MIS Foundations
What does MIS stand for?
Management Information Systems.
What's a Primary Key?
unique identifier for each record.
What does QBE stand for?
Query by Example.
Which system handles daily transactions?
TPS (Transactional Processing Systems)
What type of system is ERPSim demonstrating?
ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning).
Name three of the five MIS components.
Hardware, Software, Data, People, Processes.
What's a Foreign Key?
field that links one table to another.
What symbol means “greater than”?
>
Which system helps managers analyze data?
DSS (Decision Support System)
When a sale is made, which areas of the system update?
Inventory, accounting, and sales modules update automatically.
Explain the difference between data and information.
Data = raw facts (e.g., 200 units sold).
Information = processed data with meaning (e.g., Sales increased 10%).
Give me an example of a 1 to Many Relationship.
One instructor teaches many courses.
Which function calculates an average?
AVG()
Match this to a decision level:
“Adjusting next month’s budget.
Tactical (middle management)
Operational (lower level management)
Strategic (upper level management)
Why is inventory management critical to profitability in ERPSim?
Overstock increases holding costs; understock causes lost sales.
Why are “people” considered an MIS component?
Because systems only create value when users interpret data, make decisions, and follow processes. Technology alone does not generate insight.
Why can’t students and courses be stored in one single table?
Because it creates redundancy and duplication. One student can enroll in many courses, and each course has many students. This violates normalization principles.
Why do we join tables in a query?
To retrieve related data stored across multiple tables using PK-FK relationships.
Give an example of a strategic decision supported by an ESS.
Example: Expanding into a new market, acquiring a competitor, setting 5-year pricing strategy (supported by ESS).
How does ERPSim demonstrate cross-functional integration?
Sales decisions affect production, procurement, and accounting automatically.
Give an example of how one of the five MIS components work together in a retail company.
Hardware: Cloud servers
Software: ERP system
Data: Sales transactions
People: Store managers
Processes: Order-to-Cash workflow
Integration allows managers to monitor sales, restock inventory, and make pricing decisions.
Explain why a many-to-many relationship requires a bridge table.
Relational databases cannot directly implement many-to-many relationships. A bridge table resolves this by breaking it into two 1:M relationships and maintaining referential integrity while preventing duplication.
If you want to find total sales by state, what steps must you take logically?
Join Orders and Customers tables
Group data by State
Use SUM(TotalAmount)
Display grouped results
A manager uses a dashboard to adjust pricing after analyzing trends. Which systems is this and why?
Primarily MIS (reporting) and possibly DSS if predictive analytics are involved. It supports tactical decision-making using summarized and analyzed data.
What does ERPSim teach about data-driven leadership?
Decisions must be based on integrated, real-time data.