System StrategySystem Strategy

Week 10 Lecture 2

We start with a Business We start with a Business StrategyStrategy

In most cases an organisation will start with a business strategy. This is increasingly necessary because:– Business conditions change rapidly– Competition is actively encouraged– Management teams change more frequently– Business is more complex– Organisations have to be focused– Organisations seek to re-invent themselves rapidly

What is a Business Strategy?What is a Business Strategy?

It is formal – written, usually comprehensive although that is not necessary

Developed through a formal process, often being led by an expert, usually a consultant

Must have significant input from top management

Needs input from top technical people – manufacturing, marketing, finance, IT, HR etc

Once prepared, it must be Once prepared, it must be taken seriouslytaken seriously

Be clearly owned by the senior managementBe seen to drive business decisionsClearly communicated to and accepted by

all levels to staffLive – reviewed and updated, at minimum

annuallyBe accepted as the primary driver for

departmental strategies eg IT

What does it contain?What does it contain? It usually starts by defining the business the

organisation is in – if it does not have focus it will not succeed.

Assuming we have a University, it might seek to define itself in terms of– Undergraduate V Post graduate– Education V Research– Serving the local community V Overseas students– Education for life V Education for career– Which faculties it seeks to concentrate on

It is not necessarily one or the other, but the mix and emphasis.

This example is also simplistic

It then seeks to add meatIt then seeks to add meat

Once defined, the “business” needs to get more specific, a series of objectives that are:– Specific – not general statements of good intent– Measurable– Achievable– Realistic– Time based

SMART

Lets assume the Info Systems Lets assume the Info Systems department sees graduate IT people department sees graduate IT people with ten years experience need an with ten years experience need an

updateupdate An objective could be:

– Masters degree in Info Systems– Delivered electronically– With a residential 2 week session per semester– Where students could come from anywhere in the AsiaPacific area

This course is to – Be up in 2004– Expect to be taken by 500 students in 2005– Earn fees of $A5,000,000

Many of these objective will Many of these objective will affect ITaffect IT

Some of these will directly require IT services IT can also feed into the process and facilitate new

strategies and objectives IT must brief Senior management on emerging

technologies Differentiate between technologies that are there and

those which maybe offer more potential but not yet certain

IT may also prevent strategies from being followed It is an Iterative process

The strategy process is The strategy process is IterativeIterative

BusinessStrategy

InformationTechnology

Strategy SystemsStrategy

System strategy is an integral System strategy is an integral part of the IT strategypart of the IT strategy

Again it will start of with a number of supported objectives. Examples might be:– By 2003 all communication with students on

enrolments, examinations, special considerations etc will be electronic

– By 2004 15% of undergraduate courses will be delivered via Videoconferencing and other electronic means, and with increased one-to-one contact with course lecturers

These objectives need to be These objectives need to be supportedsupported

The rationale for an objective must be provided. For “By 2003 all communication with students on

enrolments, examinations, special considerations etc will be electronic” the rationale might be :– To provide comprehensive course description enabling

students to make better decisions– To improve the process of allocating lecture theatres and

reduce the number of theatres required by 5%– To minimise student time in making and changing

enrolments, from say 25 minutes per course to 10 minutes– To reduce by 25% the admin staff time in processing

enrolments

These examples are simplisticThese examples are simplistic

Analysis and research needs to go into these to understand the need and focus the objective

While it would be wrong to over complicate this step of the process with too much detail, a lack of careful thought makes the process irrelevant

They must be broad objectives, free of implementation detail

The objectives then have to The objectives then have to be related to implementationbe related to implementation

The systems strategy would contain:– Identification of the main strategic systems– High level data model and data dictionary– An organisational model for systems projects– A prioritised list of projects– A definition of the hardware and software

platform, and IT standards

Strategic SystemsStrategic Systems

This takes all the main processes and groups them into specific systems.

In our university this might be: Student records Accept student into course Ex school applicant Mature aged applicant Allocate places Record name and address details Enrol student into course Determine student eligible to graduate

Exam processing List students eligible to take exam Record student taking exam Record exam marks Issue semester result advice Finance General ledger Add account Create journal entry Faculties Add, change or delete department Add, change or delete course Record course pre-requisites Assets Maintain building records Add change or delete lecture rooms Allocate lecture room to courses

Data ModelData Model

This section would list the main entity sets and the key attributes for each.

The attributes that would need to be expressly defined at this stage are any attributes that are – likely to be foreign keys or are – likely to be widely used in a number of

systems.

This would best be shown in an entity relationship diagram.

All of the attributes should then be fully defined in the university data dictionary.

Business rules would also be defined in the data dictionary.

Neither the entity relationship model or the data dictionary is complete at this stage, but as system projects are commenced, there is enough structure for the project to commence and to see the relationship with other systems.

Projects will add and expand these as they progress. Procedures need to be in place to approve changes to

existing stuff. Generally the DBA has administrative responsibility for this.

Organisational modelOrganisational model This section spells out

– The structure and responsibilities of the systems department and its members.

– Defines how projects are to be structured including project stages, reporting procedures, planning techniques.

– Defines how the department and the projects are to relate to the business units. This might include Standing committees, Steering committees, Project sponsors, Business liaison persons and the like.

– Procedures for handing over completed projects to operation.

– Procedures for approval and prioritising of new projects

Prioritised list of projectsPrioritised list of projects

This will identify the projects that are necessary to achieve the strategy and the priority they are to be given.

These priorities would have been negotiated between IT and the business units.

Obviously as projects complete and the business changes this list will change from time to time, but again the process should be formal, and is likely to be the responsibility of a standing committee consisting of senior business leaders and the System leader, meeting say every six months.

Infrastructure platformInfrastructure platform Requires the formal selection of suppliers of servers,

network components, DBMS, operating systems, middleware etc to meet the needs of all projects.

It is not desirable to have servers, operating systems etc from multiple suppliers if this can be avoided. It adds to cost, complicates support and blows out training costs.

Comprehensive statistics are needed While different models of server from the one supplier is

usually not a problem, versions of O/S and DBMS are, It is not unreasonable to have 1-2 year forward plans for

the upgrade of O/S, clients, servers, and DBMS. Project managers need to know the platform on which the

system is expected to run.

Standards need to be defined forStandards need to be defined for Probable bandwidth, although this can usually be renegotiated

when system requirements are more fully known User interface. Given that many users will use multiple

systems, it helps their training and speed of access if they have a standard interface across systems

Security. A hole in one system, can be the access point to other systems

International needs. Development tools. Common developments tools reduces the

investment both in the tools and in staff training as they move from project to project