A week back it was 11.30 pm and I sat cross-legged on the sofa, my frustrated head in one hand, a pencil in the other and the MIS book on my lap. Now MIS is Management Information Systems. I'd never had a penchant or even the basic inclination towards these "management type" subjects as i call them. And here I'd to study a thick book of this all in a week leading up to my BE exams!!! My eyelids drooped, my head buzzed with meaningless words like "CRM, procurement management, decision support, etc. etc." And not to mention the new Frederick Forsyth book tht beckoned me and begged to be read!
This is where Mom entered the picture. One look at me and she gently took off the book from my lap and was about to shoo me off to bed when she grasped my frustration and panic. I only needed to be asked once and i began pouring out my tale of woe abt hw BE students were torturted with a boring, meaningless subject!!
Mom listened patiently and nodded. She suggested I try out a new approach to learning it. Since all of MIS was one huge related concept, y not actually design an MIS??? But whe
re the heck wud i get an industry, a manager and all the works to design one?? and in a week?? "Grt idea mom but not feasible!" ('Mom's not an engg' i mused to myself 'so hw can she understand').Not one to giv up so easily, she suggested i design an MIS to run the house. (its probably the aftermath of tht Opal book tht all of my family read but of late they hav started suggesting crazy ideas for studies!) By this time dad had also joined us to find out wat all the ruckus was abt. So with all the veto power tht two parents vs one child brings, i was forced into designing an MIS for the house.
It began with the "requirement analysis" phase where i talked to mom dad abt things needed for the house. The phase yielded a complete schedule of the timings of milkman, newspaper boy, the kachrewali, and our maid. Mom's tuitions and our meal times completed the schedule. There was also a small "conceptual design" diagram which divided the running into accounting system, personnel management system, inventory control, etc.
So far gr8 I thot i had it all and imdtly launched my designed system the next day. First mistake! The maid didn't turn up. My system didn't have provisions for risk management. Mom the manager needed to make a decision as to wat to do. No decision support system for her!! I hurriedly consulted my neighbours and got their maids promise to work for a day at our place. I found 2 maids...(gr8 always giv the manager a choice)...with diff. per day wages...(decision making criteria). Mom decided for the more waged one...(flop criteria??!!! not really,)... the more waged one works faster...(consider all options)
Miskate 2 happened with the newspaper bill...my new system had bugs...it didnt realise tht months can hav diff days...ended up with wrong amt and i'd to pay the overrun (hmm i'm getting the hang of this!) frm my pocket!! So budget control and thorough testing to weed out bugs.
Since by now i was in the groove of things i decreed tht we use paper plates and glasses to save mom's cleaning up chore after dinner (always improve the system). We ran out of them in 2 days time (bad inventory control!) and neways dad wasn't happy with them (non-acceptance of MIS...lack of proper customer preparation!!)
Alrite so i finally did concede tht mom's system was the best around here but i jolly well began to like this subject. And now i guess with jus a day left for exam i'm good at it (touch wood!!) but i guess i shud wait till the paper's over and results declared to comment on the fruitfulness of the exercise.
All in all i learnt 2 things. Practise what u preach...u learn things tht way. And it doesn't take an engineer to make one!! (B4 i end this post i shud take my hat off to mom...btw shes the ingenious lady i mentioned b4!)
