSIFICATIONS (Alter)

Alter concluded from his research (1980) that decision support systems could be categorized in terms of the generic operations that can be performed by such systems. These generic operations extend along a single dimension, ranging from extremely dataoriented to extremely model-oriented. Alter conducted a field study of 56 DSS that he categorized into seven distinct types of DSS. His seven types include:

File drawer systems that provide access to data items. Data analysis systems that support the manipulation of data by computerized tools tailored to a specific task and setting or by more general tools and operators. Analysis information systems that provide access to a series of decisionoriented databases and small models. Accounting and financial models that calculate the consequences of possible actions. Representational models that estimate the consequences of actions on the basis of simulation models. Optimization models that provide guidelines for action by generating an optimal solution consistent with a series of constraints. Suggestion models that perform the logical processing leading to a specific suggested decision for a fairly structured or well-understood task.