ITM501 CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4, and CS5

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Please accept this assignment 25 pages minimum double space courier new 12 font due before midnight 20 July 2011.  Price set at 220 dollars.  Please accept.  Kindly separate each ITM501cs1, cs2, cs3, cs4, and cs5 to include a reference page for each.

 

ITM501cs1 – (5 to 7 pages double spaced courier new 12 font and include reference page)

Information overload! The phrase alone is enough to strike terror into the hardiest of managers; it presages the breakdown of society as we know it and the failure of management to cope with change. The media constantly dissect the forthcoming collapse brought on by TMI ("Too Much Information"), even as they themselves pile up larger and larger dossiers on the subject, and we are frequently informed that it is our own damn fault that we are drowning in data, since we simply can't discriminate between the important stuff and everything else. Hence, the info-tsunami warning signs posted all along what we once so naively called the "information superhighway".

Of course, this is arrant nonsense -- human beings have been suffering from information overload in varying forms since about the time we hit the ground and found ourselves simultaneously running after the antelope and away from the lion. There's no question that the human mind has a limited capacity to process information, but after several million years we've gotten pretty good at figuring out how to handle a lot. The two basic tricks turn out to be distinguishing between short-term and long-term information storage, and "chunking" -- putting things in a limited number of baskets. This isn't primarily a course in the psychology of memory -- it's about information tools and systems -- but in fact the same things that make our information tools and systems work are the same things that have kept us near the antelopes and away from the lions (mostly) for the last million years or so. So we're beginning this course by thinking about information tools, what makes them like and unlike other kinds of tools, how the concept of a socio-technical system (in which social and behavioral functions shape results as much as does the technology itself) helps make sense of what we're facing, and why the technology just might win after all.

Let's start with a little historical review. Amy Blair has recently done a very intriguing summary of just why information overload isn't something that we, or still less our kids, dreamed up -- people have been drowning in data for ages regardless of the tools at their disposal:

Blair, A. (2010) Information Overload, Then and Now. The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. November 28. Retrieved November 15, 2010 fromhttp://chronicle.com/article/Information-Overload-Then-and/125479/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

We thought we had it all nailed down when the information theorists came up with their typology distinguishing between "data" (raw stuff), "information" (cooked stuff), and "knowledge" (cooked stuff that we've eaten). This rather elegant approach did have the virtue of emphasizing that information processing is a human task, even though we might delegate part of it to machinery, and that the tests of that task are the results for humans. It helps return us to the perspective outlined in the module introduction -- that is, tools need to be judged by what they do, not just what theyare. Here's a good brief summary of this perspective:

Bellinger, G., Castro, D., & Mills, A. (2004) Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. The Way of Systems. November 15, 2010 from http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

But just when we thought we had everything nailed down, the emerging technologies of networking seemed to be blurring things a bit. First, with so much stuff floating around, it's not at all clear just how much "cooking" is really involved in the data/information boundary; a lot of data turns out to be pretty self-interpreting, and no matter how much we cook some of the stuff, it's never going to be particularly nutritious. In addition, it turns out that information sometimes looks an awfully lot like property, so that the kind of disembodied knowledge management framework we thought was going to make things clear for us gets all tied up with personal self-interest, organizational and social politics, generational conflicts, and all of the other fun things that human beings have teamed up to make life difficult for one another over the years. Here is a useful introduction to this concern:

Green, P. (2010 ) Social Media Is Challenging Notions of the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Hierarchy. CMS Wire. August 16. Retrieved November 25, 2010 fromhttp://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/social-media-is-challenging-notions-of-the-data-information-knowledge-wisdom-dikw-hierarchy--008320.php

But now let's put this all in a bit of organizational context. As we noted in the module introduction, the language of socio-technical design can be very helpful in diagnosing where systems are going wrong, particularly when there appear to be disconnects between the capacities of the technology and the ability of the company to establish the right kind of behaviorl and procedures to take advantage of the tools. Here is a very useful short introduction to socio-technical design and how it can be used:

Liu, X. and Errey, C. (2006) Socio-technical systems - there's more to performance than new technology. PTG Global. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://www.ptg-global.com/PDFArticles/Socio%20technical%20systems%20-%20There's%20more%20to%20performance%20than%20new%20technology%20v1.0.pdf

So how does all this tie together? Well, we've got all this lovely data, information, and maybe even knowledge floating around most organizations, but we don't seem to be able to make a lot of use of it. Either there's just too much, or we can't identify relevant material on a timely basis, or things fall between the organizational cracks. In any event, we experience what amounts to "information overload" on a pretty regular basis, despite having all this understanding of information and some really good tools for managing and using it. How come?

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for whether or not we’re about to be washed away by the “info-tsunami”; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for how information tools do (or don't) manage an info-tsunami, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

How taking a socio-technical perspective can be more productive in helping organizations manage information overload than either technical solutions or organizational solutions alone

Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it’s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. In this case, there isn’t a single right or wrong, yes-or-no answer – either perspective can be justified. Your task is to construct a logical, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument for your conclusions.

Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don’t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space.

Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.

Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format.



ITM501CS2 – (5-7 pages double space courier new 12 font and reference page)

In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

Let's begin with a story. A number of years ago, a couple of researchers from the RAND Corporation conducted a study on the implementation of some information technologies at the World Bank. The technologies themselves are no longer of particular relevance, but the article does contain a number of useful observations on the processes of IT implementation. Read it quickly with an eye toward learning about the predictable dynamics of implementation:

Bikson, TK and Eveland, JD (1996) Groupware Implementation: Reinvention in the Sociotechnical Frame. Proceedings of the 1996 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://jdeveland.com/Papers%20for%20Website/worldbank.htm

The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they're short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:

Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:

BI Best Practices.http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php

BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php

BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php

BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php

Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php

But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.

Now it's time for you to become a business intelligence practitioner of sorts, by doing a little research on your own. Try googling a couple of search phrases, something like “Failures in Business Intelligence” and “Successes in Business Intelligence” or some variants on those that appeal to you, in search of one or two real-life examples of both success and failure in the business intelligence enterprise. You may even know of a case or two from your own experience.

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

Steps that organizations can take in creating, implementing, and using business intelligence that would substantially enhance the chances for BI success.

Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.

Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it’s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

  • Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. In this case, why is BI so difficult to implement successfully, and what can be done to avoid common implementation pitfalls and enhance success?
  • Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don’t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space.
  • Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper
  • Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format



ITM501CS3 – (5-7 pages double space courier new 12 font and reference page)

In July 2009, a musician named Dave Carroll was traveling with his band from Toronto Canada to Nebraska somewhere, much like many millions of other folks have done. Looking out the window the plane, however, Dave noticed that the United Airlines baggage handlers were, to put it mildly, failing to treat his rather expensive guitar and a number of other musical instruments belonging to the band with suitable care, preferring instead to sort of fling them through the air into the cargo hold. Dave pointed out to the UAL cabin attendants that this was not likely to be of significant benefit to the instruments' health, but was told that nothing could be done and he should simply sit down and be quiet. Upon arriving in Chicago, Dave determined that in fact he had been right, and his $2400 guitar was now $2400 worth of rather expensive kindling. He pointed this out to the United Airlines staff at the time, and suggested that perhaps some compensation might be in order. United Airlines, in the best bureaucratic tradition, took almost a year to conclude that its folks certainly hadn't done anything wrong, that Dave was probably just being excessively picky, and that they weren't about to pony up anything. After all, weren't they a Fortune 25 company engaged in a conflict with one rather slender young musician? It seemed like a classic application of the business motto once attributed to the old monolithic AT&T: “We’re the phone company…we don’t care. We don’t have to.”

Back then, that worked. In fact, it still does, a lot of the time; money and power still convey a lot of advantage. But here’s where things get interesting. As a practicing musician, Dave was well aware of a recent phenomenon known as Youtube – a strange sort of Internet place where you could essentially tack up as many electronic versions of “95 Theses” as you wanted to, allowing some creativity, some luck, and something called “viral video” behavior to be leveraged on occasion into something quite unprecedented. Let’s start by watching what Dave posted:

Carroll, D. (2009) United Breaks Guitars. Music video posted to Youtube. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&feature=channel

Now lots of people post things on Youtube, and most of them don’t go anywhere. But here’s where it got different in his case; for reasons known primarily to the gods of the Internet, Dave actually did “go viral” – accumulating well over a million hits in fairly short order, rocketing to the top of the charts (to date, almost 10 million hits overall) – and, in the process, vastly confusing United Airlines by creating a highly visible public relations nightmare out of what ought to have been a minor transaction, and also causing the whole IT analysis profession and assorted professors of business to suddenly take seriously the possibility that here was a tool that just might have the potential to bring about a whole new kind of customer relations management. Here are two more videos featuring experts probing at this rather simple case for deep lessons:

Milliken, J. (2010) Brands and Social Media Participation; United Breaks Guitars. Coreographytv. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNpry5iSTBo&feature=related

Owyang, J. (2010) Social Media, Crisis & Reputation Management. Coreographytv. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-7gDTk49k&NR=1

Dave has even achieved the ultimate B-school immortality – being made into a Harvard Business School case! Here’s how the august professors are now phrasing the Lessons Learned:

Hanna, J. (2010) HBS Cases: United Breaks Guitars. Working Knowledge: Harvard Business School. November 29. Retrieved November 27, 2010, fromhttp://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6492.html?wknews=112910

So what does this all mean? Is it just a cute little song that somehow made it big -- the proverbial flash in a pan -- or is it actually a vision of a new kind of relationship between companies and customers mediated by the larger world of social media? It could be either, or anything in between. One thing is clear, however -- this could not have happened even as recently as 2 to 3 years ago. It's probably equally clear that we're going to see a lot more of it -- and we're going to see a lot more things like this using tools and technologies that are today still barely on the drawing boards, if they've even gotten that far out of the heads of the smart 12-year-olds who are going to be billionaires before they need to shave.

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for the nature and effects of social media in business; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be. Your own social media experiences are likely to be useful sources of information as well.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for how social media are affecting business, you'll be in a position to prepare an effective short paper (or alternative – see below) on the topic:

Will the availability and use of social media on the Internet really induce businesses to change in fundamental ways? If so, how? If not, why not?

Special possibilities:

Since this is a case about new media, it’s only fair that you have some new media alternatives in dealing with it. So while you’re perfectly free to write the same sort of paper that you’ve been accustomed to writing (as described below in the “Regular Case Expectations”), you are also encouraged to think about using some sort of more creative social media application in response. If I gave you all the possibilities, it wouldn’t be all that creative, now would it? But by way of stimulus, you might consider:

A video essay and/or discussion and/or presentation made available through Youtube

Using a Facebook page or related approach to formulate your response, either alone or perhaps working together with some of your colleagues

Submitting your paper as a series of 142-character tweets through Twitter (see this module’s SLP assignment) – daunting as a prospect, but theoretically possible

Something else entirely. 

An unspecified number of points may be awarded for creativity of presentation as well as quality of ideas – but the ideas have to be there first, even if the medium is the message.

PLEASE NOTE: You certainly do not have to use any of these alternatives; it's perfectly fine just to write a paper as you are accustomed to doing. You won't be penalized in any way. The alternatives are included here just to get into the spirit of the thing, if you happen to have a little extra time and a little extra tolerance for learning to use new tools under pressure. Please do not feel that you will be disadvantaged in any way by not participating in this strange part of what's already a very unusual and experimental course!

Regular Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it’s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

·         Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly.

·         Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials.

·         Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.

·         Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format



ITM501CS4 – (5-7 pages double space courier new 12 font and reference page)

The case for this module calls for you to explore some of the divergent opinions about this new approach to organizational information systems and weigh some of the competing claims. First off, if you don't know anything about computer networking or what a client/server netwiork is in particular, it'a recommended that you start with this reasonably good short guide to network terminology (if you're already on top of this stuff, you can probably skip this one):

Sensible Computer Help (2008) Choosing the best computer network. Sensible-Computer-Help.com. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://www.sensible-computer-help.com/computer-network.html

With that foundation, you can now begin to learn about "the cloud". A good general reference to start with is here:

Chee, B. and Franklin, C. (2010) Applications for Clouds. Chapter 4 in Cloud Computing: Technologies and Strategies of the Ubiquitous Data Center. CRC Press. Retrieved November 15, 2010 fromhttp://media.techtarget.com/searchSystemsChannel/downloads/Cloud_Computing_Techn_Strat_of_the_Ubiq_Data_Cent_Chapter_4.pdf

As we noted in the introduction, a term often used more or less interchangeably with “cloud computing” (despite some significant differences of focus) is “software as a service”– described as a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. The following article discusses some of the difficulties with organizational implementation of this model:

Fornes, D. (2010) The Software as a Service Dilemma. The Software Advice Blog. Retrieved November 10, 2010, fromhttp://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/uncategorized/the-software-as-a-service-dilemma-104071/

Finally, this discussion would not be complete without the views of the skeptic; the following article points out some of the all-too-apparent complications that might ensue from a wholesale stampede into the clouds:

Schneier, B. (2009) Cloud Computing. Schneier on Security. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/06/cloud_computing.html

But back to the enthusiasts. SaaSBlogs is a website that, in its own words, is “a community centered around the idea that Software as a Service (SAAS) represents the largest shift in the software industry in decades. We cover ideas, technologies, challenges, and business strategies related to this new and exciting paradigm.” Basically, it’s a lot of blog posts primarily authored by three experts, addressing a very wide range of topics related to SaaS deployment, use, and effects. It’s a very good place to see how people committed to this model think and what they bring to the table. In fact, it’s so good at this that it’s going to be your primary source material for this case assignment.

Scrolling down the SaasBlogs home page points you to the archive of posts on various aspects of this issue. You should spend some time looking through these posts for discussions of things that you find interesting relating to SaaS operation, implementation, or results. Perhaps they will relate directly to issues in your own environment; perhaps they will remain largely academic – but in either case, you should be alert to the language of the discussion and how both technical and social issues are being talked about. There are also other SaaS-related blog sites that you may wish to look at (google a few and see what you find).

In addition, the Background Readings page lists some optional readings that may be useful to you as you consider these issues, or you may find other sources yourself (be sure to reference properly whatever specific sources you draw on).

When you've read through the articles and related material and thought about them carefully, please compose a short paper on the topic:

Why “software as a service” is (or is not – pick one) going to dominate the next several years in information management

Be sure to include at least some reference to the SaaSBlogs material spomewwhere in your paper.

Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it’s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

  • Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. In this case, as in earlier ones, there isn’t a single right or wrong, yes-or-no answer – either perspective can be justified. Your task is to construct a logical, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument for your conclusions.
  • Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don’t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space.
  • Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.
  • Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format.



ITM501CS5 (5-7 pages double space courier new 12 font and reference page)

The core of the case for this module involves your careful assessment of a rather ambitious view of strategic enterprise information. But before you’re ready to tackle it, you need to get somewhat up to speed on the underlying issues and dynamics. The following two articles are highly suggested as briefing material:

Nobel, C. (2010) How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making. Working Knowledge: Harvard Business School. November 1. Retrieved November 25, 2010, fromhttp://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6504.html?wknews=110110

Hayles, R.A., (2007) Planning and Executing IT Strategy. IT Professional Magazine. Sep/Oct. 9(5):12-20. Retrieved March 8, 2011, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1382579171&Fmt=6&clientId=29440&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Now to the real meat. The Enterprise Architecture Center has prepared a couple of substantial documents reflecting a fairly detailed vision of what an “enterprise architecture” for information management might look like, including specific attention to the social as well as technical issues that need to be addressed, and a lot on how the whole thing needs to be governed and controlled. This is going to take you some time to go through, so give yourself adequate time. It’s not all that technical, but deserves your full attention.

Enterprise Architecture Center (2010) Enterprise Architecture Organizational Readiness and Change Management. Retrieved March 7, 2011 fromhttp://www.enterprisearchitecturecenter.com/enterprise-architecture-blogs/enterprise-architecture-organizational-readiness-and-change-management



Enterprise Architecture Center (2010) Enterprise Architecture Governance Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://www.enterprisearchitecturecenter.com/enterprise-architecture-blogs/enterprise-architecture-governance

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for whether or not this all makes any sense; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

Your task is pretty simple: write an effective short paper on the topic:

"Ideas and topics that need to be added to the EAC documents in order to make them more effective as IT system implementation guides, based on what I've learned in this course about information technology in business"

This could even be fun!

Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it’s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

  • Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. Again, there isn’t a single right or wrong, yes-or-no answer – several things could be identified. Your task is to construct a logical, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument for your conclusions.
  • Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don’t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space.
  • Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.
  • Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format.
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