Sarala Birla University

BBA Sem III

Course Title: Management Information System
Course Code: BBA 303

Module 1: Introduction to MIS

MIS Definition, Business and Technology trends, Reengineering, Management and

Decision Levels, Introduction to Strategy, MIS roles, System Development Stages:
SDLC – various phases

MIS Definition

A management information system is an acronym of three words, viz., Management,

information, system. In order to fully understand the term MIS, let us try to understand these
three words.

1. Management: Management is the art of getting things done through and with the
people in formally organized groups.

2. Information: Information is data that is processed and is presented in a form which

assists decision-making. It may contain an element of surprise, reduce uncertainty or
provoke a manager to initiate an action.

3. System: A system is an orderly grouping of interdependent components linked

together according to a plan to achieve a specific goal. The term system is the most
loosely held term in management literature because of its use in different contexts.

The major components of MIS are:

Components of MIS

1. People Resources: People are required for the operation of all information system.
2. Data Resources: Database holds processed and organized data.
3. Software Resources: It includes all sets of information processing instruction.
4. Hardware Resources: Include all physical devices and materials used in information
processing.
5. Process: is a step undertaken to achieve a goal.

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MIS is a scientific way of collecting; processing, storing and communicating information
relating to the various activities of an organisation to the various levels of management so
that management may be facilitated in discharging its functions efficiently and run the
organisation in an efficient manner for the betterment of all.

MIS enhances the quality of management and growth of the organisation by providing timely,
accurate and meaningful information for planning, organisation and control, no management
can ever succeed without continuous appraisal of its performance and MIS by providing
timely and meaningful information can be helpful in this regard. MIS should be developed
keeping in mind the information needs of all managers and it should be based on cost- benefit
analysis. It should be designed in such a way that it covers all aspects of the organisation and
it should be flexible to meet changing management needs and changing inputs.

Management information system is a system designed in an organisation to provide right

information at the right time to facilitate managerial decision making. The need for
management information system has arisen because managerial decision making has become
very complicated due to fast changing economic, political, social, and technological changes.

The old techniques of decision making such as intuition, rule of thumb etc. are no more
relevant and useful in the process of decision making. Modern managements assemble both
quantitative as well qualitative information which can be used for analysing the pros and cons
of various alternative courses of actions and thereby facilitating the best course of action.

Thus, modern management functions are information oriented. Therefore, it is very difficult
to manage effectively without an efficient management information system.

Definition of Management Information System:

1. “A formal method of collecting timely information in a presentable form in order to

facilitate effective decision making and implementation, in order to carryout
organisational operations for the purpose of achieving the organisational goals”. —
Walter I. Kennevan

2. “An MIS is a system designed to provide selected decision-oriented information

needed by management to plan, control and evaluate the activities of the corporation.
It is designed within a framework that emphasises profit planning, performance
planning and control at all levels. It contemplates the ultimate integration of required
business information, sub systems both financial and non-financial within the
company”. —Management Information System Committee of the Financial
Executive Institute

3. “Management information system is a system of people, equipment, procedures,

documents and communications, that collects, validates, operates, transformers,
stores, retrieves, and presents data for use in planning, budgeting, accounting,
controlling and other management process”. — SCHWARTZ

4. “MIS is structured to provide the information needed, when needed and where
needed”. Further the system represents the internal communication network of the
business providing the necessary intelligence to plan, execute and control. — F.B.
CORNISH

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 5. “Management Information system is an approach to information system design that
conceives the business enterprise as an entity composed of inters dependent system
and sub-systems, which with the use of automated data processing systems attempts
to provide timely and accurate management information which will permit optimum
management decision making.” — DICKEY

6. “MIS is an approach that visualize the business organisation as a single entity

composed of various inter-related and inter-dependent sub-systems looking together
to provide timely and accurate information for management decision making, which
leads to the optimization of overall enterprise goals”. — CANTH

7. “Management information system is a comprehensive and coordinated set of

information sub-systems which are rationally integrated and which transform data into
information in a variety of ways to enhance productivity in conformance with
managers’ styles and characteristics on the basis of established criteria”. —
GEORGE M. SCOTT

8. “MIS is a computer-based network containing one or more operating systems,

provides relevant data to management for decision-making purposes and also contains
the necessary mechanism for implementing changes of responses made by
management in this decision making”. — THOMAS. R. PRINCE

9. “MIS is a system that aids management in making, carrying out, and controlling
decisions”. — JEROME RANTER

10. “Management information system is an integrated man I machine system for

providing information to support the operations, management and decision-making
function in an organisation”. — G.B. DAVIS

Business and Technology trends

Information management trends are becoming increasingly important in today’s world. The
benefits of using information management trends include increased efficiency, better
decision-making, and more accurate data.

Some of the information management trends include increased focus on information

quality, improved governance, leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine
Language) technologies, enabled federated search, and wider usage of RPA (Robotic
Process Automation) technologies.

Information management trends help organizations keep track of the latest changes in
technology and business methods. This allows them to keep their systems up to date and
improve their efficiency. Additionally, information management trends can help
organizations identify new opportunities for improving their business processes.

Information management is becoming increasingly important in both the private and public
sectors. As businesses become more global and interconnected, they need to find ways to
manage and store their information more effectively.

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One way to manage information more effectively is to use information management trends.
Trends can help you identify how information is being used and shared, and provide insights
into how you can improve your information management practices.

Here are the 10 information management trends:

1. Increased focus on information quality

With the growing importance of information and their types, companies are starting to
pay more attention to ensuring its quality. This includes ensuring accuracy,
completeness, and consistency.

Businesses must only collect high-quality information and properly preserve it in

order for it to be evaluated later and provide insights to drive business decisions and
efficiency.

Collecting poor quality information will increase storage costs, and maintenance, and
above all drive wrong business decisions.

2. Greater adoption of information governance

As data becomes more critical to business operations, companies are implementing

formal information governance programs to ensure its quality and control its use.

Information governance programs are designed to help organizations manage, protect

and control the information they have.

The importance of information governance programs is increasing day by day. This is

because the business world today is so data-driven that it has become impossible to
survive without a good information governance program in place. Information
governance programs provide a number of benefits to organizations, including:

 Improving data quality

 Preventing data breaches
 Enhancing employee productivity
 Reducing risk exposure

3. Wide usage of Artificial Intelligence

Leveraging artificial intelligence in information management has become vitally

important for organizations. AI can help organizations with:

 Automatic document
 Extract useful information
 Auto-populate metadata (meaning: a set of data that describes and gives
information about other data.)
 to drive a more personalized search
 Hide personally identifiable information in documents (content redaction)
from unauthorized access
 Process large amount of data
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4. More use of data analytics

Companies are using data analytics to gain insights into their business operations and
make better decisions. This includes using data to improve customer segmentation,
target marketing, and product development.

Proper data analytics can help organizations improve their business model, release
new products, improve customer experience, and understand how certain products are
being utilized.

5. Federated search

Many companies store and manage their information using more than one information
management system. This adds needless steps for employees looking for information
to carry out a specific business task.

Federated search (Federated search is a technique used to search multiple data

sources at once.) enables enterprises to overcome information silos by searching for
information using a single location and receiving results regardless of their original
location.

This reduces the number of time employees spend looking for information, increasing
productivity and efficiency.

6. Automate Business Processes

Automation of business processes is critical for businesses that want to be agile and
prosper in the digital age. The recent COVID19 pandemic has highlighted the need
for digitalization among enterprises.

Organizations that rely on paper documents and paper-based processes were unable to
do business as usual during the lockout.

The adoption of business process automation solutions to create a more efficient and
effective work environment is one of the top information management trends we see
presently in enterprises of all sizes.

7. Leverage RPA technologies

RPA software robots are used to automate manual repetitive operations that
employees spend the majority of their time doing (i.e., data entry).

These robots can replicate employees’ actions and execute them without human
intervention, enhancing efficiency and completing tasks more quickly.

8. Embrace cloud deployments

Cloud storage is important for information management because it allows businesses
to store their data off-site and access it from anywhere. Additionally, cloud storage is
scalable and can be easily expanded as businesses grow.

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 Whenever practical, your organization should begin shifting its content to the cloud to
enable instant access to information without incurring the additional costs of IT gear,
software, and infrastructure.

9. Increased integration with other systems

Most organizations rely on a variety of systems to do business. In order to have an

efficient information management program, there should be a wide range of
integrations available to allow all systems to obtain information without the need for
human intervention.

Integrations can help boost productivity and collaboration among employees from
different departments or with outside organizations.

10. Overcome information silos

Information silos refer to the isolated storage of information within an organization.

When information is not shared across departments or business units, it leads to
inefficiencies and can result in duplicate work. In worst-case scenarios, information
silos can lead to business failures.

Information silos are a problem that can be solved with AI. This is because AI has the
capability to aggregate data from different sources, and then present it in a coherent
manner.

Reengineering

According to Dr. Michael Hammer,

“Business Process Re-engineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical design of
business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of
performance such as cost, quality, service and speed.”

Business process re-engineering is not just a change, but actually it is a dramatic change and
dramatic improvements. This is only achieved through overhaul the organization structures,
job descriptions, performance management, training and the most importantly, the use of IT
i.e., Information Technology.

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Figure: Business Process Re-engineering

BPR projects have failed sometimes to meet high expectations. Many unsuccessful BPR
attempts are due to the confusion surrounding BPR and how it should be performed. It
becomes the process of trial and error.

According to Peter F. Drucker,” Re-engineering is new, and it has to be done.” There are 7
different phases for BPR. All the projects for BPR begin with the most critical requirement
i.e., communication throughout the organization.

1. Begin organizational change.

2. Build the re-engineering organization.
3. Identify BPR opportunities.
4. Understand the existing process.
5. Reengineer the process
6. Blueprint the new business system.
7. Perform the transformation.

Objectives of BPR:

Following are the objectives of the BPR:

1. To dramatically reduce cost.

2. To reduce time requirements.
3. To improve customer services dramatically.
4. To reinvent the basic rules of the business e.g. The airline industry.
5. Customer satisfaction.
6. Organizational learning.

Management and Decision Levels

Each of these levels has different information requirements for decision support and different
constituencies or groups that information systems need to serve. The four different decision-
making constituencies in a firm are the following:

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FIGURE 13-2 Information requirements of key decision-making groups

Various levels of management in the firm have differing information requirements for
decision support because of their different job responsibilities and the nature of the decisions
made at each level.

1. Senior management. Senior management is concerned with general yet timely

information on changes in the industry and society at large that may affect both the
long-term and near-term future of the firm, the firm’s strategic goals, short-term and
future performance, specific bottlenecks and trouble affecting operational capabilities,
and the overall ability of the firm to achieve its objectives.

2. Middle management and project teams. Middle management is concerned with

specific, timely information about firm performance, including revenue and cost
reduction targets, and with developing plans and budgets to meet strategic goals
established by senior management. This group needs to make important decisions
about allocating resources, developing short-range plans, and monitoring the
performance of departments, task forces, teams, and special project groups. Often the
work of middle managers is accomplished in teams or small groups of managers
working on a task.

3. Operational management and project teams. Operational management monitors the

performance of each subunit of the firm and manages individual employees.
Operational managers are in charge of specific projects and allocate resources within
the project budget, establish schedules, and make personnel decisions. Operational
work may also be accomplished through teams.

4. Individual employees. Employees try to fulfil the objectives of managers above them,
following established rules and procedures for their routine activities. Increasingly,
however, employees are granted much broader responsibilities and decision-making
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 authority based on their own best judgment and information in corporate systems.
Employees may be making decisions about specific vendors, customers, and other
employees. Because employees interact directly with the public, how well they make
their decisions can directly impact the firm’s revenue streams.

Types Of Decisions

The characteristics of decisions faced by managers at different levels are quite different.
Decisions can be classified as structured, semi structured, and unstructured. Unstructured
decisions are those in which the decision maker must provide judgment, evaluation, and
insights into the problem definition. Each of these decisions is novel, important, and
nonroutine, and there is no well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making them.

Structured decisions, by contrast, are repetitive and routine, and decision makers can
follow a definite procedure for handling them to be efficient. Many decisions have elements
of both and are considered semi structured decisions, in which only part of the problem has a
clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure. In general, structured decisions are
made more prevalently at lower organizational levels, whereas unstructured decision making
is more common at higher levels of the firm.

Senior executives tend to be exposed to many unstructured decision situations that are
open ended and evaluative and that require insight based on many sources of information and
personal experience. For example, a CEO in today’s music industry might ask, “Whom
should we choose as a distribution partner for our online music catalogue—Apple, Microsoft,
or Sony?” Answering this question would require access to news, government reports, and
industry views as well as high-level summaries of firm performance. However, the answer
would also require senior managers to use their own best judgment and poll other managers
for their opinions.

Middle management and operational management tend to face more structured

decision scenarios, but their decisions may include unstructured components. A typical
middle level management decision might be “Why is the order fulfilment report showing a
decline over the last six months at a distribution center in Minneapolis?” This middle
manager could obtain a report from the firm’s enterprise system or distribution management
system on order activity and operational efficiency at the Minneapolis distribution center.
This is the structured part of the decision. But before arriving at an answer, this middle
manager will have to interview employees and gather more unstructured information from
external sources about local economic conditions or sales trends.

Rank-and-file employees tend to make more structured decisions. For example, a sales
account representative often has to make decisions about extending credit to customers by
consulting the firm’s customer database that contains credit information. In this case the
decision is highly structured, it is a routine decision made thousands of times each day in
most firms, and the answer has been pre-programmed into a corporate risk management or
credit reporting system.

The types of decisions faced by project teams cannot be classified neatly by

organizational level. Teams are small groups of middle and operational managers and
perhaps employees assigned specific tasks that may last a few months to a few years. Their
tasks may involve unstructured or semi structured decisions such as designing new products,

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devising new ways to enter the marketplace, or reorganizing sales territories and
compensation systems.
Systems For Decision Support

Management information systems (MIS) provide routine reports and summaries of

transaction- level data to middle and operational-level managers to provide answers to
structured and semi structured decision problems. Decision-support systems (DSS) are
targeted systems that combine analytical models with operational data and supportive
interactive queries and analysis for middle managers who face semi structured decision
situations. Executive support systems (ESS) are specialized systems that provide senior
management making primarily unstructured decisions with a broad array of both external
information (news, stock analyses, industry trends) and high-level summaries of firm
performance. Group decision-support systems (GDSS) are specialized systems that provide a
group electronic environment in which managers and teams can collectively make decisions
and design solutions for unstructured and semi structured problems.

TABLE Organizational Level and Systems for Decision Support

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Stages In the Decision-Making Process

Making decisions consists of several different activities. Simon (1960) describes four
different stages in decision making: intelligence, design, choice, and implementation

Stages in decision making

The decision-making process can be described in four steps that follow one another in a
logical order. In reality, decision makers frequently circle back to reconsider the previous
stages and through a process of iteration eventually arrive at a solution that is workable.

Intelligence consists of discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in

the organization—why is there a problem, where, and what effects is it having on the firm.
Traditional MIS that deliver a wide variety of detailed information can help identify
problems, especially if the systems report exceptions.

Design involves identifying and exploring various solutions to the problem. Decision
support systems (DSS) are ideal in this stage for exploring alternatives because they possess

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analytical tools for modelling data, enabling users to explore various options quickly.

Choice consists of choosing among solution alternatives. Here, DSS with access
extensive firm data can help managers choose the optimal solution. Also group decision
support systems can be used to bring groups of managers together in an electronic online
environment to discuss different solutions and make a choice.

Implementation involves making the chosen alternative work and continuing to

monitor how well the solution is working. Here, traditional MIS come back into play by
providing managers with routine reports on the progress of a specific solution. Support
systems can range from full-blown MIS to much smaller systems, as well as project-planning
software operating on personal computers.

In the real world, the stages of decision making described here do not necessarily
follow a linear path. You can be in the process of implementing a decision, only to discover
that your solution is not working. In such cases, you will be forced to repeat the design,
choice, or perhaps even the intelligence stage.

For instance, in the face of declining sales, a sales management team may strongly
support a new sales incentive system to spur the sales force on to greater effort. If paying the
sales force, a higher commission for making more sales does not produce sales increases,
managers would need to investigate whether the problem stems from poor product design,
inadequate customer support, or a host of other causes, none of which would be “solved” by a
new incentive system.

Introduction to Strategy

The word “strategy” is derived from the Greek word “strat�gos”; stratus (meaning army)
and “ago” (meaning leading/moving).

Strategy is an action that managers take to attain one or more of the organization’s goals.
Strategy can also be defined as “A general direction set for the company and its various
components to achieve a desired state in the future. Strategy results from the detailed
strategic planning process”.

A strategy is all about integrating organizational activities and utilizing and allocating the
scarce resources within the organizational environment so as to meet the present objectives.

While planning a strategy it is essential to consider that decisions are not taken in a vacuum
and that any act taken by a firm is likely to be met by a reaction from those affected,
competitors, customers, employees or suppliers.

Strategy can also be defined as knowledge of the goals, the uncertainty of events and the need
to take into consideration the likely or actual behaviour of others.

Strategy is the blueprint of decisions in an organization that shows its objectives and goals,
reduces the key policies, and plans for achieving these goals, and defines the business the
company is to carry on, the type of economic and human organization it wants to be, and the
contribution it plans to make to its shareholders, customers and society at large.
Features of Strategy

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 1. Strategy is Significant because it is not possible to foresee the future. Without a
perfect foresight, the firms must be ready to deal with the uncertain events which
constitute the business environment.

2. Strategy deals with long term developments rather than routine operations, i.e., it
deals with probability of innovations or new products, new methods of productions, or
new markets to be developed in future.

3. Strategy is created to take into account the probable behaviour of customers and
competitors. Strategies dealing with employees will predict the employee behaviour.

4. Strategy is a well-defined roadmap of an organization. It defines the overall

mission, vision and direction of an organization. The objective of a strategy is to
maximize an organization’s strengths and to minimize the strengths of the
competitors.

5. Strategy, in short, bridges the gap between “where we are” and “where we want
to be”.

MIS roles

A management information system (MIS) plays an important role in business organizations.

What is MIS role: There are many roles of MIS and some of the important MIS role are
discussed below:

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 1. Decision making

Management Information System (MIS) plays a significant role in the decision-

making process of any organization. In any organization, a decision is made on the
basis of relevant information which can be retrieved from the MIS.

2. Coordination among the department

Management Information System satisfy multiple need of an organization across the

different functional department.

3. Finding out Problems

As we know that MIS provides relevant information about every aspect of activities.
Hence, if any mistake is made by the management, then MIS, information will help in
finding out the solution to that problem.

4. Comparison of Business Performance

MIS store all past data and information in its Database. That why the management
information system is very useful to compare business organization performance.

5. Strategies for an Organization

Today each business is running in a competitive market. An MIS supports the
organization to evolve appropriate strategies for the business to assent in a
competitive environment.

System Development Stages: SDLC – various phases

1. Area Selection and Problem Definition (Preliminary Investigation)

This is the first phase and consists of a brief survey of the area involved and will
result in taking the project into the next phase, postponing development for a period
or recommending that no further action be taken.

Sometimes, it is subdivided into a preliminary investigation (initial study) followed by

a more detailed feasibility study.

The phase is initiated by management, who perceive the need because of changes or
expected champs in the business environment, initiations or failure of existing
systems, or the awareness of technological advances relating to the particular area
involved in particular systems which competitors are developing.

2. Data Gathering:

Data gathering refers to the collection of information pertinent to systems project. To

get information, the analyst may read books or reports, go through records, collect
forms for later analysis, or interview people. Interviewing is an important skill for the
analyst who may interview managers, workers, sometimes even customers.

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Often, some of the most important information comes from the low-level employees (the
workers).

Sources of information:
Information is gathered from two principal sources. The sources are as follows:
1. From the organization’s environment.
2. Personnel or written documents from within the organization.

The primary external sources are:

1. Government documents
2. Vendors
3. Newspapers and professional journals.

The primary internal sources are:

1. Personnel staff
2. Financial reports
3. System documentation of manuals
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4. Reports and transaction documents
5. Professional staff (legal counsel, EDP (electronic data processing) auditor etc.
6. The user staff.

Hardware vendors are the source of information about the system and the software. There are
thousands of software packages on the market for saving the problem area and these
software’s are used after the reasonable modifications. The information of these packages is
already sold by the hardware vendors.

The second other external source of information is government documents, technical

newspapers and professional journals. They provide weekly information about new hardware,
hard ware installations, software developments etc.

Internal sources of information are limited to the user staff or user. User personnel are very
wide source of the information, is the key employees who have been in the user area for years

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and are familiar with present activities and applications, as later we collect the information
from the historical and sensitive documents.

In some cases, that is the only source available to the analyst. As information is collected, the
analyst will document the important aspects so it can be referred to later on. For this purpose,
he may use forms, charts or tables.

The principal methods of obtaining facts include:

(a) Observing activities which can be performed in a number of ways including visual and
photographic methods.
(b) Use of questionnaires or by inspection and examination.
(c) Interviewing personnel.

3. Creation of Alternatives:

Once, the analyst has a clear idea of the problems, he begins to create some possible
solutions. In actual practice, these solutions usually begin to form while the initial
research (data gathering) is going on. Then, after completing the research, the analyst
chooses the most promising alternatives and develops them.

In order to create sound alternatives, the analyst, must have a broad background, must
be familiar with the many different types of equipment that can be applied to the
problem, and must be familiar with the various types of procedures, that can be used.

From this background he can develop an alternative similar to one that some other
company or group is using or can create a special or unique solution to his company’s
problem.

It is important to realize that the solutions at this stage are not developed in detail. The
procedures developed here are not specific. Although a general logic flow is created
for each alternative, specific steps will be determined during the system design phase.

Unless the problem is quite limited, analysts should try to develop more than one
alternative. This will give them the freedom to explore imaginative solutions rather
than talking only the quick and obvious one. It will also give management a broader
perspective on the range of available solutions.

4. Feasibility Study:

Once the alternatives are finding out or designed, the analyst makes the feasibility
study. Making of feasibility study involves the following steps:

a) Formulating a statement about the objectives of the problems.

b) Analysis of existing system which includes data gathering, data presentation,
making list of files and records required, communication requirements,
preparation of flow charts and cost estimates.
c) Analysis of alternatives meeting similar requirements for each alternative
proposed.
d) Determining the main output requirements.

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 e) Study the effects on company operations.
f) Financial effect.
g) Summary of the intangible losses and benefits that would flow from the
adoption of the system.
h) A recommendation to proceed.

The data collection that occurs during preliminary investigation examines

system feasibility, the likelihood that the system will be beneficial to the
organization.
The four tests of feasibility are:
 Operational Test
 Economic Test
 Technical Test
 Political Test

5. Master Development Plan:

It is a sort of blue print of the system development effort. In a dynamic organisation,

there are more opportunities for computer processing applications that can be
handling at one time, necessitating an allocation process. Thus, master development
plan is required. It is a schedule of various applications to be computerized.

Such a plan consists of following four stages:

a) The objectives of the proposed systems’ development efforts are elicited by

the analyst.
b) Current capabilities of the organisation are appraised by the analyst. This
appraisal will cover the existing equipment, software applications and personal
expenses, facility utilization.
c) The analyst reviews the possible technological developments in the computer
hardware.
d) Finally, the analyst compiles the specific plan which comprises a hardware
and software schedule, application development schedule of software
maintenance and conversion efforts, personnel resources plan and financial
resources plan.

Master development plan basically is a schedule of various applications to be

computerized, i.e., it consists of start and finish dates of systems’ analysis, design,
implementation and maintenance activities. This schedule is to be supported by
Manpower, hardware and financial schedules.

6. Equipment Evaluation & Selection:

At this stage, the system department may contact equipment vendors for information
and prices concerning specific machines. When a systems’ proposal involves major
equipment purchases, this phase of the system development can be a major project in
itself

If the machines can be purchased, leased or rented at a price that stays within the
limits stated in the systems’ proposal, the project continues as proposed, Otherwise

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 the analyst may be forced to return to the feasibility and systems’ proposal phases
with the unexpected cost data.

A good analyst, however, will check prices and capabilities with several vendors
during the feasibility analysis to make sure that the cost projections are reasonable. He
will not only consider the cost at the time of the study but most likely price as well.

7. System Design & Development:

The design of an information system produces the details that state how a system will
meet the requirements identified during systems analysis. Often systems, specialists
refer to this stage as logical design, in contrast to developing program software, which
is referred to as physical design.

It is concerned with the computer-oriented design of the system—the detail of the

input transactions, the detail of the printed reports, screens and other outputs, the file
or database structure, the contents of records, the processing required and the
efficiency of the system from a computer processing point of view.

System analysts start by identifying reports and other outputs the system will produce.
Then the specific data on each is pin-pointed, including its exact location on the
paper, display screen or other medium. Usually, designers sketch the form or display
as they expect it to appear when the system is completed.

The system design also describes the data to be input, calculated or stored. Individual
data items and calculations procedures are written in detail. Designers select file
structures and storage devices, such as magnetic disk, magnetic tape, or even paper
files. The procedures they write tell how to process the data and produce the output.

The documents containing the design specifications use many different ways to
portray the design—charts, tables, and special symbols. The detailed design
information is passed on to the programming staff so that software development can
begin.

Designers are responsible for providing programmers with complete and clearly
outlined specifications that state what the software should do. As programming starts,
designers are available to answer questions, clarify fuzzy areas, and handle problems
that confront the programmers when using the design specifications.

A typical system specification will contain:

a) A description of controls which operate within the system. This includes

control over input and processing, restrictions on access (e.g., pass words) and
control on output (e.g., numbering of cheques).

b) A detailed development and implementation time table. This section should

list all of the tasks to be done, including individual programs, showing the
inter-relationship between each task and the planned start and completion data
for each task.

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 c) A back-up plan—This should describe the procedures to be developed for
taking security dumps of files for ensuring system resilience (e.g., duplexing)
and for running the system at an alternative site in the event of the computer
not being available.

d) An introduction covering the relevance of the document and how it has

evolved from the previous phases.

e) Detailed descriptions of inputs outputs and files, for example: documents

layouts (input), screen layouts, report layouts, file/records layouts, database
schemes.

f) A description of the system. This is usually an outline in a narrative form with

accompanying flow charts, procedure charts, data flow diagrams or data
models.

g) Processing required. This may in fact be handled by specifying generally what

each program in the system is expected to do and by backing up with
individual program specifications issued separately. Arrangements for testing
may also be described in this section.

h) Implementation considerations—arrangements for converting existing files,

checking parallel runs, production of user procedures and production of
computer related procedures.

The choice now lies between.

1. Abandoning the system
2. Continuing as planned
3. Shelving the system for a period
4. Modifying the aspirations for the system.

8. System Testing:

The objective of system testing is to ensure that all individual programs are working
as expected, that the programs link together to meet the requirements specified and to
ensure that the computer system and the associated clerical and other procedures work
together.
The initial phase of system testing is the responsibility of the analyst, who determines
what conditions are to be tested, generates test data, produces a schedule of expected
results, runs the tests and compares the computer-produced results with the expected
results.

The analyst may also be involved in procedures testing. When the analyst is satisfied
that the system is working properly, he hands it over to the users for testing. The
importance of system testing by the user must be stressed. Ultimately, it is the user
who must verify the system and give the go-ahead.

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 During testing, the system is used experimentally to ensure that the software does not
fail, i.e., that it will run according to its specifications and in the way, users expect it
to work. Special test data is input for processing (test plan) and the results are
examined to locate unexpected results. A limited number of users may also be
allowed to use the system, so analysts can see whether they try to use it in unexpected
ways.

It is preferable to find these surprises before the organization implements the system
and depends on it. In many organizations, testing is performed by persons other than
those who write the original programs, using persons who do not know how certain
parts were designed or programmed ensures more complete and unbiased testing and
more reliable software.

9. System Implementation:

As the system is tested it starts to move into the implementation phase. Ideally, the
system should be completed and fully tested before implementation gets under way
but unless a package is being installed this seldom happens. Normally, when happens
is that parts of the system which are required for file set up, are completed first and
this process gets under way.

Conversion programs may also have to be available which allow data from another
system to be used in setting up the files. Once this data is set up, it’s must be kept up-
to-date, and, thus, the first use is made of the new system. This may be followed by a
period of parallel running and then a decision is made to drop the old system.

As soon as the first phase of implementation—files set up-starts, all system

documentation should be available, viz. user manual procedure manuals, computer
operating instructions and security procedures.

The system then passes from the development staff to the computer operations
personnel and once the system is live, strict procedures should be enforced governing
programmer, access to programs and files. Procedures should be established to control
all requests for system and program changes, from the request by the user to the
implementation by the programmer.

Implementation involves placing the completed and tested system of hardware and
software into the actual work environment of the users. When systems personnel
check out and put new equipment into use, train user personnel, install the new
application, and construct any files of data needs to use it, we say it is implemented.
There are both technical and people-oriented activities during this stage. Examples of
technical activities include converting data files, replacing old programs with new
ones, and scheduling computer operations. Examples of people-oriented activities
include orientation, training and support.

10. System Review & Follow up:

The last phase of the development or implementation process is the review of the
system or ‘post audit’ as it is sometimes called. This is usually carried out by a group

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consisting of a representative from the user department, internal audit and data
processing. Its basic purpose is to see if the system has met the objectives set for it.

This will comprise a comparison of actual costs and benefits against the original
estimates, a review of how will the system is performing generally, a review of
requests for changes and an examination of documentation, control and security
procedures and back-up arrangements.

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