Discussion: IT Strategic Planning

Discussion Overview

Discussion participation in this course is taken very seriously. If you have not read the Discussions Overview and Requirements information, do so before you participate in the discussion area.

APA Style citing and referencing is a stringent requirement for any "borrowed" data that is posted in the Discussions as well as submitted in the other assignments in this course. Select Course Specific APA Style Instructions and Guidance to access an excellent guide with tips on how to utilize APA Style to format in-text citations and references.

Discussion Requirements

The following are specific Discussion requirements:

• Initial posts must be made by mid-week (Day four).

• Respond to a minimum of two of your peers' posts.

• To assist your instructor in evaluating your work, when creating your initial post, copy the question from the activity and paste it in bold font just before your answer.

• To assist the readers in keeping track of who the involved parties are in a specific discussion, begin your response posts with the name of the peer to whom you are responding.

• Place appropriate APA Style in-text citations and a Reference Table for any "borrowed" data obtained from a source.

• Your data needs to be grammatically sound and free of spelling errors.

• Using terminology from the reference sources in your answers will enhance your grade.

• Unless you are a subject matter expert on the topic, based on your degrees, certifications or "on the job training," do not submit data obtained only from personal experience.

Discussion Question

Chapter 12 of the course textbook introduces IT strategic planning processes. Company CIOs are often challenged with determining what kind of newer information systems should be acquired, and when and where to deploy the resources. Budgetary constraints can sometimes force a business to stick it out with antiquated legacy systems that offer less than optimal performance for longer periods of service than desired, sometimes exceeding the known historical time-to-failure data, which can jeopardize business efficiencies, operational readiness, or product quality.

Question: Have you had to work under similar circumstances where you were in a position and had to settle with utilizing technology resources that did not meet the necessary standards for you to perform your assigned tasks efficiently or that jeopardized business processes or operations?

Remember, the goal in the Discussion is to create an atmosphere of interaction by posting meaningful responses that advance and expand the depth of the discussion. Do this by providing additional support to your peers' initial and response posts, or if appropriate, by challenging them if you feel that the data that they presented is weak. Likewise, when a peer challenges the data in your posts, debate the issue, and providing further support for your points of view on the topic.