Evaluating MIS Design Principles

MIS design approaches call for managers to specify their information needs to be used as requirements in the design process. To explore the merits of th is practice, managers from organizations across the United States were interviewed. The managers were asked to indicate their preference for personal, interactive, report, and analytic types of information for various stages of decision making and decision familiarity. These preferences were assessed to determine of they were influenced by managers’ personal characteristics (such as psychological makeup and experience), by the decision task, or both. Analysis found that preferences were not influenced by manager characteristics but were influenced by the decision task. The managers demonstrated an understanding of information uses consistent with the decision support literature, providing support for user specification of MIS information requirements.