The goals of an ideal MIS are to relieve management from converting data into information, provide relevant information to each management level for effective decision-making and the effective conduct of the job function, and present information that is current and readily usable and is available in an easily understood format. To meet these goals the MIS would posses the following attributes.

1.It would address the primary needs of the management function and not the needs of a person.
2.It would address the underlying problem, not just the symptoms.
3.It would present a maximum of information and a minimum of data.
4.It would be reliable.
5.The output would contain sufficient and relevant information to minimize uncertainly in a format that can be easily understood and be usable without further modification.

Stages of MIS development

1.Strategic and projects planning stage.
2.Conceptual system design stage.
3.Detailed system design stage.
4.Implementation, evaluation and maintenance stage.

Guidelines for Effective Design

1.The user of the information should be included on the design team.
2.Cost of money and time of the system should be taken into account, and match them with the benefits derived from the system.
3.Weightage should be given to relevance and selectivity over sheer quantity.
4.The system should be tested before it is installed.
5.Adequate training and documentation should be provided for the operations and users of the system.
6.Information should be disaggregated and similar decisions should be aggregated.
7.The actual mechanical methods for information processing are designed and controls for the system developed.
8.The decisions system must be thoroughly analyzed.