System Administrator’s Knowledge: Data Processing & MIS
The Knowledge Required by System Administrators
System administrators require knowledge of various facts, broadly categorized as follows:
1. Data Processing
Almost all organizations perform a large number of groupings and a variety of transactions. Writing with precision and processing these transactions is known as Business Data Processing.
2. Management Information Systems (MIS)
Managers at all levels should receive summarized volumes of organizational transactions, as well as extensive information on many other issues. Systems are required to meet the complex information needs of managers.
Essential System Knowledge
An active system must possess at least three types of knowledge:
- Knowledge of Languages: To communicate and receive information, knowledge of lexical items (words, sentences), parts of speech (noun, verb), and grammatical relations (subject, complement) is needed to denote linguistic knowledge in particular domains.
- Extra-linguistic Knowledge: Knowledge about the entities, attributes, events, processes, and relationships that form information models for the corresponding domain.
- Capacity: The system should use extra-linguistic knowledge and language to achieve a goal.
All Information Systems (IS) involve three main activities:
- Receiving data as input.
- Processing the data through calculations, combining data elements, updating accounts, etc.
- Providing information as output.
Therefore, a system receives and processes data and converts them into information. A data processing system could be called a “generator of information.”
Elements of a Decision Support System (DSS)
- The model
- A specialized file as a “database”
- An administrator who interacts directly with the model using a terminal to test possible solutions to a management problem.
Key Components of a System
1. Personal Components
These are the sources of input and output receivers. They are the makers of the processes, those who develop and maintain the system, and providers of administrative and technical support for the system’s operation.
2. Hardware Component
These are the computers where the system is installed, either PCs or larger computers called mainframes. The size of the equipment is based on the volume of data and information it needs to keep in memory, who will share the data, the need for consistent data, the protection of the information, and responsibility in handling the machine and the data.
3. Software Component
This is the ability to accept and interpret sets of instructions provided by the user. These sets of instructions are called programs. There are four types of software:
- The operating system, which is the interface between the application software and hardware.
- Application systems, which are used by users to perform their jobs and can be specific or general use applications.
- Utilities, such as system development tools, which include programming languages, fourth-generation languages, and utility packages.
- Means of maintaining the system, which are sets of instructions to copy files, create backups, monitor performance, etc.
4. Data Storage Component
This is generally the most crucial decision to be taken, which means how to save data (centralized or subdivided) and the medium on which it should be saved.
Who are Decision Support Systems (DSS) for?
Decision support systems are generally designed to primarily serve managers at any level of the organization.