Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach?

Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach?

Critical Success Factors of Knowledge Management

Released September 2002 By Farida Hasanali Using the lessons learned from early adopters, many organizations have effectively provided their employees with the tools they need for managing and sharing knowledge. Yet, it is easy to forget to account for certain critical elements that enable knowledge sharing.
An elementary success factor of knowledge management (KM) is to have a common understanding of the terms "knowledge management" and "knowledge sharing" and how they apply to your situation and needs. Some organizations choose not to use these terms at all because they are not accepted within the culture. By recognizing this fact, an organization is actually adhering to a critical success factor of KM: listen to your employees and customers.
The definition of KM has evolved quite a bit since the mid 1990s. It started simply as valuable information in action, in which value is determined by the organization and the recipient. Although this definition still holds true today, KM has evolved into a more rigorous discipline that is subject to the same scrutiny as other business processes within an organization and is expected to show a return on investment (ROI).
APQC defines KM as an emerging set of strategies and approaches to create, safeguard, and use knowledge assets (including people and information), which allows knowledge to flow to the right people at the right time so they can apply these assets to create more value for the enterprise.
Some inherent critical success factors are built into the definition. KM is a set of strategies and approaches, which denotes a definite structure or a way to do things. Another critical piece of this definition is that this approach enables the flow of information to the right person at the right time; otherwise, an organization would be managing its knowledge just for the sake of managing it and not to create value. That brings us to the most critical aspect of this definition: creating more value for the enterprise. The most elaborate knowledge-sharing procedures will not help if the knowledge shared within an organization does not enable its recipient(s) to create value, be it through increased revenue or time or cost savings.
The success of a KM initiative depends on many factors, some within our control, some not. Typically, critical success factors can be categorized into five primary categories:
1. leadership;
2. culture;
3. structure, roles, and responsibilities;
4. information technology infrastructure; and
5. measurement.
Leadership Leadership plays a key role in ensuring success in almost any initiative within an organization. Its impact on KM is even more pronounced because this is a relatively new discipline. Nothing makes greater impact on an organization than when leaders model the behavior they are trying to promote among employees. The CEO at Buckman Laboratories, a chemicals company, champions the cause for KM within the organization and personally reviews submissions to its knowledge bank. When he notices that a particular employee has not had been active within the system, he sends a message that reads: "Dear associate, you haven't been sharing knowledge. How can we help you? All the best, Bob."
Several other best-practice organizations have demonstrated this commitment to KM. At the World Bank, the president's support led to the creation of an infrastructure that promoted and supported the growth of communities of practice (CoPs) not only throughout the organization, but also around the globe. Today,
the World Bank has sustained its KM initiative through its CoPs. Its knowledge managers constantly search for new approaches to knowledge sharing.
Although leadership plays a critical role in the success of the KM initiative, the "culture" factor can be even more important to the success of KM.
Culture Culture is the combination of shared history, expectations, unwritten rules, and social customs that compel behaviors. It is the set of underlying beliefs that, while rarely exactly articulated, are always there to influence the perception of actions and communications of all employees.
Cultural issues concerning KM initiatives usually arise due to the following factors:
• Lack of time - The goal is not to encourage the employees to work more, but to work more effectively. The processes, technologies, and roles designed during a KM initiative must save employees' time, not burden them with more work. This can only be accomplished if the employees' work patterns are accounted for during the initial design and planning phase of the initiative.
• Unconnected reward systems - Organizations have to maintain a balance between intrinsic and explicit rewards in order to encourage employee behavior. The most effective use of explicit rewards has been to encourage sharing at the onset of a KM initiative. If the attendees don't find value in either the meetings or the information on the system, providing incentives will not sustain their participation. People share because they want to, they like to see their expertise being used, and they like being respected by their peers.
• Lack of common perspectives - Sharing must be inspired by a common vision. The people affected by the new process or technology must all buy in to this vision and believe it will work.
• No formal communication - When designing and implementing KM initiatives, ensure that employees and customers know about the changes occurring in your organization. It has been hypothesized that a person needs to hear the same message at least three times before it registers in the brain. Hence, communication should be pervasive and ingeminating. While implementing KM within your organization, market yourself. Make sure everyone knows what you are attempting to do, and build anticipation for the launch.
If your organization naturally has a tendency to share knowledge, enabling knowledge sharing becomes a little easier. If your organization harbors a knowledge-hoarding culture, don't give in to it. Remove negative consequences to sharing. People want to share their knowledge. They want others to know they are knowledgeable. Break down some of the existing barriers to knowledge sharing, and give people the tools and environment they need. By designing KM initiatives around your culture, you will be initiating a cultural change.
Structure, Roles, and Responsibilities
Although there are many ways that organizations structure the governance of their KM initiatives, APQC has found common elements among best-practice partner organizations: a steering committee, a central KM support group, and stewards/owners throughout the organization who are responsible for KM. It is a combination of a centralized and decentralized approach.
The steering committee usually consists of executives at the top level. They promote the concept and provide guidance, direction, and support. The central KM group is typically made up of three to four people who provide the initial support for projects or initiatives, which are usually handed over to the business owners once they are implemented. The central group usually consists of people with advanced project management, facilitation, and communication skills. The stewards, or owners, are responsible for knowledge sharing and acquisition within the business units. Like the core KM group, the stewards are change agents for the organization. They model and teach employees the principles of knowledge
sharing using a common vocabulary. All of these participants work as a team to prevent a silo mentality and incorporate resistant employees in the process.
Although the structure is put in place to establish ownership and accountability, if there is no overall ownership of knowledge and learning within the organization and the leadership does not "walk the talk," it will be difficult to sustain any sharing behavior.
Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure
Without a solid IT infrastructure, an organization cannot enable its employees to share information on a large scale. Yet the trap that most organizations fall into is not a lack of IT, but rather too much focus on IT. A KM initiative is not a software application; having a platform to share information and to communicate is only part of a KM initiative. Following are some KM success factors related to IT.
• Approach - The people who are charged with implementing KM must take the time to understand their users' needs. Matching the KM system with the KM objectives is essential.
• Content - With a similar focus on users' needs, establishing great content involves having processes in place to acquire, manage, validate, and deliver relevant information, when and where it is needed.
• Common platforms - A standard companywide architecture ensures the sustainability and scalability of KM efforts. By understanding the organization's infrastructure at a high level, the steering committee can guide the KM team in picking the appropriate technology. Sometimes organizations realize that they need a complete overhaul of their IT infrastructure before they can expect their employees to share knowledge. Many organizations have eliminated or are in the process of phasing out customized legacy systems and replacing them with market-standard operating systems. This enables organizations to build on the existing architecture by using off-the-shelf software that was written to support these platforms, thus avoiding costly customized packages.
• Simple technology - If it takes more than three clicks to find knowledge on your system, users will get frustrated. Of course, you have to temper that with the amount of information being delivered and the complexity of information demanded by the user. Another common mistake made in information delivery is the emphasis on explicit knowledge. Although technology is primarily used to deliver explicit knowledge, placing too much emphasis on it causes the user to lose the context in which the information was shared and leads to misunderstanding on how to interpret the knowledge.
• Adequate training - KM is enabled by adequate technology and people who know how to use it. Best-practice examples reveal that the central KM group should spend most of its time (after deployment) teaching, guiding, and coaching users how to use the system to interact, communicate, and share information and knowledge with one another.
Measurement
Most people fear measurement because they see it as synonymous with ROI, and they are not sure how to link KM efforts to ROI. Although the ultimate goal of measuring the effectiveness of a KM initiative is to determine some type of ROI, there are many intervening variables that also affect the outcomes.
Because many variables may affect an outcome, it is important to correlate KM activities with business outcomes, while not claiming a pure cause-and-effect relationship. Increased sales may be a result not only of the sales representatives having more information, but also of the market turning, a competitor closing down, or prices dropping 10 percent. Due to the inability to completely isolate knowledge-sharing results, tracking the correlations over time is important.
There is a final imperative concerning critical success factors, which transcends KM and applies to all interactions: Listen! Listen to your users, customers, and managers-whichever audience for which you are designing. They will tell you how you can meet their needs and have a successful KM initiative.

It requires a large amount of critical thinking and serious consideration. A very good advantage of this approach that I can clearly see is that it helps you focus your efforts on the most important things. However, you have to identify correctly the CSF’s of your organization because if you identify wrongly, then you would be focusing your efforts on the wrong factors and thus cannot achieve what you are aiming for. This approach may also seem subjective but in a way it is good because the people doing this will have to have a deep and clear understanding of what their organization needs and aims for. If done carefully and critically, the Critical Success Factor approach will be able to help an organization reach its success.
Resources:
http://www.wikipedia.org
Critical Success Factors of Knowledge ManagementReleased September 2002 By Farida Hasanali

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering,

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts?

• Business Process Reengineering

1. According to Wikipedia; it is an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations.
2. It is one approach for redesigning the way work is done to better support the organization’s mission and reduce cost.
3. It starts with a high level assessment of the organization’s mission, strategic goals and customer needs.
an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a "clean slate" perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve how they conduct business.
When a business is in the midst of increasing their productivity, it faces different kinds of organizational change. There are lots of ways in order for a business to make it more efficient and to improve operational flexibility. In the spectrum of organizational change, the most essential type of change is paradigm shift which is the radical conceptualization of the nature of the business process and the organization.

• Automation
Based on Wikipedia definition; it is the of control systems such as computers to control industrial machinery and processes, reducing the need for human intervention. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the physical requirements of work, automation greatly reduces the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well.
Rationalization of procedures is the process of constructing a logical justification for a belief, decision, action or lack thereof that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. It is a defense mechanism in which unacceptable behaviors or feelings are explained in a rational or logical manner; this avoids the true explanation of the behavior or feeling in question.

• Paradigm Shift
1. It is also referred to as scientific revolution.
2. It is a change from one way of thinking to another. It’s a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of change.
3. Thomas Kuhn said “the successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual development pattern of mature science”.

Paradigms are central to human culture. They are learned, taught, passed on and often serve to define membership in a culture or subculture. "The passing of paradigms within a society is, in effect the process of acculturation and socialization. Paradigms influence how we govern ourselves, how our public institutions are configured and operate, our economic systems and institutions, the structures of our organizations, and how we manage people and other resources. Imagine the whole system of thought being change. In business, this means a lot of changes on their current paradigm.


Base on the above definitions, I could say that the most radical type of change is the paradigm shift because this kind of change greatly changes a certain status to another status. Let say in an organization, a paradigm shift is a total renovation or change of the whole organization.

Change is constant. Many have changed for the better but others are for worse. Others choose to be adaptive than to be predictive because they have this thought that not all things can be predicted. And it is all because life is a constant change. But for me, I am not really into adaptive side; I choose to be predictive rather. Change makes me nervous at times and I am not that person who can easily adapt but not quite long which is I know wrong but still I am working on it.

The lowest in both risk and reward is automation, which entails that even though there is lesser risk in this type of change, the rewards that you get are also directly proportional to the risk and therefore are also small. However, if we look at the very top of the spectrum, we can find paradigm shift, which has both high risks and high rewards. From this and from the definition of radical alone, I can deduce that paradigm shift is the most radical organizational change. Why? First of all, paradigm shift involves rethinking the whole nature of the business, a complete re-conception of how the system should function. In other words, it offers companies a whole new perspective about their business processes and allows them to rework everything from top to bottom. It brings about a "radical" change in the organization's way of thinking and replaces the old way of thinking with a newer, more insightful idea.
Even though it takes a larger risk than the other type of change it has become the most widely applied organizational change to many other organizations for it changes the overall business process thus making a better impact if it is a success. Although business reengineering is also one radical type of change because this approach deals also in redesigning the way work is done in order to better support the organization’s mission and to reduce cost which has the objective of radical improvement in performance and not just incremental improvement, the term paradigm shift is still the most radical type for this kind of approach has found uses in other situation, representing the concept of a major change in a certain thought-pattern.

If this kind of organizational change will be properly implemented and is put into better application by the people in the organization it can create a big radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems, replacing the former way of organizing with a radically different way of thinking. Through this change, it makes an influential technique and a start of something new to improve profits and business operations. Because when we have the focus on making efficient business with the most profitable segment we can make it grow unpredictably fast simply by making a general change in the organization and the best and most radical type of change is paradigm shift.

All types of change could give an organization a disruption but in two most common types – the automation and rationalization of procedures, usually, it can be managed. For the rest, especially the highly disruptive, most dangerous and most radical type of change which is paradigm shifting, it needs a lot of care and should be done well. And if done well, it can give tremendous rewards.
The most radical type of change in the spectrum of organizational change is the paradigm shift. Paradigm shift is a total change on organization. Unlike on the business reengineering that changes a portion of the organization to improve the cost, quality and service. A paradigm shift involves rethinking the nature of the business, the organization. It is a complete reconception of how the system should function. Using this method will take high risks and give a high or great reward for the organization if it is a success. When if it is a failure it would results the organization will go down or bankruptcy or worst the organization will be closed.
The spectrum of organizational change is composed of four parts, arranged from lowest to highest in terms of both risks and rewards: automation, rationalization of procedures, business re-engineering, and paradigm shift. Meanwhile, the term radical is synonymous with essential, major, thorough, sweeping, and drastic. So when we say radical organizational change, we are referring to a type of organizational change that will bring about largely significant and drastic changes.
Radical means departing markedly from the usual or customary and it also means extreme while paradigm shift means a new perspective on things. It is sometimes known as extraordinary science or revolutionary science (Thomas Khun). A paradigm shift is a radical change of pace in our paradigms, a fundamental change in our unconscious view of reality. It is a transformation of the way humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. It can be a national or international shift, and could have dramatic effects, whether positive or negative, on the way we live our lives today and in the future.

among the four types of organizational change, the most radical type is paradigm shifts. The most common is automation and also the easiest. Automation and rationalization of procedures are slow moving and slow changing strategies. These two types of change carry low rewards but offer little risk. In contrast, business reengineering and paradigm shifts are faster; carry high rewards but offer high chances of failure.
Automation deals with the use of Information Technology (IT) in order to speed up the process of a certain task. Rationalization of procedures is the reformation of operating procedures, removal of bottlenecks to make the operating procedures of the organization more efficient. Business reengineering is the redesigning of the business processes to improve measure of performance while paradigm shifts is the re-conceptualization or change of the nature of the business and the organization itself.
Organizations could have major disruption when it is done. Although we could say that it is very dangerous because it talks about extreme change and taking high risk but still many of the organizations use it and also business reengineering. Why extreme change? As defined above, it is because it deals with changing the very nature of the business, the structure of the organization and it also deals with new products or services. Same as other individuals, organizations use paradigm shifts as their strategy to change in order to stay competitive. I have read from an article that because of the global economic pressure, organizations realized that they have to take on the challenges to meet the demands of their shareholders.

A Paradigm Shift is when a significant change happens usually from one fundamental view to a different view. In most cases, some type of major discontinuity occurs as well. It could have dramatic effects whether positive or negative. Therefore, I think among the organizational changes, the paradigm shift would have greater impact and would be more vital among others. According to Kuhn, paradigm shift is revolutionary science. “Revolutionary science is usually unsuccessful, and only rarely leads to new paradigms. When they are successful they lead to large scale changes in the scientific worldview.” If it would fall short, then it could entirely cause failure to the organization. It could greatly affect an organization since wide changes is being employed in this change. A thorough thought over about implicating this would be considered and required.
Revolutionary measures are of constant in an organization. In implementing developments and improvements, changes should be put through. Perhaps the most asked but least answered question in business today is “What can we do to make our business survive and grow?” The world is rapidly changing into something too hard to easily predict, with a hundred opportunities and pitfalls passing by every moment.

We are moving at an accelerated rate of speed, our knowledge and awareness expands and our state of thinking and ideas is transforming and transcending so as the differences to be made for the expansion and progression of the organization’s state.
Paradigm Shift is a popular, or perhaps, not so popular shift or transformation of the way we Humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. It can be a national or international shift, and could have dramatic effects -- whether positive or negative -- on the way we live our lives today and in the future. I think what makes this different among the four is the fact that it adapts to the changes of the world in reality. The organization will base its ideas and decision on what is important on the current or present time. Unlike the automation that merely uses machines or computers denying the existence of human who is the most critical part of an organization.

Although major risk also awaits in this type of change, its worth the gamble for there also waits major rewards. Anyway, li When a business is in the midst of increasing their productivity, it faces different kinds of organizational change. There are lots of ways in order for a business to make it more efficient and to improve operational flexibility. In the spectrum of organizational change, the most essential type of change is paradigm shift which is the radical conceptualization of the nature of the business process and the organization.
fe is a gamble itself. You just have to play the cards well.

if we compare paradigm shift to business re-engineering, which is the third highest in risk and reward, business re-engineering [and even the other two] focuses only on a particular area of the business organization. While they are coupled with lower risks, the rewards you get are also lower. I think this is a major difference with paradigm shift where you have to be willing to take higher risks in order to attain higher rewards. This alone brings to mind the word drastic, a synonym of radical. It is in fact risky, however, if you can avoid or be prepared for the risks, then you will surely achieve the highest rewards and overcome the highest risks.
Typically, the concept of organizational change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a program, etc. Examples of organization-wide change might include a change in mission,restructuring operations (e.g., restructuring to self-managed teams, layoffs, etc.), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, "rightsizing", new programs such as Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to organizational transformation. Often this term designates a fundamental and radical reorientation in the way the organization operates.
Typically there are strong resistances to change. People are afraid of the unknown. Many people think things are already just fine and don't understand the need for change. Many are inherently cynical about change, particularly from reading about the notion of "change" as if it's a mantra. Many doubt there are effective means to accomplish major organizational change. Often there are conflicting goals in the organization, e.g., to increase resources to accomplish the change yet concurrently cut costs to remain viable. Organization-wide change often goes against the very values held dear by members in the organization, that is, the change may go against how members believe things should be done. That's why much of organizational-change literature discusses needed changes in the culture of the organization, including changes in members' values and beliefs and in the way they enact these values and beliefs.
Even though it takes a larger risk than the other type of change it has become the most widely applied organizational change to many other organizations for it changes the overall business process thus making a better impact if it is a success. Although business reengineering is also one radical type of change because this approach deals also in redesigning the way work is done in order to better support the organization’s mission and to reduce cost which has the objective of radical improvement in performance and not just incremental improvement, the term paradigm shift is still the most radical type for this kind of approach has found uses in other situation, representing the concept of a major change in a certain thought-pattern.
Significant organizational change really occurs in a business when it changes its overall strategy for success or wants to change the very nature by which it operates. It also occurs when an organization evolves through various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve through life cycles. For organizations to develop, they often must undergo significant change at various points in their development. Although significant organizational change is one of the most difficult strategies to implement, engaging such change is also very rewarding.

If this kind of organizational change will be properly implemented and is put into better application by the people in the organization it can create a big radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems, replacing the former way of organizing with a radically different way of thinking. Through this change, it makes an influential technique and a start of something new to improve profits and business operations. Because when we have the focus on making efficient business with the most profitable segment we can make it grow unpredictably fast simply by making a general change in the organization and the best and most radical type of change is paradigm shift.

Among the four types of change; Automation, Rationalization of procedures, Business process reengineering, and Paradigm Shift, I think it is very evident that paradigm shift is the most important one. It is the best choice among the four. To support this, let us get to know more about paradigm shift. As what I have read, we may think as a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. In laymen terms, Paradigm Shift is a popular, or perhaps, not so popular shift or transformation of the way we Humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. It can be a national or international shift, and could have dramatic effects -- whether positive or negative -- on the way we live our lives today and in the future. I think what makes this different among the four is the fact that it adapts to the changes of the world in reality. The organization will base its ideas and decision on what is important on the current or present time. Unlike the automation that merely uses machines or computers denying the existence of human who is the most critical part of an organization.

Although major risk also awaits in this type of change, its worth the gamble for there also waits major rewards. Anyway, life is a gamble itself. You just have to play the cards well
Sources:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/radical
http://www.managementhelp.org/mgmnt/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation

You were invited by the university president to prepare an IS plan for the university, discuss what are the steps in order to expedite the implementat

You were invited by the university president to prepare an IS plan for the university, discuss what are the steps in order to expedite the implementation of the IS Plan.

Developing an IS plan pose the biggest and most serious challenge to IT or IS managers all over the world. It requires knowledge and skills that will make sure that the organization’s vision, mission, and goals will be reflected in the plan. Managers need to see to it that the IS plan they develop will be of good use to the company and bring the company’s business forward. Many IT or IS managers make mistakes along the way and these mistakes often lead to inefficiency and cost the company millions. While expenses cannot be avoided when developing an IS plan, additional and unnecessary expenses can be minimized, if not totally eliminated.

The first major challenge in developing an IS plan is management. There are several aspects of management that pose a challenge to IT/IS managers. The first one is integration. This involves managing the enterprise’s resources and connecting the different organizational levels. It is a challenge to properly manage the enterprise’s resources. This requires a lot of decision-making skills. IT/IS managers need to know how to allocate the company’s resources properly so that there will be minimal or no loss at all. The company’s resources include everything from the workers to the management to the hardware or equipment and etc. When developing an IS plan, all of these resources need to be considered because it is only if they are used properly will the IS plan work harmoniously in the company. IT/IS managers has to know how to weigh certain decisions regarding resource management so that it will not result in excessive or disproportionate resource allocation. The second aspect of management that also poses a challenge to managers is connecting the different organizational levels. Organizations are not flat or one-dimensional. All organizations are hierarchical, from the executives to the ordinary workers. You can envision it as a pyramid of increasing order. The challenge here now is how to interconnect the top-most level with the lower levels and the lower levels to the top-most levels. Each level must be involved in the IS plan in one way or another and it depends on the plan how much these levels are involved in it. No level must be left out because every one of them comprises the whole the organization. It is a challenge to be able to interconnect these different organizational levels so that they can work together as a firm and stable structure to keep the business going. Connecting the organizational levels is also costly since it requires a lot of resources. This is related to managing the company’s resources.

Another aspect of management that poses a challenge to IT/IS managers is sustaining the competitive advantage. Like I mentioned earlier, to gain competitive advantage is one of the purposes of the IS plan. It may be a bit easier to see to that for a definite period of time but it is definitely challenging to keep up the advantage for the whole life of the company. IT/IS managers need to make sure that the IS plan is able to evolve or is flexible to ensure long-term profits.

Information systems plan is like a strategic plan in management. Therefore, it is where objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. It serves the purpose of identifying specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. An information system planning organizes the company’s prospects for the future concerning their information systems. IS planning is the point where the company’s core business operation is merged with technology to produce better output and boost performance. However, this view of IS planning is an already fading notion as this is no longer true nowadays.
IS planning is treated only as a back-room operation that supports an organization’s everyday tasks. But in modern corporations, IS planning is a very integral and critical part of the organization because it serves a very important purpose. The IS plan is no longer constrained within the company’s technology-oriented operations but it now also encompasses decision making, knowledge support, as well as management. So you see, IS planning is no longer a so-called “support” but it is now the central part of an organization. The modern view of IS planning is that it is not only a means of reducing cost but it is a means of adding value. The information systems plan must cater to the strategic demands of organizations, for example, serving the business, pursuing opportunities, and as well as meeting their data processing needs.
Another purpose of the IS plan could be strategic or competitive advantage. Since large-scale and small-scale corporations alike are constantly competing with each other, they would only want to have a certain advantage over the others. In most cases, the IS plan holds the key to that advantage. Assuming that in a company that has an under-developed or no IS plan at all, it is projected to complete a certain transaction in four working days. Now, in a company with a well-developed IS plan it takes only one or two days to complete the same transaction. Naturally, clients would prefer the company with the shorter processing time than the one that takes longer. Coupled with this, the company with the well-developed IS plan has faster turnover than the under-developed one. This means more business and profit in a shorter time span. In the business world, this is considered as a significant gain over the others.

According to Gorman, a quality information systems plan must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it could serve its purpose in the organization. These are: (1) timely, (2) usable, (3) maintainable, (4) quality, and (5) reproducible. A timely IS plan means that it can be conceived in a significantly shorter time than actually doing the work that needs to be done. There is no point in creating an IS plan if the problem to be addressed is long over. The second quality, usable, means that an IS plan can exist in sections that can be distributed to project managers so that each section can be started. In my understanding, this means that the IS plan must be modularized or broken down into more manageable pieces so that more work can be done in a span of time. An IS plan must also be maintainable, which means that the IS plan is able to accommodate any changes or modifications conveniently. I think this is a very important quality that an IS plan must possess because it is not practical to remodel and rework the whole system just to accommodate a few modifications. Such an approach would probably cost the company millions and thus it is not a cost-effective development of the IS plan. An IS plan must also be of good quality. No IS plan is perfect in the first try, however, it should still be of adequate efficiency and still be useable in the organization. The last quality that Gorman listed is reproducible. Reproducible means that the output of the IS plan should still be the same no matter who the user of the system will be. In short, it should be consistent. It is only after these characteristics of the IS plan are secured will the IS plan actually be able to serve its purpose in the company.

In any case, an information systems plan not only serves as a support to a company but it also serves as a guide or an outline of the company’s projected activities and more specifically, for their information environment. To ensure the success of the organization, the IS plan must work closely with the organization’s business plan. It should have the same goals and objectives as the business plan because success cannot be achieved if efforts are not united towards a common goal.

There are also challenges in Information Strategic Planning. Here are some as I found in the net that tells the challenges in strategic planning in developing countries. First is data. Finding data is a real challenge because there is available statistics is far below those available in developing countries. Most companies try to keep any financial information and consider them secrets. It is not possible to know the demand in last year of a certain product or service. People are not used to market research and they don’t want to talk to the marketing people. Next are employees. Most employees and managers are not aware about the value of strategic planning and they may consider it waste of time and something that is applicable in developed countries. Followed by owner. Many owners of successful companies believe they don’t need to do strategic planning and they do not know that their success will go one day when there are more competitors or there are changes in the market. Then the manager’s selection. Most company’s managers in developing countries are experts in the technical process of the organization but they are not well educated in management and thus they want to focus on what they know and neglect what they do not know. Accordingly, strategic management does not fall in their area of interest. Then the qualitative analysis. Strategic planning needs a lot of forecasting and qualitative analysis besides the quantitative analysis. Many technical managers are used to neither the qualitative analysis nor the forecasting. The phrase “I am the manager”. The strategy shows a guide for decisions, so, an employee may, sometimes, tell the senior manager that his decision is against the company strategy. Thus the manager avoid having a strategy to keep his freedom to decide whatever he likes. “Analysis” versus “Intuition”. Most people do not think that a manager should do analysis or have done for him they think that some people are talented to take the right decision without doing many calculations or having subordinates make a study for them. The common challenge is the Implementation. To get every manager follow the same strategy is not an easy task. The Investors. Having a clear strategic plan and clear goals for the future (other than increasing sales of the current products) does not affect the stock price because most of the investors do not care about those issues. And lastly, the security. Most managers feel that everything is a secret and obviously they think that no one else should know the strategy and thus no one else should make a study for our strategic plan….and there is no strategy. Maintaining the strategic plan is also a challenge in any sectors of any businesses. Strategic planning, the what and the why of planning, is often overlooked by organizations who concentrate on tactical planning, the how of planning. The resultant business plan is overwhelmed by tactical initiatives and pet projects. Alignment with a strategy to attain the organization’s goals is achieved by accident. Strategic planning is often seen as unnecessary or at times, not even contemplated in an environment benign to the organization, e.g. high levels of market growth or monopoly situations. In my experience, a strategic plan based on basic critical thinking is a precursor to developing a competitive advantage where often none has previously been seen. Flexibility is also a challenge of a business. Not all businesses do have a strategic plan. Like small scale businesses. And mostly strategic plan is a short term planning only. That is because of changing environment. Since we all know that strategic plan can’t be implemented because there is a change, so it’s a challenge to an IT professional who does the research to make his/her research or plan to be useful. The other challenge is the uncertainty. Strategic planning helps a business evaluate market opportunities. To do this effectively, the process includes collecting and analyzing information about the business environment, understanding internal strengths, and developing a set of 'key assumptions'. Optimal strategies are designed based on all of these factors. As the environment changes, so should our plans. One way to assess whether it is time to conduct a new strategic planning process is to check your list of 'key assumptions' on an annual basis to see if anything has changed. The other one is the cost. Big industries and businesses don’t have the problem of cost in regards of improvement in their business. But in small scale business, cost is a great factor. With all the activities that make up running a business, setting priorities in the context of a plan is important. Without a plan, the limited resources of a growing business will tend to be scattered in many directions, netting results that take longer and cost more. The other challenge also is the organization dynamics. An effective planning process will help to get people talking, and ensure that the business owner/CEO benefits from the ideas of his/her team. A good process is designed to build confidence, support and commitment among all involved. Even if only a limited group is included in the process, the completion of a strategic plan provides a great opportunity to communicate the company's direction and core values to employees. The use of an outside facilitator can greatly enhance the effectiveness of a planning process and keep the process on track. There is often a strong tendency of those participating to focus the discussions on today's problems. An outside facilitator can help to broaden thinking and make sure that new ideas and directions are generated.

The steps use in designing an IS Plan for the University

1. Present a background study of the current status of the Universities IS - Here i would present information about the university's current strengths and weaknesses with regards to its ICT, Finance, Management, current systems, Human Resource and other units of the organization that would affect the proposed ISP, Enough to show a perspective view as to where my proposed IS plan would dwell.

2. state the mission/goal of the new IS plan - The mission Goal of the IS plan should be inclined with the University's original statement,

3. Identify the Objectives of the IS plan

4. Identify ISP models that would serve as the platform for the proposed ISP - Exixting ISP models from outside sources are good starting point to boost the development of the proposed IS plan.

5. Identify components of the proposed IS plan
ISP must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.
The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.
Create the mission model, the mission model, generally shorter than 30 pages presents end-result characterizations of the essential raison of the enterprise. Develop a high-level data model
The high-level data model is an Entity Relationship diagram created to meet the data needs of the mission descriptions. No attributes or keys are created. Create the resource life cycles (RLC) and their nodes. Resources are drawn from both the mission descriptions and the high level data model. Resources and their life cycles are the names, descriptions and life cycles of the critical assets of the enterprise, which, when exercised achieve one or more aspect of the missions. Allocate precedence vectors among RLC nodes. Tied together into a enablement network, the resulting resource life cycle network forms a framework of enterprise that represent an order and set of inter-resource relationships. Allocate existing information systems and databases to the RLC nodes. The resource life cycle network presents business information systems and databases can be attached. Allocate standard work break down structures (WBS) to each RLC node. Detailed planning of the A difference projects. Load resources into each WBS node, once the resources are determined; these are loaded into the project management entities of the data repository, that is, metrics, project, work plan and deliverables. Schedule the RLC nodes through project management package facilities. The entire suite of projects is then scheduled on an enterprise-wide basis. Produce and review of the ISP. The scheduled result is predicable: Too long, too costly, and too ambitious. Execute and adjust the ISP through time.

6. Design implementation goals
As gathering data is part of the development of IS plan, I would make sure that those data would include the problems found inside the university and its opportunities. I would like to develop an IS plan that would address those problems and solve it through its implementation while utilizing the full potential of the university in delivering its services. As our university is a state university, many opportunities may rise and utilizing this and using it up to the maximum benefit would greatly improve the university.

In expediting the implementation process of the IS plan, the first and foremost concern for this process is the willingness of the university for implementation. A huge resistance for the implementation of an IS plan would prove a huge risk and may cause the IS plan to fail or never implemented. It would greatly help if the IS plan is backed and supported by the top university officials so that other parts of the university or colleges would have minimal amount of resistance. The IS plan with the acknowledgment from the university would be implemented faster if the university itself knows of the IS plan so training and seminars are thereby held. The whole process of implementation would require much time and resources that focusing all efforts will be required for the implementation to go smoothly and immediately.
Expedite is to accelerate or speed up something. Having constructed an IS Plan should entail the details on how it is to be implemented in effective and efficient ways. Steps of which involves:

- Coordination with the personnel involve
- The workforces/people ware itself are the main element in carrying out the IS plan. They are the brain and core of the system. Without which, the plan would not be put into action. This entails people management with their particular function and responsibility.

* Assigning of responsibilities and setting timelines
- Distribution and allocating of task should be thoroughly thought out. Constructing a timetable or outline of what-must-be-done is very crucial for it will be the basis for monitoring means of how the plan is going.

* Utilization of resources
- It is of practical act to properly make use of all the resources available for the system. Analysis of the resources should be made. A university should look out for any source accessible. Overlooked resource could be a big lost for one’s organization.

* Monitoring of the growth of development
- To keep track with the project schedules must be observed. Any progress should be made recognize. Updates and improvements must also be identified and evaluated if it has been going well with what has been planned for the system.

*Assessments and revisions of plans
- It is an evaluation and comparison of the actual system implementation with the original ISP. Changes would not be inevitable and so as with what has been intended or planned for the ISP. In this phase, with what is good for the betterment, alteration or modification of the original plan is being done.

The things that must be considered:
Project Management
• How aggressive is the implementation plan, both in the timeline and volume of location rollout?
We must determine the strength in terms of time that is necessary for the implementation of the IS plan and even the location variable. Through these information we could come up to reasonable activities and deadlines.
• What level of effort will be needed to keep the plan on time and within budget?
We must also consider the cost that is needed in the implementation of the system. It must be in relation to the overall budget the the IS plan have and the amount that is alloted in the implementation stage. And as said earlier the implementation plan must be within the alloted time.
• Who in the organization can be temporarily reassigned to manage the implementation?
This is in terms of the personnels that are needed in the implementation of the system. Instead of deciding right away in hiring more employees for the activity. We must first check if some of the present persons in the organization is skilled enough and could be reassigned to manage the implementation of the system. This will not only lessen the cost of the activity but will also save the team time and effort in hiring new competent persons for the job.
• What previous experience do they have with IS software implementation or the current MIS of the
organization?
This is also in line with the employees that will be affected with the implementation of the IS plan. Their experiences must be noted for us to know how effective they can be in handling the implementation of the new IS.
• For what length of time will they be needed?
If the organization chooses to reassign employees or to hire contractual personnels for the Implementation of the system, the time that they are in need must be noted. This is important to make sure that their availability in the project is put into good use and to save the organization from wasting money from unneeded personnels.

• How strong are their troubleshooting (problem solving) skills?
Their skills in troubleshooting or problem solving must also ne put into consideration so that they will be assigned to a certain position where their skills will be maximized to the fullest and all the things that must be done will not be interrupted because of an incapable personnel.

We should determine the time to be allotted in order to complete the plan. With this we can utilize time management and other factors concerning schedules. Other than managing time we should also consider who will manage the plan and create planning teams that is capable in planning an IS. Project management must be properly supervised and development practices are also one most significant factor to be considered. We need to better understand the plan so that implementation won’t become more complicated. That is why such issues must be put into consideration.

Data Conversion

• What data, if any, will need to be transferred to the new system?
This is intended for organizations who have their previous system and want to replace it with a new one. All the data from the past system must be properly transferred to the new one. This requires skilled personnels that knows the previous system and persons that are also trained for the new system.
• What issues are involved with converting the data (i.e., lack of a standard way of calculating interest from one branch office to the next)?
To have the transfer of data precise. Issues involving these data must be put into consideration. This is based on the process that the system requires these data to undergo and this factor is mainly different from one organization to another. Its up to the hired personnel to identify there major involvements.
• What is the volume of data to be converted?
The volume of the data to be converted must also be put into consideration in order express it on an effective timeline.
• Given time, costs and percentage of error, would a manual or automated conversion, or a
combination of both be better?
Depending on the data that must be converted. The personnel assigned must be reasonable in choosing the type of process in converting the data. The factors that must be considered includes the time and the percentage of error that my occur in the conversion process

In creating an IS plan, whether this is for the university or a big organization, the group that designed the plan has its own resources to be interpreted in order for the user or the people involved in the plan knows what are those possible resources or data to know.

Training

• what basic training is necessary for the IT staff, and for the general staff?
After getting note about the abilities and the experiences that the personnel had from the past system the team must know the trainings that the personnel need to be competent in handling the new system.

• Are there any training prerequisites?
One training prerequisite could be that the personnel could only undergo the training if he had attended a certain training in the past, which makes sure that he has the ability to comprehend on the topics that the training will discuss.
• Who conducts the training?
This refers to the competent persons that will conduct the meeting. The success os the training is also dependent on how equipped the trainer is and how good he is.
• Is the training a structured class style format?
It must be sure that the training is structured in order to give the trainees a good view of the topics and would help them fully understand the concepts.
• Does a TOT (trainer of trainers) option exist?
It is also a good point where former trainees could be trainers in the future training activities. It could not only save the organization some money but will also ensure them that the trainer is capable because it is noted that he has undergone the same training before.
People is the basic equipment of an IS Plan. Since that they're the one's using the systems or they're the one involve in the plan. Since that they are the user or the client of the plan, it must be necessary that they have the knowledge about and how to deal with the change. Since we are talking about a plan, it is guaranteed that the we are dealing with change.
Training is also the most important factor to be considered. IT staffs that are properly trained will make the project easily done. They need to have knowledge in terms of managing data and IS plan implementation. One of the things that are essential to successful continuous improvement in order to expedite implementation of IS plan are strongly matters on the people involve around the plan.

Before the implementation of the IS plan takes place, we must already have our plan for the implementation. It is important to plan so that we can prepare and to make it much easier for us to handle the inevitable and unexpected issues that would come up during the process. That is why we are required to plan not only for the implementation of an IS plan but for our future as well.


The strategic considerations including what product to get behind, what market to target, by what means, to what ends. An evolution of company innovation through flexible response to market trends. Plus the operational result of the business strategy, including order fulfilment, product creation, after sales service, customer acquisition and retention.

According to wikipedia:
The Information System consists of four parts which include: procedures, software, hardware, and information or data, which are essentially the same. There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.
Information Systems have a number of different areas of work:
Information systems strategy
Information systems management
Information systems development
Information systems security
Information systems iteration
There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. With management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue."
An information system is a collection of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and provide as output the information needed to complete a business task.

Information Systems are Important because of the following; Crucial to success of modern business organization. Constantly being developed to make business more competitive and Impact productivity and profits.

System is a collection of interrelated components that function together to achieve some outcome. Information systems outcome is the solution to a business problem. Information systems, subsystems, and components interact with and include hardware, software, inputs, outputs, data, people, and procedures. Problem solving means looking into business problem in great detail, completely understanding problem, and choosing best solution. Information system development is much more than writing programs

Strategic planning must be align with the business plan. Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors. According to other source, strategic plan is a document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives. It is also a process of comprehensive, integrative program planning that considers, at a minimum, the future of current decisions, overall policy, organizational development, and links to operational plans. And according to the project management club, strategic planning is a basic document for planning of different projects of the programmed and their sub-projects. It is based on the content of the Financing Memorandum (FM) and the Monitoring and Evaluation Matrix attached to the Financing Proposal and translates the two documents into detailed operational terms. A satisfactory strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow managers and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally. In align with that, strategic plan must be reliable and suitable for the need of the company. Failure to secure top management commitment for carrying out the final plan frequently in almost all major projects, it may be on school or other situations like in business.
We are very vigilant and optimistic when we are just starting to accomplish our plan. The eagerness, focus, attention and other characters needed for a good start is always present. But a good stand doesn’t always end up with a good end. Generally most people have difficulties in finishing what they have started. We have the tendency to feel tired at the finishing part of our project. There are a lot of reasons behind this. With regards to IS planning, this may happen because of the lack of a good IS manager or team leader. The whole success of a plan generally lies in the hand of the team leader whose crucial responsibilities arise when everything is not going right. Another reason why we have difficulty in finishing what we have started is the lack of support.

“Planning is everything. Plans are nothing”, that is according to Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke. For my understanding about the quote, for me it means that we can really plan for anything. We can directly create or have our planning for ourselves. But in the end, after we have decided the planning, in the end, we can’t really have the activities to do the plan. Like for example here in USEP. Every professional professors and teachers here do have their conference and meeting about the strategic planning for the school, but once it was been designed or talked properly, at the end of the discussion and after the technical paper was made, there are still no implementation for it. The words and discussions are being taken for granted. Meaning, the planning was still useless since it was not been implemented properly.

Planning an IS plan can somehow complex. If I were to think of steps in order to expedite the implementation of IS plan to ensure that something takes place or dealt with more quickly than usual I would rather take into consideration some factors.

There is no information system plan is perfect the first try. It is our task to improve them and make sure that the IS plan is working towards the same goal as the organization’s business plan. To overcome the challenges that we may face, we have to be equipped with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills. If we can overcome them, then we can come up with a well-developed IS plan that will serve its purpose in the company for a long time




Source:
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/48230_file_94.pdf
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262
http://www.clarionmag.com/cmag/v3/informationsystemsplanning.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_systems_discipline

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?


Together with my classmates we went to Davao Light and Power Company and interviewed a system analyst. During our conversation he said that the most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users are the following; the project cost, resources, time and the users assessment if they are satisfy or not.

Frustration can occur in planning since your thinking about the future and if your goal of your plan could not be attain or you’re not confident of your plan and you are frustrated in making the plan. In making a Information System plan is not easy to work and you must have patience and dedication to your work and last you must also determine. When the Information System Professionals is developing the Information System they are also considering the user of the Information System, since the user is a huge factor in an Information System. If the information system is properly planned and it was very organized, but there is no user of the Information System even though the system is well made without a user the system is also nothing. An Information System Professional has many tasks which are the following:

1. Strategic Consulting
2. Project & Program Management
3. Network Infrastructure
4. Systems Infrastructure
5. Application Development, Integration & Deployment
With the responsibilities of the an Information System Professional it has a possibility that sometimes the Information System Professional is frustrated and can’t work well.

The failure to secure top management commitment for carrying out the final plan and the second one is the requirement for substantial further analysis after the completion of the IS plan. Both these problems are related to the output of the planning process. The first cause of frustration of the Information System Professional is the failure to secure top management commitment for carrying out the final plan which for me is the confidentiality of plan is not properly secure. I think the most reasonable cause of frustration in IS professional and users is the involvement of other human factor or the intervention of hierarchal people on the upper area while on the process of IS plan. Frustrations arise when we fail to meet our milestones. It is also similar with working on an IS plan. Failing to meet the goals that we have set in our plan would greatly increase the chance of ending up frustrated. That is why one of the reasons of frustrations in IS professionals is the mistake of creating the right plan.
We all have our own way and procedures of planning. Being a unique individual, makes us think differently and react on things differently. The most common way that we create our plan is to set time on when one task will be finished. This is how we measure our performance in carrying a certain task. We try to predict when we can finish something. This mistake comes unnoticed. The same thing goes with me. When I plan, I specify the things that I will do, make the objectives for that plan and set a time on how long it will take me to finish it. We must accept the reality that there will always be a time in our life that everything is not going our way. May it be in our own personal life, at school or at work, we should always put in mind that planning is a good practice but it will never ensure that everything will be well.
We may never know when problems will come but one thing is for sure, it will always come with a solution. Then the user also, such a way that there were the people involved in that strategic plan, are then also approach us lousy for the mistake of some persons. Like what I said above, strategic plan must be reliable so that the company must excel in accordance to era. In doing a strategic plan, it is not really known to everyone that there are frustrations that may trigger. Frustrations in a way that it may cause depression and stress to the professionals and users that are doing it. In doing an Information Strategic plan, it is really a must that the user and the professionals doing it must first determine the company’s background and other facts and information that can help and then again be a useful tool for the planning.

According to jis.sagepub.com
The quality of the interaction between the information system project team and the users in a development project is not clearly linked to the success of projects in terms of meeting budgets and product goals. Quality interaction may be crucial in understanding why past research is equivocal in support of the development maxim that user involvement is crucial to the success of an information system project. In this study, internal conflict among the IS project team is separated from the conflict of project team members with external users. Both internal and external team conflicts are found to impact interaction quality negatively, which in turn is strongly and positively related to project performance. These relationships indicate that attention to both internal and external conflict is crucial in achieving project goals.

According to our course objectives:
Information systems (ISs) play a critical role in the products’ creation, operations, decision-making, and learning of modern organizations. In the service industry, for example, almost half of all new capital investment involves information systems. The topic is therefore of considerable interest to senior IS executives, managers in all functional areas of business, and students. Understanding the strategic potential of information systems is arguably the key to obtaining significant value from information system expenditures. This has been, and will continue to be, one of the most significant challenges facing IS personnel.

According to wikipedia:
The Information System consists of four parts which include: procedures, software, hardware, and information or data, which are essentially the same. There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.
Information Systems have a number of different areas of work:
Information systems strategy
Information systems management
Information systems development
Information systems security
Information systems iteration
There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. With management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue."
An information system is a collection of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and provide as output the information needed to complete a business task.

Information Systems are Important because of the following; Crucial to success of modern business organization. Constantly being developed to make business more competitive and Impact productivity and profits.

System is a collection of interrelated components that function together to achieve some outcome. Information systems outcome is the solution to a business problem. Information systems, subsystems, and components interact with and include hardware, software, inputs, outputs, data, people, and procedures. Problem solving means looking into business problem in great detail, completely understanding problem, and choosing best solution. Information system development is much more than writing programs

Strategic planning must be align with the business plan. Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors. According to other source, strategic plan is a document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives. It is also a process of comprehensive, integrative program planning that considers, at a minimum, the future of current decisions, overall policy, organizational development, and links to operational plans. And according to the project management club, strategic planning is a basic document for planning of different projects of the programmed and their sub-projects. It is based on the content of the Financing Memorandum (FM) and the Monitoring and Evaluation Matrix attached to the Financing Proposal and translates the two documents into detailed operational terms. A satisfactory strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow managers and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally. In align with that, strategic plan must be reliable and suitable for the need of the company. Failure to secure top management commitment for carrying out the final plan frequently in almost all major projects, it may be on school or other situations like in business.
We are very vigilant and optimistic when we are just starting to accomplish our plan. The eagerness, focus, attention and other characters needed for a good start is always present. But a good stand doesn’t always end up with a good end. Generally most people have difficulties in finishing what they have started. We have the tendency to feel tired at the finishing part of our project. There are a lot of reasons behind this. With regards to IS planning, this may happen because of the lack of a good IS manager or team leader. The whole success of a plan generally lies in the hand of the team leader whose crucial responsibilities arise when everything is not going right. Another reason why we have difficulty in finishing what we have started is the lack of support.
A team that is responsible for an IS planning have a hard time doing what they are ought to do if there are no support coming from personnel or people outside their team. Adding to this list is the fact that IS planning requires experience and expertise in order to have a good outcome. Just like what I have said it is never an easy job. It is also possible that the advances in Information Technology and their applicability in organizations has outpaced all formal methodologies available to be used by IS managers. We all know that the advancements in IT has a fast pace. We must cope up with this speed in order not to be left behind. The things that I have mentioned earlier contribute to the reason why frustrations happen on IS professionals. If we will look at our experiences, we always feel frustration when we are nearly at the end of what we are doing.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/287895/information-system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_systems_discipline

visit my blog: http://rosemienunez.blogspot.com

What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan?

The nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan is Information system is a process for developing a strategy and plans for aligning information systems with the business strategies of an organization. The origin of the Open Business Plan model is in the free software.

According to Wikipedia:
Traditionally business plans have been highly confidential and quite limited in audience. The business plan itself is generally regarded as secret. However the emergence of free software and open source has opened the model and made the notion of an open business plan possible. An Open Business Plan is a business plan with unlimited audience. The business plan is typically web published and made available to all.
In the free software and open source business model, trade secrets, copyright and patents can no longer be used as effective locking mechanisms to provide sustainable advantages to a particular business and therefore a secret business plan is less relevant in those models. While the origin of the Open Business Plan model is in the free software and services arena, the concept is likely applicable to other domains.
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.
The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on organizational mission which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.
Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers. External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit's services. For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks.
Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal.For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. Venture capitalists are primarily concerned about initial investment, feasibility, and exit valuation. A business plan for a project requiring equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation.Preparing a business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines: finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management, operations management, and marketing, among others. It can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines.
"A good business plan can help to make a good business credible, understandable, and attractive to someone who is unfamiliar with the business. Writing a good business plan can’t guarantee success, but it can go a long way toward reducing the odds of failure."

According to tdan.com
The information systems plan is the plan by which databases and information systems of the enterprise are accomplished in a timely manner.
The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.
The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise. Once developed, each identified information system is seen in context with all other information systems within the enterprise.
A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful.
Timely The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
Useable The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
Maintainable The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
Quality While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
Reproducible The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.
Whenever a proposal for the development of an ISP is created it must be assessed against these five characteristics. If any fail or not addressed in an optimum way, the entire set of funds for the development of an ISP is risked.
Any technique employed to achieve an ISP must be accomplishable with less than 3% of the IT budget. Additionally, it must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.
The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262