IT Management Exchange semester

Transcription

1 IT Management Exchange semester

2 I m not hiring (..)students for the technology you learn while in school, but for your ability to learn about, use and subsequently manage new technologies when you get out. IT Executive Federal Express If you search the internet for customer satisfaction with ICT you will find an endless list of articles about unhappy customers, failed projects, too expensive ICT, etc., etc. The market shows that managing ICT is a great challenge. Many companies have a love-hate relationship with their internal ICT departments and external ICT suppliers. All ICT providers have the best intentions and focus to deliver quality products and add value for their customers. But the intentions appear hard to realize. Users and ICT-people seem to live in different worlds. They do not speak the same language. Users complain about ICT and ICT-people keep telling that users are not willing to understand ICT. In this challenging, still developing field, IT Service Management operates. Main subjects are: how to deliver the right services, for the right price, at the right quality, in an ever changing customer world. Here is where technology and organisation meet. This semester takes you into this field. You will learn about: Major market standard methods: ITIL (v2011) for organizing ICT and Prince2 for managing ICT projects Change and operational release management and structured testing Managing ICT organisations (Out) sourcing and service level management Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) To sum this up: you learn about how to govern and manage (strategic) IT. The goal of this semester is to provide you with insight, knowledge and practical experience to work as an ICT professional in managing ICT. The methods and theory provide a frame of reference. With the associated learning tasks you will practice the theory and achieve the required competencies. Professional roles associated to this program are: Service manager Change manager Roles in management of ICT, such as team leader Service Desk or system and application manager ICT - Project manager

3 At the end of the semester you will be able to: Design and execute a Change and Release in a (large) company Advise on changes in IT services, focussing on connecting ICT functionality to business requirements. An essential frame of reference that will be used throughout this course is the integrative positioning framework for Information Management by Rik Maes, a pioneer on Information Management from the University of Amsterdam. Here is a quote from his Primavera working paper series , an integrative perspective on information management on the framework: Business Information/ communication Technology Strategy Structure Operations In the first quarter, the focus lies on the Technology column, on the tactical and operational level. Change and operational release management and structured testing reside in this part of the framework. After that you gain more knowledge as we move towards the Information/Communication column. Managing ICT organisations, (out)sourcing and Service Level Management reside in this part of the framework. The framework itself is explained in more detail as well.

4 Competencies You will acquire the following competencies during this semester: Change & Release management and testing The ability to assess, plan, test and conduct changes and releases in an IT environment Business-IT alignment The ability to professionally advise a customer s business officer on the best course of action to take when contemplating: a. A change in the IT environment b. The acquisition of appropriate services to support the needs of the business International/intercultural cooperation skills The ability to work effectively in an international/intercultural team Project management skills The ability to deliver a project plan, including the actual planning and financials for: a. A change in the IT environment b. The acquisition of appropriate services to support the needs of the business Consulting skills The ability to give a concise and convincing written and oral presentation to a customer s business officer Professional tasks The professional tasks which you should be able to perform at the end of this course are: 1. Act as a project team member to perform, assess, plan and execute changes in an IT infrastructure. 2. Advice the organisation s management both orally and written on changes in the IT services. The area of focus to translate a business need to an IT solution or service. So that the two are more aligned to each other.

5 The Theory Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other. Bill Gates Microsoft To provide you with a theoretical and methodological frame of reference the following theoretical subjects will be covered in this program: ITIL v2011: The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a customizable framework of good practices. It offers a systematic approach to the delivery of quality of IT services, from strategy through design, implementation, operation and continual improvement. The processes identified and described within ITIL are supplier and platform independent and apply to all aspects of IT infrastructure. Within this framework we will take a closer look at two parts: Change and Release Management: Change and Release management is part of the IT Infrastructure Library. A change is an event that results in a new status of one or more (or new) configuration items (CI s). If changes occur unmanaged, this will result in a malfunctioning infrastructure. The process of Change and Release management controls changes in an orderly manner. The goal of Change and Release management is to implement changes with a minimal disruption of services, a reduction in back-out activities and economic utilisation of resources involved in the change. Procedures and checklists are used to accomplish these goals. A few examples are that a Request for Change exists for every change, that an impact analysis is done and that every change is tested before it is implemented in the operational environment. Service Level Management: Service Level Management is the name given to the processes of planning, cocoordinating, drafting, agreeing, monitoring and reporting on SLAs and the on-going review of service achievements to ensure that the required and cost-justifiable service quality is maintained and gradually improved. SLAs provide the basis for managing the relationship between the provider and the Customer. The goal for SLM is to maintain and improve IT Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT Service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate poor service - in line with business or Cost justification (PDCA-cycle). Through these methods, a better relationship between IT and its Customers can be developed. Project Management: Prince2 is a project management framework. Prince2 describes procedures to coordinate people and activities in a project, how to design and supervise the project, and what to do if the project has to be adjusted if it doesn t develop as planned. In the method each process is specified with its key inputs and outputs and with specific goals and activities to be carried out, which gives an automatic

6 control of any deviations from the plan. Divided into manageable stages, the method enables an efficient control of resources. On the basis of close monitoring the project can be carried out in a controlled and organized way. Prince2 is used in big (IT) companies to manage projects. Structured Testing: In this part you will gain a basic knowledge of the test area and we will be, focusing on the specific test activities needed in the learning tasks (see below). Subjects like why testing is necessary and what testing is will be discussed. You also learn about testing throughout the software life cycle and test design techniques. To conclude this module you get some insight in test management and how set up the test organisation. Theories on IT Management: Business exploitation of information and ICT Systems Business exploitation of information and ICT systems deals with how organisations use information and ICT systems for corporate goals. For success it is important to understand the communication for and in the process. Because of the still expanding need for ICT solutions, it is very important for organisations to think about these issues. Disruptive technologies and applications Continuous rapid developments in e.g. internet and related technologies, infrastructure, services and applications are leading to new opportunities and challenges that could not even be imagined only a few years ago. These changes can lead new strategies being developed and to break downs of current markets. These developments are called disruptive, because they change the whole environment in ways that no one could have thought about before. Global issues in Information Management The world has changed considerably because of the arrival of internet around This had and still has a big influence on the management of information. Before the digital aged information management was predominantly localized. Obviously information was dispersed globally before, but at a much slower pace. It was perfectly normal to expect a lag between information retrieval, its processing and its final use in decision making. This could lead to out dated information on which the decisions were based. With the arrival of internet the access to management information is much quicker and there is much more information available. This has advantages (quicker access quicker decisions) as well as disadvantages (accuracy of information, forced decisions). This part of the theory explains the recent developments and how Information Managers can cope with this changed world. Strategic IT/IS Leadership and Governance Strategic leadership is the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility and empower others to create strategic change. There are many way to lead a company, but good leadership is not enough. You also need efficacious governance of the IT function. There are different forms of governance in companies. Corporate governance consists of the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way people direct, administer or control a corporation. IT Governance

7 primarily deals with connections between business focus and IT management. The goal of clear governance is to assure the investment in IT generate business value and mitigate the risks that are associated with IT projects. Also to align IT with the business strategy. Strategic IT/IS Professionalism, ethics and security An IT professional often has to make choices. Sometimes in such a choice ethical values play a part. In the Ethics lectures students learn the necessary theoretical knowledge and practice this on a number of cases. 9-grid model of Rik Maes: The integrative positioning framework for Information Management by professor Rik Maes is an essential frame of reference that will be used throughout this program. Rik Maes is a pioneer on Information Management from the University of Amsterdam. In Dutch the model is called the 9 faces model because it is a 3-by-3 model with 9 positions. It is used to map the interaction of business and IT. CMMI, Capability Maturity Model Integration: CMMI is a well-known frame work used to assess the maturity of an IT organisation. In this program we will briefly touch the basics of the framework. Goal is not to become experts in CMMI, but to be able to use the framework for the assessment that you will perform in learning task 2 (see below).

8 Management of Change: Nowadays the only constant factor in organisations is change. There are a large number of drivers for change; new national or international regulations, mergers and acquisitions, new technologies, etc. It is inevitable that IT will be involved and impacted by almost all changes taking place. Coping with all these changes while maintaining the operational performance of the organisation proves to be a major challenge. As yet there is no accepted approach (like Prince2 for projects) for managing organisational change. There is, however, a wealth of literature and experience relating to different approaches. During this course the students will make an acquaintance with this complex subject. Supported by a couple of simple models the students will be required to analyze different real life cases and decide upon appropriate courses of action. Advisory theory and skills: Part of your professional skills is to be able to provide the organisation you work for with solid advice. This theory is the starting point of the professional training for a consultant and is a major step in becoming a skilled IT advisor.

9 The learning tasks Learning task 1 Content Shetrade In this learning task you are going to implement a change for Shetrade, a fictitious company. Shetrade is a small trading company that has expanded over the last few years. In 2006 the director of Shetrade decided that the ICT infrastructure should be outsourced to Jacht-ICT. Over the last few years there have been some complaints from the sales department about the current Access application. So this application has to be replaced with a different CRM tool (Vtiger). Your assignment is to plan, document and deliver a production server which contains a working and tested version of Vtiger. To accomplish this task you will work in groups of several students. Your project group acts as a project team of Jacht-ICT. You have to take the following steps to complete this assignment: Set up a test system Set up a staging system Change documentation Setup a production system Test documentation Release documentation Learning task 2 Content CMMI maturity of KPN or Philips This learning tasks is about assessing the maturity, i.e. quality of (a part of) KPN or Philips. Using the CMMI-framework you will assess a part of the Philips or KPN organisation by studying documents and possibly interviews. Based on that information you will be able to create an overview of the maturity of various processes in the organisation and able to indicate the most favorable areas for improvement. The deliverables of this learning task are the assessment spreadsheet and a presentation created and performed by your project group. In this learning task you also write an individual and a group evaluation report. In this learning task it is to get acquainted with assessing oneself in learning task 3 this will also be taken into account in the grade. Learning task 3 Content Advising two small companies on operational ITIL processes The goal of this learning task is twofold. The first objective is to gain more knowledge on how certain operational ITIL processes are implemented in two companies with relatively small ICT departments. The second objective is to advice the company on how these processes could be improved. In the lectures on the processes within ITIL, you gained theoretical knowledge on the different processes within this framework. And in the lectures on Testing, you gained knowledge on this subject. In learning task 1 and in the Apollo game you got on hands experience about operational ITIL processes and on implementing a change. And learning task was about the quality of the processes. In this learning task, you learn how companies implement the ITIL processes in their specific environment. You have to take the following steps to complete this assignment: Prepare the interviews and write an interview report Conduct the interviews Write an interview reports result Write an advisory report Present this report to the company and the teachers In this learning task you also write an individual and a group evaluation report and this time it is part of your individual grade.

10 Learning task 4 Content Advise and analyse KPN or Philips on strategic issues After learning task 2 you have a pretty good insight of what the maturity of KPN or Philips is. This learning task has the form of a role game in which the students are a group of consultants supporting Philips or KPN. An important objective of KPN or Philips management is to transform the IT department into a department which supports business improvements powered by IT. The relation between IT and business must be reinforced. For developing this objective the executive board of KPN or Philips has invited several management consulting firms. Each of the student groups will play a team of consultants from a specific firm. These groups will each develop a PID and give a presentation. Finally the assignment is granted to the consultancy firm with the best PID and presentation. You have to take the following steps to complete this assignment: Fill in Maes grid Write Project Brief and Business Case Present Business Case (GO-NOGO) Write PID Present PID Learning task 5 Advising two large companies on tactical ITIL processes This learning task is a continuation of learning task 3. The main differences between this learning task and learning task 3 are: 1. Focus in this learning task lies more on tactical processes (see below) within the ITIL framework and in learning task 3 the focus was on operational processes 2. The interviewed companies are much larger than in learning task 3. Content The goals of this learning task are approximately the same as the goals of learning task 3. The first objective is to gain more knowledge on how the ITIL processes (see below) are implemented in two large companies. The second objective is to advice the company on how these processes could be improved. The main focus in this learning task lies on the processes Change and Release Management and on Testing. Besides that you will also try to find out if and how Service Level Management and Functional application management are implemented within these companies and if there is room for improvement in those processes as well. You have to take the following steps to complete this assignment: Prepare the interviews and write an interview report Conduct the interviews Write an interview reports result Write an advisory report Present this report to the company and the teachers In this learning task you also write an individual and a group evaluation report and this is part of your individual grade.

11 Learning task 6 Sourcing This learning task focuses on (out)sourcing and Service Level Management and builds on: The purchasing theory Theory of Service Level Management Content In this learning task you will define the organisation s demands for internal and external suppliers of IT services. De demands concern the levels of customer services (workplace management, application management) and the level of supporting base level services (network management, server management etc.) The higher the demands for availability and security, the higher the cost will be. In your project group you will investigate what types of outsourcing will fit the company. Furthermore you will create a Business Case for the management. With the Business Case the management is able to determine if and when demands are met, what the added value is of outsourcing certain base level services and what risks are involved. In this learning task you also write an individual and a group evaluation report and this is part of your individual grade. Programme structure IT Management consists of 30 European Credits. These are divided among the following components: Description Quarter 1 # of ECTS Quarter 2 # of ECTS Change and Release management and Structured Testing 3 - ITIL framework 2 - ITIL processes and CMMI Applied 3 - Managing and changing (IT) organisations 3 - Managing IT IT Governance - 3 Sourcing - 3 Service Level Management and tactical advising - 3 Professional Skills Professional Skills consists of: Project Management Consulting skills Teambuilding and Coaching Professional Ethics Dutch Culture and Language 1 1

12 Contact details For questions about the content of this programme, please contact Ms. Fien Wempe: HAN-0636 E j.m.wempe@pl.hanze.nl T +31 (0)