---SAD1 Assignment # 1---

Based on our learning’s in Chapter 1 report, we are to identify and discuss some of the characteristics we have as a good system analyst.

I never thought how tricky to be a system analyst, until the class discuss about how and what does “System Analyst” means. Yes, its ponder me of aiming all the qualities and requirements of a system analyst, but the question is Am I that capable to become one? This question knocks my mind when dreaming to achieve these necessities of system analyst. Glad that we are given the chance to listen and share some of the aspects of a good system analyst. As they said, a good system analyst is a solution provider and can cope up every little problem running inside and outside of the scope of the system.

As a student facing this futuristic generation, computers is hard to imagine without them. As a result of new technologies, our modern society has been almost deluged by a continual introduction of new products, both in computer hardware systems and software. And these things are created through also the idea and help of professional analyst. System analyst plays a very important role in producing a good, quality product either a plan, software or even hardware. An analyst can be called as a “Computer Scientist” because all of the remarkable and continuing advances in computer technology are credited to the highly trained and skilled system analyst.


“I can be a system analyst someday” a line which repeatedly comes to mind every time I think of inspiring to become one. As what I understand in the report systems analysts are in great demand, get paid well, and work in a thrilling field while enjoying many work place freedoms. The name it self is not very commonly known and the tasks are complicated but intriguing at the same time. The highlights for this job are total freedom, and a respectable salary. Many corporations would not be able to function without the assistance of systems analysts, and yet in many cases employers can't explain what it is they do, or how they do it. When new programs are not needed, a systems analyst may be required to maintain the software they have already created. It can be frustrating, not to mention financially devastating, to have computer or network crash, and no one on hand to fix it! A common cause for system crashes is pilot error, which is also easily avoided with instruction, however; glitches in programs do pop up from time to time. Such a crisis reinforces how important it is to have someone on hand to prevent, and cure problems. This area of problem solving grants him or her freedom, by having the most knowledge in crisis situations.

To be able to meet these requirements I have to set my priorities and identify some of my characteristics as a good analyst.

A system analyst should gather all information’s and a good listener.

I can make designs and implements the information gathered about the system, the first thing to do is to interview the company or any respondents which can help to our system development, this is to find out what kind of information’s do we need and improved. I should find whether the report is feasible or not. Actually, group 1 reported various tools in gathering information’s, but concisely interview is the most common and effective source of gathering information, this is to find and proved all the facts and questions left behind.


A system analyst knows how to analyze both negative and positive side of the possible outputs for the system.


As a student, I believe that I have the ability to analyze the possible different approach of the system, off course in analyzing the system I must find out where are they going to get the information, how, when is the project going to be done, the tools I need, the expense, and other related facts which talks about our project. Since system analyst has a big job to do, I know that am responsible enough to formulate design, the development, and implementation of the report, what purpose will it serve presentation, and many more. I can follow the first analysis of when the project will be finished. Basically a Systems Analyst is responsible for systems projects and from beginning to the end of a project; I can implement the system to good use. The Systems Analyst creates and helps finish the final product, making all the specifications and charts for what is to be done.

A system analyst knows how to formulate diagrams and can provide detailed documents.

They do flowcharting, specifications for the programmers of the report, and development control. They write specifications, of what is to be in the final report. The Systems Analyst then must follow up to make sure the program is running smoothly. A critical flowchart also helps the programmers along. The Systems Analyst helps to makes sure the work is done until the final report is achieved. After the development is finished and a prototype of the report is finished, the Systems Analyst helps the programmers in testing the program for bugs. The critical path also calculates how many man hours it will take to finish, enough time to prepare and many more. A critical path is like a due date, if the report is to be done in thirty days, the Systems Analyst makes sure the report is done in thirty days. Once the final report is finished and free of bugs, it is sent to the user.

These characters should attained every person specially student who aims to be a part of the group of “Professional System Analyst”.

---MIS2 Assignment #9---

In our world today, people have put reading, and books, behind them. They have lost focus on an extremely important learning method. Reading not only helps us to learn vital information, but it also allows us to use our imagination. Most of us look at computers and new technology as the latest way to spend our down time and relax. We are becoming lazy. Our whole lives have become encompassed by the world of quicker, more advanced technology. In today's world, technology is constantly changing from a new paperclip to an improvement in hospital machinery. Technology lets people improve the way they live so that they can preserve their own personal energy and focus on the really important factors in life. Some people focus their energy on making new innovations to improve transportation and the health of people that may save lives. Technology is significant in everyone's life because it rapidly changes what is in the market. But, some new innovations of technology are ridiculous because they serve no purpose in helping mankind.

Technology affects every aspect of our lives. From romance to business, it has shown its presence everywhere. But technology has had a huge impact on education that cannot be denied, and has done nothing but improve the quality and quantity of education. It is conform that we as aiming the premiere university in the Asian region should poses the facilities with highly recommended technologies, since the University of Southeastern Philippines luck of the necessary “high-tech” machineries or software that enables every work easy to make.

One of the more demanding challenges of the University is educational selection of the right combination of technology for multiple educational objectives. Every place is different. Every student has his or her individual needs and interests. Various curricula require different technological approaches. We still think that the only way to educate is to put an adult in a room with 20 or 30 students, but with educational technology a great deal can be done with machines, particularly in higher education, where students have already learned the initial, fundamental intellectual skills. For example, how do people learn? By action they themselves perform, sometimes by thinking, sometimes by practicing, often by a combination of both thinking and motor coordination. In most cases, teachers cannot perform those actions for students; students must teach themselves, and teachers can only stand by to offer assistance

Educational technologies are being utilized in every facet of school education. Increasingly, teachers are asking students to access information from technological sources. Methods of instruction must change in order to keep up with the ever-changing world and we, as teachers must cease the technological movement. There are many factors and activities that can help teachers develop an attitude that is intrepid in the use of technology, encourages them to take risks, and inspires them to involve technology in the classroom environment. In the technological society of today, is it possible that the integration of computers will change the traditional methods of the classroom?

The use of technology in USEP has a great effect on not only students, but teachers as well. Today, we mostly think of technology as computers, but it is much more than that. In fact, one of the first technologies used in the classroom was the chalkboard.

Most students today use technology throughout their school day. Uses for technology can be found for every subject matter a student has. Some of the most widely used tools are found in the English and Language Arts classes. Writing on word processors allows students to cut-and-paste, save their work, and use spell checkers and thesauruses. With technology students are also given advantages in learning how to read. Reading programs use drill-and-practice techniques to help with reinforcing young students’ reading skills.

Technology is also used in science education. Scientific hardware such as handheld computers, thermometers, and sensors allow for out of class experimentation

The flow of every transaction in the University should be automated in accordance to the demand of time and work, this would help not only to in the field of work but also in maintaining the data of every individuals. The school should provide a WIFI Zone to easily access the World Wide Web which we all know that the basic of learning’s of research today is found through surfing the net. This would guarantee a massive help to every faculty and students in getting information’s on their reports as timely as they want, provided with the WIFI area.


This and many things should consider in making such steps in improving the quality of education in the University with the help of highly technologies.

---MIS2 Assignment #8---

You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed. If I were hired and have been tasked to develop strategic information systems plan for a company, and asked to provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question, I would first make questions that would financially talks about the progress or the basic needs of the company. These are the following questions I formulate with its corresponding answers:


Why is their a need to create an Idea or strategy in putting up business?

In particular, you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. The way a startup makes money is to offer people better technology than they have now. But what people have now is often so bad that it doesn't take brilliance to do better. An idea for a startup, however, is only a beginning. A lot of would-be startup founders think the key to the whole process is the initial idea, and from that point all you have to do is execute. Venture capitalists know better. What matters is not ideas, but the people who have them. Good people can fix bad ideas, but good ideas can't save bad people.

What do are the costumers wanted from you?

It's not just startups that have to worry about this. I think most businesses that fail do it because they don't give customers what they want. It's the same with technology. You hear all kinds of reasons why startups failed. When most people think of startups, they think of companies like Apple or Google. Everyone knows these, because they're big consumer brands. But for every startup like that, there are twenty more that operate in niche markets or live quietly down in the infrastructure. So if you start a successful startup, odds are you'll start one of those.

What are the company’s objectives and goals?

This question is mostly asked by many interviewers, knowing that every company should possess an ideal success to the business. In making a business proper, the company should provide an objective and goal, because these two main words denote the achievement and success of the business. It would help give a direction and organize strategy to the business.

What are companies Information System Plan?

To be able that companies organize a proper or shall we say integrated system to its business, they have to create an Information System Plan. Strategic planning is very essential especially that technology evolves time to time. This would be a guideline in to maintain the duty of the system. It is not just the system involves in this plan, but also the people and the work embraces by the business.



Upon formulating these questions let us not just forget that success may be described only as the realization of an aim but hard work is essential. Hard work helps us to develop our potential to the maximum and strive for excellence in any field. Hard work makes us better prepared to face adverse situations. Hard work helps an athlete to persevere in a race and win it; it helps an average student to become extraordinary, it helps to transform destinies.

These are the following questions and answers if ever I would be hired in a certain company and invited to formulate or develop an Information System in an organization.

---MIS2 Assignment # 7---

Google the number one most viewed website last 2009. The success of this business indeed covers the whole nation. When we want to search for something, we do say, “Google It”. A proven testimony that the business has its own strategy in making the number one website in the world according to sfaranda blogsite. But what are the ingredients behind this success? Hmmmmm..Let’s have a flash back.

What is Google?

Google is a company that started six years ago when its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new way to do online searching in a Stanford University dorm room. This new idea then spread quickly to many people around the globe seeking information. Googles’ technologies have been able to sort through a large amount of growing information on the web and deliver it to its users for free, a service which returns accurate information in a very short amount of time. They rely on the millions of people who post websites to figure out which other sites have good content. Google uses a technique called PageRank to rank every page. It figures out all of the sites linking to a web page and gives them a value, based in part on the sites which are linked to them

How does Google make money?

Google is a business. Besides trying its best to satisfy its users it has to find ways of generating the most revenue. Google does this in a few different ways. The first one is the advertising which happens on the right side of the page when you search on Google, a program called AdWords. The second is offering its search technology to others, they do this with a program called AdSense which anybody on the web can start using. The third way in which they make money is through its Google Search Appliance which they sell to their customers. This appliance delivers accurate search results throughout a number of documents. Meaning your company would have its own search engine and it would work just as well as google.com.

Is Yahoo competition?
Yahoo and Google are battling over the same Web visitors and advertising dollars. There currently is an $8 billion global search advertising business, which is expected to rise to $22 billion in five years, according to Piper Jaffray. Worldwide online brand advertising is expected to increase twenty one percent this year from $11.3 billion to $18.2 billion, according to Goldman Sachs. These two companies are using very different approaches while going after the same advertising dollars. Yahoo uses human editors or “surfers” to organize web sites into categories. However humans cannot index everything so they are partnered up with a third party search engine to provide answers when its human – powered listing do not suffice. Google is about its search engine, done only with PageRank. There is no human indexing involved. Yahoo has been using a program called the “Idea factory” to promote inventive thinking in their company, staffers are supposed to improve everything from the company’s products to its campus.

Is Microsoft competition?

Microsoft is also competing with Google because Google is now a major threat to their dominance. While Google was launching all of its products for free, Microsoft was trying to catch up in search doing a project which they spent $150 million on but Google and Yahoo keep on getting ahead with new innovations such as complete maps and satellite photos. Bill Gates wishes he could have combined software innovation with a brand new Internet business model like Google did. Gates is worried about how much Google will hurt Microsoft’s core of franchise, control of what users will do when they first turn on their computers. Microsoft was always very powerful because it had control of the Windows operating system, they would decide which products and services consumers saw first. And so Microsoft did not have to make better products than its competitors, just about equal. It won because it went after competitors’ business models, not their technology. Now Microsoft’s strong points seem useless against Google. The people at Microsoft are worried that a “Google Office” will come out. And now that Google has come up with a desktop search there is no need for the start button in Windows.
What’s in Google’s future?

Google is only becoming more powerful. It has a desktop search utility on the way, a shopping engine, news aggegrator, and webmail services. Google is also hoping to offer a new browser (GBrowser). It would include all the Google properties such as Gmail, Froogle, Google News, Picasa, and Blogger. This means that the user could get all of his or her business done without ever having to leave the Google environment. This new browser would be another way to destination Google, meaning more revenue because more ads would be looked at by more users. It would also help Google control both data and applications, surpassing Microsoft.

So why is Google so popular?

A good way to get many users interested in the search engine is making it really easy to use. Google believes they should hide the complexity of their powerful search engine from their users so that they will be left with a simple, understandable way to get the information they need. So not only is the interface clear and simple, but the pages load instantly, the way the search results are placed is not sold to anybody, and the advertising
it relevant content which does not get in the user’s way.

Google’s Infrastructure is its Strategic Advantage

Google’s supply chain is made up of fiber networks, data centers, switches, servers and storage devices. From that perspective, its business model is no different than that of Dell’s (DELL): Google has to deliver search results (information, if you want to be generous about their other projects) as fast as possible at as low a cost as possible.

To better understand Google and its business model, one needs to break it down into three data inputs.

• Relevancy of results.
• Speed of search.
• Cost of executing a search query.

While their results aren’t optimal, they are good enough. Just like Microsoft Windows was good enough to dominate the market. In other words, the company has to make sure that the speed of its search is really, really fast. Any random search on Google these days takes between 0.12 to 0.06 seconds. Now that is really, really fast. Google does this by indexing the Internet quite well. The magic is in delivering the search results from this index at lightening speed, and that requires an infrastructure — oodles of bandwidth and specialized hardware — that is finely tuned much like a Formula One Car.



Reference: http://gigaom.com/2007/12/04/google-infrastructure/

---MIS2 Assignment # 6---

We are to identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach. Every individual has a critical success factors in life. This would only means that a key to success should posses a wood curve for. Let me give some parameters of what and how a critical success factor is.

According to wikipedia Critical Success Factor (CSF) is the term for an element that is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission. It is a critical factor or activity required for ensuring the success of your business. The term was initially used in the world of data analysis, and business analysis. For example, a CSF for a successful Information Technology (IT) project is user involvement.

So many important matters can compete for your attention in business that it's often difficult to see the "wood for the trees". What's more, it can be extremely difficult to get everyone in the team pulling in the same direction and focusing on the true essentials.

That's where Critical Success Factors (CSFs) can help. CSFs are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well if you are to achieve the mission, objectives or goals for your business or project.

By identifying your Critical Success Factors, you can create a common point of reference to help you direct and measure the success of your business or project.

As a common point of reference, CSFs help everyone in the team to know exactly what's most important. And this helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together towards the same overall aims.

The idea of CSFs was first presented by D. Ronald Daniel in the 1960s. It was then built on and popularized a decade later by John F. Rockart, of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has since been used extensively to help businesses implement their strategies and projects.

Inevitably, the CSF concept has evolved, and you may have seen it implemented in different ways. This article provides a simple definition and approach based on Rockart's original idea.

Critical success factors (CSFs) have been used significantly to present or identify a few key factors that organisations should focus on to be successful. As a definition, critical success factors refer to "the limited number of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful competitive performance for the individual, department, or organisation” (Rockart and Bullen, 1981). Identifying CSFs is important as it allows firms to focus their efforts on building their capabilities to meet the CSFs, or even allow firms to decide if they have the capability to build the requirements necessary to meet critical success factors (CSFs).


Success factors were already being used as a term in management when Rockart and Bullen reintroduced the concept to provide greater understanding of the concept and, at the same time, give greater clarity of how CSFs can be identified.

MAIN ASPECTS OF CSFs

CSFs are tailored to a firm's or manager's particular situation as different situations (e.g. industry, division, individual) lead to different critical success factors. Rockart and Bullen presented five key sources of CSFs: the industry, competitive strategy and industry position, environmental factors, temporal factors, and managerial position (if considered from an individual's point of view). Each of these factors is explained in greater detail below.

HOW TO WRITE GOOD CSFs

In an attempt to write good CSFs, a number of principles could help guide writers. These principles are:

• Ensure a good understanding of the environment, the industry and the company – It was shown that CSFs have five primary sources, and it is important to have a good understanding of the environment, the industry and the company in order to be able to write them well. These factors are customised for companies and individuals and the customisation results from the peculiarity of the organisation. This peculiarity stems from an organisation's strategy, current position, and resources and capabilities.
• Build knowledge of competitors in the industry – While this principle can be encompassed in the previous one, it is worth highlighting separately as it is critical to have a good understanding of competitors as well in identifying an organisation's CSFs. Knowing where competitors are positioned, what their resources and capabilities are, and what strategies they will pursue can have an impact on an organisation's strategy and also resulting CSFs.
• Develop CSFs which result in observable differences – A key impetus for the development of CSFs was the notion that factors which get measured are more likely to be achieved versus factors which are not measured. Thus, it is important to write CSFs which are observable or possibly measurable in certain respects such that it would be easier to focus on these factors. These don't have to be factors that are measured quantitatively as this would mimic key performance indicators; however, writing CSFs in observable terms would be helpful.
• Develop CSFs that have a large impact on an organisation's performance – By definition, CSFs are the "most critical" factors for organisations or individuals. However, due care should be exercised in identifying them due to the largely qualitative approach to identification, leaving many possible options for the factors and potentially results in discussions and debate. In order to truly have the impact as envisioned when CSFs were developed, it is important to thus identify the actual CSFs, i.e. the ones which would have the largest impact on an organisation's (or individual's) performance.


Conclusion

CSFs are used by organisations to give focus on a number of factors that help define its success. They help the organisation and its personnel to understand the key areas in which to invest their resources and time. Ideally, these CSFs are observable in terms of the impact on the organisation to allow it to have guidance and indications on its achievement of them.

CSFs can be utilised in both the organisation and the individual levels. Their identification is largely qualitative and can result in differing opinions in pinpointing them. Nevertheless, it is an approach that should be pursued as it provides value in giving due focus to a limited set of factors, which are deemed to be the most critical for an organisation or individual.

The company should have a critical success factors in order to know the improvement made by the company from the past up to the present generation. This is possible to every organization even to a smaller unit of business to maintain its progress and limits its capacity. This would show that critical success factors indeed contribute a big help to individuals not only for a certain corporation but also to a person.

Success is many things to many people. Worldbook defines success as a favorable result or wished for ending through the achievement of goals. That is, if one attains a desired goal through achievement, he would be considered a success. However, a successful character, cannot be produced from one successful feat. The true indicator of success is not what is accomplished, but what is felt. In order to be successful, one must be happy.
One of the most complex examples of success is the winning of money. Is the winning of money considered successful? If a person buys a lottery ticket, he is setting his goal on winning. In addition, if the person wins, he is obviously happy. However, this person is not considered successful. Although his goal is to win, he has no control over winning or losing. Achieving goals means working for them and knowing the result. The person is going to be elated about winning but not about achieving goals. Happiness from success results from the achievements accomplished.


Source:
http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/essays-and-dissertations/critical-success-factors.php

---MIS2 Assignment # 5---

Base in our study and readings we are to discuss the spectrum of organizational change, and answer the question which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts?

According to them that the only thing that doesn’t change in this world is the time. Change is not an easy thing to go through. It does not matter if it is a change in where someone is living or where someone is working. The change process is not easy. You have to be able to adapt to your new environment quickly because you will be left behind. The change process is also not easy when it comes to changes that affect a whole organization. Everyone needs to be on the same page and all of the pros and cons of the change need to be weighed out before the actual change is taken place. In the following essay I will illustrate to you an organizational change that I was apart of and the result that it had on the future of the organization. In the 21st Century, you will not have an organization change which does not involve some sort of technology change or addition. Implementation of such a change must be planned well in advance and everything that could go wrong, from a production level, is accounted for and corrected. For example, if the new system will cause another system to function improperly then we can not set up that new system until we figure out a way to make sure that both systems work properly together. You have to make sure that business will be running as usual or at a good percentage.

Because of the rapid rate of all technological innovation, technological changes are becoming increasingly important to many organizations. One major area of change involves equipment, thus a change in work processes or work activities maybe necessary. Timex, for example, 3-D design software from Toronto based software Alias Research Inc. to be able to turn out watches faster. Organization control systems may also be targets of such a change.

Another area of organization change has to do with human resources. An organization might decide to change the skill-level of its work force and the level of performance of its workers. Perceptions and expectations, attitudes and values are also a common focus on organizational change. Organizational change is anticipated or triggered because of different changing circumstances; an organization might incur a change because of forces bending its environment. These forces might be either external or internal. The external forces derive from the organization's general or task environments. The general environment is parted into different dimensions: the international, the economic, the technological, the socio-cultural and the political-legal dimension.

Before to choose in which is the most radical type of change either automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts, let me first discuss the terminology “organizational change and its impact”.

What's "Organizational Change?"

Typically, the concept of organizational change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a program, etc. Examples of organization-wide change might include a change in mission,restructuring operations (e.g., restructuring to self-managed teams, layoffs, etc.), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, "rightsizing", new programs such as Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to organizational transformation. Often this term designates a fundamental and radical reorientation in the way the organization operates

What Provokes "Organizational Change"?

Change should not be done for the sake of change -- it's a strategy to accomplish some overall goal. (See Organizational Performance Management.) Usually organizational change is provoked by some major outside driving force, e.g., substantial cuts in funding, address major new markets/clients, need for dramatic increases in productivity/services, etc. Typically, organizations must undertake organization-wide change to evolve to a different level in their life cycle, e.g., going from a highly reactive, entrepreneurial organization to more stable and planned development. Transition to a new chief executive can provoke organization-wide change when his or her new and unique personality pervades the entire organization.

Why is Organization-Wide Change Difficult to Accomplish?

Typically there are strong resistances to change. People are afraid of the unknown. Many people think things are already just fine and don't understand the need for change. Many are inherently cynical about change, particularly from reading about the notion of "change" as if it's a mantra. Many doubt there are effective means to accomplish major organizational change. Often there are conflicting goals in the organization, e.g., to increase resources to accomplish the change yet concurrently cut costs to remain viable. Organization-wide change often goes against the very values held dear by members in the organization, that is, the change may go against how members believe things should be done. That's why much of organizational-change literature discusses needed changes in the culture of the organization, including changes in members' values and beliefs and in the way they enact these values and beliefs.

How Is Organization-Wide Change Best Carried Out?

Successful change must involve top management, including the board and chief executive. Usually there's a champion who initially instigates the change by being visionary, persuasive and consistent. A change agent role is usually responsible to translate the vision to a realistic plan and carry out the plan. Change is usually best carried out as a team-wide effort. Communications about the change should be frequent and with all organization members. To sustain change, the structures of the organization itself should be modified, including strategic plans, policies and procedures. This change in the structures of the organization typically involves an unfreezing, change and re-freezing process.

The best approaches to address resistances is through increased and sustained communications and education. For example, the leader should meet with all managers and staff to explain reasons for the change, how it generally will be carried out and where others can go for additional information. A plan should be developed and communicated. Plans do change. That's fine, but communicate that the plan has changed and why. Forums should be held for organization members to express their ideas for the plan. They should be able to express their concerns and frustrations as well.

Some General Guidelines to Organization-Wide Change
In addition to the general guidelines listed above, there are a few other basic guidelines to keep in mind.

1. Consider using a consultant. Ensure the consultant is highly experienced in organization-wide change. Ask to see references and check the references.
2. Widely communicate the potential need for change. Communicate what you're doing about it. Communicate what was done and how it worked out.
3. Get as much feedback as practical from employees, including what they think are the problems and what should be done to resolve them. If possible, work with a team of employees to manage the change.
4. Don't get wrapped up in doing change for the sake of change. Know why you're making the change. What goal(s) do you hope to accomplish?
6. Plan the change. How do you plan to reach the goals, what will you need to reach the goals, how long might it take and how will you know when you've reached your goals or not? Focus on the coordination of the departments/programs in your organization, not on each part by itself. Have someone in charge of the plan.
7. End up having every employee ultimately reporting to one person, if possible, and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions are often complained about, but they are useful in specifying who reports to whom.
8. Delegate decisions to employees as much as possible. This includes granting them the authority and responsibility to get the job done. As much as possible, let them decide how to do the project.
9. The process won't be an "aha!" It will take longer than you think.
10. Keep perspective. Keep focused on meeting the needs of your customer or clients.
11. Take care of yourself first. Organization-wide change can be highly stressful.
12. Don't seek to control change, but rather to expect it, understand it and manage it.
13. Include closure in the plan. Acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments.
14. Read some resources about organizational change, including new forms and structures.


Managing Organizational Change

It is important to have a change in the organization. In addition, such change should be successful and must contribute towards the success of the organization. The main objective of this paper is to characterize the prevalence of the change process in organizations and understand what occurs during organizational change. Organizational change is an ongoing process in order to bring the organizational systems and processes in line with the factors prevailing in the external and internal environment of the organization. The forces of organizational change include internal and external forces. Organization Development OD refers to the framework consisting of planned-change.

Learning Objectives For Organizational Change

Organizational change is important to usher in long-term success in an organization. A change entails realignment of organizational systems and processes. Managing change involves institutionalizing the philosophy of change in the organization. Effective change management entails creating a definitive vision and managing the transition to the desired future state.

Organizational Change and Stress Management

The forces prevailing in internal or external environment of an organization necessitate organizational change. The prime challenge before organizations is to fully institutionalize the philosophy of the change. The organizational change can be either planned or unplanned. After the change has been effected, initially, there is a resistance to change.

Organizations and Organizational Change
An organization operates in an environment of constant change. In order to survive, it is imperative for the organization to anticipate any change in the environment and proactively work towards eliminating the effect of the same. Organizational Structure OS defines the roles and the activities of different organizational positions.

Types of Organizational Change

Automation: Using technology to perform tasks efficiently / effectively
Rationalization of Procedures: Streamline SOPs; eliminate bottlenecks
Business Reengineering: Radical redesign of processes to improve cost, quality, service; maximize benefits of technology
Paradigm Shift: A new perspective on things

Automation-using the computer to speed up the performance of existing tasks
• most common form of IT-enabled change
• involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively
• akin to putting a larger motor in an existing vehicle

Rationalization of procedures: the streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient
• follows quickly from early automation
• Toshiba had to rationalize its procedures down to the level of installation manuals and software instruction and had to create standard names and formats for the data items in its global data warehouse
• Think: without a large amount of business process rationalization, computer technology would have been useless at Toshiba (what ERPs do)

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): The radical redesign of business processes, combining steps to cut waste and eliminating repetitive, paper-intensive tasks to improve cost, quality, and service and to maximize the benefits of information technology
• Involves radical rethinking
• Can change the way an organization conducts its business
• IT allowed Baxter to be a manager of its customer’s supplies
• Strikes fear, its expensive, its very risky and its extremely difficult to carry out and manage
• Develop the business vision and process objective
• Identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback)
• Understand and measure the performance of existing processes
• Identify the opportunities for applying information technology
• Build a prototype of the new process


Paradigm shift-paradigm is a complete mental model of how a complex system functions a paradigm shift involves rethinking the nature of the business, the organization; a complete reconception of how the system should function. Radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization
• akin to rethinking not only the automobile, but transportation itself
• e-business is a paradigm shift
• Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge
• 70% of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail
• Why then change? Because the rewards are high!

To close those gaps managers should know how to face and overcome resistance to change. Although there are no certain solutions, several techniques at least have the potential to decrease or even eliminate this resistance. Participation is often the effective technique for overcoming resistance to change. Employees who participate in planning and implementing a change are better able to understand the reasons for the change. Uncertainty is reduced, and self-interests and social relationships are less threatened. Having had an opportunity to express their ideas and to understand the perspectives of others, employees are more likely to accept the changes more gracefully. Educating employees about the need for and the expected results of an impending change may reduce their resistance. And if open communication is established and maintained during the change process, uncertainty can be minimized. Several facilitation procedures, which include making only necessary changes, announcing those changes well in advance, and allowing time for people to adjust to new ways of doing things, can help reduce resistance to change.

We conclude that whatever the changes inside an organization might be, and whatever the reasons that made these changes necessary, a good way of implementing the changes successfully is for a manager to treat the participation and the communication with his employees as integral parts of the change process.

Sources:
http://managementhelp.org/mgmnt/orgchnge.htm
http://www.zturk.com/edu/zagreb/podiplomski/slides/02-1-short-IT-strategies.pdf
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/organizational+change.html

---MIS2 Assignment # 4---

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