Development of Information Systems

An information system (IS) is a mechanism that helps people collect, store, organize, and use information. An information system includes a means of storing information, a set of procedures for handling information, and rules that govern the delivery of information to people in an organization. Traditionally, information systems were manual. One popular type of manual information system is the card-based system, such as a card catalog in a library. Because there are so many types of information and uses for it many kinds of information systems have been developed: office automation systems, transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision support systems, expert systems. Office automation systems automate routine office tasks, such as word processing, accounting, document management or communications.

Transaction processing systems not only track and store information about individual events but also provide information that is useful in running an organization, such as inventory status, billing, and so on. Management information systems produce reports for different types of managers. Decision support systems is a specialized application used to collect and

report certain types of business data which can aid managers in the decision-making process. Expert systems include the knowledge of human experts in a particular area (such as medicine or technology) in a knowledge base. They analyze requests from users and assist the users in developing a course of action.