exams

1. List and describe the four main roles of a technology director or CIO. Also explain why each of them is important. (20 points)20 a. Drive technology vision for organization As the major advisor to the top level management on technological issues and developments, technology managers should be aware of developments and competencies available in the market. They should act proactively by inferring from the new developments or applications since the technology changes quickly. Technology managers should be able to define the technological needs and goals of the organization. They should have direct influence on the strategic direction of the company related with the technology. One of the means to drive technology vision of the organization is making a reliable technology plan and contributing to strategy plan of the company in regards to IT issues. Nowadays, organizations are highly depended on technology that forces technology managers to keep up with the latest changes in the technology. b. Get funding/creating value Technology managers should be able to create convincing projects that can be approved by top managers for funding. Good projects that are compatible with market needs can be funded. Technology managers can add value to the business by executing projects well and accomplishing results. Technology managers should also get enough funding for IT operations as maintenance and subscription costs to add value to organization. IT is one of the main areas that provide cutting edge competencies to organizations in today’s marketplace. Technology managers can get enough funding if they can keep up with the IT developments, so they can add value to the organization. c. Leading staff and contractors Technology managers should lead their team by knowing their abilities and their weak and powerful sides. Technology managers should have an exemplary attitude towards the business issues and staff. Technology managers should lead the contractors by approaching them as part of their team. Monitoring and controlling works of contractors with available means are jobs for Technology managers. Technology managers should be able to get help from his capable team members to control contractors better. We can use walk-in method to monitor and control our team. Meetings are another way of controlling and leading IT team. Keeping technology team valuable is also one of the most important roles of Technology manager. Technology managers should be in the table whenever required. Technology managers should prove themselves and technology team by doing a diligent work.

d. Manage customer support Customers for technology managers may be more diverse than thought including other employees, suppliers, consumers, or other businesses. Technology managers should be able to supply their demands in a timely manner. So, he needs to organize his team accordingly. One of the key elements in supporting our customers is help desk. Technology managers should be aware of the needs and problem areas regarding technology issues to serve better to the customers. Technology managers should use Under Promise – Over Deliver rule that requires approaching problems and issues carefully. Under Promise – Over Deliver can be executed by Analyze Problems, Realistic Timelines, Finding the Key Meetings, Return emails and voice-mails, The “Fresh Perspective”. Technology managers should be aware of the needs of other departments and should align their work with other departments. Joining meetings is useful for managing customer expectations. 2. Define organizational structure and list/explain three reasons that the CIO/technology director should report directly to the CEO. (25 points) 25 An organizational structure is used to organize the actions of individuals and departments in the organizations. Organizations generally have hierarchical structure to function better. Structure depends on the organizational needs Organizational structure allows the allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the [|branch], [|department] , [|workgroup] and [|individual]. Generally organizations have a CEO as the head of the organization. CEOs have department under them. Department managers directly reports to CEO as CIO, COO, and COF. Departments have sections or work groups under them. Section or work groups consist of individuals. A reliable and a sustainable structure are basic to the success of the organization. CEO needs to be fed with correct, reliable and up to date information in a timely manner. If the structure is not suitable for good information flow than the brain-CEO cannot get data needed to make correct decision. In today’s world there is no time to make wrong decision so; it can cost the failure of the organization. Generally it is not easy to make corrections on the structure if there are mistakes due to the unhealthy flow of information. If you are not reporting directly to a CEO then it is hard to reach him and inform him about the mistakes. Technology has an indispensible role in the organizations. It may provide competitive advantageous or cause failures depending on the importance attained by the organization. So, CIO should be directly reporting to CEO to keep up the organization with the technological developments in the market. Reporting directly to the CEO carries a valuable massage to our rivals, and our employees and other stakeholders. It shows that our organization gives importance to the technology. Other C level managers may be more careful on their plans and execution of their plans that they can ask our opinions regarding technology issues. Coordination quality in the organization improves by reporting directly to CEO. It provides a seat on the table for CIO at the high level. So, top management can be informed better and decision can be made better. CIO can be included in decision making process. 3. Explain the benefits and drawbacks to training employees. List how you would mitigate the drawbacks. (25 points) 25 Benefits Employee training motivates our employees since they can gain new capabilities and certifications. So, it enhances employee morale as a source of motivation. Training provides fresh input from outside world to our organization and it can be helpful to improve our vision and set our goals better. We can gain a skillful employee that we can count on. Trained employee can teach his new skills to other employees if needed. Training is valuable in a changing world of technology since the market needs changes continuously. Training helps organization/department keep up with the developments in the market.

Drawbacks Employees can leave our organizations for a better job since they gained new skills. That is called ‘taking the training and running”. We can make it clear on our policy that a trained employee should serve a certain amount of time or reimburse the costs. It has a cost to organization; both money and time. Organization has to pay for training costs. Employee will not be able to perform his job since he will be away. So, his absence will create another cost that is generally higher than course cost. Peers of the trained employee can be disturbed since they were not selected for training. That can cause people problems in the department. We have to be careful in selecting correct employee for the training. Employee may not be able to complete the training or fail exam to get certified. We can mention on our organization policy that if the employee can not pass the exam then exam cost can not be paid by the organization. There will be scheduling conflicts due to the absence of employee while he is on training. We should plan for back ups for each person in our department to mitigate employee absence. We cannot have control on the employee during the training if it is held out of the organization. Sensitive organizational data can be shared with others during training. We should warn the employee not to share our sensitive data.

4. Explain when and why you would use a consultant vs employee. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each type of report. (30 points) 30 **Benefits of consultants** Contractors may have more diverse experience especially the ones we need. They can be more specialized and qualified on the area of work. They are not locked to one desk and to one organization. So, they have the opportunity to work on more diverse issues and learn more about market needs. They can learn more by working on different projects and to different companies on similar topics that can contribute their experience and level of knowledge. Due to the contractors' varied experience they usually don't require training. They generally need short orientation training at the beginning. So, you can obtain the results you wanted in a relatively short time. Contractors don't add to the "head count". Companies don't need to add their staff. The financial tie with the contractor will be over as soon as the contract requirements are met. Even it looks expensive at the beginning; it can be cheaper in the end since the company will not pay to the contractors any more as in hiring. Contractors usually focus on the topic mentioned on the contract while full time employees may have many responsibilities. It makes contractors faster regarding the goal. Deal with the contractor can be terminated quickly and easily while terminating a contract with hired employees are difficult, time consuming and requiring more care to legal issues. **Drawbacks of consultants** Contractors often cost more than full time employees. That is more possible when you hire them through an agency. Estimating the contract time period is needed for budgeting purposes. Estimation can be harder since you don't know the exact capabilities and assets of contractor. Also there can be some variables that you are not aware and the contractor dismissed. Sometimes estimation process can take a week or three months. Contractors' loyalty is to themselves. If a contractor feels that he may not have much of a future with your company, he may start looking for a more reliable revenue stream and possibly leave you at his convenience, not yours. As every other company or people they have to care about their own future. You need a very good planning and contract to get the result you want from the contractor. You need to control their execution to make sure that they are doing what you have asked for. You should have knowledge about the job put on the contract to avoid mistakes and overcharge by contractor. You need to know about contracting market conditions. You need time to find an eligible and convenient contractor for you. If the contractor is not eligible to meet your requirements you may lose much more time than expected. **Benefits of employees** In general, full time employees are more committed and loyal to the organization since they have mutual interests in the organization. They have a better understanding of the context and they are a part of organizational memory that is valuable when needed. They can help us save time, money and assets by reminding us past experiences and projects. Many big companies value their experienced employees regarding their contributions that stems from serving to the same organization for a long time. Full time employees are cheaper in the short term. Contractors are more expensive than full time employees even the costs of benefits and other expenditures made for full time employee are included. It can be considered as an investment to our organization through people. Sometimes full time employees are better suited for the specific task/job at hand. People make fewer mistakes by the time since they learn about the topic so do organizations. That is called learning curve. Learning curve can be long and severe for a contractor. However, full time employee has the advantageous of learning curve due to his experience in the organization. We can recognize better and know better full time employees by the time. So, we can learn or have a real idea of the capability of our organization. Hiring contributes esprit de corps in the organization by avoiding circulation of people and having a stable personnel structure. This is useful for creating organizational ID. **Cons of employees** Full time employees can sometimes be less deadline driven. They can think there is tomorrow always to finish their task. Terminating full time employees is much more complicated than terminating contractors. There are many laws surrounding the termination of full time employees. They can lose their excitement on the job and make the job a routine. That is not good for the organization since they will not be able to create value.

5. Why is the process of hiring an employee so important? List and explain three or more reasons. (30 points) 30

Hiring process is very important for technology managers since their staff is the single biggest factor in determining whether or not they are going to be successful or not at their job. Technology departments depend on their staff for carrying out their mission as required. Qualifications and desires of our staff is the most important and indispensible asset for us as a technology managers.

Hiring provides us an opportunity to have new skills in our department. If we don’t give importance to hiring we can be surprised and get a problem instead of a skill to our department.

Technology departments need employees with specific skills and qualifications. So, hiring process is important to meet our requirements. HR may not be able to evaluate a candidate as we do. We cannot stay back from hiring process and pray for a skilled employee only. Hiring wrong person can cause many legal problems together with time loss and failures in our projects and tasks.

Managers know the dynamics of their own department better than HR or responsible department. A candidate may look suitable for the position but he may have some negative impact on dynamics in our department regarding people relations. So, technology managers have to attend hiring process.

You can establish a positive relation with the employee from the beginning since he will accept your authority from the beginning if you are included in hiring process.

6. List and explain the four main components of a technology plan. (25 points)17, what about budget, ways of measuring… this is more of the organizational plan VISION: Where does the department want to be in the future and what is the perspective. It is a long term view. It is a source of inspiration. It is generally short and concise statement consists of one or two sentences. MISSION: A statement that guides the focus of the plan and activities of the department. It provides an answer to “what do we do?”. It provides a path to realize the vision with its values. GOALS: Long range outcomes that serve the mission of the department. They should add value to business and they shouldn’t be very short term and temporary. OBJECTIVES: Measurable, attainable, specific and time based activities that will help obtain our goals. They should be clear and definitive. All of the components of technology plan must be aligned with organizational plan. 7. List the difference between a goal and an activity. (10 points)10

Goals consist of one or more activities. You may accomplish one or more activities to reach a goal. Goals serve to the mission and they are not short term and temporary while the activities are short term and temporary. Goals have broader effect in an organization while activities have less effect. Goals may be for entire department but activities may be achieved by a group of employees or by one employee. Goals are not measurable but the activities are measurable. Goals have a general or broader meaning but the activities are specific for assigning resources as staff, money, and time.

LTMS 530 Midterm Exam Angela Rupert 10-28-10  121/165  1. List and describe the four main roles of a technology director or CIO. Also explain why each of them is important. (20 points) 17, defining importance was a bit vague.  There are four main roles of the IT Director in an organization. An IT Director should drive the technology vision for an organization, create departmental value, communicate with staff, and manage customer support.   A responsible IT Director will drive the technology vision for an organization.  The IT department should be regarded as a strategic resource to help the business get more out of its people. The technology department should be aligned with the companies direct profit and loss requirements. An effective IT Director will keep his department central to all business operations. Often, an IT Director will redirect her staff to the corporate vision statement if her team gets off track.   An IT Director will develop a strategy to create value within her department. She will assess assets, staff, customers and customer needs. An IT Director will assess and pitch the importance of IT to a company by g etting funding for its department. She should strive to get a seat at the executive table to make technology work for the business more effectively. It is the most important role of IT Director.   An IT Director leads staff and contractors with effective team communication. She must explain how she envisions the timelines of her goals and help staff identify objectives. She should encourage questions and input. An effective director listens carefully and meets regularly with her staff. Finally, she may m anage technology related customer support. Customers may not really be retail customers; they could be from different departments. She finds out the customer’s needs, sets up meetings and asks questions.

2. Define organizational structure and list/explain three reasons that the CIO/technology director should report directly to the CEO. (25 points)17, organizational structure is the reporting structure of an organization. Who manages who.  Organizational structure has several elements. Vision and mission describe the company business; its goals and objectives and the manner in which it differentiates itself from the competition. Objectives and Goals illustrate a company's ability to articulate what it wants to accomplish, how it will do it, and when it will be achieved.  A second key organizational strategy is external and internal assessments. External objectives reflect an organization's approach to gathering and analyzing essential market data. Internal assessment is the key strategy element that reflects the company's ability to objectively evaluate its own strengths and weaknesses.  Finally, strategy implementation such as action planning, translates broad objectives into a number of specific work assignments.  An IT manager should report directly to the CEO in order to reduce the number of communication errors. She should strive to get a seat at the executive table so she can more effectively align the technology strategy plan to the organizational strategy plan. An effective manager will pitch for funding on the technologies that are to be supported by the company’s objectives and goals. 3. Explain the benefits and drawbacks to training employees. List how you would mitigate the drawbacks. (25 points) 15, benefits are also, increased knowledge, increased skillset, networking … drawbacks could be an expectation for more money and or leaving to another position. How do you mitigate? Training is an essential part of employee growth in an organization. Employee morale and motivation to perform better can be rewarding when companies take the time to invest in their employees. Unfortunately, training can be expensive. The cost of training itself can add up. The company loses production dollars when an employee is being kept away from their job due to training. Schedule demands can be a headache too. It can cause issues with co-workers if they must pick up the slack. There are always sacrifices on both sides. Human resource departments must define the short and long term value clearly to the executive board in order to get approval. An effective IT manager will make sure that she has identified a strong need before making her pitch to Human Resources or the executive board. 4. Explain when and why you would use a consultant vs employee. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each type of report. (30 points) 22, when and where you would use each was the integral part of this question. Staffing your IT team can be complicated in a fast paced technology era. Programming languages that were the next big thing can become nearly obsolete in a couple of years. Following trends can help an IT manager stay on her game, but is no guarantee. IT managers need to follow the hiring process more closely than other departments. Human Resources can assist in the screening process, but may not understand some of the programming languages and how they may translate easily (or not so easily) to other development settings.  Sometimes, when the job is highly technical in nature, outsourcing may be the only option. Outsourcing has many benefits. The company does not have to worry about paying unemployment if the job doesn’t work out, nor do they have to pay a severance package. Human resources does not have to pay for employee benefits or provide special training for consultants.   The drawbacks are that consultants usually cost a lot more money than a regular employee. Often they are project driven and do not participate in the daily operations, but that is not always the case. Sometimes, the consultant may move on at the end of the project when the employer wishes for them to stay aboard.

5. Why is the process of hiring an employee so important? List and explain three or more reasons. (30 points) 23, where are the three main reasons. They all kind of run together. The process of hiring new employees can be pivotal to an IT department’s success. A poor hire can slow down production and break down team moral. A good personality fit is one of the keys to success. When an IT manager needs to a justifying a hire, she should be able to clearly explain her case with one of the following common reasons. Often, the workload has increased and the department can’t keep up with the demands of the day to day production in a timely manner. Companies can save time and money if some of the processes are automated with a new technology. Workers will be able to respond to customers and team players faster. New technologies however, sometimes demand for an expert. The cost of bringing an expert in the beginning can sometimes justify saving the company money rather than paying for big mistakes in the end. 6. List and explain the four main components of a technology plan. (25 points) 25, perfect.  The IT manager is often called upon to develop a technology plan to follow suit with the goals and objectives of the business strategic organizational plan. The technology plan lists a realistic strategy for utilizing information technology to improve business production. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> A needs analysis can identify an assessment of the information systems that will be needed to improve productivity. A quality needs analysis will provide an overview of the current technology environment. In addition, it should include a timeline of information systems necessary to implement goals specified in the strategic organizational plan. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> The objectives listed on the strategic organization plan, should be complimented by the technologies that the IT department plans to use to meet them. All activities listed by the technology plan, should be identified to meet one of the objectives. By rolling the tasks into the strategic organization plan, the IT department will have a better chance of getting the technology sponsored. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond,Bold',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> A solid technology plan provides a budget that identifies what funding is needed to acquire any necessary instructional systems. In addition, an annual budget must list sufficient fund requirements to maintain IT services, training, hardware and software needed to meet goals and objectives. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> In summary, a technology plan should provide an evaluation that enables the school to monitor progress toward the specified goals. A technology plan can be incorporated into the strategic organizational plan through Microsoft project. The plan should be flexible to provide for change if need be. The goals of the evaluation are to monitor milestones, list additional accommodations and recommend any necessary adjustments to the technology plan.

7. List the difference between a goal and an activity. (10 points) 2, where do you explain the difference between a goal and activity? Goals are large ideas and overarching, activities are the specifics (measurable) to make sure that the goals are achieved. IT directors are fluent in assembling technology resources to reach a mutually agreed upon objective. In general, the goal of the IT department is to reduce per unit costs of division products and increase the capacity and throughput of business processes. IT objectives may be measured in the same terms as the business unit supported. Activities are processes that support goal objectives. They are performed by workers and machines. A company goal might be to provide exceptional and consistent customer service. One example objective to support this goal might be to reorganize a customer service data base. The process of reorganizing the database would be the activity that supports the objective.