Level 3 Diploma in Management Information Systems

Level 3 Diploma in Management Information Systems

Course Synopsis
This Quality Assured Level 3 Diploma course will facilitate those students wishing to obtain a greater understanding of the technology that supports business and executive management. It considers the vital "lifeblood" of the organisation - Information - how this is generated, how it is retained, maintaining data integrity, manipulation of information to produce management reporting information and statistics. The important aspect of decision support and how computer technology is utilized for analysing and interpreting information.

Management Information Systems is a general name for the academic discipline covering the application of information technology to business problems. As an area of study it is also referred to as information technology management. The study of information systems is usually a commerce and business administration discipline, and frequently involves software engineering, but also distinguishes itself by concentrating on the integration of computer systems with the aims of the organization.

The area of study should not be confused with computer science which is more theoretical in nature and deals mainly with software creation, or computer engineering, which focuses more on the design of computer hardware. IT service management is a practitioner-focused discipline centering on the same general domain. In business, information systems support business processes and operations, decision-making, and competitive strategies.

The course concludes with an online examination.

Module One - Introduction to Management Information Systems
The foundation course for the diploma that defines MIS and its' practical application within a business setting. It will look at the different types of information that an organization utilizes, how this information is gathered, how the information is processed and the demands that Executives place upon referential data integrity for Executive decision making.

Module Two - Decision Support Systems
Decision support systems are a class of computerized information systems or knowledge based systems that support decision making activities. This unit will explore the types of decision support systems, how they are are utilized in the context of MIS and case studies illustrating practical application of same.

Module Three - The Use of Expert Systems
An AI application that uses a knowledge base of human expertise for problem solving. Its success is based on the quality of the data and rules obtained from the human expert. In practice, expert systems perform both below and above that of a human.

It derives its answers by running the knowledge base through an inference engine, which is software that interacts with the user and processes the results from the rules and data in the knowledge base.

Examples of uses are medical diagnosis, equipment repair, investment analysis, financial, estate and insurance planning, vehicle routing, contract bidding, production control and training.

This unit explores the history and development of Expert Systems and places this in the context of MIS. It considers how this science will evolve.

Module Four - Processing Information
Examines how information is processed within an organization. Although computing science plays an important part in this the unit will explore techniques of Workflow, Business Process Re-Engineering, Architecture of systems and the output of information into a meaningful form

Module Five - Recording and Storing of Business Data
A database management system (DBMS) is a computer program (or more typically, a suite of them) designed to manage a database, a large set of structured data, and run operations on the data requested by numerous users. Typical examples of DBMS use include accounting, human resources and customer support systems. Originally found only in large companies with the computer hardware needed to support large data sets, DBMSs have more recently emerged as a fairly standard part of any company back office.

A Data warehouse is a computer database that collects, integrates and stores an organization's computer data with the aim of producing accurate and timely management information and supporting data analysis. These concepts are explored in the context of Management Information Systems

Module Six - Report Writing & Producing Executive Information Systems
This section focuses upon the production of Executive / Management report writing requirements. It considers the different types of management information required and how raw data is converted into meaningful management reports and statistics. The unit will examine varying approaches, the use of software support systems, report programme generators, statistics and management information systems.

Module Seven - Performance Monitoring
Business performance management (BPM) is a set of processes that help organizations optimize business performance. BPM is seen as the next generation of business intelligence (BI). BPM is focused on business processes such as planning and forecasting. It helps businesses discover efficient use of their business units, financial, human, and material resources.

This unit examines aspects of Business Intelligence, Planning, Forecasting, Workflow Analysis, process improvement techniques.

Module Eight - Database Management
A database management system (DBMS) is a computer program (or more typically, a suite of them) designed to manage a database (a large set of structured data), and run operations on the data requested by numerous clients. Typical examples of DBMS use include accounting, human resources and customer support systems. Originally found only in large organizations with the computer hardware needed to support large data sets, DBMSs have more recently emerged as a fairly standard part of any company back office.

DBMS's are found at the heart of most database applications. Sometimes DBMSs are built around a private multitasking kernel with built-in networking support although nowadays these functions are left to the operating system. This unit looks at the different types of database management systems, how they are established, how they are utilized, how data is stored and managed, the concept of data warehouses and data structure.

Module Nine - Object Oriented Analysis and Design
Object-oriented analysis and design applies object modeling techniques to analyze the requirements for a context (e.g., a system, system modules, organization, or business unit), and to design a solution. Most modern object-oriented analysis and design methodologies are use case driven across requirements, design, implementation, testing, and deployment. Object-oriented analysis builds a model of a system that is composed of objects. The behaviour of the system is achieved through collaboration between these objects, and the state of the system is the combined state of all the objects in it. Collaboration between objects involves them sending messages to each other. The exact semantics of message sends between objects varies depending on what kind of system is being modelled. In some systems, "sending a message" is the same as "invoking a method". In other systems, "sending a message" is like sending some data via a socket.

Key aspects of an object-oriented analysis model are basically the same as in object-oriented programming, but an analysis model is not limited to software systems. Any system can be modelled as a system of collaborating objects. The results of object-oriented analysis are concepts and relationships between concepts, often expressed as a conceptual model.

Module Ten - Information Security Management
An information security management system (ISMS) is, as the name suggests, a system of management concerned with information security. The idiom arises primarily out of ISO/IEC 17799, a code of practice for information security management published by the International Organization for Standardization in 2000. ISO 17799 will be revised and re-issued in 2005.