1. IT Planning

2. Learning Objectives Discuss the major issues addressed by IS planning.
Demonstrate the importance of aligning information systems plans with business plans.
Explain the four-stage model of information systems planning.
Describe several different methodologies for conducting strategic information systems planning.

3. IT planning is essential for both planners & end-users
for several reasons:
End-users do IT planning for their own units.
End-users must participate in the corporate IT planning and therefore must understand the process.
Corporate IT planning determines how the IT infrastructure will look. This in turn determines what applications end-users can deploy.

4. IT Planning
A Strategic information systems plan identifies a set of computer-based applications that will help a company reach its business goals.
IT planning identifies the applications portfolio, a list of major, approved IS projects that are consistent with the long-range plan.
Planning and control systems for IT started in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Initial mechanisms addressed operational planning, and eventually shifted to managerial planning and resource allocation.

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

6. Problems with IS Planning
Often an expensive and time consuming process
Pitfall of allowing IT planning to become an end in itself.
Beware of methodologies
Solutions
Prepare to implement plan
Plan quickly
Demonstrate the usefulness of the plan

7. IT Planning Stages Four-Stage Model of IT Planning Description
Strategic IT planning
Establishing the relationship between the overall organizational plan and the IT plan.
Information requirements analysis
Identifying broad, organizational information requirements to establish a strategic information architecture.
Resource allocation
Allocating both IT application development resources and operational resources.
Project planning
Developing a plan that expresses schedules and resource requirements for specific information systems projects.

8. Stage 1: Strategic Information Planning
Strategic information planning (SIP) must be aligned with overall organizational planning and with e-business.
To accomplish this alignment, the organization must execute the following:
Set the IT mission.
Assess the environment.
Assess existing systems’ availabilities and capabilities.
Assess organizational objectives and strategies.
Set IT objectives, strategies, and policies.
Assess the potential impacts of IT.
An organization would conduct the same six steps for e-business.

9. The Relationship Among Business, IS Strategy and IT Strategy
Business Strategy
Where is the business going and why
IT Impact and potential
Business Decisions
Objectives and Direction
Change
IS Strategy
What is required
Business Based
Demand Orientation
Application Focused
IT Strategy
How it can be delivered
Activity Based
Supply Orientation
Technology Focused
Impact approach vs. Alignment approach.

10. Business Systems Planning
The Business systems planning (BSP) model, developed by IBM, is a top-down approach that starts with business strategies.
It deals with two main building blocks as the basis of the information architecture;
Business processes
Data classes
The recognition that processes could be a more fundamental aspect of business than departments or other organizational arrangements broke new ground.

11. BSP Business Strategy Business Processes Business Application
Data Classes
Organization databases
Information Architecture

12. CSF & Scenario Planning
The critical success factors (CSF) approach was developed to help identify the information needs of managers.
The fundamental assumption is that in every organization there are three to six key factors that must be done very well to be successful.
Therefore organizations must continuously measure performance in these areas.
Sample questions asked in the CSF approach are:
What objectives are central to your organization?
What are the critical factors that are essential to meeting these objectives?
What decisions or actions are key to these critical factors?
What variables underlie these decisions, and how are they measured?

13. SWAT Analysis
Situational Analysis
Strength
Weakness
Opportunities

14. Stage 2: Information Requirements Analysis
The goal of the second stage of the model is to ensure that the various information systems, databases, and networks can be integrated to support the requirement identified in stage 1.
Step 1: Define underlying organizational subsystems.
Step 2: Develop subsystem matrix.
Step 3: Define and evaluate information requirements for organizational subsystems.
Step 4: Define major information categories and map interview results into them.
Step 5: Develop information/subsystem matrix.

15. Stage 3: Resource Allocation
Resource allocation consists of developing the hardware, software, data communications, facilities, personnel, and financial plans needed to execute the master development plan defined in Stage 2.
This stage provides the framework for technology and labor procurement, and identifies the financial resources needed to provide appropriate service levels to users.
Funding requests from the ISD fall into two categories;
Request for spending far exceed the available fund.
Those necessary to stay in business
Those for improving the information architecture

16. Stage 4: Project Planning
Project Planning provides an overall framework within which specific applications can be planned, scheduled, and controlled.
This stage is associated with systems development and project management.

17. PM Development Goals
Schedule
Within Budget
According to specification

18. Aggregate Project Plan
Minor
Process
change
Extensive
Process
change
R & D
Projects
Breakthrough
projects
Extensive
Process
change
Platform Projects
Derivative
projects
Minor
Process
change

19. Selecting Projects Factors Is the project potentially profitable.
What is the return on investment
Does the firm has the skill and knowledge to complete the project successfully.
Is it in line with the organization strategy
Can it be completed within the time limit

20. Why do projects still fail
Dependencies are missed
Requirements change
Things take longer
Technology fails to live up to expectations
People leave

21. IT Planning; methods, stages, and outputs
Methods Stages Outputs
BSP (IBM)
CSF
SWAT
Strategic Information Planning
Environment assessment
Alignment plans
IT strategy, policy
Current System assessment
Impact analysis
Five-step process
Information Requirement Analysis
Direction for application portfolio.
ROI
Cost benefit Analysis
IT Architecture
Legacy system reengineering
Allocation of Resources, Budgets
Direction for specific application: Cost, time, specification.
PERT
Milestone
PM Methods
Project Management

22. Managerial Issues
Importance. IT planning is one of the most challenging and difficult tasks facing all of management.
Organizing for planning. What should be the role of the ISD? How should IT be organized? Staffed? Funded?
Fitting the IT architecture to the organization is important.

23. Managerial Issues (cont.)
IT architecture planning. IT specialists & business users must jointly determine the present and future needs for the IT architecture.
Ethical and legal issues.
IT policy. IT architectures should be based on corporate guidelines.
IT strategy. Leadership, listening and experimentation are important.
Integration. The role of IT in redesign and BPR.
Failures. Very big projects have a tendency to fail when expectations exceed real capabilities.