Global Info System Strategy Assignment
Journal Sample 1
ACTIVITY A: JOURNAL
30th march 2007:
I visited www.isaca.org , and read a case study about Columbia bank (2:40 pm). I logged on to www.columbiabank.com (3:00 pm) and wrote letter to them regarding the information about its IT governance. I also logged on to www.pg.com (3:40 pm) and wrote them too.
3rd April 2007:
I visited www.isaca.org (2:45pm) and took case study of all state insurance and logged on to its’ site, www.allstate.com (2:55 pm) and wrote them for information about IT governance.
6th April 2007:
I went to Kogarah library and got “IT governance – A Pocket Guide based on COBIT” “by Koen Brand & Boonen.
7th April 2007:
I got the information about COBIT through “IT governance – A pocket Guide based on COBIT”
24th April 2007:
I logged on to www.allstate.com and started the introduction part of my report (6:00 am). I also logged on to www.safari.oreilly.com and got some journal article about some process which helped me to understand the subject better (7:45 am)
27th April 2007:
I got a book called “Defining IT Governance A consolidation of Literature” by Marten Simonsson and Pontus Johnson, P.H.D which gave me an information about IT governance and its importance. I than visited www.hpl.hp.com which gave me some of the technological report of COBIT (9:00 am) which was really helpful for me to enhance my knowledge on COBIT.
29th April 2007:
I tried to log on to www.allstate.com but the site did not opened so I logged on to www.isaca.org and read the case study of Canadian Tire (3:40 pm) and logged on to www.ctfs.com (4:00 pm) read the information given and finally decided to make report on it. So again I started the organizational introduction part of my report.
30th April 2007:
I got the information of COBIT from USQ server (1:45 pm), and copied it. I started the 2nd part of my report (3:45pm). I logged on to www.oblicore.com and abstract some information about the focus of COBIT (5:00 pm). I also logged on to www.erion.co.uk and downloaded some information about IT governance (6:00 pm). And finally I logged on to www.ctfs.com and completed my report till the 4th process (8:00 pm).
1st may 2007:
I logged on to www.erion.co.uk again and reviewed the information. I logged on to www.isaca.org/cobit and got some information about the adoption of COBIT by Canadian Tire (8:00 am). I logged on to www.ctfs.com and completed my report till 7th process (11:00 am)
2nd may 2007
I referred to book named “How to operate more effectively” by David M Cannon, Joseph H Godwin and Stephen R. logged on to www.skyviewpartner.com and got the information about the security software’s (9:00pm). I also logged on to www.ctfs.com . I completed all the first domain of my report (12:20 am).
3rd may 2007
I logged on to www.ctfs.com . I abstracted information from www.isaca.org/cobit (2:00am) and from the COBIT guidance provided by the USQ server. I completed till AI5 of my report (5:00 am).
4th may 2007
I logged on to www.isaca.org/cobit and downloaded all the information I needed. I also visited some of the same old sites which I visited before and loaded information which I thought would be helpful to me (8:30 pm). I than created a folder for my convenience and saved all the necessary information in the folder. I then logged to www.pch.gc.ca which gave me some information about Canadian tire (10:00 pm). I also explored www.workpolis.com and www.cpd.cica.ca and gained some information about the company’s conference on IT audit, Governance and Security. (11:30 pm). I modified some of the previous written report according to the information I got. I logged on to www.ctfs.com and finally I completed till DS7 of my report (1:00am).
5th may 2007
I logged on to www.zdnet.co.uk and got some information about the problem management and articles regarding the service support of Canadian Tire (9:00 am). I also logged on to www.isaca.toronto.on.ca which gave me information about the support systems of Canadian Tire (10:00 am).
6th may 2007
I than logged on to www.ctfs.com and downloaded www.lindalopeke.com/db4/00305/lindalopeke.com/_download/Lopeke-06ProfessionalProfilewebvsn.do which gave me information about risk management (12:20 am). I also logged on to www.cipstoronto.ca and gained some information about obstacles faced by Canadian Tire on adoption of COBIT (2:00 am). I also explored to www.alignedstrategy.com and got information about the service management (3:30 am). I then logged on to www.insidesarbanesoxley.com and got the information about the software and protection of software (4:20 am). I also got into www.infogovernance.blogspot.com where I got information on IT risk (6:00 am). And finally I completed whole of part two of my report (7:00 am).
I started the third part of my report that is the process relevance, referred to the hands out provided by USQ and also to www.ctfs.com , www.hpl.hp.com , www.cipstoronto.ca , www.isaca.toronto.on.ca , and www.cpd.cica.ca and finally completed the second part of my report ( 3:00 pm).
7th may 2007
I went through the whole report and modified some of the parts referring to the handout provided by USQ and then wrote my conclusion referring to www.isaca.com/cobit . (11:00 am). I then wrote recommendations based on my observation and analysis (2:00 pm). Then I wrote the letter of transmittal, and the introduction of the report (2:30 pm). Then I drafted the executive summary of the report (3:00 pm) and finally designed the table of contents (5:00 pm).
Journal Sample 2
9th April: Emailed IT department regarding the physical IT environment in XXX. Regarding the number and type of servers, computing platforms in use and the software platforms used in these systems…?why those particular software platforms are better suited…Do they use the Linux product for their oracle systems?
Explored the Intranet site and started a file of things and articles that may prove useful.
11th April: Google which the service has available as a search engine, threw up under IT governance a few interesting articles. A very broad topic it seems, and this COBIT thing…appears to be a system or template that a team or focus group could spend months debating about. Interesting that the Domain theory or approach is used…like cognitive domains in education as a comparison. <ITGovernanceHands-on.pdf>,
14th April: Tried to get a reply to my e-mail, proving hard to get anyone at IT to discuss this with…perhaps because of the restructure? XXX Strategic Corporate Plan; 2004-2007,
XXX strategic plan; 2004-2007: Not much guidance regarding IT direction and governance within the two versions of the strategic plan. Wonder how seriously XXX has viewed its information technology as an asset to be protected?
15th April: XXX, Themes of Organisational review, Draft report memo. The organisational review discusses IT and makes no mention of a governance plan.
XXX Strategic Corporate Plan; 2004-2007. The corporate plan indicates concern for unplanned system downtime and talks in terms of key performance indicators (KPI)…I remember from another course that ‘…an indication of the success of an IT communications system is the volume of use’…Tried to source information regarding any increase in intranet/internet use since the new broadband ADSL system was commissioned…no figures available, helpful.
18th April: Read the ‘one page strategy’ for the organisation, a single page document that mentions delivery of IT support as a KPI, public access improvements are mentioned from the access viewpoint, staff levels of service and improved infrastructure. Current projects are listed as PC refresh, a disaster recovery project and an Oracle upgrade.
23rd April: Intranet sources such as: pages on IT technology services and systems documents discuss the divisional structure broken into three streams, very corporate. In reality I wonder how the structure communicates within and outside itself to follow a plan or common vision.
Journal – Sample 3
Appendix 1
Overview of the Journal that was prepared with respect to this report
Research Activity A: Personal Interviews
Subject: Overview of XXXX’s IT infrastructure and information systems
Date: 17 April 2007
Interviewee: Mr XXXX, Information Technology Director, XXXX
Interviewer: XXXX
Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes
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Subject: XXXX’s view of CobiT; auditing practices and reports; other IT research materials available to conduct the assessment (hardcopy documents and electronic copies)
Date: 18 April 2007
Interviewee: Mr XXXX, Information Technology Director, XXXX
Interviewer: XXXX
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
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Subject: Information Technology views from a XXXX operating company perspective; opportunities and challenges; overview of recent audits conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and XXXX
Date: 19 April 2007
Interviewee: Mr XXXX, Information Technology Director, XXXX
Interviewer: XXXX
Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes
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Subject: Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP), redundancy and back-up systems for managing data, data security and continuous service
Date: 23 April 2007
Interviewee: XXXX, Information Technology Support Technician,
XXXX
Interviewer: XXXX
Duration: 45 minutes
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Journal – Sample 4
Preparation of this research report has been an excellent learning experience primarily because the report is based on one of the newer concepts in IT governance and also that the subject company is XXXXX, a multi billion dollar blue-chip organization rendering a wide range of world class service products.
In order to add greater value to the report, I had planned its preparation by formal discussion with the management and IT personnel of the company. However, no cooperation was received on this matter and their reluctance to provide specific information on this subject left me no choice but to collect information from other sources. Even though, I have been able to gather the required amount of information and tried to prepare the report at its best.
This research report is based on the information gathered from the XXXXX’s official website, CobiT 4 (IT Governance Processes 2005), IT professionals working in other technology based firms (detailed below) research papers and any other relevant sources.
14/04/2007
I briefly went through the CobiT 4 and the assignment question in order to have a greater understanding about what I needed to do for preparation of this report. Met Mr. XXX XXX, IT professional working in XXX XXX. The topics of discussion included about the IT Domains and Processes as outlined in CobiT 4, its application and importance and availability of the required information. The discussion lasted for about forty five minutes.
It greatly helped me to get the actual picture of the research to be carried out. I chose XXXXX as my company of research.
In between the period, I had been regularly visiting the XXXXX’s website for any relevant information. Also, I visited XXXXX Office but no specific information was received.
20/04/2007
Met Mr. XXXXXX, an IT professional working in XXXX (competition firm). The discussion lasted for about twenty minutes and the topic covered included IT Governance similarities between XXXXX and XXXXX, its application and feasibility etc. Though, no such specific information was received, it greatly helped me to envisage the IT Governance processes in XXXXX, based on the available information.