MIS 101 Exam 1

What is MIS?

Management Information Systems; the management and use of information systems that help organizations achieve their strategies.

What are the 5 components of an Information System?

Hardware, software, data, procedures, people

Automation moves work from human to computer side

How is IT different from IS?

Information systems is a assembly of hardware, software, data, procedures, and people that produce information. IT refers to products, methods, inventions and standards

What is information?

knowledge derived from data; meaningful contest; processed data

What do employers want?

Self starter, team worker

How will MIS affect me?

Technological change is accelerating; Bell's Law

How can I attain job security?

Having a marketable skill and the courage to use it.`

What skills will be marketable during your career?

Strong non-routine cognitive skills

Why is into to MIS the most important class?

Technology fundamentally changing business.
Information age and digital revolution

What is disruptive innovation?

a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors

Which Technology Laws shape the adoption of technology?

Metcalfes Law

How the Information Age looks in 2026?

Most computers won't look like computers
Smartphones will have more features

What makes a good password?

10+ Chareacters, does not use name, username, company name
Does not contain dictionary word
Different from previous passwords

What is collaboration? What are its 2 key characteristics?

- People working together to achieve a common goal.
- Feedback and iteration

Why feedback is important in collaboration?

Members learn from each other

What are the most important characteristics of an effective collaborator?

- Speaks his or her mind even if its an unpopular viewpoint
- is willing to enter into difficult conversations
- Is skillful in giving/receiving negative feedback
- is willing to put forward unpopular ideas
- Thinks differently than I do/brings different perspectives

How can you provide effective feedback?

it is also important for team members to have different ideas and opinions and to express them to each other.

What are the 3 criteria for successful collaboration?

- Successful outcome
- Improve team capability over time
- Meaningful and satisfying experience

What are the 4 primary purposes of collaboration?

1. become informed
2. make decisions
3. solve problems
4. manage projects

How does problem structure relate to collaboration?

Operational needs the most structured collaboration
Strategic needs the most unstructured

How do we solve problems?

- Define the problem
- Identify alternatives
- Specify evaluation criteria
- Evaluate alternatives
- Select an alternative
- Implement solution

How do we manage projects?

- Starting
- Planning
- Doing
- Finalizing

How can you use collaboration tools to improve team communication?

Synchronous - At the same time, such as shared whiteboards or conference calls
Asynchronous - single or multiple locations. Email or forums

What is a virtual meeting?

Skype, screen-sharing applications, webinars, videoconferencing

How can you use collaboration tools to manage shared content?

Office Documents, Microsoft office, google docs, google drive

Which collaboration Information System is right for your team?

Minimal - Email, text chat
Good - Google hangouts, drive, calender
Comprehensive - Skype, sharepoint

Information systems in 2026?

Collaboration systems cheaper, easier to use, run on portable devices
Face-to-face meetings are rare
Employees work at home more
Less business travel

Ethics Guide: Imperative categorical

One should behave only in a way that one would want the behavior to be a universal law.

What forces determine the industry structure?

1. Bargaining power of customers
2. Threat of substitutions
3. Bargaining power of suppliers
4. Threat of new entrants
5. Rivalry

How does analysis of industry structure determine competitive strategy?

It looks at the focus, industry-wide, cost and differentiation

How does competitive strategy determine value chain structure?

- Each competitive strategy is different on the costs of each chain structure.
- Each stage in the chain accumulates costs and adds value to the product a network of value creating activities they need to organize the structure organization to implement the strategy then the activities need to be developed to provide a sensual functions at the lowest possible cost

How do business processes generate value

A business process is a network of activities that generate value by transforming inputs into outputs.

How does competitive strategy determine business processes and the structure of information systems?

Each of the value-generating activities are different depending on the type of strategy.

IE- low cost rental would be less informative vs high cost rental

How does organizational strategy determine information systems structure?

organizations examine the structure of their industry and determine a competitive strategy. That strategy determines value chains, which, in turn, determine business processes. The structure of business processes determines the design of supporting information systems.

How do information systems provide competitive advantage?

- Information systems create competitive advantages either as part of a product or by providing support to a product.
- creating entry barriers that make it difficult and expensive for new competition to enter the market.
- stablish alliances with other organizations.
- Reduce costs

Strategy and Information Systems in 2026

Unlikely to change in the next 10 years, may evolve, with new models being extensions of existing models.

What is your competitive advantage?

As an employee, skills and abilities you offer are your personal product.

Computer hardware

consists of electronic components and related gadgetry that input, process, output, and store data according to instructions encoded in computer programs or software

central processing unit (CPU)

- Brain of the computer that performs instructions defined by software.
- The CPU works in conjunction with main memory.

RAM

Main memory, random access memory

storage hardware

used to save data and programs.

Hard disks are most common, SSDs are much faster, but more expensive

server

computer that is designed to support processing requests from many remote computers and users.
A pc on steroids

- Servers take requests from clients and then bring them things.

In computing environments servers can send Web pages, email, files, or data to PCs. PCs, tablets, and smart- phones that access servers are called

clients

Binary digits

Also called bits. Either zero or one. Used to represent computer data.

volatile

Cache and main memory

nonvolatile

magnetic and optical disks

How Can New Hardware Affect Competitive Strategies?

Everyday objects are being embedded with hardware capable of sensing, processing, and transmitting data

Internet of Things (IoT)

The idea that objects are becoming connected to the Internet so they can interact with other devices, applications, or services.

3D Printing

will not only change the competitive landscape, but it may change the nature of businesses themselves.

operating system (OS)

- a program that controls that computer's resources.
- read and write data, allocate main memory, perform memory swapping, start and stop programs, respond to error conditions, and facilitate backup and recovery.

Native applications

programs that are written to use a particular operating system. Thick-client applications

Ex- microsoft access

Web application

a Web Site that allows users to access and interact with software from any computer or device that is connected to the internet. Also known as thin-client application

Virtualization

- Creates multiple "virtual" machines on a single computing device.
- The host operating system runs one or more operating systems as applications.
- Hosted operating systems are called virtual machines

license

When you buy a computer program, you are not actually buying that program.

Ex - Mac OS

Application software

performs a service or function

Horizontal-market application

software provides capabilities common across all organizations and industries
Ex- Microsoft word, excel, and powerpoint

Vertical-market application

software serves the needs of a specific industry.
Ex - Programs used by dental offices to schedule appointments

One-of-a-kind application

software is developed for a specific, unique need.

Ex- US department of defense has a specific software

Firmware

installed into special, read-only memory of the printer or other device. In this way, the program becomes part of the device's memory; it is as if the program's logic is designed into the device's circuitry.

Is open source software a viable alternative?

In some cases, companies choose open source software because it is "free." It turns out that this advantage may be less important than you'd think because in many cases support and operational costs swamp the initial licensing fee.

What are the differences between native and Web applications?

- Native applications are ran only one operating systems. Uses C++ and Java. object-oriented
-Web applications are ran on web browsers and uses html5, javascript, css3. Scripting language

object-oriented

when referring to languages, ones that can be used to create difficult, complex applications, and, if used properly, will result in high-performance code that is easy to alter when requirements change

Why are mobile systems increasingly important?

The major reason for the importance of mobile systems is the size of their market.

Mobile systems

information systems that support users in motion

What are the challenges of personal mobile devices at work?

- increased vulnerability and loss of control
- risk of infection, compatibility problems, data loss or damage, greater support costs

Hardware, software, and apps in 2026

Internet of things will be more advanced, allowing us to connect with more devices.

What is the purpose of a database?

to keep track of things

What is a database?

a self-describing collection of integrated records

What is a database management system (DBMS)?

a software program used to create, process, and administer a database

Ex - Microsoft SQL & Access, DB2 from IBM, and Oracle database; MySQL

How do database applications make databases more useful?

The data in database tables can be made more useful, or more available for the conception of information.

They reformat database table data to make it more informative and more easily updated.

How is a data model transformed into a database design?

The database design team transforms entities into tables and expresses relationships by defining foreign keys.

Databases in 2026

- Volume of database continues to grow
- Cheap, unlimited storage, greater processing speeds
- Security becomes more inimportat
- Many NoSQL, NewSQL, and in-memory databases exist in commerce.

Byte

character of data

Fields

also called columns; groups of bytes in a database table; a database table has multiple columns that are used to represent the attributes of an entity

record

A collection of fields that appear as a row in a database or table.

Table

A group of similar rows or records

Primary key

a column or group of columns that identifies a unique row in a table

Foreign Key

A primary key of one table that appears as an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationship between the two tables

relational database

databases that carry their data in the form of tables and that represent relationships using foreign keys

Metadata

data that describes data

Database application

a collection of forms, reports, queries, and application programs that serves as an intermediary between users and database data.

graphical queries

query criteria are created when the user clicks on a graphic

lost-update problem

A problem that exists in database applications in which two users update the same data item, but only one of those changes is recorded in the data. Can be resolved using locking.

How are data models used for database development?

Database development process starts with interviewing users to identify database requirements. Requirements are summarized in a data model. Validated data model is transformed into a database design, which is implemented into database structures.

Data model

logical representation of database data

entity-relationship (E-R) data model

a tool for constructing data models that defines the entities stored in a database and the relationships among those entities

Entity

something that users want to track
Ex- Order, customer, salesperson

Attributes

Characteristics of the entity

Identifier

an attribute (or group of attributes) whose value is associated with one and only one entity instance
Ex - Ordernumber is an identifier of Order

Crow's feet

Lines on an entity-relationship diagram that indicate a 1:N relationship between two entities

many-to-many relationship

In databases, a relationship in which one record in Table A can relate to many matching records in Table B, and vice versa. N:M

Maximum cardinality

the maximum number of entities that can be involved in a relationship

Minimum Cardinality

The minimum number of instances of one entity that may be associated with each instance of another entity.

Database design

the process of converting a data model into tables, relationships, and data constraints

Normalization

the process of converting a poorly structured table into two or more well-structured tables

Theft by SQL Injection
(2 Things)

Common way of stealing data from corporations.

Done by people outside of host nation to avoid prosecution

All of the following are components of an information system except:

Culture

Which of the following is a major implication of Moore's Law?

Costs of communications and storage have become very low.

___________________ functions as a bridge between the human side of the information system components and the computer/automation side.

data

Binary digits

Also called bits. Either zero or one. Used to represent computer data.