C.T. Bauer College of Business > Department of Decision and Information Sciences > Management Information Systems, B.B.A.
The demand for MIS skills has seen a tremendous resurgence in the past few years. Forecasts are extremely strong with MIS skill sets dominating the top job roles expected to grow in the future. While the MIS careers are expected to expand at an accelerated rate, the mix of skill requirements has changed considerably. With the explosive growth of technology accompanying the usage of the Internet in the late 1990s, the role of application development (programming) dominated the MIS field. Since then, outsourcing has moved many of the low level programming jobs overseas. However, the increased need for higher level technology jobs has become prevalent. Now, the web, communication and database technologies are maturing and their usage has begun to extend throughout every area of business practices. These new information technologies are being employed in expansive and creative ways. The result is that the need for MIS professionals has increased – but in a different way than decades past. MIS is now a "people skill" rather than a purely "technical skill". Our MIS program now trains "business analysts" rather than "programmers."
The "business analyst" (or "systems analyst" or "consultant") position has become critical in order to make information technology available to more users and solve more business problems. This requires skills in identifying user and consumer problems and translating these needs into technology solutions. The analyst provides this critical connection. This role is not subject to outsourcing because the analyst must be embedded in the organization in order to understand the business user and their needs and be able to design and implement the solution within the confines of the organization's technology infrastructure. After the entry-level analyst role, most MIS professionals become "project managers" (or "senior consultants") where they assume the responsibility for an entire technology project's: planning; staffing; budgeting; implementation scheduling; training and operational maintenance. After this project management level, the MIS professional will transition into senior technology management roles that involve: technology planning and strategy; technology architectures and infrastructures; corporate wide technology staffing; and the management of various critical technology centers. Finally, at the "C" level, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) represents the pinnacle technology role within most corporate environments.