We are to invite by the university president to prepare an IS plan for the university, and discuss what are the steps in order to expedite the implementation of the IS Plan. Before to give the process and how to implement information system, let me first discuss briefly what Information System Plan is.
Hire by the president of the university to make an information system plan is indeed an overwhelming to everyone, knowing that it’s not easy as 1+3 to make a good and powerful information system plan for the improvement of the university. Since I don’t really know what are the parameters in making and implementing information system plan, let me first provide a meaning to each word.
The term information system refers to information technology that is used by people to accomplish a specified organizational or individual objective. The technology may be used in the gathering, processing, storing, and/or dissemination of information, and the users are trained in the use of that technology, as well as in the procedures to be followed in doing so. The specific technologies that collectively comprise information technology are computer technology and data communications technology. Computers provide most of the storage and processing capabilities, while data communications—specifically networks—provide the means for dissemination and remote access of information.
The term plan refers to A draught or form; properly, a representation drawn on a plane, as a map or a chart; especially, a top view, as of a machine, or the representation or delineation of a horizontal section of anything, as of a building; a graphic representation; a diagram. A scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project; as, the plan of a constitution; the plan of an expedition. Or it can be to scheme; to devise; to contrive; to form in design; as, to plan the conquest of a country.
To most effectively support knowledge workers, the enterprise should strive to create object oriented environments. These two concepts, knowledge worker and object oriented environments are brought together into technology architectures since both uniquely characterize the ideal working environment. The knowledge worker’s environment involves both automated and non-automated activities. Some non-automated activities involve the use of automation, for example, once a patient receives a treatment from a clinician (non automated activity), the characteristics of the treatment, and the clinicians observations about the patient’s reaction to the treatment are typically recorded in some automated system. A knowledge worker’s framework must therefore address manual and automated activities.
Knowledge workers perform groups of functions to accomplish their designated job or to accomplish some aspect of the enterprise’s mission. Knowledge workers may perform these function groups in different combinations depending on the enterprise’s organization. For example, if an organization is highly distributed into multi-functional units, there may be staff that performs diverse groups of functions. Conversely, a highly centralized organization may have certain staff devoted to specific and highly specialized functions. The knowledge worker is therefore a complex multifaceted person who performs diverse functions of different complexities for one or more organizations.
Enterprises commonly create computing supports for knowledge workers under the assumption that the functions they perform and the organizations through which they act are fixed and seldom change. Not only are these assumptions wrong, but when the functions and organizations do change, computing environment changes seldom keep pace because they are time consuming to specify, difficult to implement, and slow to accomplish. Slow-to-react computing environment changes, therefore, become the very reason why information technology support to business functions and organizations cannot keep pace with the demands of change. What is needed are computing environments that are object oriented, sensitive to knowledge worker functions and organizations, and that can react to the demands of change in a timely fashion.
Strategic Information Systems Planning Methodologies
The task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Strategic information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy. Also strategic information systems planning changes the planning characteristics in major ways. For example, the time horizon for planning changes from 1 year to 3 years or more and development plans are driven by current and future business needs rather than incremental user needs. Increase in the time horizon is a factor which results in poor response from the top management to the strategic information systems planning process as it is difficult to hold their attention for such a long period. Other questions associated with strategic information systems planning are related to the scope of the planning study, the focus of the planning exercise corporate organization vs. strategic business unit, number of studies and their sequence, choosing a strategic information systems planning methodology or developing one if none is suitable, targets of planning process and deliverables.
Timely- The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
Useable- The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
Maintainable- The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates; technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
Quality- While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
Reproducible- The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.
The ISP Steps
The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.
The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise. Once developed, each identified information system is seen in context with all other information systems within the enterprise.
Information Systems Plan Development Steps
Create the mission model-The mission model, generally shorter than 30 pages presents end-result characterizations of the essential raison d=etre of the enterprise. Missions are strategic, long range, and a-political because they are stripped of the Awho and the Ahow.
Develop a high-level data model-The high-level data model is an Entity Relationship diagram created to meet the data needs of the mission descriptions. No attributes or keys are created.
Create the resource life cycles (RLC) and their nodes-Resources are drawn from both the mission descriptions and the high level data model. Resources and their life cycles are the names, descriptions and life cycles of the critical assets of the enterprise, which, when exercised achieve one or more aspect of the missions. Each enterprise resource Alives@ through its resource life cycle.
Allocate precedence vectors among RLC nodes-Tied together into a enablement network, the resulting resource life cycle network forms a framework of enterprise=s assets that represent an order and set of inter-resource relationships. The enterprise Alives@ through its resource life cycle network.
Allocate existing information systems and databases to the RLC nodes-The resource life cycle network presents a Alattice-work onto which the Aas is business information systems and databases can be Aattached. See for example, the meta model in The Ato-be@ databases and information systems are similarly attached. ADifference projects between the Aas-is and the Ato-be are then formulated. Achievement of all the difference projects is the achievement of the Information Systems Plan.
Allocate standard work break down structures to each RLC node-Detailed planning of the Adifference projects entails allocating the appropriate canned work breakdown structures and metrics. Employing WBS and metrics from a comprehensive methodology supports project management standardization, repeatability, and self-learning.
Load resources into each WBS node-Once the resources are determined, these are loaded into the project management meta entities of the meta data repository, that is, metrics, project, work plan and deliverables. The meta entities are those inferred by Figure 2.
Schedule the RLC nodes through a project management package facilities.- The entire suite of projects is then scheduled on an enterprise-wide basis. The PERT chart used by project management is the APERT chart represented by the Resource Life Cycle enablement network.
Produce and review of the ISP-The scheduled result is predicable: Too long, too costly, and too ambitious. At that point, the real work starts: paring down the suite of projects to a realistic set within time and budget. Because of the Meta data environment the integrated project management Meta data and because all projects are configured against fundamental business-rationale based designs, the results of the inevitable trade-offs can be set against business basics. Although the process is painful, the results can be justified and rationalized.
Execute and adjust the ISP through time- As the ISP is set into execution, technology changes occur that affect resource loadings. In this case, only steps 6-9 need to be repeated. As work progresses, the underlying meta data built or used in steps 1-5 will also change. Because a quality ISP is automated the recasting of the ISP should only take a week or less.
Executive and Adjusting the ISP Through Time
IT projects are accomplished within distinct development environments. The two most common are: discrete project and release. The discrete project environment is typified by completely encapsulated projects accomplished through a water-fall methodology.
In release environments, there are a number of different projects underway by different organizations and staff of varying skill levels. Once a large number of projects are underway, the ability of the enterprise to know about and manage all the different projects degrades rapidly. That is because the project management environment has been transformed from discrete encapsulated projects into a continuous flow process of product or functionality improvements that are released on a set time schedule. Figure 3 illustrates the continuous flow process environment that supports releases. The continuous flow process environment is characterized by:
• Multiple, concurrent, but differently scheduled projects against the same enterprise resource
• Single projects that affect multiple enterprise resources
• Projects that develop completely new capabilities, or changes to existing capabilities within enterprise resources
It is precisely because enterprises have transformed themselves from a project to a release environment that information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained on an enterprise-wide basis are essential.
There are four major sets of activities within the continuous flow process environment. The user/client is represented at the top in the small rectangular box. Each of the ellipses represents an activity targeted to a specific need. The four basic needs are:
• Need Identification
• Need Assessment
• Design
• Deployment
The box in the center is the meta data repository. Specification and impact analysis is represented through the left two processes. Implementation design and accomplishment is represented by the right two processes. Two key characteristics should be immediately apparent. First, unlike the water-fall approach, the activities do not flow one to the other. They are disjoint. In fact, they may be done by different teams, on different time schedules, and involve different quantities of products under management. In short, these four activities are independent one from the other. Their only interdependence is through the meta data repository.
The second characteristic flows from the first. Because these four activities are independent one from the other, the enterprise evolves by means of releases rather than through whole systems. If it evolved through whole systems, then the four activities would be connected either in a waterfall or a spiral approach, and the enterprise would be evolving through major upgrades to encapsulated functionality within specific business resources. In contrast, the release approach causes coordinated sets of changes to multiple business resources to be placed into production. This causes simultaneous, enterprise-wide capability upgrades across multiple business resources.
Through this continuous-flow process, several unique features are present:
• All four processes are concurrently executing.
• Changes to enterprise resources occur in unison, periodically, and in a very controlled manner.
• The meta data repository is always contains all the enterprise resource specifications: current or planned. Simply put, if an enterprise resource semantic is not within the meta data repository, it is not enterprise policy.
• All changes are planned, scheduled, measured, and subject to auditing, accounting, and traceability.
• All documentation of all types is generated from the meta data repository.
Information systems strategy planning is the process through which organizations identify a portfolio of IT applications to achieve their business objectives. It starts from identifying IT applications and underlying technologies for the present and future needs of the business. In a competitive business environment, effective information system planning is important because it shapes and changes the way a company does its business. The essence of IS strategy not only encompasses issues concerning technology management but also involves a broad range of organizational and human factors. IS research in developing countries such as India has largely focused on social and developmental issues. Existing literature focuses on the weaknesses in national setting and the contextual factors, including state of expertise, availability of technology and infrastructure, lack of financial and human capital, and constraints imposed by social contexts.
With increased usage and impacts of IS, the company started following a formal, systematic approach to defining, identifying and executing its IS projects. We have to meet the steering committee met periodically and ensured the appropriateness of the initiatives. The outcome of these efforts was a detailed IS objective and IS strategy documents that were approved by the top management committee. These two
documents were circulated among the key departments across the organization. One IS senior manager said “we have placed the two documents along with the vision and mission statements of the organization, the organization, being a privately held one, was very selective in disseminating information within as well as outside the firm.
Even the IS-related deliberations were not disseminated to organizational members at large. Further, since formal business planning system was not in place, IS strategy too was not formalized in terms of process and documentation. However, according to a senior IS executive, the very nature of ownership of the organization is the reason for the less formal planning systems. There was no formal steering committee or any other type of top management involvement that was found. Both IS and functional managers were only made aware of the less formal IS strategy of the organization. A consulting firm was used as part of the business and IS planning. Though IS strategy process was ormalized, IS strategy was less communicated to various functions of organizations. This was primarily due to the fact that top management wanted to try a suitable approach for implementation of IS strategy and kept the lower level IS and functional managers less informed.
As part of the IS strategy, the organization should include the responsibility for implementation along with detail and time dimensions. The implementation responsibility was rested with the steering committee unlike the previous periods during which IS function was responsible. Specific application areas along with appropriate technologies were identified along with approaches for implementation for the first time.
As part of the strategy the IS function was reorganized by diving the IS function with each having clear focus.
Specific technologies or approaches towards implementation were not part of the strategy. The implementation responsibility was with the steering committee headed by the director of IS. Implementation plan contained a time frame of three years and applications were defined as part of the strategy. As part of the implementation plan we have to decide to outsource key development and implementation projects to another company from the group.
We have to provide a descriptive account of IS strategic planning experiences of the university and also to evaluate the critical parameters that affect the ultimate performance of the IS. Examining the scenario, we have to identified and discussed the importance of the five important IS planning parameters that contribute to the IS implementation success in the developing university context. That management of IS planning parameters should undergone major changes in developing a certain plan. The changes witness high degree of linkage of IS planning with business planning, increased top management’s participation in planning process, evidence of formal processes for documentation and dissemination, redesigning IS governance structures and specifying details for plan for
implementation.
Organizations have to realize the need for linking the IS plans with business plans. Changing the mindset of the top management to realize the role of IT for achieving competitive advantage will lead to the participation of the top management in the IS planning process. Formal structures for SISP and dissemination of plans to key stakeholders would guide in achieving the organizational readiness for implementation. Many organizations have problems in evolving matured IS function due to several economic and organizational factors. Transforming the nature and role of IS function from a technical to managerial focus through suitable tactical approaches would lead to successful SISP.
The research has many implications for theatrical development. Firstly, we have to contribute to the understanding of IS planning practices in developing settings, a relatively new area in IS research. Secondly, the study also revalidates some of the earlier researches on IS planning that have largely been conducted in the developed country contexts. Thirdly, we have to identify critical factors that are likely to contribute to effective IS planning in an organizations. Future research could examine findings using field surveys in developing country settings. Further, we have to use retrospective case studies, based on interviews after the events had occurred. Future researchers could employ action research to examine the issues as they happen.
Sources:
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262
http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf
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