Instructions to, and information for, candidates

1. (a) What is meant by the term ‘analytic framework’ and why is one useful in thinking about the organisation of information services?

(2 marks)

Clear definition showing awareness of the role of a framework in abstracting from a specific situation in order to learn or apply general concepts 2 marks

Unclear definition, or no awareness of role 1 mark

(b) BRIEFY describe the main characteristics of ONE analytic framework to which you have been introduced during this module.

(2 marks)

Students have been introduced to SSM, VSM and Walsham’s Interpretative framework. Brief outline of any of these 2 marks

Answer that shows only muddled understanding max 1 mark

2. (a) What is meant by the ‘information pipeline’?

(3 marks)

Clear description of stages of flow from data capture to service delivery max 3 marks

(b) Identify THREE ways that the information pipeline model can help a manager plan the delivery of information services in an organisation.

(3 marks)

E.g. helps to identify possible bottlenecks, breaks in the flow, encourages holistic delivery-oriented view, or similar

1 mark each point = 3 marks

3. (a) Identify FOUR catalysts that have encouraged the increase in end user computing (EUC).

(4 marks)

Spread of PCs, development of new tools, frustration with applications quality and backlog, need for flexible information supply

1 mark each point = 4 marks

(b) What sort of problems does EUC cause for the management of information services?

(3 marks)

Poorly designed systems, need to support multiple platforms / packages, loss of data integrity, etc 1 mark each point = 3 marks

(c) How could the problems you identified for Question 3 (b) be resolved?

(3 marks)

Answers will depend on answers to (b) but could include training, help desk, consultancy, standards, etc.

1 mark each point = 3 marks

4. What factors determine whether the outsourcing of an information service is successful or not?

(3 marks)

Appropriate choice of service for outsourcing depends on organisation characteristics, contract must be clearly defined, contractor carefully evaluated, or similar

1 mark each = 3 marks

5. (a) What problems may be caused by too much centralisation in the management of IT services?

(2 marks)

Too remote from users, no local ownership of systems, inflexible to local variation in requirements and circumstances or similar

1 mark = 2 marks

(b) What problems may be caused by too much decentralisation in the management of IT services?

(2 marks)

Duplication of effort, no consistency of data structures, expensive to maintain and service (no economies of scale) or similar

1 mark each = 2 marks

6. (a) Identify the main steps in ONE approach to computer capacity planning to which you have been introduced during this module.

(5 marks)

Students have encountered Igbaria and Banerjee’s framework for CCP, which has the stages Business Assessment, Systems Assessment, Capacity Analysis, Evaluation of Alternatives and System Growth Plan. For a clear statement 5 marks

Answers that confuse planning with monitoring max 2 marks

(b) Identify any metrics that would be required to monitor the effectiveness of a capacity plan prepared using the approach you described for Q A6(a).

(3 marks)

Three primary metrics are CPU usage, memory usage and disk I/O. Sensible alternatives may be accepted 1 mark each = 3 marks

7. (a) What is the role of appraisals in human resource management?

(2 marks)

E.g. identify promotion candidates, training needs, feedback on performance or similar 1 mark each point = 2 marks

(b) What particular problems are there in carrying out appraisals for technical IT staff?

(3 marks)

E.g. technical staff not usually closely supervised so managers may lack performance info, appraisal feedback can tend to be negative, need for variety and challenge may be greater, or similar points

1 mark each = 3 marks

8. How should an organisation decide whether it should make or buy new application systems?

(3 marks)

A strategic decision: depends on available funding, match to user needs, internal skillset, need for support, need for future upgrades, or similar 1 mark each = 3 marks

9. Give a brief outline of the steps that should be undertaken during a procurement exercise, from the identification of need to the final delivery.

(3 marks)

E.g. strategy, identification of benefits, evaluation of alternatives, selection, implementation, management of benefits. Sensible alternatives should be accepted 3 marks

10. Excluding the Internet, which current technological trend do you think will have the most effect on information services in the future, and why?

(4 marks)

1. Explain with examples how you could use the Viable Systems Model to analyse information service requirements for the new financial services customer database at Saturn.

(25 marks)

Answers should briefly illustrate the structure and describe the rationale of the VSM. Practical examples, probably focussing on systems 2, 3 and 4, should be given that illustrate how these subsystems might be implemented for the customer database, e.g. by focussing attention on the distinct operational and control aspects of the system. Better answers will also discuss the project as a more abstract level system and the whole organisation as a still more abstract system of which the project and the customer database are themselves subsystems.

Mark allocation: general description of VSM max 7 marks

practical examples from case study max 7 marks

application of VSM to wider systems max 6 marks

evidence of reading or research max 5 marks

total 25 marks

2. Develop a service flow chart for the Saturn online retail system and illustrate how this can help to guide decisions about resourcing and design for this service.

(25 marks)

Answers should briefly describe the purpose and content of a service flow chart. A complex chart could not be developed in the time available, but the chart should at least show sensible split between customer, front-office and back-office elements and some reasonable data flow and control flow. Better answers will discuss how the chart could be modified to explore different ways of constructing the system, and examining the consequences for service delivery.

Mark allocation: general description of chart max 7 marks

practical application to case study max 12 marks

discussion of alternatives max 6 marks

total 25 marks

3. (a) What are the principal issues that you believe are associated with the development of company wide standards at Saturn? Recommend a suitable policy for the management of standards.

(12 marks)

The specific issues identified may vary widely, but better answers to this question will present a balanced view that takes into account, on the one hand, corporate imperatives and, on the other, need for flexibility in differing product areas, different national traditions, etc. The standards policy proposal may address areas such as training, development methodologies, user and corporate management involvement in procurement, etc. Any specific policies should be quite generally phrased, determining the nature of the decision making process rather than the result.

Mark allocation: issues max 6 marks

policy proposals max 6 marks

total 12 marks

(b) Propose and justify a strategy for user involvement in information service development, procurement and service delivery.

(13 marks)

Good answers may suggest the setting up of teams that have an appropriate mix of skills and representation for development, procurement and evaluation. Communication channels must also be established, such as newsletters, briefings, vendor presentations, etc. Essentially this implies a culture change, so winning support from top management will be crucial.

Mark allocation: awareness of issues max 6 marks

strategy proposals max 7 marks

total 13 marks

4. Critically appraise the implications of the Internet for information service management at Saturn.

(25 marks)

This question is intended to encourage better-read students to give free rein to their imagination. Many different issues could be identified—use of the Internet has implications for hardware platforms, network infrastructure, systems design, programming languages and environments, user expectations about the services provided, wider access to corporate information, security, etc..

Mark allocation: application of service concepts max 7 marks

identification of issues max 7 marks

suggestions for management strategy max 6 marks

evidence of reading or research max 5 marks

total 25 marks

5. (a) Some financial services managers at Saturn believe that control of all applications development and procurement within their part of the group should be fully decentralised. What would you recommend to the board and why?

(13 marks)

(12 marks)

Saturn Securities has two main UK subsidiaries operating in the retail and financial services sectors and a number of foreign subsidiaries, most of which operate under locally established names. UK retailing includes a major chain selling consumer electronic equipment and domestic appliances. Financial services are concentrated on insurance, pensions, savings and personal investments, sold partly through high street outlets and partly by telephone. In recent years globalisation and closer European integration, and particularly the launch of the euro on 1 January 1999, have encouraged the directors to take a broad international view. Following a series of aggressive take-overs and mergers, the group now extends through Western Europe, South East Asia and North America.

The IT department is centred at group headquarters in Glasgow, but operations are partly decentralised. Several data centres in other UK cities and abroad deal with paper-based input and processing, while data communications is handled by a mix of ISDN and high capacity leased lines.

Each subsidiary company has its own IT manager who controls a budget derived from that subsidiary, but all IT managers are also formally responsible to the group IT director. In a sense, therefore, they have two bosses—one at a local level who is their immediate client and also determines their budget, and another at group level who has formal authority over all IT spending decisions. This often leads to conflicts over policy and spending decisions.

A small central IT Strategy Unit reports directly to the IT director and is responsible for central co-ordination of IT/IS strategy and planning. In practice the IT director uses this unit mainly as a source of executive-level management information, and the unit generally has little real influence on, still less authority over, the divisional IT managers.

There is a further complication in that most overseas subsidiaries were acquired as going concerns, and thus already had established infrastructure, information systems, management structures, cultural traditions and preferred suppliers. In some cases, close ties have continued with a former parent company following the take-over, and this has increased tensions in the relationship with Saturn’s corporate IT management.

In the UK, computing is based on ICL mainframes, several DEC and IBM AS400 minicomputers, all running proprietary operating systems and a larger number of Sequent minicomputers running Unix. For some other countries the infrastructure depends on national traditions—for example, at Clermont Ferrand in France there is a Bull mainframe while the Italian subsidiaries use Olivetti minicomputers. Throughout the group, dumb terminals are still widespread, especially in the retail division, but there are also numerous PC-based LANs. Most PCs have now been upgraded to NT servers with Windows 95 on users’ desktops, but desktop applications vary widely—about 60% are Microsoft, with a mix of other word-processors, spreadsheets, databases and specialist applications making up the remainder.

The application systems portfolio is equally mixed. Most transaction processing systems, such as financial accounting, payroll, stock control and personnel record systems, were written in Cobol in the 1970s and 80s, run in batch mode on the mainframes and were developed in-house. Most of the DEC and IBM machines are dedicated to specific local online applications, such as warehouse stock control and EPOS processing in the retail outlets. During the mid 1990s there has been a programme to replace key financial services applications with new online systems written in Oracle RDBMS. Recent implementations include pensions and personal investments systems running on the Unix machines with a Visual Basic front-end on office PCs.

The applications picture abroad is also muddled. There has been some movement towards standardisation with the introduction of the Windows 95 desktop—some say this is the only significant success of the central IT policy unit—but overseas IT managers continue to argue for their favoured approach to corporate systems. The board has not yet agreed on a common policy, so there are still no international standards for hardware platforms, operating systems or development languages. For the same reason, there is no common make-or-buy policy, and the level and nature of end user computing varies greatly between countries and even between the two main divisions in the UK. In general, the financial services division has much more end user computing than does the retail division, while the retail division is more likely to buy a new application than to build it.

While all of these factors have greatly increased the obstacles to the achievement of an integrated suite of information systems throughout the group, all directors agree that information systems will be a critical ingredient in Saturn’s success in a global trading environment. But there is much less agreement on the priorities for development. Some directors regard Internet and digital TV banking and shopping as initiatives that are seriously overdue. If Saturn does not enter these markets soon it is feared that it will lose out entirely. Many competitors are already doing substantial volumes of business through these channels, and the damage may be irreversible if Saturn does not catch up quickly. Other directors are less concerned with the role of IT in providing customer services, but are deeply frustrated by unreliable management information and see MIS, DSS and EIS applications as the top priority.

At the policy level, the IT director is also under pressure on several fronts. Several directors want a relaxation of control over IT operations in the subsidiaries, arguing that a shift towards more end user computing is essential for business flexibility, with information centre support in the area of standards, training and consultancy. Other directors point to the gaps in management information and argue that greater coherence of information can only be achieved through more centrally determined policies and standards. Total outsourcing has been suggested as a single solution to many problems, particularly as a way of rationalising all the diverse hardware (or at least of making it someone else’s problem to carry out the rationalisation). And a vociferous group of senior managers in the UK financial services subsidiary have been demanding direct control over all applications development work for their sector.

The arguments remain unresolved, but a number of projects that the IT director regards as mission critical are currently under way. The first is a project to migrate customer data in the financial services companies from discrete product-based systems within the separate companies to a single universally accessible database. This will improve both marketing and the design of new services and also provide better management information. The analysis phase has begun but it is clear that no significant design work can be undertaken until key decisions are taken about the hardware and communications infrastructure. For example, it is not yet clear whether this system will be developed as a distributed database to run on the Unix minicomputers, or as a single centralised system running on one of the ICL mainframes. The chosen approach to implementation will have an effect on the volume of data traffic, response times, and data integrity issues.

A second critical project has already gone live, although it is only running as a pilot in the UK at present. This is an online retail system selling a range of white goods (for example, fridges and microwaves) that is accessed through the world wide web. The server for this system is a dedicated RS6000 running AIX operating system (IBM’s proprietary flavour of Unix). So far the system has done little business in cash terms, but the number of hits on the server is growing fast, and many eyes are watching the project very closely.