Why do you need to know about IS management? Of course, if you’re an IS major, you need to know the responsibilities and organization of your future department. But what if you’re an accounting major or a marketing major or a management major? Why do you need to know about IS management?
As a future user of the IS department’s services, it will be helpful to know the factors that drive standards and policies. And, if you’re a manager this knowledge will help you guide your employees’ behavior vis-à-vis the IS department. But let’s take a step further. Suppose you work for Zev at ARES Systems. Zev brought Henri over from another business when he bought ARES Systems from Dr. Flores. Suppose Zev has some misgivings about Henri and asks you to help him. Zev would likely say something like “Do you think Henri knows his job?” or “Is Henri the right guy for us?”
If you had that assignment, how would you proceed?
Answering the following questions will help you.
1. State the major functions of this new IS department. Explain how each of the functions defined in this chapter pertain to ARES.
2. Assume Henri hired Raj’s friend Sandeep and, so far, he’s worked out well. Even still, Zev, as ARES Systems’ owner, and you, as a key employee, might be nervous about the risks of this decision. Describe those risks. Assess how significant they are. Explain how the decision to use an offshore contractor influences your assessment of Henri.
3. Assume that Henri decided to use a cloud vendor to provide PaaS functionality. Explain what this means and how it reflects on Henri’s competence.
4. Given the decisions (in questions 1-3) that Henri has made,
a. What will be the function and goals of the Development group?
b. What will be the function and goals of the Development group? What job descriptions will this group need to staff?
c. What will be the function and goals of the Outsourcing Relations group?
d. Assume Henri has not specified the need for a CTO. Is this a mistake?
5. Given your answers to questions 1-4, how would you respond to Zev’s question “Is Henri right for us?”