McCombs School of Business
Department of IROM
IROM : What is MIS?

Management Information Systems

  1. What is MIS?
  2. What do MIS majors do?
  3. What MIS career opportunities are available?
  4. Will there be a job for me when I graduate?
  5. Sample list of companies hiring MIS majors at the FCC
  6. How do MIS majors progress in their career?
  1. What is MIS?

MIS is the design and management of IT (Information Technology) for an organization. It focuses on the best way to enable the organization to meet its goals and business challenges. MIS students first learn the current business processes and then analyze how to improve the processes using IT. The purpose of MIS is to analyze, design, develop, and implement information technology strategy to solve business problems.

The UT MIS BBA mission is to develop leaders who leverage information technology for strategic business value.

  1. What do MIS majors do?

There is a broad spectrum of excellent opportunities for MIS majors. All businesses need individuals who understand information technology and how to use it to solve business problems for competitive advantage. The strength of an MIS major lies in his/her ability to work with managers and users in an organization to develop, implement, and manage the information technology infrastructure. Also, their role is to establish the organization's technical strategy and planning. MIS majors develop excellent communication, leadership, and project management abilities.

There is a wide range of jobs available to MIS graduates. For example, there are positions in medical records and paperless systems, website design and development, consulting, security risk assessment, internet marketing, Sarbanes-Oxley audit control, business analysis, customer relationship management consulting, eCommerce, legal forensics, enterprise resource planning, and/or supply chain management. UT MIS students are prepared for all of these activities in the MIS BBA curriculum, because they learn more than just specific skills – they learn business concepts.

  1. What MIS career opportunities are available?

The demand for MIS graduates is increasing faster than the general demand for other fields of study. Because of the great variety of MIS application areas and technical specialties, numerous career choices are available. These choices for a MIS major vary from the complex technical developer positions to the project manager and include:

BUSINESS OR SYSTEMS ANALYST
Business/systems analysts examine a business activity to help decide how new IT solutions will improve efficiency and effectiveness in decision-making. They also analyze how users can interact better with the system.

Using a variety of tools, analysts determine the systems requirements and calculate a return on investment for a new IT system that developers will build. They specify the data and logical operations the system will perform, and the reports for the decision makers.

They may do data mining to assess and make decisions on the best business alternative. They may do investigative legal forensics. Additionally, they may be involved in overseeing IT project implementation.

See job descriptions of alums (use your browsers back button to return to this page).
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/andreas_kyle.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/so_tina.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/keney_tom.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/beamer_tina.asp

IT CONSULTANT
An IT consultant gives independent recommendations on how best to use IT to solve business problems. A consultant's work focuses on the people, processes, and technology needed to improve business efficiency and effectiveness. They can also be responsible for user training and for feedback.

See job descriptions of alums (use your browsers back button to return to this page).
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/townes_jeff.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/davis_elizabeth.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/broeckelmann_dave.asp

APPLICATION OR SYSTEM DEVELOPER
An applications developer writes or modifies programs for a variety of technical, commercial, and business users.
The role involves taking requirements, usually in written or diagrammatic form from the analysts, and translating them into computer code. Applications developers (also known as applications programmers) may also offer technical support to end users.

See job descriptions of alums (use your browsers back button to return to this page).
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/rutan_ryan.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/oshman_elliot.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/mankle_chris.asp

PROJECT MANAGER
Project managers allocate resources to teams and are responsible for meeting the schedule and budget of IT project implementations. They drive the team work schedules and deadlines.

See job descriptions of alums (use your browsers back button to return to this page).
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/wang_jerry.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/kwok_rose.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/lo_cindy.asp

SECURITY ANALYST
Security analysts make sure that the application meets enterprise security requirements. This may involve network, code and data analysis to ensure the security of the whole system and infrastructure. For example, security experts work to prevent viruses, identity theft, and data theft.

See job descriptions of alums (use your browsers back button to return to this page). http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/cheng_maxine.asp

QUALITY ASSURANCE
Testers are responsible for testing the system. They may be involved in working with a development team to write test cases, monitor performance, reliability, and error handling.

eBUSINESS ENTREPRENURE
eBusiness entrepreneurs start their own internet businesses. They have the skills to balance many activities at once – managing employees, developing and implementing a solid business plan, understanding technical risk, overseeing web development, preparing financial analysis and marketing their product. The MIS degree is an excellent path for those with entrepreneurial interests.

See job descriptions of alums (use your browsers back button to return to this page). http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/mcmillan_erik.asp
http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/profiles/alumni/sweeneys1.asp

  1. Will there be a job for me when I graduate?

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook at the Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos287.htm MIS job growth is much higher than for other professions. 600,000 new jobs are expected to be added by 2012.

MIS offers the most flexibility in employment options and there is rapid advancement potential. The future is bright for IT professionals in both entry and higher-level positions. See the Ford Career Center at http://fcc.mccombs.utexas.edu/employers/bba05_salaries.asp for current UT MIS BBA starting salary surveys.

  1. Sample list of companies hiring MIS majors at the FCC:
  • Accenture
  • Cerner Corporation
  • Citigroup
  • Credera
  • Dell
  • Deloitte Consulting
  • Ernst & Young
  • ExxonMobile
  • Fedex Kinkos
  • Goldman, Sachs & Company
  • IBM
  • KPMG
  • Kimberley Clarke
  • Microsoft
  • National Instruments
  • Pariveda Solutions
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers
  • Progressive Insurance
  • Proctor & Gamble
  • Shell Petroleum
  • USAA
  1. How do MIS majors progress in their career?

There are two typical career paths for MIS majors.

The first path is the management path with the MIS professional entering the organization as a business or systems analyst, progressing into technical management and, after significant management experience, potentially into Chief Information Officer (CIO). The primary duties of a CIO are strategic business planning, acquisition assessment, asset management, e-business, capital planning and investment, and business process and change management decision making.

The second path is the technical path with the MIS professional entering the organization as a developer, progressing to senior developer and, after significant technical and management experience, into Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The primary duties of a CTO are overall architecture and technical standards creation, systems engineering (the overall design structure of applications), network security, test and evaluation, and data management.

In summary, the CIO is the business executive designated with executing the technology initiatives in support of the enterprise mission. A CIO must be a leader for positive change, effective at communicating, and a persuasive negotiator. The CTO is responsible for creating the appropriate technology plans to support the policies and plans of the CIO. Both roles are essential to a company’s successful competitive business strategy implementation.