Management information systems

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Presented by Mr. P. Zhou
DIPLOMA IN GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Zimbabwe Institute of Management

OVERVIEW
• With the rapid increase in performance of computers
over the last few years it is unlikely that any business
will survive without some means of computerised
data processing in the future.
• It is therefore very important that any person
planning and involved in any career in today’s
commercial environment is provided with a basic
understanding of computer technology and the
theory of Management Information System (MIS).

TOPICS
• Topic 1: GENERAL SYSTEMS CONCEPT
• Topic 2: FORMS OF MIS
• Topic 3: MIS PLANNING
• Topic 4: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
• Topic 5: DECISION MAKING
• Topic 6: CONTROLLING
• Topic 7: MIS INTERNET AND SECURITY

General Systems Concept
TOPIC 0NE

Topic Objectives
By the end of this unit you should be able to:
• Define a system
• Differentiate data and Information
• Explain the characteristics of information.
• Describe the types of information
processing.
• Explain the different classes of systems.

Differences between Data and Information
• Data
– These are facts, events or transactions, which have been recorded.
They are the input raw materials from which information is produced.
• Information
– This is data that have been processed in such a way as to be useful to
the recipient.
– The concept of information in an organizational sense is more complex
and difficult than the frequent use of this common word would
suggest information is knowledge and understanding that is usable by
the recipient. It reduces uncertainty and has surprise value. It must tell
the recipient something not already known which could not be
predicted.

Functions of information
• Reduces uncertainty especially in planning and decision
making.
• As an aid to monitoring and control- by providing
information about performance and the extent of
deviations from planned levels of performance,
management is better able to control operations.
• As a means of communication- managers need to know
about developments, plans forecasts.
• As a memory aid- results of past actions and decisions
available for reference.

Characteristics of good information
• Relevant for its purpose
• Sufficiently accurate for its purpose
• Complete enough for the problem
• From a source in which the user has confidence
• Communicated in time for its purpose
• Communicated to the right person
• understandable

SYSTEMS THEORY
• Systems theorists see organizations as complex social systems
that interact with their environment and which must respond
to numerous interdependent variables of which the following
are the most important:
– People
– Tasks
– Technology
– Organization structure
– Environment
• System theory recognizes that an organization is a complex
structure with many interacting elements and that it must
continually adapt to an uncertain and changing environment.

Definition Of General Systems Theory (GST)
• It is defined as the trans-disciplinary study of the abstract
organization of phenomena, independent of their
substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence.
• It investigates the principles common to all complex
entities and the models, which can be used to describe
them.
OR
• It is the application of scientific principles, concepts and
philosophy to study the behaviour of all systems in
general arrived at after studying the behaviour of
systems over a long period of time.

The Evolution of General Systems Theory (GST
• Systems theory was proposed in the 1940’s.
• It was emphasized that real systems are open to, and interact
with, their environments and that they can acquire
qualitatively new properties resulting in continual evolution.
• Rather than reducing an entity (e.g. the human body) to the
properties of its parts or elements (e.g. organs or cells),
systems theory focuses on the arrangement of and relations
between the parts which connect them into a whole (holism).
• Systems concepts include system-environment, boundary,
input, output, process, state, hierarchy, goal-directness and
information.

Application of General Systems Theory (GST)
• GST can be applied in planning, policy-making

Planning
• Information about the nature, characteristics and behaviour
of a system when subjected to changing environment.
• The information obtained is used to identify opportunities
and/ or any threats to the system.
• The information also enables one to predict one to predict
future opportunities and threats.
• For example college
– future enrolment versus infrastructure
– Appropriate technology
– Money needed to carry out approved projects

Policy Making
• These are rules formulated and put in place for any
system to function properly.
• To formulate a policy external factors and internal
ones must be considered.
• By taking any business organisation as an example
the policies defines the roles of each individual in
that organisation.

Management
• General Systems Theory depends on scientific analysis of
management functions and practice in different
environments.
• GST principles are at times not applicable to
management because they are rigid, whereas in
management a compromise may be necessary.
• Management problems have different influences and
therefore difficult to formulate solutions in advance.
Major problem areas include employer versus employee

Definition of a system
• A system is a group of interrelated elements working
together to achieve a common objective.
• For example an organization is made up of different
business units.

Attributes of a system
• Order and Structure
– Order and structure refers to the arranging of the components to meet the system
(organisational goals).e.g. business organisational chart
• Interaction
– Refers to how the component function with other components e.g. production system
versus purchasing system; advertising versus sales
• Interdependence
– Refers to the dependence of components on each other. For instance the output of one
system is the input of another system.
• Integration
– Refers to the functioning of the system as a unit though each component has a unique
function. If integration is successfully carried out.
• Goal
– Refers to what the system must achieve.

Components of a system
• Inputs and outputs
• Processors
• Control
• Feedback
• Environment
• Boundaries and interface

• Output
– Is the major goal of any system. It must have value. The examples of output include goods services and
information
• Inputs
– These are elements put into the system for processing they include raw materials, human resources or
data. The required output determines the nature, amount and regularity of the input.
• Processor
– It converts/transforms the input into the output. It can change the input completely or partly depending
on the specifications of the output.
• Control
– It regulates and monitors the inputs, processing and output.
• Feedback
– It is the direct modification of the output by changing the inputs. It is a control in a dynamic system. The
output is measured against a standard. If there are any variations, changes are made to the inputs and
the processing.
• Environment
– It refers to the surroundings in which a system operates. It is the source of external factors that affect a
system. The environment may influence how a system functions.
• Boundaries/interface
– These are limits that distinguish its components, processes when it joins with other systems. Every
system has a boundary that controls its operations
Components of a system

Systems Relationships
This refers to how systems are linked and depend on each
other. The relationships are as follows:
Input/output Relationships
• In many cases systems have a direct relationship
because, in many instances, the output from one is the
input to another, even though they be administered as
separate systems.
• In many cases input/output relationships have been the
basis for integrating such systems to take advantage of
administrative efficiency which larger systems often
achieve.

Systems Relationships
• Control Relationships
– Control systems are often separately structured from the
systems they control; for instance the production control system
controls the production quantity and the quality control system
controls the production quality.
– These control systems are basically administrative systems for
monitoring the results and modifying the state of the physical
systems to which they relate.
• Coupling and Decoupling Systems (integration and Disintegration)
– If systems are over-integrated they may become too complex to
understand and operate and if one part of the system ceases to
function correctly this may cause the system as a whole to
deteriorate and perhaps cease to function completely.
– This creates unacceptable delays and disruption to those parts
of the system(sub-systems) which are unable to function
because of the absence of the necessary inputs from other
related sub-systems.

• When systems are decoupled it is easier to administer them in some cases
as they become less complex and more flexible.
• This enables them to react to random influences as they occur without
much disruption.
• Decoupling may re-create the former situation whereby systems existed
separately on a functional basis but were coordinated by the chief
executive for the achievement of overall objectives.
• Each functional sub-system has more independence even though they are
still interrelated in reality, but loosely connected for administrative
convenience.
• Each functional executive must apply initiative to achieve functional
objectives but there must also exist a high degree of co-operation
between the various subsystems to avoid sub-optimisation for the
business as a whole.
• The efficiency with which systems are designed and integrated plays a
large part in their success or failure.

Classification of Systems
• Planning System
• Mechanistic and Organic systems
• Deterministic Systems
• Probabilistic systems
• Adaptive systems
• Verbal Systems
• Schematic
• Open Systems
• Closed systems

Planning Systems
• The purpose of some systems is to plan the
operations of other systems.
• Planning is primarily concerned with allocation of
resources to specific tasks and the setting of
performance standards.
• A plan establishes the guidelines for future action
without which a business is likely to drift in the
wrong direction.
• Plans also provide the basis for preparing budgets.

Mechanistic and Organic systems
• A mechanistic system is rigid in construction and is designed
to operate on the basis of standardized rules and regulations,
which restrict its ability to react to its environment.
• If non-standard situations arise the system may not be able to
deal with them, which causes a complete breakdown of the
system.
• An organic system is geared to respond to environmental
influences and is able to redefine its objectives according to
the prevailing circumstances.
• It accomplishes this by an efficient reallocation of resources
and returning of the system to the new circumstances.

Deterministic Systems
• This type of system enables the output generated from
specific inputs to be predicted without error.
• It is important to appreciate that the state of such a
system can only be assessed when it is working smoothly
without malfunctions and is continually under control.
• Deterministic systems are mechanistic in nature. It wears
out with time.

Probabilistic systems
• These are systems, which are subjected to random influences from
the internal and external environment.
• It is this factor which prevents their state being predicted precisely.
• It is only possible to assess their probable behaviour as the effect of
random variations can not be predicted with any degree of
accuracy.
• The state of such systems can therefore only be defined within
specified limits even when they are subject to control because
stocks of raw materials, parts and finished goods, for instance are
influenced by change in demand and variations in supply.
• Business and economic systems fall into this category.
• Control systems are put in place to try and minimize the effects of
the internal and external factors.

Adaptive systems
• This type of system is dynamic as it responds to changing
circumstances by adapting its behaviour on self-
organising basis.
• The system alters its inputs as a result of measuring its
out.
• It attempts to optimise its performance by monitoring its
own behaviour.
• They adjust to any changes on their own.
• Animals, humans and organisations fall into this category.

Verbal Systems
• Rely/depend on words to describe the elements and
interrelations of a system.
• Can be either in written or spoken form; are easy to
construct, less expensive and easily understood.
Major disadvantage is use of words.

Schematic
• Are diagrammatic representation/picture of a
system.
• Little or no problems associated with verbal systems.
• Components of a system and their interrelationships
are clearly shown.

Open Systems
• Open systems are those which interact with their
environment either for collection of information on which
they base strategy, or for conducting business transactions
with suppliers, customers.
• Such systems adapt to changes in the environment in order to
survive, which requires speedy reactions to competitive
situations and other threats in the most effective way.
• Examples of open systems include man, biological,
organisational and business systems

Closed systems
• These are systems, which do not interact with their
environment either for the exchange of information or
business transactions.
• Such systems are self contained and business systems do
not conform to this category as they interact with their
environment to a great degree as no business exists in a
vacuum.
• E.g. a system of signal lights, operation not affected by
traffic or human operators.

The nature of systems needed for processing
• Data Capture
• Batch Systems
• Online Systems
• Data Storage

Data Capture
• Information technology based organizations and companies
may need to process a rapidly growing amount of
information.
• Many companies and organizations today prefer to outsource
data entry works to offshore locations, as it proves to be a
cost effective and more profitable option, and removes
management headaches as well.
• The trend of outsourcing data entry, especially offshore, has
accelerated dramatically in recent years.
• Key reasons include increased bandwidth, faster scanners and
data processors, more standardization for data transfer, and
the opportunity for competitive advantage created by round-
the-clock business days and compressed cycle time

Data Capture
• Outsourcing data entry work is a wise and profitable
option for those who would like to concentrate on
core processes and leave data entry work to a
reliable service provider who specializes in the field
of data entry.

Batch Systems
• Processing a group of transactions at one time.
• The data is accumulated over a period of time in-
groups and then processed periodically.
• There is therefore a time interval between the
origination of the transaction and the subsequent
receipt of information or output by the user.
• Batch processing is ideal for systems such as payroll,
Billing systems, accounting for credit card
purchasing.

Online Systems
• This refers to the situation where the user is able to enter information into a
terminal or computer for immediate processing.
• The computer maybe situated away and connected with computer lines through
which information can also be retrieved.
– Advantages of online systems
• It is convenient
• Data processing is faster.
• Data is kept up to date.
• There is no delay in information processing.
• Master files are always up to date and reflect the current status of the
business.
• Wide variety of applications is possible and includes banking, Air
reservation, and accommodation bookings.
• It is associated with low volumes of input data from many separate
locations combined to produce a high level processing at the central
computer.

Data Storage
• This is the process of saving data or documents for future
use.
• The documents can either be saved on the primary
storage(the computer) or on the secondary storage
media such as magnetic diskettes, magnetic tapes.
• This can also be done for security reasons or when there
little space on the computer to store large sums of data.

Activity
• Outline the characteristics of good information.

The forms of MIS
TOPIC TWO
This unit covers the management information system organisational structures and the
different types of information systems.

Topic Objectives
• By the end of this unit you should be able to:
– Define management information systems.
– Outline structures of information systems
and their appropriateness to different
organisational structures.
– Explain the types of management
information systems.
– Identify MIS information needed at each
level of management.

Definition Of Management
Information System.
• The concept of management information system is not new, only its
computerization is new.
• Computers, management Information systems existed to supply managers
with information that would permit them to plan and control operations.
• The computer has added one or two dimensions such as speed, accuracy and
increased volumes of data.
• Management Information System is the planning, development,
management and use of information technology tools to help people
perform all tasks related to information processing and management;
– an information system that provides information to support managerial
decision making;
– can be an information reporting system, executive information system
or decision support system;
– a system that provides periodic, predetermined, and/or ad hoc
reporting capabilities.

Types of MIS
• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• Transaction Processing System (TPS)
• Executive Information Systems (EIS)
• Strategic Information Systems (SIS)
• Expert Information Systems (ES)

Decision Support
Systems (DSS)
• Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a specific class of computerized
information system that supports business and organizational decision-
making activities.
• A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended
to help decision makers compile useful information from raw data,
documents, personal knowledge, and/or business models to identify and
solve problems and make decisions.
• Typical information that a decision support application might gather and
present would be:
• Accessing all of your current information assets, including legacy and
relational data sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts
• Comparative sales figures between one week and the next
• Projected revenue figures based on new product sales assumptions
– The consequences of different decision alternatives, given past
experience in a context that is described.

Transaction Processing System (TPS)
• A type of computer processing in which the computer
responds immediately to user requests.
• Each request is considered to be a transaction.
• Automatic teller machines for banks are an example of
transaction processing.
• The opposite of transaction processing is batch processing in
which a batch of requests is stored and then executed all at
one time.
• Transaction processing requires interaction with a user,
whereas batch processing can take place without a user
being present.

• A business Transaction Processing System is a system that supports a
business in the delivery of its business transactions.
• A business transaction may be as short as a phone call to the bank for an
account balance or as long as a mortgage (from the initial mortgage
application to final satisfaction being sent after the last payment) and
perhaps even as long as the lifelong relationship with a bank (covering
multiple accounts used for different purposes).
• Business transactions may have hierarchical relationships (such as the
relationships between the business transaction represented by a check to
the business transaction represented by a bank account).
• Each type of business transaction may have multiple states before it is
completed.
• At each stage in its lifecycle it may generate various measurements
(financial or otherwise) that may be used by
management/stockholders/regulators to monitor and/or control the
business.
Characterization of a Business Transaction Processing
System

General Requirements of
transaction processing
system
• Long Running Transactions
• Work Flow
• Accounting
• Authorization
• Queue Management

Long Running
Transactions
• The business transactions have a long lifetime (may
even be days or years) and multiple interactions with
users over their lifetime.

• A BTPS should have the ability to process work flows. Each state of the business
transaction can be represented by a step in the workflow. Each step in the
workflow may be composed of the following phases:
1. Work Planning - The periodic process of planning for future work. This often
involves review of historical work levels and/or the results of Work Plans from
"upstream" processing areas that generate work for this processing area.
2. Work Receiving and Arrival Reporting - The process of receiving and getting
control over newly arrived work. This often includes notifications to processors of
work awaiting processing.
3. Work Monitoring - Review all available work, prioritization and scheduling the
work to be done.
4. Work Processing and Recording - Doing the work and recording the results of the
work.
5. Work Routing - Based on the change in state to the work, pass the work along to
the next stage in the processing.
6. Work Evaluation - On a periodic basis, analyze the work. The information from
this step is often the input to the Work Planning phase (step 1 above).

Work Flow (Cont’d)
• The work flow component of the system should
allow the rules that define sequence of steps
(dependencies) and the rules that define the
processing to be performed at each step to be easily
modified by the users.
• (This process should also be a work flow.)

Accounting
• Accounting information is only one type of information to be
collected by the workflow processing.
• Since internal and external financial reporting is often used to
monitor and control a business, collecting this information is
important.
• However, there are many business transactions that are not
directly recorded in the financial reporting systems (i.e. the
number of calls to the "banking by phone" unit that did not
get through to a bank employee) that may generate useful
information for internal reporting purposes.

Authorization
• Just as accounting records what happened after the
transaction is processed, a large part of business
transactions involves authorizing each transaction before
the real processing is done.
• In my experience, these rules are changed on a fairly
frequent basis as the business changes it policies.
• However, once the authorization step(s) is (are)
completed the underlying work often does not change.

Queue Management
• In order to decouple the workflow steps from one
another it is usually necessary to add queues
between steps.
• A good workflow engine should allow the users (and
managers) to monitor queues in order to shift
processing resources as necessary.

Executive Information Systems (EIS)
• Executive information systems (EIS) are intended, in
principle, to support senior management and hence their
ability to support decisions concerning business
reconfiguration is of interest.
• A framework is proposed for structuring the information
related to business reconfiguration.
• It is suggested that successful reconfiguration decisions
begin by identifying the purpose of change, then
communicating the meaning of the new order and finally
implementing new processes including the management
process, of which an EIS is part.

Executive Information Systems (EIS)
• Executive information systems (EIS) are intended to
support executives in their work by providing
automated access to internal and external computer-
based data sources.
• Hence the ability of EIS to support decisions
concerning business reconfiguration is of interest.

Executive Information
Systems (EIS)
• Executive information systems (EIS) are intended, in
principle, to support senior management and hence their
ability to support decisions concerning business
reconfiguration is of interest.
• A framework is proposed for structuring the information
related to business reconfiguration.
• It is suggested that successful reconfiguration decisions
begin by identifying the purpose of change, then
communicating the meaning of the new order and finally
implementing new processes including the management
process, of which an EIS is part.

The Use of Executive
Information Systems
 Executive information systems have been shown to be able to
provide senior managers access to the information they
require to be extracted from the wealth of available
computer-based data.
 An EIS can aid managers by delivering and displaying
organisational and external data in ways that each individual
understands. Automated reports can deliver timely results
and enhance understanding by sophisticated displays. Rapid
application development tools enable fresh data analyses to
be created as new decision situations arise.
 An EIS enables the use of interactive information exchanges
by access to electronic networks. It can provide quantitative
diagnostics to monitor the progress of decisions.

Strategic Information Systems (SIS)
• This is a computer based information system which is used to fight
corporate wars so that an organisation can acquire competitive
advantages for the business.
• Strategic information system is used to both demolish as well as to
erect barriers of the entry for new competitors.
• It is with the help of strategic information systems that better
services are being provided to satisfy customers.
• Strategic Information systems can be used strategically in the
following four areas:
– To gain competitive advantage
– To facilitate new ways of managing and organising
– To improve productivity and performance
– To develop new business

Expert Information
Systems (ES)
• These are the types of systems which are designed to
help non experts to do what experts can achieve in
their areas of expertise.

Activity
• Why are the following systems important in
organisations?
• DSS (5)
• ES (5)
• EIS (5)
• SIS (5)

Topic Objectives
• By the end of the unit participants should
be able to:
– Define MIS planning
– Describe the MIS planning Process
– State the benefits of MIS planning

Definition of MIS Planning
• Planning is the process of deciding what is to be done,
how it is to be done and who is to do it.
• Planning bridges the gap between the present operations
and the future operations.
• It is done at all levels of management. It uses information
from both internal and external processes.
• The leaders are proactive.
• They make change happen instead of reacting to change.
• The future requires corporate leadership with skills to
integrate many unexpected and seemingly diverse events
into planning.

Definition of MIS Planning
• Every organisation must plan for change in-order to
reach its ultimate goal.
• Effective planning helps an organisation to adapt to
change by identifying opportunities and avoiding
problems.
• It sets the direction for the other functions of
management and for teamwork.
• Planning improves decision-making.
• All levels of management engage in planning

The Planning Process
• It is a process by which an organization can:-
– Identify the business objectives.
– Select the acceptable means to achieve the objectives.
– Initiates the necessary course of action and allocation of
resources.
– Determines implementation details of the planned course of
action.
– Determine the resource allocation to match the demand.
– Determine the effective strategic plans for MIS needs and
development.

The Planning Process
• It should be noted that planning and
implementation of MIS produces the
organisational confidence that MIS will cost
effectively deliver strategic systems.
• Planning also helps the organisation to identify its
information needs and find new opportunities for
using that information and define activities
needed to implement the chosen strategy.

Plans and Their Characteristics
• The characteristics of plan is determined by whether
it is a strategic, tactical or operational.
• They are also characterised by their purpose, level,
scope, time span and information requirements.

Types of Plans
Purpose Level Scope Time span Information
requirements
Strategic Corporate Assess
environmental
changes
5-20 years Environmental
Information
database e.g.
newspapers
Tactical Division Choose product
lines
1-5 years Environmental
database
Operational Middle
management
Business profit
centre
1-3 years Company policy
& database
Functional First level
management
Business profit
centre
1 week – 1 year Business profit
Centres.

Steps in Strategic
Planning Process
• Step 1: Identifying The Vision And Mission
• Step 2: Environment Scan
• Step 3: Gap Analysis
• Step 4: Benchmarking
• Step 5: Strategic Issues
• Step 6: Strategic Programming
• Step 7: Emergent Strategies
• Step 8: Evaluation of Strategy
• Step 9: Review of Strategic Plan
• Step 10: Strategic Thinking

Step 1: Identifying the Vision and Mission
• A mission is the purpose of the organisation. It is why the
organisation exists.
• Thus planning begins with clearly defining the mission of the
organisation.
• The mission statement should be clear and concise,
summarizing what the organisation does.
• Identification of the organization's vision and mission is the
first step of any strategic planning process.
• The organisation's vision sets out the reasons for
organization's existence and the "ideal" state that the
organization aims to achieve; the mission identifies major
goals and performance objectives.

Step 2: Environment Scan
• Once the vision and mission are clearly identified, the
organisation must analyze its external and internal
environment.
• The environmental scan, performed within the
frameworks of the SWOT, analyzes information about
organization's external environment (economic, social,
demographic, political, legal, technological, and
international factors), the industry, and internal
organizational factors.

Step 3 GAP ANALYSIS
• Organizations evaluate the difference between their
current position and desired future through gap
analysis.
• As a result, an organisation can develop specific
strategies and allocate resources to close the gap and
achieve its desired state.

Step 4 Benchmarking
• Measuring and comparing the company’s
operations, practices, and performance against
others is useful for identifying "best" practices.
• Through an ongoing systematic benchmarking
process campuses find a reference point for
setting their own goals and targets.

Step 5 Strategic Issues
• The organisation determines its strategic issues
based on (and consistent with) its vision and mission,
within the framework of environmental and other
analyses.
• Strategic issues are the fundamental issues the
organization has to address to achieve its mission
and move towards its desired future

Stage 6 Strategic Programming
• To address strategic issues and develop deliberate strategies for
achieving their mission, companies set strategic goals, action
plans, and tactics during the strategic programming stage.
• Strategic goals are the milestones the campus aims to achieve
that evolve from the strategic issues.
• The SMART goals model is essential to setting meaningful goals.
Smart goals are specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic,
and time/cost bound.
• "Action plans ... define how we get to where we want to go,"
the steps required to reach our strategic goals.
• Tactics are specific actions used to achieve the strategic goals
and implement the strategic plans.

MIS ROLE IN STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
• MIS plays an important role in the development of corporate
strategy in that it provides a continuous formulated and
structured gathering of information both internal and
external. It uses organised information from managers.
• Once the desired specifications for the organisation have
been established, major decisions must be laid as to the best
way of achieving these specifications that is a long term plan
is developed at the strategic level to achieve objectives.
• Major decisions must be made that concerns the capital
equipment acquisitions, mergers, and new products
development and compensation plans.

Stage 7: Emergent Strategies
• Unpredicted and unintended events frequently occur
that differ from the organisation's intended
strategies, and the organisation must respond.
• Emergent strategy is a pattern, a consistency of
behavior over time or a realized pattern [that] was
not expressly intended in the original planning of
strategy.
• It results from a series of actions converging into a
consistent pattern.

Stage 8 Evaluation of Strategy
• Periodic evaluations of strategies, tactics, and action programs
are essential to assessing success of the strategic planning
process.
• It is important to measure performance at least annually (but
preferably more often), to evaluate the effect of specific
actions on long-term results and on the organization's vision
and mission.
• The organization should measure current performance against
previously set expectations, and consider any changes or
events that may have impacted the desired course of actions.

Stage 9 Review of Strategic Plan
• After assessing the progress of the strategic
planning process, the organisation needs to review
the strategic plan, make necessary changes, and
adjust its course based on these evaluations.
• The revised plan must take into consideration
emergent strategies, and changes affecting the
organization's intended course

Stage 10 Strategic Thinking
• With time, people in the organisation routinely make their
decisions within the framework of the organization's strategic
vision and mission.
• Strategic planning becomes an organizational norm, deeply
embedded within the organization's decision-making process,
and participants learn to think strategically as part of their
regular daily activities.
• Strategic thinking involves arraying options through a process of
opening up institutional thinking to a range of alternatives and
decisions that identify the best fit between the institution, its
resources, and the environment.

MIS ROLE IN STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
• MIS plays an important role in the development of
corporate strategy in that it provides a continuous
formulated and structured gathering of information both
internal and external.
• It uses organised information from managers.
• Once the desired specifications for the organisation have
been established, major decisions must be laid as to the
best way of achieving these specifications that is a long
term plan is developed at the strategic level to achieve
objectives.

Benefits of MIS Planning
• Executives in organisations might understand the importance of MIS
planning, but still need to be convinced to divert resources from other
sections. The benefits of MIS planning are as follows:
– MIS planning promotes better communication between
top, user management and the MIS professional.
– MIS planning results in a more effective use of corporate
resources.
– MIS planning provides a vehicle for accountability, through
it being used as a benchmark for measuring performance
of individuals and departments.
– MIS planning enables managers to cope with long system
development lead times

Activity
• Explain the following terms;
– Strategic plan
– Tactical Plan
– Gap analysis
– Benchmarking

Systems analysis and Design
TOPIC FOUR

• This topic describes the complete cycle of a
computerised system form initial survey through to
implementation and ongoing maintenance.
• The term for this is the Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC).
• The purpose of this topic is to provide an
understanding of the process involved in analysing,
designing an implementing a system so that the user
can appreciate what is involved in bringing a business
system to an operational state.

Topic Objectives
• By the end of the unit the participant
should be able to:
– Define the System Development Life
Cycle (SDLC)
– State the stages of the development Life
cycle.
– Describe the types of system
implementation

Definition of System
Development Life Cycle
• The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual
model used in project management that describes the stages
involved in an information system development project from
an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the
completed application.
• Various SDLC methodologies have been developed to guide
the processes involved including the waterfall model (the
original SDLC method), rapid application development (RAD),
joint application development (JAD), the fountain model and
the spiral model. Mostly, several models are combined into
some sort of hybrid methodology.

• Documentation is crucial regardless of the type of model
chosen or devised for any application, and is usually done
in parallel with the development process.
• Some methods work better for specific types of projects,
but in the final analysis, the most important factor for
the success of a project may be how closely particular
plan was followed.
• The following image is the classic Waterfall model
methodology, which is the first SDLC method and it
describes the various phases involved in development.

• Phase One: Feasibility
– The feasibility study is used to determine if the
project should get the go-ahead.
– If the project is to proceed, the feasibility study
will produce a project plan and budget estimates
for the future stages of development.

• Phase Two: Requirement Analysis and Design
– Analysis gathers the requirements for the system.
– This stage includes a detailed study of the business needs of the
organization. Options for changing the business process may be
considered.
– Design focuses on high level design like, what programs are
needed and how are they going to interact, low-level design (how
the individual programs are going to work), interface design (what
are the interfaces going to look like) and data design (what data
will be required).
– During these phases, the software's overall structure is defined.
Analysis and Design are very crucial in the whole development
cycle.
– Any glitch in the design phase could be very expensive to solve in
the later stage of the software development.
– Much care is taken during this phase. The logical system of the
product is developed in this phase.

• Phase Three: Implementation
– This is a phase, which involves the conversion from the old
system to the new system.
– The areas, which can be converted, involves hardware
conversion; Software Conversion and File conversion.
– Hardware conversion involves the replacement of the old
obsolete hardware components such as old computers or
printers with the latest hardware on the market.
– In this phase the software conversion means introducing
new programs which can suite the latest market
requirements such as replacing Windows 95 with Windows
XP programs.

• The four main types of system implementation are:
1. Direct Implementation: Here there is sudden shift from the old system
to the new system. It is normally used in accounting firms. This method
suffers the drawback of huge financial losses if the system fails to
operate.
2. Parallel Implementation: The type of implementation allows the new
system and the old system to run simultaneously until a stage when the
new system is stable and producing the required system. The system is
very expensive in terms of resources allocation.
3. Phased Implementation: The system is implemented in stages until all
the departments are finished. This can be due to lack of resources.
4. Pilot Implementation: This process requires the organization to select a
portion where the system can be implemented fully until it is successful.

• Phase Four: Testing
• In this phase the system is tested. Normally programs are
written as a series of individual modules, these subject to
separate and detailed test.
• The system is then tested as a whole.
• The separate modules are brought together and tested as a
complete system.
• The system is tested to ensure that interfaces between
modules work (integration testing), the system works on the
intended platform and with the expected volume of data
(volume testing) and that the system does what the user
requires (acceptance/beta testing).

• Phase Five: Maintenance
• Inevitably the system will need maintenance.
• Software will definitely undergo change once it is delivered to
the customer.
• There are many reasons for the change.
• Change could happen because of some unexpected input values
into the system. In addition, the changes in the system could
directly affect the software operations.
• The software should be developed to accommodate changes
that could happen during the post implementation period.

ACTIVITY
• Why is it important to weigh the costs against the
benefits of a project?
• Why do projects fail in organisations?

Topic Objectives
• By the end of the unit participants should
be able to:
– Define Decision Making
– List the three levels of management
– Explain the 3 main types of decision
making
– State the factors influencing decision
making

Definition of Decision Making
• This is an integral part of management and occurs
in every function and at all levels.
• Decision making comprises of four principal phases
which are finding occasions for making decisions,
finding possible courses of action, choosing among
courses of action and evaluating past choices.

Levels of Management
Strategic
management
occupied by
top managers
Tactical
management
run by middle
managers
Operational
management
occupied by lower
level managers

Types of Management Decisions
1. Structured Decisions
– These types of decision often occur in situations that are
well understood and involve following established
procedures and using common information to resolve a
problem.
– Structured decisions are simple and usually quite
routine.
– An example would be deciding the amount of inventory
items to reorder, or deciding what time to schedule a
meeting. Structural decisions are repetitive and routine
procedures.

2. Semi structured decisions:
– This type occurs in situations that are somewhat understood
and involve some established procedures.
– These decisions usually require a manager to make good
judgment because there is often some amount of
uncertainty.
– Semi structured Decisions are partially structured procedures
and judgements.
– An example of this would be a clothing company ordering
more clothing for 3 months in advance.
– The company will have to use its best judgment because they
may not know what is in style or demand in 3 months.
Types of Management Decisions

3. Unstructured decisions;
• They occur in situations that are unique or involve
anticipating events over a relatively long period of time.
They rely on a manager’s judgment to make an effective
decision. For example, if your company is E and D
Investments has just improved their customer service,
then you need to make a decision on how you will
respond to their new idea. Unstructured Decisions are
complex matters that involve intuition

Importance of
information in
Decision Making
• In order to make a major decision, you need three things:
time, information, and commitment.
• Time, to consider all the options, to think about
implications of your decision, time to do the work
necessary to make a decision.
• Information, so your decision is based on up-to-date
statistics, data, knowledge, and advice.
• Commitment, to follow through and to make a decision!

Factors Influencing Decisions
• Information Factors
– To make sound decisions it is important to gather
enough information to evaluate your options.
• Decision-Making Experience
– Confidence in decision-making abilities comes from
having made successful decisions in the past.
• Personal Factors
– Support and influence from family and friends can
have a big effect on your decisions, especially for
significant decisions that may impact the important
people in your life.

Research
• Research on other factors that influence decision
making.

TOPIC SIX
In this unit we introduce you to the purpose
of controlling in MIS, the control process
and the different types of controls.

Topic Objectives
• By the end of the unit participants should be
able to:
 Define Controlling in organisation.
 Explain the control process
 Describe the characteristics of effective
controls
 State the types of controls

What is Controlling?
• Controlling is directly related to planning. The control process
ensures that plans are being implemented properly.
• In the functions of management cycle; planning, organizing,
directing and controlling; planning moves forward into all the
other functions, and controlling reaches back.
• Controlling is the final link in the functional chain of
management activities and brings the functions of
management cycle full circle.

• Control is the process through which standards for
performance of people and processes are set,
communicated and applied.
• Effective control systems use mechanisms to monitor
activities and take corrective action, if necessary.
• The supervisor observes what happens and
compares that with what was supposed to happen.
He or she must correct below-standard conditions
and bring results up to expectations.

• Effective control systems allow supervisors to know
how well implementation is going.
• Control facilitates delegating of activities to
employees.
• Since supervisors are ultimately held accountable for
their employees’ performance, timely feedback on
employee activity is necessary.

The Control Process
• The control process is a continuous flow between
measuring, comparing and action.
• There are four steps in the control process:
establishing performance standards, measuring
actual performance, comparing measured
performance against established standards, and
taking corrective action.

The stages of
Control
Process
• Step 1: Establish Performance Standards.
• Step 2: Measure the Actual performance.
• Step 3: Compare Measured Performance Against
Established Standards
• Step 4. Take corrective action.

Step 1. Establish
Performance Standards
• Standards are created when objectives are set during the planning
process.
• A standard is any guideline established as the bases for
measurement.
• It is a precise, explicit statement of expected results from a product,
service, machine, individual, or organisational unit.
• It is usually expressed numerically and is set for quality, quantity
and time.
• Tolerance is permissible deviation from the standard. What is
expected? How much deviation can be tolerated?
– Time controls relate to deadlines and time constraints.
– Material controls relate to inventory and material-yield
controls.
– Equipment controls

Step 2. Measure the
Actual performance.
• Supervisor collects data to measure actual performance to determine
variation from standard.
• Written data might include time cards, production tallies, inspection
reports, and sales tickets.
• Personal observation, statistical reports, and written reports can be
used performance.
• Management by walking around, or observation employees working,
provides unfiltered information, extensive coverage, and the ability to
read between the lines.
• While providing insight, this method might be misinterpreted by
employees as mistrust.
• oral reports allow for fast and extensive feedback

Step 2. Measure the Actual
performance (Cont’d)
• Computers give supervisors access to real time, unaltered data, and information.
• Online systems supervisors to identify problems as they occur.
• Data base programs allows supervisors to enquiry, spend less time gathering facts, and
be less dependent on other people.
• Supervisors have access to information at their fingertips.
• Employees can supply progress reports through the use of net works and electronic
mail.
• Statistical reports are easy to visualise and effective at demonstrating relationship.
• Written reports provide comprehensive feed back that can be easily field and
referenced.
• Computers are important tools for measuring performance.
• In fact many operating processes depend on automatic computer driven control
systems.
• Impersonal measurement count, times, and records employee performance.

Step 3 Compare Measured Performance Against
Established Standard
• Comparing results with standards determines
variations. some variations can be expected in all
activities and the range of variation-the acceptable
variance-has to be established.
• Management by exception lets operation continue as
long they fall within prescribed control limits.
• Deviations or differences that exceeds this range
would alert the supervisor to the problem.

Step 4. Take
corrective action.
• The supervisor must find the cause of deviation from
standard.
• Then he or she takes action to remove or minimize the cause.
If the source of deviation in work performance is from a
deficit in activity, then a supervisor can take immediate
corrective action and get performance back on track.
• Also, the supervisor s can opt to take basic corrective action,
which would determine how and why performance has
deviated and correct the source of the deviation.
• Immediate corrective action is more efficient, however basic
corrective action is more effective.

• Give a practical example of the control process
pointing out the various activities undertaken at each
stage of the process.

Example;
• An example of the control process is a thermostat
– Standard: The room thermostat is set at 68 degrees.
– Measurement: the temperature is measured.
– Corrective action: if the room is too cold, the comes
on. If the room is too hot, the heat goes off.

• Control systems must be designed properly to be
effective.
• When control standards are inflexible or unrealistic,
employees cannot focus on the organization’s goals.
• Control systems must prevent, not cause, the problems
they were designed to detect.
• Performance variance can also be the result of an
unrealistic standard.

Types of Control
• Controls are most effective when they are applied at
key places. Supervisor can implement controls before
the process begins (feed forward), during the process
(concurrent), or after it ceases (feedback).
– Feed-forward controls
– Concurrent controls
– Feedback controls
– Financial controls
– Operations control methods

Feed-forward controls
• Feed-forward controls focus on operations before they
begin.
• Their goal is to prevent anticipated problems.
• An example of feed-forward control is scheduled
maintenance on automobiles and machinery.
• Regular maintenance feeds forward to prevent problems.
Other examples include safety systems, training
programs, and budgets.

Concurrent controls
• Concurrent controls apply to processes as they are
happening.
• Concurrent controls enacted while work is being
performed include any type of steering or guiding
mechanism such as direct supervision, automated
systems(such as computers programmed to inform
the user when they have issued the wrong
command), and organizational quality programs.

Feedback controls
• Feedback controls focus on the results of operations.
They guide future planning, inputs, and process designs.
• Examples of feedback controls include timely (weekly,
monthly, quarterly, annual) reports so that almost
instantaneous adjustments can be made.
• Machinery, imposed on the operator to protect the
equipment or the process.

Cost controls
• Cost controls help ensure cost standards are met.
• Employee performance controls focus on actions and
behaviours and individuals and groups of employees.
• Examples include absences, tardiness, accidents, quality
and quantity of work.
• Budget control cost or expense related standards.
• They identify quantity of materials used and units to be
produced.

Financial controls
• Financial controls facilitate achieving the organisation’s
profit motive.
• One method of financial control is budgets.
• Budgets allocate resources to important activities and
provide supervisors with quantitative standards against
which to compare resource consumption.
• They become control tools by pointing out deviation
between the standard and actual consumption.

Operations control
• Operations control methods assess how efficiently
and effectively an organisation’s transformation
processes create goods and services.
• Methods of transformation controls includes Total
Quality Management (TQM) statistical process
control and the inventory management control

• Economic Order Quanity
– Inventory is a large cost for many organisations.
– The appropriate amount to order and how often to
order impact the firm’s bottom line.
– The economic order quantity model (EOQ) is a
mathematical model for deriving the optimal
purchase quantity.
– The EOQ model seeks to minimise total carrying and
ordering cost by balancing purchases cost, ordering
cost, carrying cost and stockout costs.
Research on the EOQ Model.

Research Activity
• Research on computer input and output devices

MIS INTERNET AND SECURITY
TOPIC SEVEN

Topic Objectives
By the end of the unit the participants should be
able to:
• Define internet
• Explain the origins of the internet
• State the benefits of the internet
• Define computer crime
• State types of crimes and prevention methods

• Started in the 1960s. Funded by, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency.
• In 1970s, DARPA supported the development of
Internetworking Protocols: TCP/IP.
• TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
• In the 1980s, this network of networks became known as
the Internet.
• Made up of colleges, research companies and
government agencies.

• The backbone of the Internet is the long-haul
communications links that provide the main connections
between its connected networks, much like the Interstate
highway system feeds a network of local roads.
• Nobody "owns" the Internet; everybody owns his or her
piece of the Internet.
• The Internet backbone is "owned" by the National
Science Foundation.

• The development of the Internet is not an end in
itself; it is a means by which a country can achieve a
broad range of economic and social goals.
• Although the internet is not a "silver bullet" for all of
the problems we face, it can make an important
contribution to our most pressing economic and
social challenges.

• All Zimbabweans can use this infrastructure, not just by scientists
and engineers.
• As entrepreneurs, factory workers, doctors, teachers, employees,
and citizens, people can harness this technology to:
• Create jobs, spur growth, and foster country’s technological
leadership;
• Reduce health care costs while increasing the quality of service in
undeserved areas;
• Deliver higher-quality, lower-cost government services;
• Prepare our children for the fast-paced workplace of the 21st
century; and
• Build a more open and participatory democracy at all levels of
government.

• This is not a far-fetched prediction.
• Our current information infrastructure is already
making a difference in the lives of ordinary
Zimbabweans, and we have just begun to tap its
potential.

Economic Benefits
• The Internet will help create high-wage jobs,
stimulate economic growth, enable new products
and services, and strengthen country’s technological
leadership.
• Whole new industries will be created, and the
infrastructure will be used in ways we can only begin
to imagine.
• Below are some of the potential benefits to the
country’s economy:

Economic Benefits
• Increased economic growth and productivity
• Job creation
• Technological leadership
• Regional, state, and local economic development
• Electronic commerce
• Cyber-Cash

Management Information System and Computer
Crimes
‘Misconception’
• Computers are regarded as complex machines and
assumption is often made that any crime involving
them must be similarly complex. As a result, the
computer criminal has been elevated to the status of
technological mastermind.

Nature of Computer Crimes
• The use of a computer to perpetrate acts of deceit,
theft or concealment that are intended to provide
financial, business-related, property or service
advantages.
• Threats to the computer itself, such as theft of
hardware or software, sabotage and demands for
ransom.

Nature of Computer Crimes
• Most forms of computer crime are simply ordinary crimes
with a computer element;
• The motives and the modus operandi of the perpetrators will
be completely familiar to most senior security managers;
• The only difference is that at some point the path of crime has
gone inside a computer and then emerged;
• Very few so-called computer crimes, which can otherwise be
termed as computer quasi-crimes, involve very high level of
computer skill.

• The nature and scope of computer crime tends to
vary, depending on the definition used but broadly it
falls under two categories:
1) Computer instigated crime; and
2) Computer targeted crime

Computer instigated crime
• This covers those crimes, which are carried out by
using computers; for example fraud, theft, espionage
and the distribution of pornography.
• The most feared one out of these all is computer
fraud - the computer fraud was defined as "any
financial dishonesty that takes place in a computer
environment"

Computer frauds
• Computer frauds fall under any one of the following categories:
– False or unauthorised input
– Creating misleading output
– Impersonating someone who is authorised (usually by
borrowing passwords)
– Program compromise (spotting and exploiting an administrative
or control weakness)
– Altering data (the computer equivalent of forging the books)
– Manipulating programs (altering a computer program so that
any of the above become possible or are carried out
automatically).

Various types of frauds and methodology
Types of Fraud Method
Accounts Manipulating computerised accounts. The simplest
method is to omit a transaction; the most common is
to make erasure or alterations.
Dummy Account Frauds False accounts are created in false names and money
is credited to them for e.g. non-existent employees
are credited with salaries.
Forgery Altering/constructing false instructions e.g.
generating false accounts.
Impersonation Acquiring a password or other user numbers, it is
possible to impersonate the real owner and so obtain
goods and services.
Revenue and Customs fraud Using computers to maintain more than one set of
books.

Computer targeted crime
 Theft Of data
Of software
Of hardware
 Use of illicit software Using unlicensed software.
 Using the computer for
unauthorised private work.
Unauthorised use of an organisation’s computing facilities for
private benefit.
 Invasion of privacy Unauthorised disclosure of data and breaches of data protection
legislation.
 Hacking Deliberately gaining unauthorised access to the computer system,
unusually through the use of telecommunication facilities.
 Sabotage Interfering with the computer process by causing deliberate damage
to processing cycle or equipment.
 Virus Distributing a program with the intention of corrupting a computer
process.

MIS and Money Laundering
• The system of getting or downloading cash or "digi-cash"
from an account is simple.
• The account holder dials into his bank via the e-mail
system using the agreed security password procedures.
Instructions are given, simply by the click of the mouse,
to download funds in "digi-cash" to the stated value onto
the account holder's hard disk. The stated value has now
left the account and is stored on the hard disk ready for
use.

• The "digi-cash" can then be transferred to another
person or financial institution with the necessary
software and e-mail system to receive it. Such transfers
can obviously take place anywhere in the world, and can
be made in a matter of minutes, in the same way that
banks currently transfer cash by internet or ZIMSWITCH,
both of which have recognised security formats and
strictly controlled procedures.

• Once "digi-cash" has been transferred from one
party to another, the funds can be used to purchase
goods on the Internet, transfer the funds to yet
another "digi-cash" user, or download the stored
value into a personal account.
• The advantages of "cyberbanking" to a money
launderer are obvious. They can, if they wish, defeat
an audit trail from the moment the funds are debited
to their account.

• A sophisticated launderer, with unlimited funds at their
disposal, uses a laptop computer (or several) combined
with digital global mobile communications systems.
• A recent case in the US resulted in the seizure of several
digital mobile phones and laptops being used by one
individual.
• If police or other investigators are aware of a money
launderer's access to the "digi-cash" transfer method
they may be able to reconstruct an audit trail once the
computer system has been seized.

• Interrogating data, provided it is still intact, may well
enable the investigator to piece together an audit
trail, and more importantly, identify the party to
whom the digi-cash has been transferred.
• Such an investigation would without doubt be
difficult and would only be successful if dealing with
transfers from static and identifiable computer
systems.

Preventing computer crime
Safeguarding Premises  Carry out a risk assessment and draw up a contingency plan.
 Implement measures to safeguard perimeter security and to control
access to some or all areas.
 Make sure the equipment is secured and property marked.
Safeguarding Data  Implement a structured password policy.
 Consistently backing up data and keep it in a safe, separate location.
 Make sure that only genuine software is used.
 Take particular security precautions if there is access to the internet.

Investigating Computer Crime
• If you suspect that a computer crime has been committed,
do not switch off the computer, or switch it on if it is off.
• Do not allow any one to use or interfere with the
computer
• Disconnect the computer from any network, the Internet
or telephone connection.
• Inform the concerned authority/police immediately.
• Designate one person to secure evidence.
• Do not interview or confront suspects.

1. Outline the facilities offered by internet in Zimbabwe
2. Give a detailed description of any five types of
Management Information System
3. Explain the main factors to consider when purchasing
computer software for your organisation
4. Explain the different threats to a computer system in an
organisation
5. List and explain the purpose of any six computer input
devices and four output devices.
6. State the symptoms of computer viruses and how the
viruses can be prevented.
7. Identify and explain in detail the stages of the system
development life cycle

Types of Examination Questions
1. Descriptive Questions
1. Define
2. Outline
3. Explain
2. Analytical Questions
1. Discuss
2. Analyse
3. Argue
4. Evaluate
5. criticise

During the exam (tips)
• Pace yourself against time
• Do not leave until the exam is at an end
• Do not panic, it will only make things worse
• Be careful to present your work in a logical a legible
format.

Marker Assessment Criteria
• Research, Analysis & Preparation
• Creativity & Innovation
• Technical Ability ( use of methods, models, tools,
theories)
• Presentation Techniques

Management information systems

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