CM51111 Structured Systems Analysis Techniques

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IT PlanningandInformation Strategy
CSM - Week 4
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This week

• Session 1
• Organisations Ideal and Real
• Where are we now?
• Approaches to IT planning
• SPIT
• Session 2
• Porter - Competitive Advantage
• Earl Models and Frameworks
• Essential reading

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The Ideal Organisation

• A defined business strategy
• Total commitment of employees
• Effective organisation
• Lateral, vertical, open and reliable
  communication
• Effective training and development
• Individual self awareness
• Job satisfaction amongst the employees

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The Real Organisation

• Have difficulties with their information base
• departmental systems, poor corporate standards,
  duplication, no easy access to data
• There is a resistance to change because power
  (knowledge) shifts with IT/IS
• IT opponents views are strengthened because of
  past experiences of costs running out of control,
  system failures etc.

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Overcoming the change barrier

• The provision of effective, quality, and value
  for money IT facilities
• Provide benefit to the organisation in the
  pursuit of its strategic objectives
• Support the business needs of the business
  overall and the individual organisational units
• Enhance the productivity of individual members of
  staff

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Stages of DP growth in Organisations

• Where are we in terms of IS/IT development?
• Planning for IT may depend on the stage that the
  organisation has reached given the organisations
  type and size.
• Many tools for analysis

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SIX STAGES OF DP GROWTH
( Nolan )
Transition Point
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6
INITIATION
CONTAGION
CONTROL
INTEGRATION
MATURITY
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1. Initiation Stage

• First Introduction of Computers
• Offline Batch Processing Labour and Cost Saving
• Little Management Interest
• Centralised Information Systems Development

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2. Contagion Stage

• Rapid Growth but still centralised
• Move to on-line systems
• Little Management Control, therefore
• IT expenses increase rapidly

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3. Control

• Management seek control computing projects
  subject to ROI
• Planning, standards and methodologies imposed
  through management control
• Backlog of application development scarce
  resources

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4. Integration

• Integration via telecommunication and database
  technology leads to heavy investment
  networks, servers
• User involvement and accountability in systems
  development
• ISD begins to provide service to users (as well
  as solutions)
• TRANSFORMATION POINT
• Data processing to
• Information and Knowledge processing

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5. Data Administration

• Information not processing drives application
  portfolio
• Database capabilities aid sharing of data and
  information
• Information shared with other organisations

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6. Maturity

• IT planning and development closely co-ordinated
  with business development
• Corporate system in place
• ISD and users share accountability for allocation
  of computing resources
• IT is a strategic partner within the organisation

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Nolans Work

• Nolan R. L., Managing the crises in Data
  Processing, Harvard Business Review, Vol 16, No
  3, March 1973, pp 81-91
• Nolan R. L., Managing Computer Resource a stage
  hypothesis, Communications of the ACM, Vol 16, No
  3, March 1973, pp 399 405.

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Approaches to I.T. planning

• NO planning
• TRADITIONAL information resource planning
• STRATEGIC information systems planning
• REACTIVE information resource planning
• LINKED information resource planning

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No Planning

• Speaks for itself more of this about than you
  might think

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Inputs and Outputs for the Traditional
Information Resource Plan
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Linking Business and IS/IT Strategy
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IT Planning Issues

• Basic IT planning addresses the following four
  general issues
• 1. Aligning the IT plan with the organizational
  business plan
• 2. Designing an IT architecture for the
  organization in such a way that users,
  applications, and databases can be integrated
  and networked together.
• 3. Efficiently allocating information systems
  development and operational resources among
  competing applications.
• 4. Planning information systems projects so that
  they are completed on time and within budget and
  include the specified functions

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IT Planning

• A Strategic information systems plan identifies a
  set of computer-based applications that will help
  a company reach its business goals.
• IT planning identifies the applications
  portfolio, a list of major, approved IS projects
  that are consistent with the long-range plan.
• Initial mechanisms addressed operational
  planning, and eventually shifted to managerial
  planning.

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A Generic/General Approach to SPIT
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Two views

• Four stage modelComponents of an IS/IT
  Strategy PlanThere are other views

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Four-Stage Model of IT Planning
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IT Planning Stages
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Stage 1 Strategic Information Planning

• SIP must be aligned with overall organizational
  planning and with e-business
• To accomplish this alignment, the organization
  must execute the following
• Set the IT mission.
• Assess the environment.
• Assess existing systems availabilities and
  capabilities.
• Assess organizational objectives and strategies.
• Set IT objectives, strategies, and policies.
• Assess the potential impacts of IT.
• An organization would conduct the same six steps
  for e-business

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Stage 2 Information Requirements Analysis

• Step 1 Define underlying organizational
  subsystems.
• Step 2 Develop subsystem matrix.
• Step 3 Define and evaluate information
  requirements for organizational subsystems.
• Step 4 Define major information categories and
  map interview results into them
• Step 5 Develop information/subsystem matrix.

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Stage 3 Resource Allocation

• Resource allocation consists of developing the
  hardware, software, data communications,
  facilities, personnel, and financial plans needed
  to execute the master development plan defined in
  Stage 2.
• This stage provides the framework for technology
  and labor procurement, and identifies the
  financial resources needed to provide appropriate
  service levels to users.
• Funding requests from the ISD fall into two
  categories
• Those necessary to stay in business
• Those for improving the information architecture

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Stage 4 Project Planning

• Project Planning provides an overall framework
  within which specific applications can be
  planned, scheduled, and controlled.
• Project Management is covered in another module

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Components of an IS/IT Strategy Plan

• INVESTMENT STRATEGY
• What do we invest in, when and at what cost?
• INFORMATION STRATEGY
• How do we manage and share information?
• ARCHITECTURE STRATEGY
• What technologies do we use and how?
• ORGANISATION STRATEGY
• How do we organise the I.T. function?

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The Investment Strategy

• Must be linked to overall organisational strategy
• Statement of how investment will be made in IS/IT
  over a given time period
• Arriving at this statement is a difficult process

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The Information Strategy

• Should provide long term benefit by
• creating a stable integrated information
  framework
• providing a rapid response to dynamic business
  needs
• improving efficiency and effectiveness in
  processing information
• improving the overall quality of information

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The Architecture Strategy

• Defines the I.T. infrastructure.
• - The hardware
• - The network structures
• - The operating systems
• - The applications
• Must meet both current and future needs,
• Must be aligned with the organisations overall
  strategies

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The Organisational Strategy

• Comprises of many sub-strategies
• Staffing
• Training
• Documentation
• Procurement
• Operations
• Security
• Recovery arrangements
• Development
• Performance monitoring
• Is / it planning

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Benefits of SPIT to Managers

• Effective communication with top management
• Top management support and interest in
  systems
• Better planning of systems that respond to
  business needs
• Long-range planning base for data processing ,
  resources funding
• Agreed system priorities
• Higher probability of delivering systems that are
  useful

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Strategy

• Without an understanding of competitive strategy
  then all this is gibberish
• Take a break