Chapter 11 Information System Planning

Information Systems Planning 4 Process of Information System Planning 4 Strategic Alignment of Business and Information Technology 4 Selecting Systems to Invest In 4 Project Management 4 Role of Systems Analysis

Introductory Case… 4 Owens Corning SAP installation –Badly needed –Very costly –Will it pay back? –What could have gone wrong? –What still can go wrong? –What did they do right? –Did you like the project team approach? –Should they have done it differently?

A WCA approach... 4 CUSTOMER –Building supply companies and contractors that purchase building materials from Owens Corning 4 PRODUCT –Reengineered work systems that are more responsive to market needs

WCA, continued... 4 BUSINESS PROCESS –Major steps: Create a vision for how company operations should change Select SAP R/3 as the approach for improving information systems Create a large project team at headquarters Analyze how to use SAP Install SAP on computers Train people to use it Use SAP in practice –Rationale: Replace multiple, incompatible information systems with an integrated information system that makes it possible to serve customers more effectively.

WCA, continued... 4 PARTICIPANTS –Project team consisting of half business professionals and half IS professionals –Users who were trained and then used the new information system 4 INFORMATION –Company strategy –Project goals –Details of business operations –Selected options for using SAP 4 TECHNOLOGY –SAP R/3 software package –Computers and other hardware

Process of Information System Planning 4 What is an information system plan? 4 Challenges in IS planning 4 Principles for IS planning 4 Role of IS and user departments 4 Allocating (and reallocating) resources 4 Project roles of IS staff

What is an information system plan? 4 Who –is responsible for each part of the plan 4 What –does IS need to do 4 When –do things need to be completed 4 How –Will we do it (what technology) 4 What is the desired result?

Why is IT planning challenging? 4 Difficult to foresee and assess opportunities 4 Difficult to mesh with organizational plans & objectives 4 Tough to build systems –Owens Corning case… 4 Difficult to maintain system performance –Saga of web registration at UNC

Principles for IS Planning 4 Support organizations IT architecture –what is an IT architecture?what is an IT architecture 4 Technology is part of the system, not all 4 Recognize life cycle costs 4 Design for maintainability 4 Remember the humans! 4 Support the evolution of the technical system

Roles of IS and users 4 IS department produces IS plan…but can’t do it in a vacuum –Need help and input from the users 4 User roles (what are these?) –Sponsors –Champions –Steering committee

Resource allocation 4 Maintaining existing systems and supporting users 4 New development, infrastructure, R&D –Important to do this; will often pay significant benefits Technical Political

IT staff roles 4 Large system development projects involve many roles such as the following -- can you define their roles? –Project managers –Application programmers –Systems analysts –Programmer-analysts –Technical writers –Computer operators –Database administrators –System managers –Systems programmers –User support staffs

Strategic Alignment of Business and IT 4 Consistency with business priorities

Strategic Alignment of Business and IT 4 Reengineering & downsizing 4 Enterprise-wide and inter-organizational systems 4 Information systems architecture –Let’s look at the Orange County templateOrange County template

Strategic Alignment of Business and IT 4 Centralization?

Strategic Alignment of Business and IT 4 Business infrastructure 4 Outsourcing –Good or bad? What’s your opinion?

Selecting systems to invest in 4 Cost/benefit analysis 4 Risks 4 Financial comparisons (NPV, IRR, payback,etc.)

Project Management Issues 4 Division of labor –IS department –Users 4 Keeping on schedule… –Gantt chart

Why is it hard to develop/deliver the right system?

A Gantt chart in action… 4 Take 5 minutes and develop a Gantt chart for the steps in buying a home audio system

Role of Systems Analysis 4 Information sources for analyzing systems –Interview –Inputs, outputs and documentation of existing systems –On-site observation –Questionnaires –Benchmarking 4 Interviews –Watch for missing viewpoints superficial information distorted information