An MIS framework for analyzing the organizational impact of management information systems projects

Abstract

The U.S. Navy's Shipboard Non-tactical ADP Program (SNAP II) is a proposed shipboard management information system (MIS). By first building a basic MIS framework using a simple organizational information system model and developing certain general measures of an MIS project's impact, the SNAP II project is analyzed. The framework allows the investigation of MIS impact at specific organizational levels. The effect of unevenly distributed impact at specific levels can be significant with regard to the overall value of the MIS. This impact might not be anticipated by analysis of the MIS project through the use of total organizational impact alone. The analysis of the SNAP II project reveals two areas of concern. First, the SNAP II system is not a true independent shipboard MIS. Second, there are potentially detrimental undisplaced impacts, focused at the lower levels of the shipboard organization, which may result from implementation of SNAP II.