IT 7713 Management of IT
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IT 7713 Management of IT-
LM2 ReadMe and Exercise A2- Review and adopt good habits of an IT Manager
Developed by Richard Halstead-Nussloch Version 04Aug21
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Review and Adopt Good Habits of an IT Manager
Being successful in this course requires you to review, evaluate, adapt and adopt good habits for your approach to managing IT. This exercise intends to aid you in doing so.
Readings for this assignment:
Actions/Deliverables for this assignment:
Stakeholders
A Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_(corporate) ) defines a stakeholder roughly as a member of a group that provides required support for the existence of the organization or corporation, that is, without the support of that group of people, the organization would not survive. IT professionals owe their best effort to many stakeholders and IT managers owe their best effort to a deeper level of contribution and a wider range of stakeholders. It is worth an hour of your time to explore this Wikipedia page and some exploration of a feeder page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder to get a broader view of stakeholders. As you read and explore, complete the question below:
Q1) (20 Points) Complete this table of stakeholders that are important to IT and IT managers. Customers is complete for you as an example. You are free to edit or add to any of the information already there for Customers, Employees, Managers and Suppliers, but you can not change any of those categories. You should add a fifth category (if you get stuck choose one of: Communities, Competitors, Investors, or Schools) and fill in the rest of the blank cells.
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Stakeholder Group |
Definition |
Importance to the IT Professional |
Deeper Importance to the IT Manager |
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Customers |
“recipient of a good, service, product or an idea” [1] Recently add experience or CX [2] to the list |
Must do their personal and professional best to satisfy all customers within constraints. |
Within constraints, must manage the organization to do their best to satisfy all customers and create a positive, winning customer experience [2] |
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Employees |
“contributes labor and expertise to an endeavor of an employer” [3] |
Must interact with other employees professionally |
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Managers |
“the administration of an organization” [4] |
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Not only are managers the “boss” of some, but they are also “bossed” by others. |
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Suppliers
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Suppliers can set constraints on what IT that can be cost effectively implemented. |
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Q1 References:
Management and Leadership in IT
For many years, it was the conventional wisdom that leadership and management were related, but highly separable concepts. For example, the Wikipedia article on Leadership (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership) describes a broader, more conceptual entity or attribute than the one describing Management more practically as “the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a non-profit organization, or a government body.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management). Current thinking is moving in the direction that management and leadership are better considered as essentially the same. From our perspective, this is largely due to the fact the world has become so technically complex and is changing so fast that to succeed, good leaders must be good managers and vice versa. In the medical pharmacy education sector, a good cost-free article illustrating this convergence is
Azad N, Anderson HG Jr, Brooks A, Garza O, O'Neil C, Stutz MM, Sobotka JL. Leadership and Management Are One and the Same. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017 Aug;81(6):102. doi: 10.5688/ajpe816102. PMID: 28970603; PMCID: PMC5607712. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28970603/)
We recommend spending 30 to 60 minutes reading up on leadership versus management while considering your answer to Q2:
Q2) (15 Points) Write between one-half and one page on the following questions: Are leadership and management better considered as being the same or fundamentally different in concept and/or practice? What is the impact of this on the IT manager? Please use references (there is one there to get you started) and cite them.
Your Q2 answer:
Q2 References:
IT Strategy and Business Value: The Key Role of Good IT Managers and IT Professional Employees
A primary job responsibility of both IT Professionals and IT Managers is to implement IT Strategy (https://cio-wiki.org/wiki/IT_Strategy_(Information_Technology_Strategy) ) to achieve Business Value (https://cio-wiki.org/wiki/Business_Value). The job scope and sphere of influence for IT Professionals is generally more limited than for IT Managers, but everyone in IT must do this for IT to succeed in its mission for the organization. For example, IT Managers generally play a more direct role in achieving and maintaining Business-IT Strategy alignment (https://cio-wiki.org/wiki/Business_IT_Alignment) than do non-manager IT Professional employees. Still, in our experience, everyone in the IT function must aim to implement IT Strategy in support of Business Value for the modern organization to succeed.
To get started, spend between 30 and 60 minutes reading the above three pages in the CIO-Wiki while answering Q3 below. Please use and cite your references.
Q3) (20 Points) Part A- What are the top five things an IT Professional Employee needs to know and/or do about IT Strategy and how that strategy interacts with Business Value? Part B- What are the top five things an IT Manager needs to know and/or do about IT Strategy and how that strategy interacts with Business Value? Provide a summary conclusion to your lists indicating why you chose those factors for each job. (You can use or change the example factor already listed.) Please use and cite your references.
Top Five for IT Professional Employee
Top Five for IT Manager
Summary Conclusion-
Q3 References:
Note, you might choose an alternative way to answer Q3 by creating one list of five “partnership” items shared between IT Professionals and IT Managers. If you do, clearly separate out what each job role does.
Moving to employee retention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_retention) we see an area where good IT Managers play a key role in keeping good IT Professional employees. The linked Wikipedia article does a good job of outlining what is involved in retaining employees, by describing models and statistics of retention and best practices aimed at keeping good IT Professional Employees. Add in the Wikipedia articles on Training and Development (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Training_and_development) and Employee Evaluation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaluation_(workplace) ) and the IT Manager has a solid foundation to help hire, evaluate, and retain employees. Generational gaps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_gap) are prevalent in IT and play a role in IT’s effectiveness to deliver value to the organization and therefore need attention from the IT Manager. When on the job, IT Managers should work with their Human Resource Departments (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources) in managing their IT Professional Employees and implementing employee programs tuned to the needs of an IT function.
Q4) (20 Points) Spend 45 to 90 minutes reading the above information and answer *any two* of the four sub-questions below. Use and cite your references.
Q4A) (10 Points) On what and why does the IT Manager need to keep IT Professional Employees focused? From your perspective, what are the top three things IT Managers should do to keep their employees focused?
Q4B) (10 Points) Describe two advantages and two disadvantages to IT Managers of providing training to their employees. Overall, should IT Managers support their employees to obtain training? Why or why not?
Q4C) (10 Points) With justification, provide a list of 3 to 5 Do’s and 3 to 5 Don’ts for IT Managers in managing and evaluating their employees’ performance.
Q4D) (10 Points) In up to one-half page, describe what IT Managers should do about generational differences at work and why.
Your answers:
Q4 References:
Q5) (15 Points) The readings in this LM cover some of the many roles of an IT Manager. After reading and analyzing this information, write a one-page (essay) answer to only one of the following questions (keeping it in-line in this file): Use and cite your sources.
Your answer:
Q5 References:
Q6) (10 Points) Through a library or web search, locate at least two articles covering good habits for IT managers in fulfilling their roles and/or managing their IT team. Please make sure at least one of the articles was written within the past 2 years. Provide annotated bibliography [1] citations for these articles both here and add these to your Exercise A6 and to the D2L IT Annotated Bibliography Discussion Thread that you have started. Also add as appropriate additional words to the D2L IT Glossary Discussion Thread that you have started.
Your Answer for the IT Annotated Bibliography-
OPTIONAL Your Answer for the IT Glossary-
Sources and works used in completing this exercise:
Required: Please add your list of sources.
Required: Please complete the following:
___ I did not use any method of citation (maximum B on the assignment).
___ I used the ACM approach and have cited my references as I went in the text and also listed them at the end.
___ I used the APA approach and have cited my references as I went in the text and also listed them at the end.
___ I used the MLA approach and have cited my references as I went in the text and also listed them at the end.
Required: Acknowledgements of people and discussions used in completing this exercise: