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2021/2022  KAN-CBUSV2032U  Digital Transformation Management (T)

English Title
Digital Transformation Management (T)

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 120
Study board
BUS Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Till Winkler - Department of Digitalisation
Main academic disciplines
  • Information technology
  • Management
  • Strategy
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 08-02-2021

Relevant links
Learning objectives
The student should be able to...
  • make a case for the strategic role of digital technology and IT in the enterprise and the need for business/IT alignment
  • analyze and make suggestions for how to improve prioritization and the management of major digital transformation initiatives
  • describe different enterprise architecture frameworks and apply them to assess a company's digital maturity
  • model and analyze business processes, systems and digital technology in enterprise architectures
  • characterize and analyze different IT organization and governance structures according to their relative strengths and weaknesses
  • explain and leverage good practice frameworks for managing day-to-day IT operations and digital services
  • assess recent sourcing trends such as cloud computing and their implications for digital technology management
Examination
Digital Transformation Management:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Group exam
Please note the rules in the Programme Regulations about identification of individual contributions.
Number of people in the group 3-4
Size of written product Max. 20 pages
Additional source material such as interview transcripts shall be appended as an appendix.
Assignment type Project
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The group project report is an 'Extended Learning Diary' of max. 20 pages, comprising (1) a learning diary and (2) an analysis of a new case provided by the students based on empirical work (at least 1 interview) and relevant theory. The students have to individualize their group project. The students must show what their individual contributions are, in such a way that it is ensured that individual assessment is possible. See ‘Individualisation of group papers etc.’ in the study administrative rules  (SAR).
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The digital transformation is an ongoing change process that affects people, organizations, and societies over the decade to come and holds great opportunities for companies and individuals. Drivers of digital transformation are smart, mobile, analytics, cloud, IoT and other digital technologies and their underlying information technology (IT) infrastructures. IT and digital technology can disrupt existing value chains and enable new business models, leading to value generation potentials across all major industries.

 

While many courses at CBS address digital transformation purely from strategy or business angles, this course addresses the technology management side of digital transformation. First of all, we build on the premise that digital transformation is the logical continuation of a trend that started over 20 years ago, in which IT and digital technology turned from a commodity, often regarded as a cost factor, to a strategic asset. If we understand this past, we can understand the future:

 

Digital transformation is not a one-off endeavor. Companies transform continuously through several major and minor digital initiatives affecting both their front-end applications and backend infrastructures. IT functions, headed by the CIO (the Chief Information Officer), have become the experts for driving business process change in the organization and maturing the digital enterprise architecture. The IT function acts as the linking pin between business units, corporate management, and external service providers to make sure that adequate IT service delivery is in place that can let digital initiatives thrive. At the same time, companies have appointed CDOs (Chief Digital Officers) and other roles to push their digital transformation forward on the demand side.

 

Today’s CIOs need to effectively align their IT strategy with the business and push the digital strategy of their organization forward in order not to be marginalized. This also implies new forms of organizing and governing IT, new IT service models, and new IT sourcing strategies. Therefore, future business and IT leaders require broad interdisciplinary skills, methods, and tools in order to manage the digital transformation and maximize the contribution of digital technology to the bottom line.  

This course, which is taught as a blend of pre-recorded online lectures with case-based exercise workshops (see section teaching methods) aims to educate the future digital transformation managers and their consultants. The course uses online lectures to first introduce participants to the basic concepts, practical tools, and the state of the art in strategic IT management, enterprise architecture, and IT governance. Based on these foundations, we then discuss in class based on concrete company cases the key management areas every business and IT leader needs to be on top of in order to make digital transformation a success.


The seven content areas of the course correspond with the key areas of digital transformation management. They address, but are not limited to, the following issues: 

 

  1. Strategic alignment: Making the IT strategy fit the business strategy or fusing IT and digital strategy?
  2. IT portfolio and program management: Prioritizing digital initiatives and managing large transformation programs
  3. Enterprise architecture (EA) management: Pushing EA maturity towards modular services and digital platforms
  4. Business process management: Modelling, analyzing, and digitalizing business process demands
  5. IT governance and organization: Bimodal organization structures and governance mechanisms for the digital IT function
  6. IT service management: Leveraging good practices for the agile and efficient delivery of digital services
  7. IT sourcing: Making IT supply and multisourcing work in times of cloud computing 
Description of the teaching methods
The course is taught as a flipped-classroom blended-learning course combining pre-recorded online lectures with case-based exercise sessions.

The focus of the pre-recorded lectures is to present and discuss some of the most prevalent theoretical models and concepts related to the different topics of the course. Students are required to read and prepare 2-3 papers for each session, which will be provided online. Students are required to view the video lectures and work through online activities, before the exercise sessions.

The focus of the exercises is to apply the concepts from the lectures in international case studies from different industries, which includes group work, discussions and mini-presentations. Some of the exercises will take place in-class, others will take place as live online conferences. As necessary, the course will be complemented by additional talks by selected guest speakers from the industry.

The project report is an 'Extended Learning Diary', comprising (1) student reflections on their learning in each of the case-based exercises in connection to relevant theory, and (2) an analysis of a new case provided by the students based on empirical work and relevant theory. Students are encouraged to form groups early on to work on their extended learning diary and find a relevant case to study.

Towards the end of the course, students will upload one chapter of their individual learning diary (i.e., part 1 of their final report) to a peergrading platform and give feedback to their peers. This will help them exchange their viewpoints on the different topics of the course and improve their diary chapters for the final report. The hand-in report should provide a ‘solution’ of their case and demonstrate a clear linkage of the specific case problem to academic theory.
Feedback during the teaching period
Providing formative feedback at different stages of the learning journey is an integral part of the teaching approach in this course. Teacher-to-student feedback includes the following forms:
- The online activities include feedback activities (e.g., solutions to quizzes)
- Students will receive collective feedback in the classroom after discussion modes
- Students receive feedback on their diary chapters from their peers.

In addition, students may at all times sign-up and come to the office hours of the teachers to seek help and receive additional feedback on specific issues.
Student workload
Lectures and Exercises 48 hours
Preparation of lectures and exercises (incl. reading) 24 hours
Project group work and writing project report 100 hours
Preparation of a project presentation 18 hours
Providing peer feedback online 4 hours
Preparation of exam and exam 12 hours
Total 206 hours
Expected literature

The literature can be changed before the semester starts. Students are advised to find the final literature on Canvas before they buy the books.

 

  • Axelos (2012). An Introductory Overview of ITIL® 2011, The Stationary Office.
  • Berg & Steenbergen, Building an EA Practice – Sogetti Method, Springer, 2006, p.81-94 (13p)
  • Chan, Y. E. and Reich, B. H. (2007). IT alignment: what have we learned? Journal of Information Technology, 22(4):297-315.
  • De Haes, S. and Van Grembergen, W. (2004). IT governance and its mechanisms. Information Systems Control Journal, 1:27-33.
  • Evaristo, J. R., Desouza, K. C., and Hollister, K. (2005). Centralization momentum: the pendulum swings back again. Commun. ACM, 48(2):66-71.
  • Gregory, R. W., Keil, M., Muntermann, J., & Mähring, M. (2015). Paradoxes and the nature of ambidexterity in IT transformation programs. Information Systems Research, 26(1), 57-80.
  • Haffke, I., Kalgovas, B., & Benlian, A. (2017). Options for Transforming the IT Function Using Bimodal IT. MIS Quarterly Executive, 16(2).
  • Henderson, J. C. and Venkatraman, N. (1993). Strategic alignment: leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM Syst. J., 38(2-3):472-484.
  • Iden, J., & Eikebrokk, T. R. (2013). Implementing IT Service Management: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 33(3), 512-523.
  • Jokers et al. Towards a Language for Coherent Enterprise Architecture Descriptions. EDOC 2003
  • Kruczynski, K. (2010) An empirical study of the acceptance between EPC and BPMN. WRSTSD, 7(1), 8p.
  • Lacity, M. C., Willcocks, L. P., & Khan, S. (2011). Beyond transaction cost economics: towards an endogenous theory of information technology outsourcing. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 20(2), 139-157.
  • Lee, J. N., Miranda, S. M., & Kim, Y. M. (2004). IT outsourcing strategies: Universalistic, contingency, and configurational explanations of success. Information Systems Research, 15(2), 110-131.
  • Ross et al.., Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, HBS Press, 2006, ch4. p.69-89 (ca. 20p)
  • Ross, J. W. (2003). Creating a strategic IT architecture competency: Learning in stages. MIS Quarterly Executive 2 (1), 31-43.
  • Scheer, A. W., & Nüttgens, M. (2000). ARIS architecture and reference models for business process management (pp. 376-389). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  • Scott Bernard (2005) Introduction to Enterprise Architecture. Second Edition. Authorhouse
  • Shollo, A., & Constantiou, I. (2013). IT Project Prioritization Process: The Interplay of Evidence and Judgment Devices. In The 21st European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2013.
  • Venkatesh et al., Enterprise Architecture Maturity: The Story of the Veterans Administration. MISQ Executive, 6(2),2007, p. (ca. 10p)
  • Weill, P. and Ross, J. W. (2005). IT governance on one page. Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series.
  • Weill, P., & Aral, S. (2005). IT savvy pays off: How top performers match IT portfolios and organizational practices.
  • Winkler, T. J. and Brown, C. V. (2013). Organizing and configuring the IT function. In Topi, H. and Tucker, A., editors, Computer Science Handbook, Third Edition - Information Systems and Information Technology - Volume 2, pages Chapter 57. pp. 1-14 Taylor & Francis.
  • Winkler, T., Benlian, A., Piper, M., & Hirsch, H. (2014) Bayer HealthCare Delivers a Dose of Reality for Cloud Payoff Mantras in Multinationals. MIS Quarterly Executive.
  • Winkler, T. J. and Kettunen, P. (2018). Five Principles of Industrialized Transformation for Successfully Building an Operational Backbone, MIS Quarterly Executive.  
  • Zachman, J.A., A Framework for Information Systems Architecture. IBM Systems Journal 1987, p.276-292 (ca. 16p)
Last updated on 08-02-2021