Pitfalls in MIS Development

       Following are the pitfalls of the MIS development :

     (A) Fundamental Weaknesses : Following are the fundamental weaknesses of the MIS development :

           (a) No Management System to Build Upon : The MIS must be built on top of a management system that includes the organizational arrangements, the structure and procedures for adequate planning and control, the clear establishment of objectives, and all the other manifestations of good organization and management. The lack managerial and operational application is serious because it implies that the process not being performed well. if we can say that the information is the raw material of decision making , and if information is not generated, disseminated and used for management, then no system-manual or computer-is going to solve the problem.

             (b) What business are we in? : Not having the crispy stated mission and purpose for the company is a common weakness. Since if it is not terrible clear what business we are in, each major challenge the company must face is a completely new challenge and must be analyzed from the ground up. If there was a mission statement,some of these problem could be dealt with routinely as opposed to their being major crises.         

             (c) Company Objectives : written objective are also often missing in the company. A firm without objectives is much like a company without a statement of mission and purpose.

        An effective MIS requires continuous,  consistent, long-range planning with involvement and commitment from the management as an institutionalized planning process involving everybody concerned. There is a need for an information steering committee and it may take more than one iteration to establish the process firmly. It has to undergo an application development cycle consisting of analysis, synthesis and implementation phases. Systems feasibility (consisting  of technical, economic and operational feasibility) is a most important starting point of MIS development. In other words, the development process should take into account the rationale, definition and characteristics, economics, design, specification; schedule, implementation plan, implementation status and review. Some of the usual pitfalls and problems in developing and running effective Information System are mentioned below along  with -some  ways of  increasing effectiveness: 

1.      Emphasis on Clerical System: Just taking over an existing clerical system and modifying it without upgrading or changing it does not help. The clerical system has to be upgraded to a management system. On the other hand, computers have been put to work on those things that are best understood and easily structured and which require little management involvement. 

2.  Communication gap between Computer Technologist and Manager/ User: Ensuring maximum cooperation and coordination between computer personnel and managers is necessary. A greater degree of interaction and involvement between the systems function and themanagement function  is required. 

3.      Lack of a Master Plan: A systematic long range plan/planned approach is necessary for establishing an effective  Management Information System. Increased focus on the area of problems definition is required in the  systems analysis. The dramatic changes in business strategy together with changes in the top management personnel  and organisation structure call for a through plan.

4.      Subordination of MIS Function to EDP Accounting System: Management Information System's function should be made an independent function so that it reports directly to top   management.  

5.      Lack of Managerial Participation: This involvement and support of top management  as well as participation of  all managers in the design of their own management information system are necessary. If top management tends to depend upon its informally designed private information systems, development of structured, formalised and a public management information systems becomes difficult. Many top managers wrongly feel that good strategic decisions are  made more by intuition than by a quantitative analysis of the available data.

6.      Overlooking Human Acceptance: Users of Management Information System should be involved right at the early stages of design. Their cooperation by demonstrating how  Management Information System will positively affect their job is a must. 

7.      Lack of Resources and Trained Personnel: Lack of trained personnel consisting of system analysts, system designers, programmers and chief information officers who are business trained and/or have a basic business prospective is a  handicap.  

8.      Voluminous and Unstructured Nature of Data: Sometimes the volume of data itself can be a hurdle unless careful sifting is done. On the other hand, it may also be difficult to locate and retrieve relevant data.Often, the data required by top management is unstructured, non- programmed, future oriented. inexact and external and hence difficult to  capture.

9.      Limited Use of Management Science and or Techniques: Some of the ways of increasing the effective of Management Information System include motivating managers to participate and get involved in Management Information System, establishing consistent performance and work criteria for Management Information System, maintaining simplicity and ease of use, training systems analysts and careful consideration of basic computer feasibility criteria like volume and repetitive nature of transactions, degree of mathematical processing, quick  turnaround time, accuracy and validity of data, common source documents and well understood processing logic. 

10.  Enormous Time, Effort and Resources Required: MIS budget includes data processing costs, hardware costs, personnel  costs, supplies, services, etc.