If you are reading this, chances are you just found out you have to take an Intro to MIS course as part of your business degree and have no idea what MIS is. After doing a Google search to find out, you somehow landed here. If so, welcome! This post will give you a 30,000ft overview of what MIS is. Check out the rest of the site to get more specific tutorials on different MIS-related topics.
General Definition
MIS stands for Management Information Systems. It is a field of study related to the management of information systems (duh). Information systems are computer systems used to enable businesses and organizations to make better decisions and run more efficiently. Information systems include not only the computer hardware, software, and data in these systems, but also the people who use them and the set rules, or procedures, the people follow when using them. At the end of the day, MIS is a management field.
Academic Study
MIS Degree
If you decide to pursue a degree in MIS, you can expect to learn about the following things:
- Programming Languages
- Databases
- Hardware
- Software
- Web Development
- Mobile Development
- Project Management
- Information Security
- Cyber Security
- Concept Modeling
- Artificial Intelligence
- Data Mining
- Machine Learning
- And Much More…
One of the most appealing aspects of studying MIS is that there are so many different paths you can take. No need to worry though, you will not be expected to become an expert on all of these topics. You will, however, build foundational knowledge that will allow you to pursue any of these topics that you want to. Many people obtain an MIS degree and get a job and never write a line of code again. Others become great programmers and make a career of it.
The Difference Between Computer Science and MIS
Many universities offer degrees in MIS. The general sales pitch for MIS is you will learn to use technology to solve business problems. As such, the university’s business school usually offers the degree. This is in contrast to a degree in Computer Science (CS), which is much less business-oriented and generally offered by a different school within the university. While there are many overlapping topics between these two degrees, you can generally expect computer science degrees to focus much more intensively on the nitty-gritty aspects of computer programming.
It may be a flawed analogy, but you can compare the two degrees to that of a machinist who makes tools (CS) and a carpenter who uses the tools to build something (MIS). Carpenters must be familiar with the tools they use, but their primary concern is to use the tools to create new things. The machinist, however, is always looking for ways to improve the tools and come up with new tools that others can use.
TLDR;
MIS has to do with computers and stuff.