The History Of Information Systems

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Information has a connotation and usage to a specific recipient in a precise setting. It comes from choosing, summarizing, and presenting facts in such a manner that it is beneficial to the receiver. Information systems therefore are taken to apprise people (who in the IT framework are known as clients or users) and this is the key objective of the presence for information systems. (Preez, 2007). The management of Information Systems is a very complex task and it needs to be done in an effective and efficient way. It is essential that the project manager as well as the whole team ought to comprehend the documented deliverables and the milestones. They must develop a realistic and precise plan for coping with the challenges and the glitches that may encounter during the planning or any other stage of project management.

This paper attempts to describe the important factors involved in the Information Systems Project Management by summarizing the important articles and the case studies. The articles and the other case studies are taken from the ‘Journal of Strategic Information Systems ‘and ‘International Journal of Accounting Information Systems’. Both of these journals focus upon exploring the very nature of commerce in the perspective of developing IT and Information Systems and also discuss the organizational implications of the Information systems projects. The articles are chosen by taking into consideration that they fulfill the intended purpose in an effectual manner. Therefore, the major emphasis and the concentration of the paper is to investigate and research the various aspects of the IS project management and to deliver insights to the organizations that how they can manage their projects in an effective and operative way.

Reference

Preez,M. (2007) .Project Management for Modern Information Systems. Electronic Library.

25( 3), 379 – 380

Summary of Article 1

The article deliberates that the Information systems execution usually takes place in an impermanent organization of ventures. Projects are objective-based administrations; and an administrative boundary between a venture and the rest of the business has to be shaped to permit the division of work between a project and routine processes and the distribution of other capitals that the organization necessitates for attaining its goals. These organizational boundaries have stimulated a stream of exploration on project management to ascend that upholds an internal concentration on projects in efforts to develop techniques and tools to control them. Moreover, the Information systems study and prescriptive Information System project management procedures are subjugated by a viewpoint on single ventures that treats the unit of study as an isolated phenomenon with firmly defined limitations. This study further queries this postulation by sightseeing how the taken for granted venture’s boundaries are demarcated in practice. The findings of ERP implementation in the International organizations displayed the busy multiple-projects podium of contemporary organizations that ERP venture cannot be isolated from. They also exposed that project management boundaries are incessantly crossed and that venture’s boundaries in practice are changeable and malleable. They are demarcated through discussions with other ventures and programs where what is outside and inside a project is subject to alter according to the consequences of such conferences. The study recommends opening up the administration of IS projects to span the administrative podium to look for competitors, collaborators, and associates. In this respect, a part of "project scout" could be shaped in each venture to deliver a broad view of the corporation that crosses outdated project administration structures and boundaries.

Reference

Elbanna, A. (2010). Rethinking IS project boundaries in practice: A multiple-projects perspective. Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 19 (1), 39–51.

Summary of Article 2

The article intends to deliberate the reasons or the causes that can lead to the failure of the Information System project as the triumph of Information Systems (IS) projects is of prodigious significance in IS practice and research. It also describes that the corporations may also encounter the situation where the leading coalition claimed the project as accomplished. Though the key stakeholders do not consider the system as anticipated and contemplate the venture as ineffective. Moreover, the authors used the multi-methodological approach in order to trail that in what way different stakeholders attribute different connotations to the system introduced over period. They drew on the social erection of expertise and used the notion of pertinent social groups to comprehend the diverse interests impacting the organizational crescendos. Furthermore, they complemented this methodology by using the models of cultural fit and organizational power between the new Information System and the diverse subcultures. Furthermore, it has been designated that the key hindrances to learning from fiasco is an extensive culture of guilt in many organizations. If the ventures are not disguised failure as achievement, some of the probable learning notions would have been: a new IT business project requires be stipulating and supporting administratively; the organizational cultures must to be taken into consideration; and piloting can produce significant information which ought to not be overlooked. Numerous other aspects can also give other valuable intuitions: the concept of venture escalation; the problems with early requirement, necessities and the structure and logic of the software, which ought to be linked to the cultural fit and the inter-organizational approaches to divulge the dynamics of the association with the project team and the other outsourcing hitches.

Reference

Pepparda, J.& Ward, J. (2004).Beyond strategic information systems: towards an IS capability. Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 13 (2), 167–194.

Summary of Article 3

The article aims to deliberate the importance of Information System ventures for the profitability of the organizations. The development of information technology in corporations often involves the three eras comprising of the Data Processing, MIS (Management Information System), and SIS (Strategic Information system), all exhibiting distinctive characteristics concerning the application of Information Technology and possessing dissimilar purposes. Though investment in IT concerning projects endure to make for both efficacy and efficiency devotions, the Strategic Information System period is premised on administration actively seeking out occasions for competitive edge through IT, with tactics to information systems approach design accommodating the necessity for both alliance of IS/IT investments with business plan and evaluating the influence of expertise and the choices for its usage in influencing business strategy. Moreover, concentrating on resource-based theory, this article recommended a viewpoint on the management of IT and Information System related projects in corporations that precisely consider that in what way organizations can constantly stem and influence value through IT. The study moves beyond an emphasis on ascertaining ‘strategic systems’ and advances the notion of an IS capability venture, signifying that it criers the arrival of a new period. Furthermore, the notion of an IS capability recommends that the corporation would not be able incessantly to attain its venture objectives unless it has a track record of effective execution, through which it advances a complete set of IS competencies. This in turn infers an emphasis on the conducts it manages and practices IS/IT, learning overt lessons from its accomplishment and fiasco, rather than deliberate on what expertise can do which, often impulsively, set the speculation and change schema.

Reference

Elbanna, A. (2010). Rethinking IS project boundaries in practice: A multiple-projects perspective. Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 19 (1), 39–51.

Summary of Article 4

The article inquire into the impact of IT investments and a number of contextual variables on the unpredictability of future earnings. The passage in detail tells that how the IT investments intensely enhances the volatility of the earnings of future and that four contextual factor – concentration of the industry/firm size (how much the industry is producing), competition (all the competitors of such products display theirs and obviously the one with good quality will sweep the board) sales growth (what is the trend of the sales over the years), diversification (how many different kind of products are launched by the industry) and leverage (what kind of financial assistance is available from the investors) – strongly average effect of IT on the earnings volatility. It is noteworthy that during the time the head result of IT spending on earnings volatility is extremely affirmative, not all of the mediators are. Level of competition, level of sales growth and level of related diversification increase the effect of IT spending on earnings volatility whereas, the level of unrelated diversification and firm size decrease the effect of IT spending. This proposes that there are certain circumstances under which the affirmative risk-return connection can be either counterbalanced or even reversed. When these are considered together, these results indicate a clarifying description for what we lately termed as the paradox of new productivity, to put in other way, perceptibly fail to invest sufficiently in information technology notwithstanding substantiation of appreciatively affirmative paybacks for doing so. Moreover, it also instigate an unsubstantiated infrastructure to elucidate how IT investments could pay back in the economically worthy of attentive circumstances of corporate extended operations.

Reference

Kobelskya, K., Hunter, S. & Richardson, V. (2008).Information technology, contextual factors and the volatility of firm performance. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems .9 (3), 154–174

Summary of Article 5

The article inquire into the capacity of the de-escalation of commitment to barring grounds of activity that has been a lot proclaimed, plenty of de-escalation efforts outcome in the lack of success attributable to constituencies biasing realities in the way of formerly recognized opinions and consequently preventing an organization from de-escalating responsibility to a project. A lot of firms encounter the failure of the projects because of various causes in spite of an increase n the understanding and realization of Information Systems failures and proceeds in software engineering. De-escalation of commitment or the turnaround of escalating commitments shatters the escalation cycle to failing courses of actions can be selected to monitor significant resources to more yielding processes. De-escalation of commitment is an important research topic in Information System Development due to its part in breaking the escalation cycle. Nevertheless, there are not de-escalation studies in the projects of software. There are certain prompting activities and circumstances that encourage de-escalation. For Example, alterations made in the top management or championship of the project or recognition of unambiguously opposing response. Beside this, the research in Information systems has been debating that the chief source of the failures of Information Systems is associated to organizational matters rather than technical matters. A developed position of commitment enhances the odds that suitable actions will be taken to persuade the triumph of any software project. The considerations of the article are of eclectic relevance because they can be made general beyond the enterprise capital context in which firms regularly make sequential investment commitments.

Reference

Pana, G., Flynn, D. & Pan, S. (2004). De-escalation of commitment to information systems Projects: a process perspective. Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 13 (3), 247–270

Summary of Article 6

This article investigates that how the information system competencies influence process upheaval in any organization using the resource based point of view of that company. With the help of a two process upheavals at a healthcare company in United States, some of the data was collected in this article – which demonstrates that how the competencies of the six different Information Systems can distinguishingly influence the inception, development and execution of process upheavals. Incrimination for practitioners and researchers are put to ease from these suggestions and interpretations for the supplementary research put forward. Moreover, the resource based view (RBV) of any company or business organization proposes that company should compete and generate principals as the foundation of materials or resources that considered infrequent, distinctive, precious, and not effortlessly undergo emulation or substitution. When all such resources amalgamate to produce particular organizational capabilities, the competencies also start to develop. What’s more is that the written work of this article differentiates between the technical upheavals, the ones that employ new and advanced technologies, employment, products; and administrative upheavals, those that employ procedures, plans organizational forms.

The center of attention of this article is administrative upheavals (innovations), mainly the ones that employ processes or procedures. Process upheaval is a change in the sense that either some service are dispensed or the product is manufactured. It is basically the establishment of new and unique methods, responsibilities or procedures within the bounds of an organization.

Reference

Tarafdar, M. & Gordon, S. (2007). Understanding the influence of information systems competencies on process innovation: A resource-based view .Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 16 (4), 353–392

Summary of Case Study 1

The case study attempts to deliberate that the Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is a significant matter for both researchers and managers in the same way. Though, there is indication of a gap between project planning of Strategic Information systems in practice and research. In 2003, the research was carried out in a FSC (German financial Services Company) to explore the gap. All through the five months’ time, the enterprise condition and the information system practices condition of FSC were investigated with regard to the SISP method in practice. The findings supported the proposition that the venture managers principally overlook the theoretical aspects and do not use it in upkeep of their SISP phases of ventures. Moreover, the case study studied the two conceivable elucidations for the gap which involves a lacking transference of theoretical knowledge to practice, as well as the shortcomings in the theoretical knowledge base itself. The interpretations underlined the cessation between theoretical discussion and practical demeanor. Though, it was found that the obliviousness of theoretical aspects on SISP ventures is not predominantly instigated by a constrained knowledge transmission. In fact, in a concluding conversation with the senior administration of FSC, it was revealed that the specialized distinctiveness of FSC’s IT administration and more explicitly the CIO’s role was not similar to the interpretations prevailing in academia. The theoretical confab undertakes the CIO to be an initiator of the corporate advances and driver of corporate approach on the panel. However, it was found that FSC’s CIO essentially recognizes her role as that of an amenity deliverer to corporation. Though the different discernments might be due to peculiarities of FSC, associated research delivered supplementary pragmatic support for the inference of deceptive academic assumptions about the role of IT administration of projects in place.

Teubner, R. (2007). Strategic information systems planning: A case study from the financial

services Industry. Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 16 (1), 105–125

Summary of Case Study 2

Finest training reference models like COBIT, ITIL and CMMI put forward well-organized support for different tasks of IT governance and IT management. COSO, an organization contemporarily considers the enterprise risk management as a design to help achieve management, performance targets of organization, makes certain the effective reporting on time and confirm with rules and regulations. It provides a broadly recognized control structure for enterprise governance and risk management. Administration’s duties include the comprehension of IT enterprise architecture and the governance and supervision that the IT architecture should provide the understanding of their business organization. IT Governance Institute designed and produced COBIT as an educational resource for main information officers, IT management, and senior management and control professionals. COBIT submits good practices. The process model of COBIT consists of four spheres: Plan and organize; Acquire and Implement; Deliver and Support; and Monitor and Evaluate. Genuine. This publication is concerned with initiating modern condition of IT governance, in four steps. The selection of information technology governance (ITG) practices in organizations has been strongly operated by the implementation of corporate governance rules. In the middle of others, it encourages transparence and liability in information (IT) decision-making. Moreover, the higher levels of IT governance effectiveness are connected with a shared understanding of IT and business aims by the members of guiding (steering) committee, with active involvement of the IT guiding (steering) committee and of course with a balanced portrayal of the senior business and IT administration on the guiding (steering) committee.