Page 466 - Using MIS

434 Chapter 11 Information Systems Management

So
what? Managing the IS Department

Why do you need to know about IS management? Of course, if
you’re an IS major, you need to know the responsibilities and
organization of your future department. But what if you’re an
accounting major or a marketing major or a management major?
Why do you need to know about IS management?
As a future user of the IS department’s services, it will be
helpful to you to know the factors that drive standards and
policies. And, if you’re a manager, this knowledge will help you
guide your employees’ behavior vis-à-vis the IS department. But
let’s take it a step further. Suppose you work for Zev at PRIDE
Systems. Zev brought James over when he bought PRIDE Systems Source: Peshkova/Shutterstock
from Dr. Flores. Suppose Zev has some misgivings about James
and asks you to help him. Zev would likely say something like “Do
you think James knows his job?” or “Is James the right guy for us?”
If you had that assignment, how would you proceed?
Answering the following questions will help you.

Questions

1. State the major functions of this new IS department. Explain 4. Given the decisions (in questions 1–3 above) that James has
how each of the functions defined in this chapter pertain to made,
PRIDE. a. What will be the function and goals of the Operations group
2. Assume James hired Ajit Barid and, so far, he’s worked out (see Figure 11-1)?
well. Even still, Zev, as PRIDE Systems’ owner, and you, as b. What will be the function and goals of the Development
a key employee, might be nervous about the risks of this group? What job descriptions will this group need to staff?
decision. Describe those risks. Assess how significant they c. What will be the function and goals of the Outsourcing
are. Explain how the decision to use an offshore contractor Relations group?
influences your assessment of James. d. Assume James has not specified the need for a CTO. Is this
3. Assume that James decided to use a cloud vendor to provide a mistake?
PaaS functionality. Explain what this means and how it reflects 5. Given your answers to questions 1–4, how would you respond
on James’s competence. to Zev’s question “Is James right for us?”

services either across the industry or within a segment. Whatever the organizational strategy,
the CIO and the IS department must constantly be vigilant to align IS with it.
Maintaining alignment between IS direction and organizational strategy is a continuing
process. As strategies change, as the organization merges with other organizations, as divisions
are sold, IS must evolve along with the organization. As you will learn in Chapter 12, maintain-
ing that alignment is an important role for BPM and for COBIT, in particular.
Unfortunately, however, adapting IS to new versions of business processes is neither easy
nor quick. For example, switching from in-house hosting to cloud hosting requires time and
resources. Such a change must also be made without losing the organization’s computing