1. Chapter 10 Leading the IT Function
Lecture 19
Chapter 10
Leading the IT Function

2. Project Turn in Hard copy (in class Thursday)
Soft copy (by to and
Please clearly note which section(s) each student was responsible for

3. Leadership of the IT Function
Key Learning Objectives for Chapter 10:
Understand the different roles that IT can play in organizations and recognize that this role can change over time
Understand why IT role transitions may create organizational tensions and conflict.
Understand why it is valuable to match the leadership approach to the role that IT is expected to fill in the business

4. Three eras in Organizational Learning
New technologies have led to different eras in technology adoption:
Data processing era
Micro era (from late 1970s)
Network era (from early 1990s)

5. Different key players and leaders in each era
IBM leader in data processing era
Stayed leader into micro era by introducing IBM personal computer
Apple Macintosh computer had more sophisticated operating system, making user interface easier
Competition drove innovation

6. Discontinuous technology advances
Other industries
Turbojet in airplanes
Radial tires adopted by Michelin
Technology
Shift from mainframe to microcomputers
Shift to networked infrastructure

7. Four areas of IT impact Automating Transaction Processing
Informating Middle of Organization
Imbedding IT in products and services
Internal and external networking

8. Analyzing the Role of IT in an Organization

9. The four quadrants Support Factory Turnaround Strategic
Each requires different leadership approach

10. Transitions Turnaround Factory Strategic
All of these require different management skills and approaches.
All lead to different tensions

11. Managing Tensions
Execution-innovation
IT-business relationship

12. Organizing and Leading IT
Introducing new technologies
Maintaining old technologies
Balancing maintenance with innovation
Defining roles

13. Organizational Issues
Tension between innovation and control
Depends on firm willingness to take risks
Is IT supposed to create or reduce risks?
Tension between IT staff and business users
Users want short term fulfillment
IT want standardization, mastery of technology
Balance is easy to get wrong
See table

14. IT vs. user dominance

15. Drivers toward user Dominance
Pent-up user demand
Need for staff flexibility
Growth in IT services industry
Users’ desire to control own destiny
Fit with organization

16. Drivers toward centralized IT structure
Staff professionalism
Standard setting and ensuring system maintainability
Envisioning possibilities and determining feasibility
Corporate Data Management
Cost estimation and analysis

17. Coordination and Location of IT policy
The next few slides outline the responsibilities of IT
Users
Management

18. Coordination and Location of IT policy: IT Responsibilities
Develop and manage long-term architectural plan
Develop process to establish, maintain and evolve company standards in
Telecommunication protocols and platforms
Client devices and client software configurations
Server devices, middleware and database management systems
Programming and configuration languages
Documentation procedures and formats
Data definitions, especially for widely used data elements
Storage redundancy, backup and disaster recovery procedures
Information security policy and incident response procedures
Establish procedures that consider outsourcing options when new IT projects are proposed
Ensure outsourced projects meet company standards

19. Coordination and Location of IT policy: IT Responsibilities
Maintain inventory of installed and planned systems and services
Evaluate value of these ongoing
Identify career paths for IT staff
Horizontal/vertical
Establish internal marketing efforts
Users understand challenges and costs, updates
Incorporate RFP process for new hardware/software
Identify and maintain relationships with preferred vendors
Establish education programs for business users
Set up process for ongoing review of legacy systems to determine upgrades, redesigns

20. Coordination and Location of IT Policy: User Responsibilities
Seek to understand scope of all “IT activities supporting business users
Charge-back system, IT pressures, activity based overhead allocation
Develop realistic estimates of the amount of user personnel investment required for new projects both during development/deployment and in ongoing operation and use
Ensure comprehensive user input for all IT projects that support vital aspects of the unit’s operations.
Ensure nature of staffing interfaces is consistent with a new technology’s strategic relevance to a business unit.
How strategic project is should correspond to staffing
Periodically audit system reliability standards, communications services performance and security procedures
Participate in developing and maintaining IT plans that set new technology priorities, schedule the transfer of IT among groups, and evaluate projects in light of overall company strategy

21. Coordination and Location of IT Policy: Management/Policy Responsibilities
Ensure an appropriate balance between It and business users
Maintain comprehensive corporate IT strategy
Manage inventory of hardware and software systems and services
Corporate relationships with vendors
Establish standards for acquisition, development and IT systems operation.
Facilitate transfer of technology from one unit to another
Look for synergies and overlaps
Actively encourage technical experimentation.
Develop appropriate planning and control system to link IT to company goals
Monitor planning, system appraisal, charge-back, project management

22. IT Leadership and Management of Budgets
Budgets are extremely important control mechanism!
Budget to IT team directly or through business units?
Often a mix of both
Example: phase-out of technology

23. Stages Theory of IT Adoption and Organizational Learning
Framework for understanding IT assimilation in business organizations
Proposed in 1973 by Richard Nolan, professor at Harvard
Modified over time
Based on idea of an S-shaped learning curve

24. Four stages of organizational learning
Initiation
Contagion
Control
Integration

25. Multiple growth processes
Applications Portfolio
Resources
Management
User Awareness