I'm reading "Business Driven Information Technology - Answers to 100 Critical Questions for Every Manager, by David Laube and Raymond Zammuto." It is hands down my best investment in years.
What I appreciate about the book thus far is the insight into the many frustrations that most organizations face in regards to IT departments, and the explanations of what business-driven information technology means and the many benefits that come along with it.
Today, many IT departments seem to function apart from the company itself. This often leaves the users frustrated and confused about what IT really does. This book explains how to bridge such gaps between IT and the other departments and how to bring them all together for the greater cause of the company. In addition, the sections, questions, and discussions are a treasure to every IT manager.
The insight, wisdom, and lessons shared by the authors and contributors are priceless. I'm not entirely finished with the book but thus far it is certainly a must read for today's IT leaders and managers, as well as C-level executives looking to develop a successful technology strategy that will help the company achieve its strategic objectives.
Sections and the 100 Questions are as follows:
Section 1 - IT and Strategy
1. How does information technology impact industries?
2. How has information technology changed the dynamics of competition within industries?
3. Why do some technological innovations create disruptive changes for industries while others do not?
4. What is a business-driven technology strategy?
5. Should a company be on the bleeding-, leading-, or following-edge of technology?
6. What are the benefits of mass customization?
7. Should a company consider interim or "throwaway" systems as part of its technology strategy?
Section 2 - Information Technology
Architecture
8. What are the common IT architectures in use today?
9. What are the primary considerations for choosing an IT architecture?
10. How does an organization develop an architectural plan?
11. What are the basic concepts of client/server architecture?
12. What are the business implications of fat clients and thin clients?
13. What is middleware and the business implications of its use?
14. What are the benefits of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and the barriers to its use?
15. What are Web services and their implications for an enterprise?
16. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Windows-based versus a Unix-based software environment?
17. What are the business and technology reasons for choosing one Unix platform over another?
Applications
18. What are the characteristics of a transaction processing system?
19. What are the characteristics and benefits of a decision support system?
20. What are data warehouses and what are their benefits?
21. What is data mining and what are its uses?
22. What are the characteristics and benefits of group support systems?
Networks
23. What are the major hardware elements of a network and what is the role of each?
24. What are the most common types of data networks and their uses?
25. What are the differences between voice and data networks?
26. What are the implications of the Internet for business users?
27. What are the different broadband technologies and their uses?
28. What are the major wireless technology platforms?
29. How could the use of wireless devices transform how business is done?
Security
30. Why is security a major issue?
31. What does a firewall do?
32. What are viruses and how can an organization protect against them?
33. What are the major components of a disaster recovery plan?
Section 3 - IT and E-business
34. What are the key components of an e-business strategy?
35. What kinds of revenue opportunities does e-business create?
36. What kinds of cost reduction opportunities does e-business offer?
37. What are the different types of business-to-business e-commerce models?
38. What are the differences among B2C e-business models?
39. What is the right mix of "bricks and clicks"?
40. How can a business learn more about its customers using IT?
41. What are the major privacy issues associated with e-business?
42. What are the uses of intranets, extranets, and portals?
43. What technical elements must be in place for a successful e-business implementation?
44. What are the primary issues involved with integrating front-end and back-end systems?
45. What e-business assumptions were proved wrong by the "dot.com crash"?
Section 4 - IT and Organization
46. What impact does information technology have on an organization's ability to coordinate and control activities?
47. How does information technology affect communication, decision making, job design, and power within an organization?
48. What role does an organization's culture play in determining the benefits gained from new technologies?
49. How will other departments withing your organization react to a technology project?
50. Why do customers and suppliers sometimes react negatively to an organization's IT projects?
51. What is knowledge management?
52. Does an e-learning strategy improve a company's training value?
53. What are the attributes of an effective relationship between an IT organization and the rest of the business?
54. Is a centralized or decentralized IT organization better?
55. How can the capability maturity model (CMM) be used to improve an IT organization's effectiveness?
56. How can an internal IT organization's success be measured?
57. What is the average tenure of a CIO and why?
Section 5 - IT and Business Processes
58. Which is more important - business process or technology?
59. Why is it important to consider business process design when implementing a process technology?
60. How much transformation in business processes is needed or desirable?
61. When are radical changes in processes and technologies more desirable and effective than incremental changes?
62. What is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system?
63. What risks does an organization face from an ERP implementation?
64. What are the challenges in using a vendor-supplied ERP system to support redesigned business processes?
65. What is a customer relationship management (CRM) system?
66. What are the attributes of a good CRM system?
67. What are the key attributes of supply chain management (SCM) system?
68. What are the key technology issues around SCM implementation?
69. What are the issues to consider when deciding to customize a standard vendor application?
Section 6 - IT and Resource Allocation
70. How does a company know how much it should spend on information technology?
71. How should a company spent its money on technology?
72. Is it easier to justify a revenue-enhancing technology investment or one that reduces costs?
73. Is revenue protection a valid justification for a technology investment?
74. Why is total cost of ownership (TCO) important?
75. Which is more important - the payback period for a project or its return on investment? Are there other financial measures that should be considered in evaluating a project?
76. How do you choose one technology project over another?
77. How will you know if the assumed benefits of a project have been realized?
78, What are the major components of a "build-or-buy" decision?
79. How do you select a vendor?
80. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an application service provider?
81. What purposes do different types of outsourcing relationships serve?
82. When should an organization consider outsourcing?
83. What are the considerations for outsourcing portions of your IT offshore?
84. When should an organization upgrade its software technologies?
Section 7 - IT and Implementation
85. What are the risks associated with the business model of a project?
86. What are the risks associated with the implementation of a project?
87. What does technology implementation failure look like?
88. Why do so many technology implementations fail?
89. What are the key components of project management?
90. What are the key tools for managing a project?
91. What are the implications of Brook's Law for staffing a technology project?
92. Why is it important to explicitly state the intended business result of an IT project? How should it be done?
93. What role does a project's sponsor need to play in the technology implementation process?
94. What questions does the project sponsor need to ask the project manager?
95. What role does a project's steering board need to play in the technology implementation process?
96. What are the key managerial authorities a project manager needs to succeed?
97. What are the keys to getting cross-functional work done?
98. What top ten actions can IT project managers take to increase the likelihood of implementation success?
99. Should you plan for failure?
100. How do you know when to kill a project?
