Management Issues in System Development

Brandon LewisAaron Caracci

Jenna Todd

Introduction

How should IS staff be managed? How can systems be implemented

successfully? How can legacy systems be

improved? How can systems benefits be

measured?

Managing the IS staff:

Recruiting – finding people with the right skills and then providing them with incentives and work culture.

Designing motivating work – UPS case study Redesigning the job Reduce Turnover

Five Core Job Dimensions (Figure10-3)

Skill Variety Task Identity Task Significance Autonomy Feedback from the job This chart provides employees with

motivation through meaningful work

Successful Systems Implementation:

Change Management – the process of assisting people to make major changes in their working environment Example: introduction of new computer

system People Involved in a change project:

Sponsor – initializes the change Change Agent – implements the change Target – people affected by the change

Improvement of Legacy Systems:

The first question that must be asked is to “replace or not replace?”

If the decision is to improve the system then restructure options are as follows: Evaluate Compile the program Clean-up Reformat Minimize overhead Rationalize

More options for improving a legacy system:

Reengineer the System

Refurbish the System

Rejuvenate the System

Replace with a Package or Service

Rewrite the System

Measuring Systems Benefits:

Distinguish between the different roles of systems

Measure what is important to management

Assess investments across organizational levels

Distinguish between the different roles of systems:

Help other departments – support systems to increase organizational efficiency

Carry out a business strategy - eg. CAD systems that customers and suppliers can use to design vs support systems that are used by customers

Systems can be sold as a product or service – eg. Web-based systems

Measure what is important to management:

Customer Relations CRM

Employee Morale Keeping employees happy

Cycle time Project efficiency by saving hours and

beating competitors

Assess investments across organizational levels:

Organization Levels: Individual Division Corporation

Three dimensions of an IT investment: Economic Performance Payoffs Organizational Processes Impacts Technology Impacts