OMIS 604 Information Technology

Policy and Strategy

Session 7
Session Title: Steps of Information Systems Planning Process
Prof. Richard Boateng/Dr. Acheampong Owusu, UGBS
Email: richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh | Semester II 2019/2020 Academic Year

Richard Boateng - richboateng@ug.edu.gh

 Objectives of the Session

The objectives of this session are to:

• enable students understand the steps involve in SISP process
• also enable students understand the processes of measuring
SISP success
Recommended Text

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND STRATEGY

• Author: RICHARD BOATENG

• Year: 2017
• ISBN-10: 1544115229
• ISBN-13: 978-1544115221
• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform, Amazon Company USA
• Available: Amazon.com and UG Bookshop
 Issues to be covered in Strategy Sessions

• Common steps in SISP

• Approaches to Planning Information System
• SISP success measure

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP
• Based on the approaches to SISP, we will now briefly outline
different steps to carrying out SISP as proposed in literature
and practice
• Our key question in our evaluation is how these steps relate to
any of the approaches outlined in Chapter four

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Common Steps in SISP [pg.92]
• The SISP process consists of strategic awareness, situation
analysis, strategy conception, strategy formulation, and
strategy implementation [40]
• The steps are also corroborated by other studies [39]

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Common Steps in SISP [pg.92]

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

Steps in SISP - Rainer et al.’s [40] [pg.93]
 Steps in SISP [pg.92]
• According to Rainer et al.[40], the IT/IS strategic plan begins
with the assessment of an Organization’s Strategic Plan
(Mission and Business Assessment) and its Current IT
Architecture
• The assessment process informs the IT/IS Strategic Plan
– IS Strategic Plan is a set of long-range goals that describe the IT/IS
infrastructure and identify the major IT/IS initiatives needed to
achieve the organization’s goals

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Rainer et al.’s
• The IT/IS Strategic Plan must meet three objectives [41]
a. Aligned with the organization’s strategic plan
b. Provide for an IT architecture that seamlessly networks users,
applications, and databases
c. Efficiently allocate IS development resources among competing
projects so that the projects can be completed on time and within
budget and still have the required functionality

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Rainer et al.’s
• The next step after an agreed IT strategic plan is to develop the
IS Operational Plan which consists of a clear set of projects
that the IS department and the functional area manager will
execute in support of IT strategic plan
a. Mission: mission of the IS function (from the IT strategy)
b. IS environment: summary of the information needs of the
functional areas and of the organization as a whole
c. Objectives of the IS function: best current estimate of the goals of
the IS function
Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh
 Steps in SISP - Rainer et al.’s
d. Constraints on the IS function: technological, financial,
personnel, and other resource limitations on the IS function
e. Application portfolio: prioritized inventory of present
applications and a detailed plan of projects to be developed
or continued during current year
f. Resource allocation and project management: listing of
who is going to do what, how and when

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Ward and Peppard’s Strategic
Planning Framework [pg.95]
• Ward and Peppard [41] proposed IT Strategy Formulation and
Planning framework
– Their framework consists of three building blocks – inputs, outputs,
and essential activities [Exhibit 15]
 Steps in SISP - Ward and Peppard

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Ward and Peppard [pg.96]
• The inputs to Ward and Peppard’s strategic planning framework are as
follows:
– The internal business environment: made up of current business strategy,
objectives resources, processes, and the culture and values of the business
– The external business environment: the economic, industrial, and competitive
climate in which the organization operates
– The internal IT environment: the current IT perspective in the business, its
maturity, business coverage, and contribution to attainment of the organization’s
goals (e.g. cost reduction, skills, resources and the technological infrastructure)
– The external IT environment: technology trends and opportunities and the use
of IT by others, especially customers, competitors, and suppliers

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Ward and Peppard
• The outputs are:
– IT management strategy: the common elements of the strategy that apply
throughout the organization, ensuring consistent policies where needed
– Business IS strategy: how each unit of function will deploy IT in achieving
its business objectives
– Application portfolios: applications portfolios are to be developed
alongside each of the business objectives for the business unit and
business models, describing the information architectures of each unit.
The portfolio may include how IT will be used at some future date to help
the units achieve their objectives
– IT strategy: policies and strategies for the management of technology and
specialist resources

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Ward and Peppard
• The core attributes of the framework is focused on:
– Flexible, modular, and able to pick up deliverables from earlier or
parallel activities
– Emphasis on deliverables and clear checkpoints
– Recognition of the interactive and cyclic nature of the process
– Recognition of the importance of the human side of the process
– Simple diagramming tools

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - SISP Development Path [pg.97]
• Galliers [44] argues that SISP may not happen overnight.
• It could be a process which entails various stages of growth
[Exhibit 16].
• Thus organizations may evolve around a number of activities
Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid [pg.98]
• The IT Strategic Grid, proposed by Nolan and McFarlan [45]
facilitates the evaluation of the relationship between IT strategy
and Business strategy and operations
• The model analyzes the impacts of IT – existent applications
(present) and of an applications portfolio (future)
• It defines four boxes, each one representing one possible role of IT
in the enterprise:
– Support, Factory, Turnaround, and Strategic
• The Strategic Grid explains where and how IT investment has been
made
• It classifies IT investment into four categories [45][46]
 Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid [pg.98]

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid [pg.99]
• Strategic: Investment that is critical for future success.
Features include:
– High operational impact, high strategic impact. IT/IS is the backbone
of the competitive success. New IT/IS applications in development
are crucial to future competitive success
– IT/IS organizations that have most projects in this quadrant
understand that IT/IS can both improve core operations of the firm
while simultaneously generating strategic options. The IT/IS budget is
very significant
– E.g. Banks, Retail stores, Airlines

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid
• Turnaround: Investment in IT/IS applications which may be
important to achieving future success. Features include:
– Low operational impact, high strategic impact. This quadrant is about
exploiting new technologies to provide strategic opportunities
– IT/IS supports operations but are not dependent on IT/IS absolutely. New
IT/IS applications necessary to enable the firm to achieve its strategic
objectives
– The planned and developed systems may be critical to the firm’s survival or
growth
– IT/IS investment is increasing – perhaps rapidly
– E.g. High fashion, Oil refining
Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh
 Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid
• Factory: Investment in IT/IS applications which the organization
currently depends for success. Features include:
– Low operational impact, high strategic impact. This quadrant is about
exploiting new technologies to provide strategic opportunities
– IT/IS is critical to current operations but is not at the heart of the
company’s strategic development. IT/IS is enabling critical operations to
function smoothly
– Future IT/IS applications are not the critical factor for future business
success
– The IT/IS budget will always be significant
– E.g. Defense, Government and Immigration
Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh
 Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid
• Support: Investment in IT/IS applications which are valuable but not
critical to success. Features include:
– Low operational impact, high strategic impact. This quadrant is about
exploiting new technologies to provide strategic opportunities
– IT/IS supports operations but are not dependent on IT/IS
– New IT/IS applications are not necessarily linking to business planning activity
– IT/IS is used essentially for administrative systems to improve internal
efficiency
– IT/IS investment is average/below average
– E.g. Universities and Consultants

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Steps in SISP - Mcfarlan IT Strategic Grid
• The classification helps management to see:
– Whether IT/IS investments so far have been aligned to business
objectives such as:
• To support business growth
• Competitiveness or
• New business venture

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Measuring Success in SISP [pg.100]
Building on the work of Venkatraman and Ramanujam [45], Segars and
Grover [46] developed a four dimensional instrument to measure the
success of SISP: alignment, analysis, cooperation and capabilities.
Alignment refers to the results of the linkage of the IS strategy and business
strategy.
Analysis refers to the results of the study of the organization’s processes,
procedures, and technologies.
Cooperation refers to the results of the general agreement about development
priorities, implementation schedules, and managerial responsibilities.
Capabilities represented the improvement in the potential of the planning
system. [40][46]
 Measuring Success in SISP [pg. 100]

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Measuring Success in SISP

Richard Boateng/Acheampong Owusu - richboateng@ug.edu.gh/aowusu@ug.edu.gh

 Practice Question 12
Reflecting on the Unilever case study, answer the following questions:
1. Analyze the SISP approach using Earl’s SISP approaches.
2. What are the critical factors which led to IT/IS success?

Richard Boateng - richboateng@ug.edu.gh

 Lesson Evaluation

Can you be able to:

• Identify and explain the various steps involve in SISP process?
• Measure the success of SISP?
 Thank You

See You Next Week