Audio lesson · 8 minutes
Questions to ask MIS
A set of questions that a finance or senior leader can ask without being an ILR technician, each with the answer that should reassure you and the answer that should not.
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Chapters
- Why the question matters more than the number
Transcript
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Introduction
Questions to ask MIS, and what a good answer looks like. A set of questions that a finance or senior leader can ask without being an ILR technician, each with the answer that should reassure you and the answer that should not.
Why the question matters more than the number
A question like 'is our data accurate?' invites reassurance. A question like 'how many learners are recorded as in learning past their planned end date, and what is the largest reason?' invites a number, and the number is either small and explained or it is a problem. The pattern to look for in an answer is specificity. A good answer names a figure, a cause and an owner. A weak answer describes a process.
Four questions that work all year round
Each of these has an observable answer that comes from a report rather than from an opinion, which is what makes them useful. A college that cannot produce the number has told you something important without meaning to. Asking the same four every month turns them into a trend. A count that rises month on month is a control failure, and the trend makes that visible in a way a single figure never does. The fourth question is the one that most often uncovers something. Reports that arrive and are not worked accumulate quietly, and they test exactly what an audit will test.
What a weak answer sounds like
"We run a report on that" tells you a report exists, not what it says. "It is under control" is a judgement, not a measure. "The auditors did not raise it" describes a sample at a point in time. A good answer has three parts: the number, the reason, and who owns it. If any part is missing, the follow-up question writes itself. Where the answer genuinely is not known, that is useful information too. It usually means nobody has been asked to produce it, which is a fixable problem rather than a concealed one.
Read it instead
Questions to ask MIS, and what a good answer looks likeThe written module carries the same content at three depths, with the worked examples, the pitfalls and the sources.
Sources
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