Individual Project-1 Question

The questions below are based on separate case studies of the transformational role of IT, contained in the following three articles. Address each question below in the context of each of the three cases.

Links to an external site. Institutional perspectives on the process of enterprise architecture adoption

• Institutional perspectives on the process of enterprise architecture adoption
• The design of a system for online psychosocial care
• Strategic actions in a platform context

QUESTIONS (ANSWER ALL FOR EACH CASE )

1. Consider the following two claims made in the textbook -

o"There is a growing interdependence between a firm's ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals."

o"To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization, management, and information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide solutions to challenges and problems in the business environment."

Discuss whether or not each of the three case studies provides empirical support for the above two claims. (You need to show, by means of comprehensive review and discussion of the available facts in the case studies, how they do or do not uphold each claim.)

2. Business processes

a.Which specific business processes and/or management activities in the "business information value chain" (Fig. 1-7 of the text) comprise the focus of the IT efforts in each of the three firms/business units? (Be sure to independently research and study "business processes" in detail from extraneous sources before answering this question -- go beyond the textbook figure, as it depicts only a few generic examples of business processes.)- Check the guidelines on the next page

b.For each firm/business unit, do the business processes and management activities you identified above seem to be well supported by its information processing activities? Explain your reasoning.

3. Which "strategic business objectives" of information systems are evident in each case study? Discuss.

4.What kinds of ethical issues (refer to Chapter 4) are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

5.Which types of e-commerce (refer to B2C, B2B, C2C, G2C, G2B, etc., in Chapter 10), if any, are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

Question 2a in IP1

2. Business processes

a.Which specific business processes and/or management activities in the "business information value chain" (Fig. 1-7 of the text) comprise the focus of the IT efforts in each of the three firms/business units? (Be sure to independently research and study "business processes" in detail from extraneous sources before answering this question -- go beyond the textbook figure, as it depicts only a few generic examples of business processes.)-

Question 2a in Individual Project 1 asks you to identify and discuss the management activities and/or business processes entailed in each case study. To address management activities, use those shown in textbook Figure 1-7. However, to address business processes, you will need to go above and beyond the four processes depicted in that figure. They are too generic/broad (i.e., not specific enough), so ignore them for the purposes of this question. Instead, use your own understanding of business processes from the extraneous research I have asked you to conduct. Combine this with your understanding of how each firm conducts business, from the assigned articles. Basically, identify the business processes in each case study with as much specificity and granularity as possible, and then discuss each one in detail.

As an example, 'supply chain management' is too broad in that it encompasses many smaller business processes. So, if supply chain management comes across as the focal business process in a particular case, instead of actually saying so, be more specific, such as 'purchasing raw materials,' 'transporting raw materials to production facility,' 'warehousing acquired raw materials,' or 'distributing finished products to wholesalers,' etc. Notice how more specific/granular business processes tend to have a verb-like quality to them.

The same goes for the other three business processes shown in Figure 1-7. Remember, you are expected to read up on business processes from sources other than the textbook before addressing Question 2. You will not need to cite/reference these sources, though.