| Learning objectives |
The student should be able to...
- make a case for the strategic role of IT in the enterprise and
the need for business/IT alignment
- analyze and make suggestions for how to improve the assessment,
prioritization, and management of major IT initiatives
- describe different enterprise architecture frameworks and appy
them to assess a company's maturity
- model and analyze business processes, systems, and other
elements of 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 services
- assess recent sourcing trends such as cloud computing and their
implications for IT management
|
| Examination |
|
Managing
Enterprise Architecture and Technology:
|
| Exam
ECTS |
7,5 |
| Examination form |
Oral exam based on written product
In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product
must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The
grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and
the individual oral performance. |
| Individual or group exam |
Individual oral exam based on written group
product |
| Number of people in the group |
3-4 |
| Size of written product |
Max. 15 pages |
| Assignment type |
Project |
| Duration |
Written product to be submitted on specified date and
time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade,
and informing plus explaining the grade |
| Preparation time |
No preparation |
| Grading scale |
7-step scale |
| Examiner(s) |
Internal examiner and second internal
examiner |
| Exam period |
Summer |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary
exam
|
|
| Course content and structure |
|
“From the back room to the boardroom” – over the past few
decades, information technology (IT) has turned from a commodity,
which was often regarded as a cost factor, to a strategic
asset – a development nowadays widely being referred to
as digitalization.
The IT function, headed by the CIO (the Chief Information
Officer), has become the expert for
maturing enterprise architectures and driving digital change in the
organization by acting as the linking pin between business units,
corporate management, and external service
providers. Business and IT managers, therefore,
require broad interdisciplinary skills, methods, and tools for
effective IT governance in order to maximize the contribution of IT
to the bottom line.
This course aims to develop the participants'
understanding of the crucial links between enterprise strategy,
business process needs and IT-driven innovation across diverse
enterprise settings, i.e. in maturing companies in both the private
and public sectors. Participants are introduced to the basic
concepts, practical tools, and theoretical models as well as to
recent scholarly research in the area of strategic IT management,
enterprise architecture, and IT governance.
The seven content areas of the course cover, but are not limited
to, the following topics:
- Strategic alignment: Making the IT strategy ‘fit’ the
enterprise strategy, or vice versa?
- IT portfolio and program management: Prioritizing IT
investments and managing change
- Enterprise architecture: Managing the complexity of maturing
enterprise architectures
- Business process management: Modelling, analyzing and
understanding business process demands
- IT governance: The design of effective IT organization
structures and governance mechanisms
- IT service management: The efficient and effective provision of
IT services leveraging good practices
- IT outsourcing: Making IT supply work in times of cloud
computing
|
| Description of the teaching methods |
The course is taught as a blended course
combining face-to-face and online lecture modes with in-class
case-based exercise sessions.
The focus of the 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 1-2 papers for each session, which will be provided online.
Students are required view the video lectures and work through the
online activities, before the in-class exercise session.
The focus of the exercises is to apply the concepts from the
lecture in international case studies from different industries,
which includes group work, discussions and mini-presentations. As
necessary, the course will be complemented by additional case 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 create a short video
presentation of their case study problem (i.e., part 2 of their
report) and receive feedback through a peer-feedback exercise
involving all students as well as the teachers. The hand-in report
should provide a 'solution' of their case and demonstrate a
clear linkage of the specific case solution to academic
theory. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
- Students will receive collective feedback in
the classroom after discussion modes
- The online activities include feedback activities (e.g.,
solutions to quizzes)
- Students receive feedback on their project presentations from
both peers and teachers.
- The last minutes of the oral exam are used to provide final
feedback on the performance
|
| 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 project presentation |
17 hours |
| Preparation of exam and exam |
17 hours |
| Total |
206 hours |
|
| Expected literature |
|
(may still be subject to change)
- Henderson, J. C. and Venkatraman, N. (1993). Strategic
alignment: leveraging information technology for transforming
organizations. IBM Syst. J., 38(2-3):472-484.
- Chan, Y. E. and Reich, B. H. (2007). IT alignment: what have we
learned? Journal of Information technology, 22(4):297-315.
- Scott Bernard (2005) Introduction to Enterprise Architecture.
Second Edition. Authorhouse
- Ross, J. W. (2003). Creating a strategic IT architecture
competency: Learning in stages. MIS Quarterly Executive 2 (1),
31-43.
- Rettig, C. (2007). The trouble with enterprise software. MIT
Sloan Management Review, 49(1), 21. ISO 690
- Weill, P., & Aral, S. (2005). IT savvy pays off: How top
performers match IT portfolios and organizational practices.
- 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.
- Evaristo, J. R., Desouza, K. C., and Hollister, K. (2005).
Centralization momentum: the pendulum swings back again. Commun.
ACM, 48(2):66-71.
- Winkler, T. J. and Brown, C. V. (2014). 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 8+. Taylor &
Francis.
- Weill, P. and Ross, J. W. (2005). IT governance on one page.
Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series.
- De Haes, S. and Van Grembergen, W. (2004). IT governance and
its mechanisms. Information Systems Control Journal, 1:27-33.
- Paul, A. D. (2009). Itil Heroes' Handbook: Itil For Those
Who Don'T Have The Time. CreateSpace, Paramount, CA.
- Salling Pedersen, A., & Bjørn-Andersen, N. (2011) Towards a
framework for understanding adoption, implementation and
institutionalization of ITIL. 2nd Scandinavian Conference on IS
& the 34th IRIS Seminar 2011. Turku, Finland. 601-639.
- 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.
- Loebbecke, C., Thomas, B., & Ullrich, T. (2012). Assessing
cloud readiness at Continental AG. MIS Quarterly Executive, 11(1),
11-23.
|
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