INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 1 of 7 INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Group work Weight: 30% of the grade Word count: Around 5000 (just an expectation) Due date: 11:55 PM on Tuesday 31 October 2017 This assignment walks through a simplified method of strategy planning and formulation in a real-life organisation. The purpose is to give an opportunity to plan and formulate IT strategy in view of the real-life constraints an organisation faces. The assignment is divided into four parts. Every group will work on distinct organisation. You are the CIO of your selected organization (we wish this becomes a reality one day J; but for now just take the pleasure through your imagination). PROJECT DELIVERABLES Part I: Before getting on to formulating a strategy, it is a good practice to know the strategy recipients and stakeholders. The purpose of this part is to understand the role, responsibilities, routine activities and strategic contribution of the key stakeholders. Although the list of stakeholders is much longer, but we shall restrict ourselves to these stakeholder for now: CEO, CIO, CFO, CCO, CHRO and external customers. In the selected organisation, please describe the top-5 concerns and expectations of each of these roles (CEO, CFO, CCO and CHRO) related to the CIO and his scope of work. Do not forget to mention how these roles impact the IT strategy and the routine functions of IT. Part II – Develop understanding of the business: After knowing the stakeholders, the next step is to gain insight about the business. Please cover the following sections to reflect insight about the business: Section Hints Business situation Situational analysis of the business: external, internal, SWOT etc. Business needs What are the business needs, requirements and expectations from IT in this organisation? While covering from multiple perspectives, please give a special focus to the stakeholders which were described in part I. Business priorities After understanding the business situation and needs, the next step is to arrange the latter in order of decreasing priorities (Pareto). Also INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 2 of 7 consider the business vision and mission while putting down the priorities. This step will help IT in aligning with the priorities of business. Organisation structure & capabilities (best effort) Organisation structure of the business; “Best effort” means that the difficulty in getting specific information about a real-life org structure is acknowledged. So please make your best effort and feel free to make reasonable assumptions where enough information cannot be obtained. However, do state those assumptions clearly. Business challenges, risks and approaches used to resolve/mitigate those Think strategic IT challenges, risks and approaches used to resolve/mitigate those Think strategic Processes Processes related to IT; many of those will be IT processes. Consider categorising those. Examples: • IT Service management processes (is a category, not individual process) • IT Supplier management process (is example of a process) Provide as much information as can be provided. Ideally, workflows of the company for IT processes can be produced. IT Infrastructure and Operations What is the IT infrastructure of this company (data centre, cloud etc)? How are the IT operations managed by this company (service monitoring, NOC, etc) Information systems and enterprise architecture What are the salient information systems they have and what does their enterprise architecture look like? Please make reasonable assumptions if sufficient information cannot be found but please state the assumptions clearly. It will be good to see information about the systems, their interdependencies, features, capacities, integration and the systems architecture. Reasonable assumptions can be made, but please state the assumptions clearly. Budgets and spending (best effort) Annual Budget of the IT department. INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 3 of 7 Now that you know about the information systems, infrastructure, operations and the organisation, it is the time to estimate the budget and spending. “Best effort” means that the difficulty in getting budget information is acknowledged. So please make your best effort and feel free to make reasonable assumptions. But do state your assumptions clearly. It will be good to segregate the budget into categories of capital expenditure, operational expenditure, development or projects etc. The purpose is to give a feel about the real-life scenario and to let you think about costs. Part III – About the CIO Knowing the stakeholders and business situation are essential pre-requisites to strategy planning formulation. Likewise, knowing about the role of CIO in the organisation is extremely important to ascertain the extent of strategic initiatives that can be relevant. Please elaborate the following in this part: 1. What is the role of CIO in this organisation? (Brief) 2. How did this role evolve in this organisation over the years? (Brief) Example: Was the role CIO from the beginning, or did it start from a small MIS manager role? 3. What does the top-management of organization expect from IT / IS? (Explain) 4. In your opinion, is the CIO influential in this organisation? How much? (Explain) Hint: look at how much has IT contributed to the business during the past few years. 5. In your opinion, has IS/IT performed good in view of the ‘expectations’? How much? (Explain) Hint: look at how much has IT contributed to the business during the past few years. 6. In your opinion, what important deliveries or functions have IT/IS missed out in this organisation? What are the ‘perceived’ weaknesses of IT/IS in this organisation? (Explain) Hint: look at the gaps between the previous two answers, i.e., between what IT has done versus what they were expected to do. INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 4 of 7 7. In your opinion, what IT/IS, in general and CIO in specific, can do to improve the situation? (Enlist and explain) Hint: be a creative strategy expert here, and don’t forget to stay aligned with the business priorities as well as modern strategy options and technologies. 8. What are the important challenges and risks in your proposed improvement actions? What are the resolutions or mitigations of those challenges or risks? (Explain) Looking at your proposal from the previous question and current state of the business, what will be the challenges, risks or difficulties to implement your ideas? Part IV – IT/IS Strategy In this part, the working from previous three parts shall be used to formulate the strategy specific to the needs of the selected organisation. Please complete the following deliverables: 1. Propose IT/IS Strategy for this organisation Hint: Include strategy components as discussed in the lectures, like strategic initiatives, enterprise architecture etc. 2. Please provide at least 5 justifications of why your strategy will work and how will it resolve the real-life challenges faced by this organisation. 3. Propose Technology Roadmap for this organisation Hint: Strategic initiatives need to be broken down into projects; related projects need to be grouped into programs; Projects and programs need to be arranged into sequence and conceived against a timeline. The resultant becomes Technology Roadmap when following components are provided for each of such project or program: i. Scope and what benefit will it bring to the business ii. Planned start date / planned end date iii. Staffing requirement (skills and number of resources identified) iv. Budgeting / costs (you can make assumptions) v. Critical success factors (definition of success for the project or program) vi. Outputs? Where the output will fit in the enterprise architecture? 4. As the CIO of this organisation, you decide to outsource a subset of IT scope of this organisation: a. Which services will you chose to outsource? Why? b. Which strategic IT governance frameworks will you use? INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 5 of 7 c. For any one outsourced critical information system, identify the SLAs and KPIs that you will use to manage your outsourcing suppliers. 5. What are the top three (03) ethical risks or issues this organisation faces and what steps they have taken (or should take) to mitigate those risks (or issues)? 6. What are the top three (03) legal risks or issues this organisation faces and what steps they have taken (or should take) to mitigate those risks (or issues)? SPECIAL NOTES 1. The deliverables must be compiled in a report (One report per group) 2. Contribution traceability matrix needs to be put as an appendix to the report (don’t forget to ask the lecturer about what it is J) SUBMISSION Submit your report through learnonline on or before the due date. Only one member from the group has to submit the report. FORMATTING • Margins 2.5cm all around • Font: 12 point, Times New Roman, including headings • Single-line spacing, one clear line space between paragraphs • Header – subject name, student name and student ID • Footer – date of saving, page number REFERENCES • Harvard Referencing UniSA guide must be used for reference formatting. There is no minimum number of references suggested, however, if you use any external resources it is necessary to include the references INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 6 of 7 Assessment feedback INFS 5058 -Assignment 2- Group assignment Key components of this assignment Comment by marker Executive summary § Summary of the paper § What is covered in the paper § States some findings or issues (1 marks) Introduction § Description of the company § Organization – structure and capabilities (best effort) § Aim/purpose of the paper § Background of the topic § Structure of the paper (2 marks) Write-up § Business situation, needs, priorities § Business challenges, risks and approaches used to resolve/mitigate those § IT challenges, risks and approaches used to resolve/mitigate those § Processes § IT – Infrastructure and Operations § Information systems § Budgets and spending (best effort) § Role of CIO in this organisation? (Brief) § What does the top-management of organization expect from IT / IS? § What important deliveries or functions has IT/IS missed out in this organisation? What are the ‘perceived’ weaknesses of IT/IS in this organisation? § IT/IS Strategy for this organisation § Technology Roadmap § Legal and ethical issues § Governance frameworks, SLAs and KPIs (23 marks) INFS 5058 Assignment 2 – Page 7 of 7 Conclusion § Summary the whole paper § Presentation/paper meets its aims (2 marks) Presentation of the report § Correct in-text referencing § Up to date references used § Easy to read § Appropriate classification of contents (2 marks) § Group progress, role allocation and contribution of each member (1 marks) Summary comment: The Graduate qualities being assessed by this assignment are indicated by an X: X GQ1: operate effectively with and upon a body of knowledge X GQ5: are committed to ethical action and social responsibility X GQ2: are prepared for lifelong learning X GQ6: communicate effectively X GQ3: are effective problem solvers GQ7: demonstrate an international perspective X GQ4:can work both autonomously and collaboratively Assignment Grade/Mark: Lecturer : Date :