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BBA 1009
INFORMATION SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

TAN WAH TIONG
940928-14-5531
201565
017-685 3251

JAUNUARY 2013
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1.0 Content





NO DETAIL PAGE
1.0 Content 1
2.0 Introduction 2-3
3.0 Task 1
Basic characteristics of an effective Management Information
System
Feature contributing to success and failures of MIS models
Impact of MIS in the area of organizations information system
Functions and Disadvantages of MIS
4-11
4.0 Task 2
Definition and Explanation the important of artificial intelligence
The relationship between artificial intelligence and neural
networks with the help of scenario
Applications of AI in financial services, marketing and HR
12-17
5.0 Reference 18
6.0 Coursework 19-25
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2.0 Introduction
A management information system (MIS) provides information that organizations need to
manage themselves efficiently and effectively. In addition, management information systems
are typically computer systems used for managing three primary components: technology,
people (individuals, groups, or organizations), and data (information for decision making).
Management information systems are distinct from other information systems, in that they
are used to analyze and facilitate strategic and operational activities.
Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the study of how individuals, groups,
and organizations evaluate, design, implement, manage, and utilize systems to generate
information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making, including systems
termed decision support systems, expert systems, and executive information systems.
Most business schools (or colleges of business administration within universities) have an
MIS department, alongside departments of accounting, finance, management, marketing, and
sometimes others, and grant degrees (at undergrad, masters, and PhD levels) in MIS.
Furthermore, a management information system gives the business managers the information
that they need to make decisions. Early business computers were used for simple operations
such as tracking inventory, billing, sales, or payroll data, with little detail or structure.
Over time, these computer applications became more complex, hardware storage capacities
grew, and technologies improved for connecting previously isolated applications. As more
data was stored and linked, managers sought greater abstraction as well as greater detail with
the aim of creating significant management reports from the raw, stored data. Originally, the
term "MIS" described applications providing managers with information about sales,
inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise. Over time, the term
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broadened to include: decision support systems, resource management and human resource
management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise performance management
(EPM), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM),
project management and database retrieval applications.
An MIS supports a business' long range plans, providing reports based upon performance
analysis in areas critical to those plans, with feedback loops that improve guidance for every
aspect of the enterprise, including recruitment and training. MIS not only indicates how
various aspects of a business are performing, but also why and where. MIS reports include
near-real-time performance of cost centers and projects with detail sufficient for individual
accountability.








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3.0 Task 1
Basic characteristics of an effective Management Information System
There are some basic characteristics in for an effective management information system.
First of all is management-oriented. The basic objective of MIS is to provide information
support to the management in the organization for decision making. So an effective MIS
should start its journey from appraisal of management needs, mission and goal of the
business organization. It may be individual or collective goals of an organization. The MIS
is such that it serves all the levels of management in an organization i.e. top, middle and
lower level.

Next is management directed. When MIS is management-oriented, it should be directed by
the management because it is the management who tells their needs and requirements more
effectively than anybody else .Manager should guide the MIS professionals not only at the
stage of planning but also on development, review and implementation stages so that
effective system should be the end product of the whole exercise in making an effective MIS.

Furthermore, Integrated is also one of the basic characteristics of Effective MIS. It means a
comprehensive or complete view of all the sub systems in the organization of a company.
Development of information must be integrated so that all the operational and functional
information sub systems should be worked together as a single entity. This integration is
necessary because it leads to retrieval of more meaningful and useful information.

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In addition, it must be common data flows. The integration of different sub systems will lead
to a common data flow which will further help in avoiding duplicate and redundancy in data
collection, storage and processing. For example, the customer orders are the basis for many
activities in an organization viz. billing, sales for cashing, etc. Data is collected by a system
analyst from its original source only one time. Then he utilizes the data with minimum
number of processing procedures and uses the information for production output documents
and reports in small numbers and eliminates the undesirable data. This will lead to
elimination of duplication that simplify the operations and produce an efficient information
system.
Moreover, we must have heavy planning-element. The preparation of MIS is not a one or
two day exercise. It usually takes 3 to 5 years and sometimes a much longer period. So the
system expert has to keep 2 things in mind one is that he has to keep future objectives as
well as the firms information well in advance and also he has to keep in mind that his MIS
will not be obsolete before it gets into action.
Last is Sub System concept. When a problem is seen in 2 sub parts, then the better solution
to the problem is possible. Although MIS is viewed as a single entity but for its effective use,
it should be broken down in small parts or subsystems so that more attention and insight is
paid to each sub system. Priorities will be set and phase of implementation will be made easy.
While making or breaking down the whole MIS into subsystems, it should be kept in mind
that the subsystems should be easily manageable.



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Feature contributing to success and failures of MIS models
Everything must have two sides of the coins neither nor MIS mode. So, there are some
successes and failures is shown at below. Factors contributing to success of MIS (If MIS is
to be success, then it should have all the features listed below)
Firstly, MIS is integrated into the management function. It sets clear objectives to ensure that
MIS focuses on the major issues of the business. Also adequate development resources are
provided and human & organizational barriers to progress are removed. Then, an appropriate
information processing technology required to meet the data processing and analysis needs
of the users of MIS is selected.
Furthermore, MIS is oriented, defined and designed in terms of the user's requirements and
its operational viability is ensured. Then, MIS is kept under continuous surveillance, sot that
its open system is modified according to the changing information needs. MIS focuses on
results and goals, and highlights the factors and reasons for non-achievements.
Moreover, MIS is not allowed to end up into and information generation mill avoiding the
noise in the information and the communication system. MIS recognizes that a manager is a
human being and therefore, the systems must consider all the human behavioral aspects in
the process of management. MIS is also easy to operate and therefore, the design of MIS has
such good features which make up a user friendly design.
Lastly, MIS recognizes that the information needs become obsolete and new needs emerge.
The MIS design, therefore, has a potential capability to quickly meet newer and newer needs
of information. It also need concentrates on developing the information support to manage
critical success factors. It concentrates on the mission critical applications serving the needs
of the top management.
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However, factors also contributing to failures. The common factors which are responsible
for this are as follows.
Firstly, MIS is conceived as a data processing and not as an information system. MIS does
not provide that information which in needed by managers but it tends to provide the
information generally the function calls for. MIS then becomes an impersonal function.
Next is understands the complexity in the business systems and not recognizing it in the MIS
design leads to problems in the successful implementation. So, adequate attention is not
given to the quality control aspects of the inputs, the process and the outputs leading to
insufficient checks and controls in MIS.
Furthermore, MIS is developed without streamlining the transaction processing systems in
the organizations. Lack of training and appreciation that the users of the information and the
generators of the data are different, and they have to play an important role in the MIS. In
addition, MIS does not meet certain critical and key factors of its users, such as a response to
the query on the database, an inability to get the processing done in a particular manner, lack
of user friendly system and the dependence on the system personnel.
Moreover, believe that the computerized MIS can solve all the management problems of
planning and control of the business. Besides, Lack of administrative discipline in following
the standardized systems and procedures, wrong coding and deviating from the system
specifications result in incomplete and incorrect information.
Lastly, MIS does not give perfect information to all users in the organization. Any attempt
toward such a goal will be unsuccessful because every user has a human ingenuity, bias and
certain assumptions not known to the designer. MIS cannot make up these by providing
perfect information.
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Impact of MIS in the area of organizations information system
The impact of MIS on the functions is in its management. With a good MIS support, the
management of marketing, finance, production and personnel becomes more efficient, the
tracking and monitoring the functional targets becomes easy. The functional managers are
informed about the progress, achievements and shortfalls in the activity and the targets. The
manager is kept alert by providing certain information indicating the probable trends in the
various aspects of business. This helps in forecasting and long-term perspective planning.
Furthermore, the manager'' attention is brought to a situation which is exceptional in nature,
inducing him to take an action or a decision in the matter. A disciplined information
reporting system creates a structured database and a knowledge base for all the people in the
organization. The information is available in such a form that it can be used straight away or
by blending and analysis, saving the manager's valuable time.
In addition, the MIS creates another impact in the organization which relates to the
understanding of the business itself. The MIS begins with the definition of a data entity and
its attributes. It uses a dictionary of data, entity and attributes, respectively, designed for
information generation in the organization. Since all the information systems use the
dictionary, there is common understanding of terms and terminology in the organization
bringing clarity in the communication and a similar understanding of an event in the
organization.
Besides, the MIS calls for a systemization of the business operations for an effective system
design. This leads to streamlining of the operations which complicate the system design. It
improves the administration of the business by bringing a discipline in its operations
everybody is required to follow and use systems and procedures. This process brings a high
degree of professionalism in the business operations.
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Since the goals and objective of the MIS are the products of business goals and objectives, it
helps indirectly to pull the entire organization in one direction towards the corporate goals
and objectives by providing the relevant information to the people in the organization.
A well designed system with a focus on the manager makes an impact on the managerial
efficiency. The fund of information motivates an enlightened manager to use a variety of
tools of the management. It helps him to resort to such exercises as experimentation and
modeling. The use of computers enables him to use the tools and techniques which are
impossible to use manually. The ready-made packages make this task simpler. The impact is
on the managerial ability to perform. It improves the decision making ability considerably.
Functions and Disadvantages of MIS
Management Information System (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a
business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by
management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or
a business-wide strategy. Management Information Systems are distinct from regular
information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in
operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer
to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human
decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information
systems. This is an emerging science which sets its the main task of it is to strengthen the
information management of enterprises by taking advantage of modern computer and
network communication technology to the largest extent, and set up the correct data based on
the research of human resource, financial resource, equipment, technology, etc. owned by
enterprises, and provide timely various of processed and systemized information data to the
manager so as to make correct decisions and improve continuously the management level
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and economic benefits of enterprises.

MIS is generally used for system decision-making. For instance, enterprise employee can
make use of MIS to find out problems that need to be solved urgently and feedback in time
to the upper managers in order to make them understand the current progress and its
shortages. There are some of the functions can be listed. First is data processing. It includes
the collection, transmission, storage, processing and output of data. It simplifies the statistics
and reduces to the lowest cost by supplying an unified format. Next is function of prediction
It predicts the future situation by applying modern mathematics, statistics or simulation.
Besides, it functions as plan. It arranges reasonably the plans of each functional department
in accordance with the restrictions afforded by enterprises and provides the appropriate
planning reports according to different management. It also functions of control. It monitors
and inspects the operation of plans and comprises with the differences between operation
and plan in accordance with the data afforded by every functional department, and be
assistant to managers to control timely each method by analyzing the reasons why the
differences comes into being. Last is function of assistance. It derives instantly the best
answers of related problems by applying to various of mathematics' mode and analyzing a
plentiful data stored in computers in the hope of using rationally human resource, financial
resource, material resource and information resource for relative abundant economic benefits.
There are also some disadvantages can exist when using a management information system
in a company. Firstly, installing a management information system can be expensive for a
company. Information technology while cheaper today than previous years that can represent
a significant expense, especially for larger organizations. These systems may also require
ongoing support or upgrade fees, which can represent future fixed cash outflows. Companies
must create a budget to pay for these items to ensure the information system stays current
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with business technologies. Attempting to integrate these systems with technology currently
in use can also increase expenses.
Next is maintenance. Companies may need to hire maintenance individuals to help keep an
electronic information system running smoothly. These individuals often need experience in
computer science functions and other business topics. Not only does this increase labor costs,
but it also requires additional training and ongoing education for these individuals. Business
technology can change frequently, creating an environment where companies must have
trained individuals who can properly maintain computers, websites, servers and other
equipment in use by the management information system.
Last is ineffective. Management information systems have the potential to become
ineffective in a company's operations. As with all computer systems, the management
information system is only as good as the programmer. Gathering unimportant or non-
essential information can delay business decisions because managers must request additional
input. Spending too much time reprogramming or correcting issues can also increase the
time spent in the decision-making process. Business owners and managers may also need
extensive training on new systems, creating a learning curve that will hopefully diminish
over time.





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4.0 Task 2
Definition and Explanation the important of artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and robots and the branch of
computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design
of intelligent agents where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and
takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in
1955, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines."
Besides, AI research is highly technical and specializes, deeply divided into subfields that
often fail to communicate with each other. Some of the division is due to social and cultural
factors: subfields have grown up around particular institutions and the work of individual
researchers. AI research is also divided by several technical issues. There are subfields
which are focused on the solution of specific problems, on one of several possible
approaches, on the use of widely differing tools and towards the accomplishment of
particular applications. The central problems of AI include such traits as reasoning,
knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and
manipulate objects. General intelligence (or "strong AI") is still among the field's long term
goals. Currently popular approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence
and traditional symbolic AI. There are an enormous number of tools used in AI, including
versions of search and mathematical optimization, logic, methods based on probability and
economics, and many others.
The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence and the
sapience of Homo sapiens can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a
machine. This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of
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creating artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy
since antiquity. Artificial intelligence has been the subject of tremendous optimism[10] but
has also suffered stunning setbacks, Today it has become an essential part of the technology
industry, providing the heavy lifting for many of the most difficult problems in computer
science.
The relationship between artificial intelligence and neural networks with the help of
scenario
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer
science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of
intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and
takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in
1956, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines."
The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligencethe
sapience of Homo sapienscan be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a
machine. This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of
creating artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy
since antiquity. Artificial intelligence has been the subject of optimism, but has also suffered
setbacks and, today, has become an essential part of the technology industry, providing the
heavy lifting for many of the most difficult problems in computer science.
AI research is highly technical and specialized, deeply divided into subfields that often fail
to communicate with each other.Subfields have grown up around particular institutions, the
work of individual researchers, the solution of specific problems, longstanding differences of
opinion about how AI should be done and the application of widely differing tools. The
central problems of AI include such traits as reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning,
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communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects.General
intelligence (or "strong AI") is still among the field's long term goals.
In the other side, the term neural network was traditionally used to refer to a network or
circuit of biological neurons The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural
networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus the term has two distinct
usages. First of all, biological neural networks are made up of real biological neurons that
are connected or functionally related in the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous
system. In the field of neuroscience, they are often identified as groups of neurons that
perform a specific physiological function in laboratory analysis.
Besides, artificial neural networks are made up of interconnecting artificial neurons
(programming constructs that mimic the properties of biological neurons). Artificial neural
networks may either be used to gain an understanding of biological neural networks, or for
solving artificial intelligence problems without necessarily creating a model of a real
biological system. The real, biological nervous system is highly complex and includes some
features that may seem superfluous based on an understanding of artificial networks.
The relationship between these two technologies could be said to be symbiotic in nature;
both of these can be implemented without the other (i.e. a NN could be used inside a coffee
maker for some advanced coffee-making logic, and an AI can certainly use other sources of
information to make valid responses), but the combination of the two would allow for a
more realistic AI that would be capable of learning data by making correlations between
seemingly unrelated data (which is how humans learn, coincidentally).


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Applications of AI in financial services, marketing and HR
AI has found a home in financial services and is recognized as a valuable addition to
numerous business applications. Sophisticated technologies encompassing neural networks
and business rules along with AI-based techniques are yielding positive results in
transaction-oriented scenarios for financial services. Furthermore, AI has been widely
adopted in such areas of risk management, compliance, and securities trading and
monitoring, with an extension into customer relationship management (CRM). Tangible
benefits of AI adoption include reduced risk of fraud, increased revenues from existing
customers due to newer opportunities, avoidance of fines stemming from non-compliance
and averted securities trade exceptions that could result in delayed settlement, if not detected.

Warren Buffet is known as the ultimate investor in this age. So good is he, in fact, that
artificial intelligence software developed in Carnegie Mellon that predicts stock movements
was named after him by. But can machines really take the place of human traders, much less
surpass them? When Deep Blue defeated Chess Grandmaster Kasparov in 1997, AI was
propelled into the limelight. Indeed, if a machine can whiz through the intricacies of the
ultimate game of strategy, why not beat man in other fields as well thereby facilitating
work, decreasing costs and errors and increasing productivity and quality. This study focuses
on applying AI in Finance, particularly in stock trading. In the field of Finance, artificial
intelligence has long been used. Some applications of Artificial Intelligence are credit
authorization screening, mortgage risk assessment, project management and bidding strategy,
financial and economic forecasting, risk rating of exchange-traded, fixed income investments,
detection of regularities in security price movements, prediction of default and bankruptcy,
security/and or Asset Portfolio Management

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Besides, artificial intelligence types used in finance include neural networks, fuzzy logic,
genetic algorithms, expert systems and intelligent agents. They are often used in
combination with each other. When AI first appeared a decade ago, it generated mass media
hype but delivered inconsistent results. A number of those who praised its ability were
paralyzed in the end. One such case is Fidelity Investments. In this paper, we set the stage by
describing how traditional stock trading differs from AI-powered stock trading. We define
the various AI systems available and also explore the various solutions available in the
market, their IT foundations and how salient they are. Then, we move into how AI systems
for stock trading will affect traders, companies and individuals. Benefits, risks and
competitive strategy will be defined and real-world examples cited, as grounding for our
recommendations in the end. Recommendations include getting management buy-in,
implementing the system and managing the whole structure to succeed. Advances in
artificial intelligence (AI) eventually could turbo-boost customer analytics to give companies
speedier insights into individual buying patterns and a host of other consumer habits.

Then, artificial intelligence functions are made possible by computerized neural networks
that simulate the same types of connections that are made in the human brain to generate
thought. Currently, the technology is used mostly to analyze data for genetics,
pharmaceutical and other scientific research. It's seeing little use in CRM right now, though
it has tremendous potential in the future. AI-enhanced analytics programs also provide
survival modeling capabilities -- suggesting changes to products based on use. For example,
customer patterns are analyzed to learn ways to extend the life of light bulbs or to help
decide the correct dosage for medications.

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High-tech data mining can give companies a precise view of how particular segments of the
customer base react to a product or service and propose changes consistent with those
findings. In addition to further exploring customers" buying patterns, analytics could help
companies react much more quickly to the marketplace. According to Meta Group vice
president Liz Shahnam, intelligent agents could let companies make real-time changes to
marketing campaigns. "New technologies would have the model refreshed on the fly based
on each new incoming piece of customer information -- reaction to the campaign -- for a
more targeted offer,"

It is widely believed that the role of managers is becoming a key determinant for enterprises'
competitiveness in today's knowledge economy era. Owing to fast development of
information technologies (ITs), corporations are employed to enhance the capability of
human resource management, which is called human resource information system (HRIS).
Recently, due to promising results of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and fuzzy theory in
engineering, they have also become candidates for HRIS. The artificial intelligence (AT)
field can play a role in this, especially; in assuring that the fuzzy neural network has the
characteristics and functions of training, learning, and simulation to make an optimal and
accurate judgment according to the human thinking model. The main purposes of the study
are to discuss the appointment of managers in enterprises through fuzzy neural network, to
construct a new model for evaluation of managerial talent, and accordingly to develop a
decision support system in human resource selection. Therefore, the research methods of
reviewing literature, in-depth interview, questionnaire survey, and fuzzy neural network are
used in the study. The fuzzy neural network is used to train the concrete database, based on
191 questionnaires from experts, for getting the best network model in different training
conditions. In order to let decision-makers adjust weighted values and obtain decisive results
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of each phase's scores, we adopted the simple additive weighting (SAW) and fuzzy analytic
hierarchy process (FAHP) methods in the study. Finally, the human resource selection
system of Java user interface has been constructed by FNN in the study.

5.0 Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systemhttp://answers.yahoo.c
om/question/index?qid=20080926062856AAbe5Hv
http://zh.scribd.com/doc/16604689/Characteristics-of-MIS
http://www.ehow.com/list_7586337_characteristics-effective-management-
information-system.html
http://www.openlearningworld.com/books/Fundamentals%20of%20MIS/Introductio
n%20to
%20Management%20Information%20Systems/The%20impact%20of%20the%20Ma
nagement%20Information%20System.html
http://www.ehow.com/list_6856619_disadvantages-management-information-
system.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence#History
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/scope-of-artificial-intelligence-in-
business-328608.html

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6.0 Coursework
Five basic competitive strategies
Cost Leadership Strategy
Becoming a low-cost producer of products and services in the industry of finding
ways to help supplier or customers reduce their costs or increase the costs of
competitor.
Differentiation Strategy
Developing ways to differentiate a firms products and services from its competitors
or reduce the differentiation advantages of competitors. This strategy may allow a
firm to focus its products or services to give it an advantage in particular segments or
niches of a market.
Innovation Strategy
Finding new ways of doing business. This strategy may involve developing unique
products and services or entering unique markets or market niches. It may also
involve making radical changes to the business processes for producing or
distributing products and services that are so different from the way a business has
been conducted that they alter the fundamental structure of an industry.
Growth Strategies
Signicantly expanding a companys capacity to produce goods and services,
expending into global markets, diversifying into new products and services, or
integrating into related products and services.
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Alliance Strategies
Establishing new business linkages and alliances with customers, suppleirs,
competitors, consultants, and other companies. These linkages may include mergers,
acquisitions, joint ventures, forming of virtual companies, or other marketing,
manufacturing, or distribution agreements between a business and its trading partners.
Five Programming Languages
Machine Languages
Machine Languages (or first-generation languages) are the most basic level of programming
languages. In the early stages of computer development, all program instructions had to be
written using binary codes unique to each computer. This type of programming involves the
difficult task of writing instructions in the form of strings of binary digit (ones and zeros) or
other number systems,. Programmers must have a detailed knowledge of the internal
operations of the specific type of CPU they are using. They must write long series of detailed
instructions to accomplish even simple processing tasks. Programming in machine language
requires specifying the storage locations for every instruction and item of data used.
Instructions must be included for every switch and indicator used by the program. These
requirements make machine language programming a difficult and error-prone task. A
machine language program to add two numbers together in the CPU of a specific computer
and store the result might take the form shown in Figure 4.8.
Assembler Languages
Assembler languages (nor second-generation languages) are the next level of programming
languages. They were developed to reduce the difficulties in writing machine language
programs. The use of assembler languages requires language translator programs called
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assemblers that allow a computer to convert the instruction s of such language into machine
instructions. Assembler languages are frequently called symbolic languages because
symbols are used to represent operation codes and storage locations. Convenient alphabetic
abbreviations called mnemonics (memory aids) and other symbols represent operation codes,
storage locations, and data elements. For example, the computation X = Y + Z I an
assembler language might take the form shown in Figure 4.8.
Machine Languages:
Use binary coded instructions
101011001
101111010
110011011
High-Level Languages:
Use brief statements or arithmetic
notations
BASIC : X = Y + Z
COBOL : COMPUTE X = Y + Z
Assembler Languages :
Use symbolic coded instructions
LOD Y
ADD Z
STR X
Fourth-Generation
Languages; Use natural and
nonprocedural statements
SUM THE FOLLOWING
NUMBERS

FIGURE 4.8 Examples of four levels of programming languages. These programming
language instructions might be used to compute the sum of two numbers as expressed by the
formula X = Y + Z
Assembler languages are still used as a method of programming a computer in a machine-
oriented language. Most computer manufacturers provide an assembler language that reflects
the unique machine language instruction set of particular line of computers. This feature is
particularly desirable to system programmers, who program system software (as opposed to
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application programmers, who program application software), because it provides them with
greater control and flexibility in designing a program for a particular computer. They can
then produce more efficient softwarethat is programs that require a minimum of
instructions, storage, and CPU time to perform a specific processing assignment.
High-Level Languages
High-Level languages (or third-generation languages) use instructions, which are called
statements, that include brief statements or arithmetic expressions. Individual high-level
language statements are actually macroinstructions; that is, each individual statement
generates several machine instructions when translated into machine language by high-level
language translator programs called compilers or interpreters. High-level language
statements resemble the phrases or mathematical expressions required to express the
problem or procedure being programmed. The syntax (vocabulary, punctuation, and
grammatical rules) and semantics (meanings) of such statements do not reflect the internal
code of any particular computer. For example, the computation X= Y + Z would be
programmed in the high-level languages of BASIC and COBOL as shown in Figure 4.9
High-level language like BASIC, COBOL, and FORTRAN are easier to learn and
program than an assembler language, because they have less rigid rules, forms, and syntaxes.
However, high-level language programs usually less efficient than assembler language
programs and required a greater amount of computer time for translation into machine
instructions. Because most high-level languages are machine- independent, programs written
in a high-level language do not have to be reprogrammed when a new computer is installed,
and programmers do not have to learn a different language for each type of computer.

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Fourth-Generation Languages
The term fourth-generation language describes a variety of programming languages that are
more nonprocedural and conversational than prior languages. These languages are called
fourth-generation languages (4GLs) to differentiate them from machine languages (first
generation), assembler languages (second generation0, and high-level languages (third
generation).
Most fourth-generation languages are nonprocedural languages that encourage users and
programmers to specify the results they want, while the computer determines the sequence
of instructions that will accomplish those results. Thus, fourth-generation languages have
helped simplify the programming process. Natural languages are sometimes considered fifth-
generation languages (5GLs) and are very close to English or other human languages.
Research and development activity in artificial intelligence (AI) is developing programming
languages that are easy to use as ordinary conversation in ones native tongue. For example,
INTELLECT, a natural language, would use a statement like, What are the average exam
scores in MIS 200? to program a simple average exam score task.
In the early days of 4GLs, results suggested that high-volume transaction processing
environments were not in the range of a 4GLs capabilities. Although 4 GLs were
characterized by their ease of use, they were also viewed as less flexible than their
predecessors, primarily due to their increased storage and processing speed requirements. In
todays large data volume environment, 4GLs are widely used and no longer viewed as a
trade-off between ease of use and flexibility.


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Object-Oriented Languages
Object-oriented languages like Visual Basic, C++, and Java are also considered fifth-
generation languages and have become major tools of software development. Briefly,
whereas most programming languages separate data elements from the procedures or action
that will be performed on them, object-oriented languages tie them together into objects.
Thus, an object consists of data and the actions that can be performed on the data. For
example, an object could be a set of data about a bank customers savings account and the
operations (e.g. interest calculations) that might be performed on the data. Or an object could
be data in graphic form, such as a video display window plus the display actions that might
be used on it. See Figure 4.9.
In procedural languages, a program consists of procedures to perform actions on each data
element. However, in object-oriented systems, objects tell other objects to perform actions
on themselves. For example, to open a window on a computer video display, a beginning
menu object could send a window object a message to open, and a window would appear on
the screen. Thats because the window object contains the program code for opening itself.




FIGURE 4.9 An example of a bank saving account object. This object consists of data about
a customers account balance and the basic operations that can be performed on those data.
Page 25 of 26



Object-oriented languages are easier to use and more efficient for programming the graphics-
oriented user interfaces required by many applications. Therefore, they are the most widely
used programming languages for languages for software development today. Also, once
objects are programmed, they are reusable. Therefore, reusability of objects is a major
benefit of object-oriented programming. For example, programmers can construct a user
interface for a new program by assembling standard objects such as windows, bars, boxes,
buttons, and icons. Therefore, most object-oriented programming packages provide a GUI
that supports a point-and-stick, drag-and-drop visual assembly of objects known as visual
programming.

Current
Account
Balance
Withdraw
Print
Monthly
Statement
Get Owner
Deposit
(amount)
Get Blance
Calculate
Interest