Aubrey L. Mendelow

Coordination of information systems plans with business plans

Abstract:Recent research has shown that the challenge of coordinating information systems plans with business plans impedes effective information systems planning. Interviews with twenty top information systems executives employed by medium to large organizations in diverse industries revealed four general reasons for the difficulty of this coordination. The interviews also uncovered four general actions that the executives take to attempt to meet the challenge. The results suggest that the presence of a top management mandate for coordinating the plans distinguishes IS executives who did not report the difficulty from IS executives who did.

Information resource planning: overcoming difficulties in identifying top management's objectives

Twenty information resource managers employed by medium to large organizations in diverse industries were interviewed to discover their difficulties in learning top managements objectives and their techniques for overcoming these difficulties. The thirteen difficulties can be viewed as strategic formulation or strategy communication problems. The sixteen techniques can likewise be viewed as facilitating strategy formulation or strategy communication. The research revealed that participants in strategy formulation have no problem understanding top managements objectives while information resource managers who do not participate in strategy formulation do experience that problem.

The Impact of the Environment on the Management of Information Systems

The dynamic environment of an organization makes management difficult. This is especially true in information systems (IS) departments. A new theoretical model, based on structured interviews with IS executives, proposes ways that some dimensions of the environment create problems for IS management, IS managers develop coping mechanisms to attenuate or prevent these problems. They use these coping mechanisms either to resolve the problems directly or to influence the environment to prevent the problems. The new thoeretical model facilitates an organized study of the relationship between the IS department and its dynamic environment.

Information systems planning: Top management takes control

Abstract The systems a company uses to process information are critical to its fate. In the past, however, top management has often failed to oversee the systems-planning process. That failure is now being remedied, and the authors spotlight ten issues that management must address.

Information systems planning and the challenge of shifting priorities

Abstract Establishing and maintaining priorities for information systems (IS) development is a challenge that has made IS planning an enduring issue. During structured interviews, senior IS executives from 20 diverse organizations discussed reasons why it is difficult to establish and maintain priorities. The executives also discussed the ways they are attempting to overcome such problems. An analysis of the interviews provides IS practitioners with insight into the difficulty and some possible actions to deal with it.

Information systems planning: incentives for effective action

During two research projects to identify the difficulties associated with information systems planning (ISP), it became apparent that IS managers and users often do not apply a number of commonly accepted guidelines for successful ISP. This paper reports some instances in which the guidelines were not applied. It also explains the neglect of the guidelines in terms of the incentives which the ISP participants had for not applying them. The findings suggest further research and also have practical implications for IS managers.