Strategic Planning for MIS

Strategic information systems planning (SISP) has been defined as the process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications that will assist an organization in executing its business plans and realizing its business goals. SISP is an important activity for helping information executives and top management identify strategic applications and align IT with business needs.

The literature of management information systems (MIS) concentrates largely on the nature and structure of MIS’s and on the processes for designing and developing such systems. The idea of planning for MIS is usually treated as either one of developing the need and general design concept for such a system, or in the context of project planning for the MIS development effort.

However, strategic planning for informational needs of the organization is both feasible and necessary if the MIS is to support the basic purposes and goals of the organization. Indeed, one of the possible explanation for the failure of many MIS’s is that they have been designed from the same “bottom up” point of the view that characterized the development of the data processing systems of an earlier era. Such design approaches primarily reflects the pursuit of efficiency, such as through cost savings, rather that the pursuit of greater organizational effectiveness.

The Modern view of an MIS is an organizational decision support system that is inconsistent with the design/development approaches which are appropriate for data processing. The organization’s operating efficiency is but one aspect for consideration in management decision making. The achievement of greater organizational effectiveness is the paramount consideration in most of the management decisions which the MIS is to support; it also must be the paramount importance in the design of the MIS.

There is an intrinsic linkage of the decision supporting MIS to the organization's purpose, objectives and strategy. While this conclusion may appear to be straightforward, it has not been operationalized as a part of MIS Design methodology. There are those who argue that the MIS designer cannot hope to get involved in such things as organizational missions, objectives, and strategies, since they are clearly beyond his domain of authority.

In short planning for the information systems in an organization generally has not been closely related to the overall strategic planning processes through which the organization prepares for its future. An MIS strategic planning process is conceptualized and illustrated as one which links the organization's “strategy set” to an MIS “strategy set”.