Chapter 1: 

1.1 As Jim Barton, would you accept the CIO position ?

Why ? Yes, because i know how the IT should work. And it don´t care if i manage the IT or the
loan operations department. Yes, because he realized that the tasks of a CIO are about
management. He also criticized the way how the IT was working and saw a possibility of
improving it. Why not ? No, as Jim Barton I would not accept this job because even as a it-
manager it is necessary to not have a technical background. Without even a little bit of
understanding the technical background a it-manager can not understand the implications of his
decisions. There is also an difference between the theoretical part oft work and the practical
implementation. 
1.2 fehlt
1.3 What kind of company is IVK ?
IVK is a midsize growth company in the financial sector with a focus on loan management
operations for customers.
1.4 How intensively does IVK use information technology ? 
Because IVK offers more financial services they need more IT to handleThey use IT but the it´s
not the main part of their businesdeclienedshas a supporting function, but it doesn´t help to
differentiate. 
1.5 Consider the exhibits at the end of chapter 1; what do they tell us about the company’s
business situation ?
What about competitors ? Implications ?The situation coudn´t be very good, because they
released many employees in the last time.There are 2 major competitors, Competitor A with
36% market share, B with 15% market share and 33 % others. IVK has got 16% market share.
What is the reason for replacing the CEO ?
 
 The rate of growth of the firm decreased and stock has fallen as investors became less
optimistic about IVK. It became necessary to change the direction in which IVK
moved.Investors lost a lot of money.How developed profits in the last year ?
Implications ? Turnover increased. Profit stagnated.
1.6 Who is Jim Barton ? Who is Carl Williams ?
Jim Barton is the new CIO of IVK. A talented and ambitious general manager, Barton knows
nothing about IT.Carl Williams is bold turnaround CEO is high on ambition and short on
patience. He is reconstructing IVK.
1.7 After searching on the words „IT management“, Barton writes on his whiteboard „IT
management is about management“.
What do you think Barton is trying to get at with this statement ?He tries to reduce IT
management to simple management to get in touch with it. Do you agree with the statement ?
Yes we agree because in IT management you should look at the hole thing and not only small
parts. Disagree ?Yes, he should have “IT management is about it and management” written on
his board. As a CIO he has to represent the it department (e.g. in the board of directors).
Without a little technical background this is going to be difficult.
1.8 In his Google search, Barton comes across the statement: „More than any other group
within a company, IT is positioned to understand the business end-to-end, across departmental
boundaries“
Do you agree ?Yes, we agree. Because the IT Department is involved in every department and
can see the whole workflow and see the supply chain management.Disagree ?
1.9 What task of the CIO is depicted in the diagrams found by Jim Barton ?
Bring the business smarts with the tech smarts together to create value.Build a bridge between
top business management and top IT management

The general manager cares about the strategic business and IT leaders follow the technical
strategies and operations. 
1.11 How does IT knowledge differ from management knowledge ?
The IT is very technical and management knowledge is based on economy stuff. 
1.12 Do you find the framework that Barton seems to like useful ?
Yes.
1.13 How changed the IT role in the late 90’s ?
For a long time, the IT had just a supportive role.In the late 90`s, the dot.com bubble made tech
start-up companies glamorous.IT became decisive. The CIO didn’t have to report to the CFO
anymore. He rather made reports directly to CEO and even got a seat among chairmen.
1.14 What changed after the dot.com bubble ?
Before the bubble bursted the CIO had been part of the executive table. After the bubble
exploded they have been reduced in rank and had to report to the CFO again. 
1.15 Which changes took place by 2006 ?
Many CIOs had lost seats at executive tables. IT has been placed under finance again.
1.16 What ideas had Davies about the role of IT ? Why has he never have been invited to
customer meetings ?
He thought he could help improve relations with customers and their needs if he were invited to
come to meetings. But his dress code wouldn’t fit well to go along.The idea of Davies and his
wired neckties sitting down with customers.
1.17 What would be your best single piece of advice to Barton if he decides to take the job ?
If Jim Barton wants to do a good job as CIO he has to follow our advise and read some books
to get a little overview of the technical background.
IT Management is about management..IT Management is not about management..maybe?sure.
Or is it? Is it not? No,it is! 
Questions chapter 2

 
2.1 Do you think, that the advice (“You’ve got to know what you don’t know”) that the kid at
Vinnie‘s bar offers to Barton is naive, or good advice ?
The advice is good, because Barton needs to know, in which topics he lacks knowledge. This
topics should be delegated to people with more expertise in this area.He should know his
limitations in knowledge.
2.2 There is a group of CIO‘s with technology background similar to Bill Davies, who, after
awhile in the job, begin to be referred to in the company as „benevolent dictators“ ? Many of
them, like Davies, are fired.
 A) Why do you think that these CIO‘s become referred to as „benevolent
dictators“ ?Because he wants to do everything for himself and doesn’t want the help from
other people. These CIOs only see the technical side and not the management part. B) Why do
you think many of them get fired ?The manager is meant to delegate, not to solve technical
issues.The technical realisation should be up to the specialists. But most of them decide
technical issues without considering the objectives and goals of the company.
2.3 What do you think that Bill Davies predicts that Jim Barton will not last the year without
getting fired as CIO ?
Not everyone without a prior knowledge on a chapter gets fired.He’s predicting, that it requires
certain knowledge of IT to manage IT and Jim being a pure manager will have big problems
coping with that.Bill Davies describes the company as a madhouse and nobody could succeed
running IT in that place.
2.4 Davies predicts that Barton will be gone in a year;
Why does he say this ?Because Jim doesn’t have any knowledge in IT and in his view the
company is a mess. The role as a CIO, in his opinion, depends on technical knowledge on
IT. Do Maggie’s slides (exhibit at end of IVK-2) shed any light on Davies’ assertion ?There are
no relevant competencies Jim Barton misses, but there may some not be listed. Perhaps he did
not recognize the importance of IT. That’s in about 12% the reason for failure of
CIOs. Meggie’s slides shed some light on Davies assertion, because key factors for the future
CIO success are managing skills and with that Jim is very gifted. Why was Davies fired ? (use
Maggie’s slides)Perhaps because he had only experience in IT, but he missed the business skills
and competencies. He maybe also had a poor collaboration with lines of business.

 
2.5 What kinds of questions should Barton be asking of CIOs, analysts, investors, customers,
and other IT movers and shakers
 ?
● W h a t t h e y a r e t h i n k i n g a b o u t t h e i r j o b . ●Where should be his
priorities? Where should he focus his work?● H o w i s a “ n o r m a l ” d a y i n
t h e d a y of a C I O ● W h i c h t a s k s s h o u l d B a r t o n d o b y h i m s e l f ?
●Which can he delegate to others?●How much do other companies
spend on IT?
2.6 How should he prioritize and organize these meetings ?
He should first meet other CIOs to get a general overview about the business as CIO. After that
the analysts. He should also meet soon with the customer to get their requirements. At last he
should meet the investors.There should be two phases:
● surface-level, to get to know that people (go out for a dinner and so on)
● discussion- level, to ask them the questions

Chapter 3:
3.1 Do you agree with Ruben that IT is a „unique“ or different business function?
Yes ,I agree. IT is a department that has to have knowledge about each of the operational
sequences in every department, where IT supports their operations.IT doesn’t generate revenue
by their own operations, but by supporting other departments.
3.2 Why is Barton having so much trouble getting his direct reports(people who directly report
to J.B.) to commit to an offsite meeting without their technical experts?
Because the 5 heads of the IT department who directly report him, don´t understand that Jim
only wants to talk with them about topics in the management or policy level. For that it is
absolutely not necessary to include the other experts.Maybe the 5 direct reports don’t know
anything about the topics on which the sidekicks work. -The operation managers are only
linking the management to the technical aspects. Management doesn’t know about IT in detail,
it only does know the given possibilities.The operation managers can’t stay on top of the art,
cause they don’t have the time to learn and use every new technology in IT in-depth. (That’s
where the sidekicks pop in)
3.3 Do you think that having the „sidekicks“ is necessary for having the kind of meeting that
Barton wants?
Jim Barton wants a strategic meeting within the IT department. In such a meeting there are no
sidekicks necessary. In this particular situation and company the sidekicks are required because
they have more information about their projects and departments than the leaders.-Yes, I think
so. Sidekick know the scope and possible issues in IT. The operation manager translates these
information into manager understandable language, meaning huge numbers/profits.
3.4 What did Barton learn from this trip to the bookstore and subsequent night of studying?
He learned that there must be another way for a CIO to get his department running than
knowing about technical details. That he can never learn everything about the
technology.There’s just too much for him to learn in reasonable time. He only needs a general
overview.That’s also one of the reasons, his direct reports want to have their sidekicks in on
meetings

Chapter 4:

Are IT applications an asset or expense? a.

 
IT applications can be either an asset or an expense. An IT application is an asset if
it allows the company to have a competitive advantage over others in the industry,
for example. Another important thing to consider is how the application is
appropriated within the organization. If it is an application that is amortized over a
period of years, like an ERP system, then this would be considered an asset from
an accounting standpoint. An application is an expense, or becomes an expense,
when it has a much smaller impact and only short-term costs, such as operating
systems and basic word processing applications. Older applications can also
become an expense once the system has been fully paid for via the amortization
period. At that point, the cost to maintain them will be the only charge for the
system, and this can be an expense. 2.
 
What is the main purpose of allocating IT costs to user departments? a.
 
The main purpose of allocating IT costs to user departments is to provide a
breakdown of the rate at which each user department used IT. By giving the user
department a clear overview of what it is spending on IT, it allows them to create a
separate budget for IT within their department. This also provides a way for the IT
department to properly bill the user departments for the services they used, so that
they are not arbitrarily billing all of the departments the same amount. This helps
to keep a level playing field because inevitably some departments will use far more
IT resources than others. 3.
 
What is an appropriate percentage of the IT budget to spend on maintenance? a.
 
Ideally, the budget would allocate as small of an amount as possible toward
maintenance. It is probably wishful thinking for the number to be super low, so I
would assume a good goal would be to have less than 50% of the budget spent on
maintenance. This would allow for extra money to be available for use on upgrades
and further investment on new IT projects. 4.
 
As a percentage of sales, how much should a company spend on IT? a.
 
I think this would vary highly depending on the type of company, as some
industries require vast amounts of data and IT support, while others are not as
reliant on IT. Ultimately, I think the goal for the company would be to spend
enough to maintain competitive with others in your industry and to invest enough
on the future to give the company a competitive advantage over others. To pull that
off in some industries it may require 6% of the sales, but other industries may be
able to do this with much smaller numbers.

4.1 What is the “right” amount a company should invest in IT ?

 
There is no right answer for that, it depends how much maintaine is in usage right now. The
company should invest as much as possible to create new way of providing services but also
have the services running in a stable way. Ruben said investing 40% in new services and 60%
for maintaining the infrastructure are recommended values.
4.2 How can the “right” amount be determined ?
There is no right amount. Every company has a different usage and size of their IT systems.
Because of that fact every company has to find the right amount on their own. 
4.3 Is Geisler giving Barton the run around in responding to Barton’s request concerning IT
expenditures ? If you think so, what would you do ?
We think, that it´s not his purpose to play tricks with him.He only explains how the IT budget is
spent in the company. 
4.4 What is the purpose of a “chargeback” system for returning IT costs to business units? Why
implement such a system? As we learn in IVK-4, at IVK, business units control all of the IT
budget; what do you think of this arrangement? Should Barton try to “pull back” some of the
budget that is allocated to business units, to create his own discretionary budget?
The intention of a chargeback system is that all costs are splited in each department so it´s
possible to divide the costs on the department which caused them. But it´s not mandatory nor
possible to always specify the costs to a certain department. 
4.5 How should Jim Barton respond to the CEO’s question: “Are we spending the ‘right’
amount on IT?”
By now, the IT department had no own cost unit and they did not sell their products to the
different business units. The IT department just got money through a formula developed by
Geisler. So they had no way so measure the actual amount of the IT costs in each business unit.
 4.6 Are IVKs systems real time ?
No, the systems are based on batch processing rather than real-time. But IVK wants to have real
time loan operations in the future.(p. 68) 
4.7 How are workflows supported within IVK ? Is this a favourable approach ? 

 
4.8 How changed the spending on IT ? What is the reason ?
see. 4.10Several new services arose complying with the needs of the customers. All new
services are run on modified versions of existing systems or are even implemented
from scratch. Thus the effort of maintaining the IT services increased rapidly, moving more and
more of the spending on maintenance while retaining the same amount spent on application
development.
4.9 Please give a short description on Service-Oriented Architecture !
SOA describes how to build systems composed of services. High level business services are
carved out of primitive business processes/ basic services. Its important these basic services are
implemented in a way to be available to any application.see page 69
4.10 How IT spending developed over time ?
see 4.8
4.11 Which percentage of sales has been spent in the past and how much is spent today ?
Historically, it was around 5-6 percent of spending on IT. Now it’s 8 percent.
4.12 What do you think about the approach to chargeback based on the number of telephones ?
It’s a rather primitive approach, because I think the amount of phones doesn’t really say much
about the amount spent on communication.
4.13 What happens if the formula for mapping IT costs is too complex ?
Nobody will understand the formula and it is non-cummunicable. And nobody trusts sth. that
he can’t understand.
4.14 What is business intelligence ?
Business intelligence refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting and
analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated
costs and incomes.
4.15 What is a data warehouse ?
 A data warehouse is a database used for reporting. The data is uploaded from the
operational systems for reporting. The data may pass through an operational data store for
additional operations before it is used in the DW for reporting.
4.16 Are IT applications an asset or an expense ?
It is an asset.

 
4.17 What is the main purpose of allocating IT costs to user departments ?
The main purpose is to give the user departments an overview of the amount spend on IT and
to create a separate budget for IT.
4.18 What is an appropriate percentage of the IT budget to spend on maintenance ?
 As low as possible.
4.19 As percentage of sales, how much should a company spend on IT
 At least so much that it could keep pace with its competitors. In addition it should
invest enough to gain a competitive edge

 
 
Adventures of an IT Leader
 – 
 Chapter 5 Reflection
1.
 
How do IT investments create value? Enable value creation? a.
 
IT investments create value by adding to the infrastructure and capital to the
company. These investments are tangible systems and infrastructure that provide
current and future value for the company, but they do not add value on their own.
The way these investments create value is by enabling other departments to work
more efficiently and with less cost. They speed processes, which in terms adds
value. As for enabling value creation, I think this is where the IT investments have
a better payoff because the systems that are created can have drastic savings for the
company. As stated the investments basically enable other departments to cut costs
and speed their work. Project management systems, supply chain systems, and
time/billing systems are all examples of investments a company can make that will
create instant value in the form of savings and more lean budgets. 2.
 
How might we get a quantitative handle on the level of value provided by IT? a.
 
Barton took the approach of finding the overall value of the company and then
trying to guess how much of an impact IT has on that number. I think he was on
the right track, but he just needed to dig deeper for some better numbers. The
amount spent on IT as a  proportion of the companies overall value would give at
least a dollar amount for IT within the company. Ultimately, IT has a lot of
intrinsic value that cannot be easily transcribed quantitatively. This makes the
quandary even more complex. 3.
 
What light does the consultants’ report shed on the matter of Davies’ firing
and the subsequent choice of Barton as CIO? What (if anything) does it add to the
IT value discussion? a.
 
This sheds light on the reasoning for letting Davies go. It shows that IVK wants to
move away from the Type 1 IT leadership structure and toward a more Type 2, and
eventually Type 3 structure. Additionally, this says that IVK most likely saw Barton as
more of a Type 2 or 3
 
leader, or at least a person with higher potential of reaching Type 2 or 3 because
there is no reason to move him to CIO if they did not see that potential in him.
 
differentiate us from competitors (so-called ‘qualifiers’)?
IT does not create value on it’s own. IT assists other departments on creating values. E.g. it
speeds things up, make things and processes more efficient than they were previously.
Internal: efficiency, quality, time
External: customer interaction
5.4 What has gone wrong with the justification of IT projects.
No one ever checked after the fact to see that benefits had been realized after an IT project was
realized. Savings often were impossible without IT, but nobody realized that.
5.5 What problem appears concerning the allocation of credits for savings from IT-enabled
change ?
The business units might claim these savings on their own.
5.6 How Zara used IT to achieve competitive advantage ?
To see the demand on an hot item in real-time at the point of sale. This enabled Zara to fullfill
the orders quicker than the competitors.
5.7 What happens if all firms have similarly invested ?
This service will become a quailifier and the value that IT provides might become fleeting. If IT
achieves an competitive advantage the other firms are going to copy it.
5.8 How IT investments become irrelevant for achieving competitive advantage ?
For example, when the investments outnumber the likely gains of this advantage.
5.9 Which IT investments provide the most value ?
“The most value would come from investments in IT that give you an edge that your
competitors can’t copy.” (p.74)insourcing, customizing
5.10 What is the core argument of Carr ?
Carrs core arguments is to minimize risk and costs of commodity IT areas because a firm can’t
gain profit out of these investments.
5.11 What complicates the calculation of ROI from IT-investments ?
Often, you invest just to stay in business. For these investments, there is no real ROI.
5.12 What are qualifier and compete investments ?
 A qualifier investment keeps you in business,it is important to keep your company
runnig.A compete investment gives you a potential edge over other companies in your
industry.

 
5.13 What happens to compete investments over time ?
They will become qualifiers because other companies of the industry are going to copy your
compete investments., 
5.14 Please explain McFarlain’s strategic grid ! Where competitive advantage from IT shows
up ?
 This grid helps to specify how important IT is for your company.
5.15 Please explain Barton’s newest drawings !
He draw a house with the allocation of the cost. 40 % the IVK spend for applications and 60 %
for the infrastructure, he added also a C vs Q, that means Competes versus Qualifiers.
5.16 Which levels of maturity of IT leadership are characterized in the report ?
- type 1 control-orientated- type 2 enterprise-orientated- type 3 strategic focus
5.17 What did the consultants recommend concerning Davies ?
He is just a type 2 IT leader.
5.18 Please describe the three eras of IT growth !
- Data processing era- Micro era- Network era
5.19 What is Moore’s Law ?
“The computing power of chips doubles every two years.” 
5.20 What is the legacy systems problem ?
Many companies incorporated early technologies in an inflexible way and are now
experiencing
5.21 Which systems of IVK provide strategic advantage and which not ?
System which are near the client mostly provide a benefit to your company. (da war noch
was?)Internal systems do not provide a benefit.
5.22 Which leadership capabilities are identified in the report ?
- strategic focus and do not deal with daily problems. He how understand how to achieve your
strategic goals with the help of it.
5.23 How created the endeavour to server clients individually a maintenance
 
nightmare ?
followed a rather strange customer report
5.24 How might we get a quantitative handle on the level of value provided by IT ?
und?
 5.25 What light does the consultant’s report shed on the matter of Davies’ firing and the
subsequent choice of Barton as CIO ?
Davies was, following the consultant’s report, even not a type 2-manager. Barton is maybe a
type 3.
Questions chapter 6
11.April-Meeting with the people from Loan Operation Systems and Customer Support
Systems- talk about their projects in process (with indicators)- talk about why many projects are
over budget- Huerta: lack discipline in he project management process, don´t plan enough ->
more planning and more discipline- Calder: Huerta´s never works, spend more desciplined time
in the requirement gathering phase, closer understanding what they need -> matter of executing
plan12.April-Burton read a book about Project Management -> how to plan projects not how to
manage- new on his witheboard: Managing Problems you can/can´t anticipate13. April- Barton
meets the boy again in Vinnies- talk about death march projects 
6.1 Which side would you take in the debate between Huerta and Calder ? Why ?
I would take the side from Calder, because his/her arguments sounds more realistic. For
example that they work a long time with the system which has Huerta described and that
systems doesn´t work well.
6.2 What do you think of the approach that Davies seems to have used (Judging from
documents found by Barton) to managing uncertainty in projects ?
I think it´s a bad management, because with that way you can´t really say how much one
project costs, and so you can´t plan effectively.

   6.3 How would you implement the kid‘s advice to budget in a way that allows learning on a
project ?
- financial resources, so that you can go a step back and do it better The scope of this question is
about optimization. E.g. at the waterfall model at the beginning you must overview the whole
project. At iterative approach it is possible to optimize your local steps through the
project.
6.4 What is the nature of IT application development in respect to effective project management
?
- Software is a very complex construct, you can change and customize it. There are also many
different variables which make software project management a difficult type of management. 
6.5 Compare and contrast the „traditional“ vs. the „agile“ approach to IT applications project
management
Traditional: Planning at the beginning, then implementation with the facts from the plan.
Changes are not intended. Agile: Implementation of more prototyps
6.6 What approach would you recommend to Jim Barton ?
 A mix between the traditional and the agile management. Because the decision
depends on the sort of the project, e.g. a big or a small project
6.7 What became apparent to Barton concerning the status of the projects ?
The projects have different colours, green, red and yellow. Barton don´t know for what exactly
the colours stand for. He thinks that the most projects are over 
6.8 According to Calder and Huerta, is it possible to know all requirements and eventualities
before implementation ?
This is a point of discussion. Believe it or not.
6.9 What is a contingency plan ?
It´s a plan for problems you can anticipate
6.10 What is agile project management ?
see 6.15
6.11 What is Parkinson’s Law and how does it show up in projects.
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion, that means that when they have
time left after they finished their project they do something other in the time which has left but
they don´t mention that they are ready

6.12 Why are there nearly no projects before schedule ?

Completing a project before schedule means that you failed at optimizing your project ...
6.12 What is a death march project ?
It is a project with a bad plan that managers are determined to stick to.
6.13 What are the characteristics of the best project management policies ?
- the frontline guys to be willing to bring bad news to the boss ( boss can´t detect the bad news
alone)- best project managers policies are those that promote open flow of information up and
down the project hierarchy
6.14 What is a core problem of project management concerning communication of bad news ?
- the managers don´t want to hear about unexpected problems, so the bad news just sweep
under the rug
6.15 Please describe Agile Project Management
Complements traditional project management in many ways, should understand the basic of
setting up project organization, budgeting, critical path scheduling and myriad other established
project management practices.
 6.16 What are the nine principles of agile project management ? Please explain them.
- deliver some useful- cultivate committed stakeholders- employ a leadership- collaboration
management style- build competent, collaborative teams- enable team decision making- use
iterative, feature driven delivery- encourage adaptability- champion technical excellent-
accelerate throughput
6.17 Does it really make sense to jump directly into project coding and early prototypes in order
to discover “messes” (unanticipated issues) early - that is, “to fail fast to succeed sooner” Can
this advice be implemented in a practical way ?
Maybe they should sometimes jump directly into the project, but before they should plan a bit.
Not every detail exactly, there could ever be an unexpected issue - even if they have planned a

 
long time.
6.18 How can you manage, or prepare to manage, what you cannot anticipate and do not expect
?
They expect from the beginning that something can get wrong, therefore the monitor and adapt
phases names what happens when variations are found. The teams work in short iterations.
6.19 What do you think of the approach that Davies seems to have used (as revealed in the
documents discovered by Barton) to manage uncertainty in IT projects ?
Davis adds extra resrouces and extra time. This is one solution but it does not tackle your
problems. It just gets your projects more expensive.fertig.
 
Questions chapter 7
7.1 Have other departments been successful in showing up the value contributed by them ? 7.2
What particular problem appeared when the IT department tried to identify its value
contribution ?
- IT was not customer facing- IT sold nothing to customers directly- the departments said the
benefits is the result of their own activities
7.3 What are the politicial implications of this problem ?
- they have to fight for the money for new projects- claiming value, which is done by other units
7.4 What did Barton and his team instead ?
- introduce the compete and qualify framework (benchmarking)
7.5 Which measure is used to classify the IT-enabled capabilities ?
- metric of sustainability
7.6 What’s wrong with the Infrastructure Replacement Project ?
- they work a long time but they don´t show any good results- IVK had to pay a lot for this
project

 
7.7 What are the root causes of the problems that lead to the Infrastructure Replacement (IR) ?
NetiFects is not familiar with the systems IVK uses.
7.8 Is IVK tackling these problems in the right way ?
- I think they should discuss the problem, because they have spend already a lot of money to
this project.
 7.9 What is the status of the Infrastructure Replacement Project ?
- stood out as the single largest item in the IT budget- the project is going sideways
7.10 What problem arose out of the composition of the leadership team of the IR project when
evaluating system integrators ?
- business people made wrong decisions
7.11 Do the technological competencies of NetiFects fit wit the needs of IVK ?
- No, they don´t fit, because NetiFects works a lot with Linux and IVK works with Windows
7.12 Whom did the project team trust more: NetiFects or the IVK IT department ?
- NetiFects (p. 114)
7.13 What mechanism became effective as consequence of the lack of trust ?
- project team business people didn’t trust the IT people, so the vendor could tell what wanted
to
7.14 What bias is effective when NetiFects is buying packaged software ?
- they buy the software package on their favored technologies and not the ones IVK is most
comfortable with
7.15 Why has the IR initiative faltered ?
- because they haven´t shown any progress of direct benefit- they try to change too much in one
project
 7.16 What makes such projects so difficult?
- you can´t really control the other company- the project influences all departments too many
connections in between the department

7.17 Do you agree with Barton’s decision to terminate the agreement with NetiFects ?
- Yes, because NetiFacts isn´t really telling the truth in the meeting with Barton. You can see
that when Srinivasa in the meeting agreed when Burton mentioned that the project is going
sideways
 7.18 Can projects like the IR project be avoided. ?
- Yes, I think so, but you have to choose a good matching vendor. The technologies should fit.
7.19 How do you manage problems you cannot anticipate ?
-
7.20 Are the assumptions in the report about technical education of business staff during the
project realistic ?
- No, they are not realistic- business staff would never understand complicated IT issues and the
other way around
 
Questions chapter 8
8.1 What strange things are happening in the IVK network ?
There is some unusual activity on the IDS logs. It could be an intrusion.
8.2 Is it possible to close all security holes ?
No it is not possible to close all security holes. It would require an infinite amount of
expenditure to close all security holes.
8.3 Why do you think the previous CIO, Davies, created slush fund slack for budgeting IT
projects ? Under Davies, whose neck is in the noose if a project goes bad ?
He created the slush fund slack for budgeting IT projects, which didn’t get budgets from the
standard decision process.If a project goes bad....
8.4 For which kind of projects it is difficult to get budget for ?
For the deeply technical kind of projects is it difficult to get budget for, because they don’t
provide direct customer benefits.

 
8.5 Why is it so difficult to decide about security projects ?
Because security projects don’t provide any direct benefits. But if there is later a problem, it
could harm the hole company.
 8.6 Who killed the network security project ? How ?
Barton himself killed the project the last time. He made a joke on the project proposal from the
IT guys, because their explanations were much too technical.
8.7 What consequences draws Barton out of the killing of the security project ?
First, he wants to find a way to fund the security project, without involving slush funds. Second,
he wants to review the process, which is used to decide how to allocate the IT budget.
8.8 What fundamental problem of responsibility exists for IT projects ?
 
8.9 What’s the problem with the present IT-budget ?
The IT department has no own budget.
 8.10 What problems are caused by quickly changing project priorities ?
People work one week on project A and then get switched to project G, so they can’t really get
deeply into a project and can’t make big progresses.
8.11 Should Barton try to take control of the entire IT budget ? Should he ask for a percentage
of the overall budget to be placed under his control ? Or should he try to fix the committee
structure put in place by Davies ? 8.12 How do you interpret Maggie‘s „one neck in the noose“
analogy ? How much credence would you give to her thoughts about this issue ?
 
8.13 Do you think Barton‘s approach of providing the best information at the time is a better
approach than Davies‘ approach ? Under Barton, whose neck will be in the noose if a projects
goes bad ? 8.14 What characteristics should have priority-setting processes ?
 

 
8.15 How works the Volkswagen of America system for managing priorities ?
3 categories:-mandatory-ROI-option-creating investment
8.16 Which categories are used for projects in this approach ? 8.17 What are mandatory
projects ? 8.18 Who pays for mandatory projects ? 8.19 What is application portfolio
management ? 8.20 What alternatives to organize IT budgeting exist for Barton ? 8.21 What
processes need to be in place to effectively establish IT project priorities ? 8.22 Is assigning
control of IT budget to user departments an effective mechanism to establish IT priorities ? 8.23
Who should control the IT budget ? 8.24 Given his disagreement with Maggie and his peers,
do you think Barotn is wise to ask for IT budget control ? What consequence
s (positive or negative) do you foresee ?

Questions chapter 9
9.1 What themes are adressed by Barton in his presentation ?
1: The management style is too informal. Needs more controls for coordination and
management.2: IT infrastructure needs to receive more attention and investment. Without new
investments the company would face unacceptable levels of risk.3: Involving senior
management and the board in decision making about IT matters, so that executives would also
bear the responsibility for those decision, not only the IT guys.4: Give IT the meaning of a
strategic partnership to other departments. IT, so he thinks, could be more involved in other
areas, helping the company. 
9.2 What management style is used at IVK up to now ? Why ?
Informal management - as a consequence of rapid growth from a small firm to a large firm.
 9.3 What are the advantages and disadvantages of that style ?
 Adv: - agility - “can do” attitudes - willinges to innovateDisadv: - more risks
 9.4 Why has the style of management to change at IVK ?
Informal management is great for small companies, but a big company like IVK needs to have
more coordination, more management systems, more controls than small companies.
 9.5 How is the change implemented by Barton ?
Barton had begun instituting procedures, systems and controls that would reduce risk without
sacrificing agility or innovativeness, better integrated procedures between loan origination and
finance. He’d also ordered the implementation of an array of new metrics, each of which gave
managers fresh insights into IVK operations and performance.
 9.6 Can IT take part in the cost-cutting initiatives started by Williamson ?
No it can’t. IT has some very important projects under way, that can’t be stopped without
wasting the investment already made into them.
 9.7 What change concerning governance is intended by Barton ?
Barton wants the senior management and the board to get more deeply involved in decision
making about IT matters, so they all get to bear the responsibility of their decisions.
 9.8 What kind of role change does Barton wants for IT ?
He wants a more strategic partnership role for the IT department, because many of the other
senior managers don’t really care about IT.
 9.9 What kind of committee shall be established ?
 A committee of board members to focus on IT governance.
 9.10 What is the problem with IT risks ?
You can’t easily spot the problem, which you are facing, because IT risks emerge from small
decisions slowly forming into a bulk.
 9.11 Why do you think the IT presentation at the board meeting was scheduled as the last
agenda item and given only thirty minutes ?
Mostly for historical reasons, I think. IT has never been very popular with the board
members. And probably because they thought, this would be another technical
lecture neither of them would be able to understand properly.
 9.12 What are the board of directors responsibilities in respect to IT oversight ?
define basic structures, make fundamental decisions 

 
9.13 Why do you think they seemed eager to delay forming the IT Oversight committee until
the next meeting. ?
They thought it was too late for this arrangement, as they had different stuff to do, and also
because Carrera had become way too enthusiastic about it.
 9.14 What should Barton do about “managing Carraro” ? Managing Williams ?
Barton figured, Williams is getting uncomfortable with him becoming so successfull in his new
CIO job. So, with this knowledge he should try to not let himself be controlled too much by
Williams.
 9.15 How is Barton doing after almost three months as IVKs CIO ? What is your assessment
of his performance ?
Barton’s performance is outstanding. Without getting too deep into the technical stuff, he
managed to get an overview of the IT department and even more, he made a few dramatic
decisions about how to run the IT department and with the help of his skills he acquired in
LoanOps, he impressed the board members