BU509 IT in Orgs
~DISCUSSION NOTES  No.1

Chapter #1
The opening paragraph by Peter Drucker makes a prediction about the changing nature of the firm and the changing nature of work within the firm.  In that this was written 10 years ago and is making predictions about 20 years into the future, one could say that we are half way there.  As I look at my own organization and my changing role within that organization and look at Drucker's predictions, I'd have to concede that he predicted the changes pretty well.  How do his comments relate to your personal work structure (a rhetorical question)?

Note how Frenzel uses the word "organization" in this chapter and throughout the book.  There appears to be two meanings- one refers to the entire firm [i.e. corporation, enterprise] and the other refers to a sub-set of the firm [i.e. a department, division, work group].  In many cases the difference is mildly irrelevant.  In other cases, it seems to matter.

On the top of page 7, Frenzel makes the point that data is an asset.  Richard Nolan built an entire career on the notion that "data is a resource" and should be treated as one by managers.  Treating data as a resource means nurturing data, keeping it clean, current, safe, and accounted for - just like one would treat any other valuable resource.  This notion seems to be threaded through the entire text, but should perhaps be emphasized now so that it will look familiar later on.

Note the term "application portfolio" on page 9.  There are some interesting parallels between "application portfolios" and "investment portfolios".  For example, as individuals, we each have our own little application portfolios and investment portfolios that we manage [what applications are in your portfolio?]  Another example:  Larger portfolios (both application and investment type)  require more conscientious stewardship and more elaborate models for management, and the models for managing application portfolios are what we are studying in this course.

The Evolution of IT Management is a concise synopsis of some vocabulary that has been loosely used for decades (EDP, DSS, MIS).  The description how of the objectives of IT managers have changed during this period also seems accurate (from operations to "plan alignment", networking, etc.).  The "types of info systems" (TPS, MIS, DSS, OAS) is pretty standard textbooky categorization.

The IT Mgt Challenges list is still a little squishy (i.e. who's model is this?  what exactly is the point?).  "Growth & complexity, Pervasiveness,..People and Organizations"  all sound good, but is Frenzel just saying that managing is very complex?  Is this Management 101?  The "critical issues for IT" seems to be a similar approach to identifying the challenges/issues.  The CSC Consulting Groups top five issues is another list of the same nature, and Frenzel, himself, asks "What is the fundamental meaning of all of this? [pg.17]  I wonder if he ever answers that question.

Paul Strassmann weighs in with "IT management superiority being sustained by five reinforcing and interacting ideas" [whatever that means].  The list (A through E) is a bit more enlightening, plus he has a web site [www.Strassmann.com] so his list must be worth understanding! [I'm being facetious].

Revisiting Richard Nolan (mentioned above), he offered the "Stages of Growth" of an organization.   This model was perhaps more relevant twenty years ago as firms were beginning to feel the growing pains of integrating computer technology into their operations.  Today it may apply to new organizations, but most going firms are well into the maturity stage.

John F. Rockart's Critical Success Factors seems to be another variation of "challenges/issues" seen above and is similarly clever, obvious, unmemorable and perfect for a Harvard Business Review article.

The final model, Frenzel's Model for the study of IT Mgt is fine because it reflects the general organization of most IT (MIS, IS, EDP) textbooks over the last 15 years.  That is, the study of IT includes Planning, Hardware, Software, Operations, Assets, and People.  These are the terms I've used in the past and correspond one for one with his six part text.  In general, I find this text to be much better organized than others that I've reviewed. It is also more up to date, more substantive, and more careful about attribution of concepts to their respective authors.  I won't hesitate to nit-pick the writing or to admit confusion [sometimes I'm just slow, sometimes the writing is weak], but I've already gotten a lot out of the text, and am getting even more on my second reading.