West

DQ

Shared Practice—WestJet Airlines' IT Governance

For this Discussion, read the case study:

"WestJet Airlines: Information Technology Governance and Corporate Strategy" by Malcolm Munro and Sharaz Khan.

By Day 2

Post your responses to the following Discussion prompts:

· When Cheryl Smith, the new CIO, arrived at WestJet, she was asked by the CEO to advise whether or not the company had an adequate IT infrastructure. What aspects of the WestJet IT situation did she assess in order to respond to the CEO's concern, and why do you think they are important?

· Summarize and critique Smith's assessment.

· Offer evidence/arguments that major changes in IT at WestJet were essential and that Smith's governance model would enable WestJet to achieve its strategic goal.

· Summarize the lessons you learned based on the experiences at WestJet. How might these lessons help your organization evaluate its information technology capabilities and best serve its business strategies and needs?

Assignment:

Final Project—Business Memo—Driving Value From Business Information Systems

This week you will continue to work on your Final Project, which is due in Week 7.

By Day 5, you will submit a business memo, written to your Instructor that explains how you plan to incorporate your learning from the week into your Final Project. This will not be a "perfect" synopsis at this point, but it should capture the main themes and important ideas from the week. Your memo should include the following:

· Your preliminary summary of how you are planning to incorporate this week’s learning into your Final Project

· Your ideas and recommendations for how your organization can drive value from business information systems

· Other relevant recommendations or issues that you identified, with a brief analysis of why they are important

Note:  If you are unable to find relevant information, you may want to look for similar information at/for other similar publically traded companies. You may find relevant information that will enable you to make appropriate inferences about your organization and make reasonable assumptions so you can proceed with your project.

If you have questions about how to apply what you are learning, or how to find the most relevant information for your organization’s needs, please discuss your choice with your Instructor using the Contact the Instructor link in the classroom.

General Guidance on Assignment Length: Your Week 4 Assignment will typically be 1.5–3 pages (0.75–1 pages if single spaced), excluding a title page (not required for this

Assignment) and references.

As a best practice for this course, as you engage and complete your weekly activities, you will capture notes on your learning for each week and add them to your Final Project Portfolio, which you will use to formulate your Final Project. By the time you turn in your Final Project in Week 7, your working Final Project Portfolio document will contain your notes on the resources you found relevant in each week, as well as your ideas for how your organization can improve its BIS management with respect to each week’s main themes. You should also include your analyses of the implications of your recommendations, as well as reasons why your recommendations are important.

You will update your Final Project Portfolio each week.

This week you are encouraged to continue setting up your presentation in PowerPoint.

You should complete a title slide and 1–2 slides with your preliminary recommendations for your organization, as they relate to this week’s learning.