Purpose and Challenges of ISP

Discuss the purpose of IS planning and identify its major challenges?
Throughout the previous questions given, one can pick out S/IS plan or Strategic Information System plan as a common factor. One might think that having it discussed either briefly or deeply, ranging from one to two thousand words that contain ideas about strategic information system planning, that some might be already fed up or burned up and having no other fresh idea to start the topic again. Honestly, I thought of the same idea too when I read the question for this thread. I actually thought of recycling some of my essays but I kinda recoiled at the idea because it would not be very nice to be not original and fresh especially when I put all of my essays on my blog. It just would not feel right to me and to my readers especially to my professor. Hahaha..

But then again, the information society and the web surprised me - again. As I was searching for related topics to help me answer the enigma given above, I found and read quite many yet unique hits about strategic information systems planning. It proved that in the world of Information Technology, and in cyber space, one could not over exploit a topic. New discoveries, different explanations and many sites are there to guide a lost lamb like myself to have a fresh idea and new perspective on a certain issue. I found out that I was not that familiar with information systems planning; as I originally thought (I am kinda embarrassed right now for thinking that I knew a lot when I actually do not. haha). A lot of related or extra stuff worth learning are still there waiting to be read.

From what I have accumulated on my readings, my current definition of strategic information systems planning is that is it the continuous review of computer technology, applications and management structure to ensure that the current and anticipated information and process needs of the organization are met in a way that provides an acceptable return on investment, is sensitive to the dynamic politics and culture of the organization and is aware of the sociological environment within which the organization exists.

Strategic information system plan requires: An understanding of the nature of the organisation, its goals and objectives, where it is going, its culture, and how it ‘thinks’; an understanding of information technology, what is available, how IT is changing, what the potential uses are; an understanding of information needs, what information flows through the organisation; what decisions are made as a result; how information supports business processes; an understanding of people, what their roles are in the organisation, what their objectives and motives are, how they implement business processes; and an understanding of the environment, what influences the organisation - legislation, markets, technology, media.
Planning involves thinking ahead and designing future action. But there are many approaches to this. IS planning tends to think in rational analytical ways: thinking ahead, rational analysis, draughtsmanship, design and logic. Information systems planners may take a classical approach to planning: uses structured planning techniques, formal and rational, hierarchical command and control.

According also to Gorman, there are certain characteristics of an information systems plan that are desirable to produce the optimal performance. These are: 1. Timely, 2. Usable, 3. Maintainable, 4. Quality, and 5. Reproducible. The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned. The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started. The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.

But what good does it do? What is the behind its creation? Why do companies exert effort and give out funds to do this study? Even though an information system costs a thousand or even millions of pesos and even through most chief information officers can specify exactly how much money is being spent for hardware, software, and staff, CIOs cannot however state with any degree of certainty why one system is being done this year versus next, why it is being done ahead of another, or finally, why it is being done at all. Why oh why indeed?
Well, let us just discuss the purpose for executing information systems planning to enlighten the enigmas just raised.

The main purpose and goal of implementing a strategic information system plan (for me) is to deliver business benefits to an organization. It translates strategic and organizational goals into systems development initiatives. Strategic Information Systems Planning involves understanding what the business goals are and identifying how information systems can support those goals by delivering benefits. Business/IS alignment is a key concept, but perhaps we should talk about integration. The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.

The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise.

Information System should be an integrated resource within the organization which contributes to the organization’s core competencies which may result in sustainable competitive advantage. Many enterprises do not have model-based information systems development environments that allow system designers to see the benefits of rearranging an information systems development schedule.

The planning of information systems cannot be considered as a one-off or occasional event. It is a continuous sustained process, as we plan and re-plan and respond to changes in the business environment. The prime objective of doing a strategic information system plan is alignment: to ensure that the information system provision matches the business needs in what it does (context), how it does it (process) and when it does it (timing).

Another objective of information systems planning is to discover new technology, strategies and ideas that would help the company, if ever they are qualified to be implemented. Information Systems seeks to provide for operational efficiency, better services and co-ordination between partners. It also plays the role as a business driver whom wields the sense of innovation and change in the enterprise. It is also considered as a business support for it aims and does reduce uncertainty and increase efficiency in business operations and company relations.
Another role of information systems planning is a commodity service provider which calls information technology for its efficiency and seen as an expense to control. Sometimes, SISP takes the role of strategic partner that fuels business growth. Information Technology enables organizational architecture, supports business processes, influences organizational structure and substitute’s organizational structure.

Other purposes or importance of information systems planning is future analysis to predict changes over expected life of portfolio, forecasting horizon and planning horizon. Through strategic information system plan it may determine the company’s position in the marketplace; produce greater productivity through greater efficiency; and provide new products and opportunities.

It involves identifying information needs and process needs, reflecting on the context and culture, examining current IT architecture for match and mismatch, identifying approaches for shifting IT architecture to meet information needs, modifying information needs in the light of IT shift.

Strategic information system plan requires technical and managerial understanding; planning the details and thinking holistically; rational, analytical know-how and political sensitivity to reach its purpose to be beneficial to the company.
It has a good amount of advantages to its account. Strategic Information System Plan has several advantages like identifying most desirable applications in which to invest, help an organisation use its information system to carry out existing business strategy, help it define new business strategy. Failure to do some planning may result in: missed opportunities, duplicated systems, incompatible systems, and wasted resources.

There are several obstacles for strategic management. And they are: security, qualitative analysis, employees, owners, implementation, manager’s selection, investors, “Analysis” versus “Intuition”, “I am the manager” and data.
Let us now talk about each obstacle and let us start with security. Most managers feel that everything is a secret and obviously they think that no one else should know the strategy and thus no one else should make a study for our strategic plan and there is no strategy. Two other obstacles seem closely related to the fist one and they are: manager’s selection and “I am the manager”. In manager’s selection, most company’s managers in developing countries are experts in the technical process of the organization but they are not well educated in management and thus they want to focus on what they know and neglect what they do not know. Accordingly, strategic management does not fall in their area of interest. While on “I am manager”: the strategy shows a guide for decisions, so, an employee may, sometimes, tell the senior manager that his decision is against the company strategy. Thus the manager avoids having a strategy to keep his freedom to decide whatever he likes. From these three closely related challenges; one can notice that the challenges come from the managers who are not technically knowledgeable leading to indecision fueled by ignorance.

Other human related challenges present in executing strategic information systems planning are the employees, owners and investors. Most employees and managers are not aware about the value of strategic planning and they may consider it waste of time and something that is applicable. Many owners of successful companies believe they don’t need to do strategic planning and they do not know that their success will go one day when there are more competitors or there are changes in the market. Investors however looks at the company having a clear strategic plan and clear goals for the future (other than increasing sales of the current products) does not affect the stock price because most of the investors do not care about those issues.
The remaining challenges are not directly human based issues but also contain the same level of risks in ISP and these are; data, qualitative analysis, implementation and, “Analysis” versus “Intuition”. Finding data is a real challenge because there is available statistics is far below those available in developing countries. Most companies try to keep any financial information and consider them secrets. It is not possible to know the demand in last year of a certain product or service. People are not used to market research and they don’t want to talk to the marketing people. In qualitative analysis, strategic planning needs a lot of forecasting and qualitative analysis besides the quantitative analysis. Many technical managers are not used to neither the qualitative analysis nor the forecasting. Analysis versus intuition however as a blend of human related reasons as well as environment based risks. In this idea, most people do not think that a manager should do analysis or have done for him they think that some people are talented to take the right decision without doing many calculations or having subordinates make a study for them.
Once these obstacles are passed on can almost guarantee for a successful strategic information system plan. In light of course that the study is done with enough time, money and with the cooperation of the company and its employees.

Twilight : The Movie Review

The film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's best selling novel, Twilight, was released last November 21,2008. Fans all over the world flocked around cinema houses and some even camped outside the cinemas just to be one of the first fans to watch the movie.

Twilight,however hit the Philippine shores last November 26,and as much as I'm a helpless Twilight addict,I decided to see the movie 3 days after the movie was released because that's the only time where my friends and I have the same free schedule. Of course,watching the most awaited movie of the year will be so much fun with a lot of friends with you and share comments and "violent reactions" after the movie, so waiting for three days was essential. Another reason would be because,as I said a while ago,it one of the most awaited movie of the year and I am sure, even if the Philippine moviegoers are not as frenzied as the American fans, there will be a stampede in the theaters,and I surely don't want to undergo such ordeals. But unfortunately, even after 3 days from its release, the cinemas are still jam packed. The stairs and corners are full of people. Even if its kinda annoying at times, I kinda like it that my fave movie has a lot of supporters. Girls, ladies and gays clap, cheer and scream a lot when Edward is on screen or if he is with Bella. It was a lot of fun.

Now, to the review.. It was great.!! It didn't really surpassed my expectations but its okay. As much as I would like to say that it was perfect, I could find myself saying it. If you are a Twilight book reader, you can notice that a lot of events were incorrect, like who-said-this, where-this-happened, who-was-with-who etc. But its acceptable because I didn't really expect them to follow the book religiously in making the movie. I mean, how can anyone fit a 500 paged novel into 2 houred movie right? After many Harry Potter movie disappointments,I finally understood that fact. And to think that Harry Potter is a super budgeted movie and still it lacks a lot of scenes when compared to its novel counterpart, what does a small budgeted Twilight movies' chances to not commit the same problem right. I was amazed how Katherine Hardwicke (director) was able to fit a small budget that seems unfit for a movie like this caliber but she pulled it off, nicely done if I might add. The effects were just the way I imagined it to be, nothing too over the top, it was just right.

If there's any positive side in having a small budget is that the actors were supposed to do the stunts in a real place and not behind the green screen. I distinctly remember that Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan), said in an interview that they can't afford using the green screen so that those tree climbing and fight scenes were done on location, totally cool.

As for the actors, well, Robert Pattinson is totally a hottie and he seems to give justice to Edward Cullen's character, though he seemed portray that Edward was this nervous vampire than a cool, almost indifferent one that you can see in the Twilight novel. But this was later justified when I read the Midnight Sun novel. I heard that Meyer gave Robert a copy of Midnight Sun to help him act as Edward. But the only time I got disappointed was when they were riding Emmett's truck to escape James. That scene should have a lot of fury and shouting for Edward instead of a nervous Edward who just seems to explain that James was a tracker. I would have been a nice scene if he was really shouting with anger and all. But aside from that he's alright, I just hope he can portray anger much better next time. Thumbs up to his accent too, the only time he let his English accent slip was when he said "Its as if you could outrun me.!!".

The cast was really great. I wasn't really familiar with most of the cast but I can say that they did a good job especially the Cullens because they really did look like models. Especially, Carlisle,he was smoking hot. But I was disappointed with Kristen Stewart who played the role of Bella Swan. A lot of people and cast said that she was really a great actress but I didn't approve much of her acting in the movie, she seems to stutter and blink a lot. I might let her pass with her stuttering because it may be needed for a scene but what's with all the blinking.!! I mean, is she sick with a blinking disease or what.!! I hope she stops doing that in the next movie. But she was totally amazing at the fight scene when she was bitten. Alice was the prettiest vampire there, she was really graceful and all even if they were playing baseball. Jasper looked really funny though but when you read Midnight Sun, you can understand why he looked like that. hahaha..

In their lab, I noticed that there was an owl(?) sculpture behind Edward and it made him look like a seraph because only the wings were scene. Edward in the sun was really nice too, just like small diamonds. The meadow though wasn't that much pretty but I just thought that it may have paled in comparison to the shimmering Edward. Charlie was one of the most unexpected character in movie because he was the one who was making me crack up. He was this playful and protective father to Bella. He was one of my favorites too.

For Stephanie Meyer fans, I hope that you also noticed that she did a cameo in the movie. She was at the diner, typing on her laptop. She looked really funny because she looked like she was trying her best not to laugh. hahaha...

The Relationship between the Business Plan and the IS plan and the Difficulties It Poses

What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan?

Before establishing a degree of relationship that exists between the business plan and the Strategic/ Information System Plan in an enterprise or business, there seems to be a need to expound on each areas. Defining each terms, giving relative examples and certain situations where each of the business plan and the strategic/ information system plan is essential in this topic so as to create the needed distinction and derive the level or nature of relationship between the business plan and the information system plan, which is to begin with is the question at hand.


If you were to ask me on what would I say if I were asked what is a business plan, I would have to say that it consist of the present but mostly the future undertakings a company has set to achieve their desired goals. An analogy for this is like building a gantt chart, creating a schedule of future activities, setting time lines and milestones and checking for progress or development. But, I reckon that creating a gantt chart is also involved in making a business plan. That is what I think of when asked about a business plan.

As what I read from Wikipedia, a business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals. Reading this I can say that I deserve a thumbs up because it sounds fairly the same as what I thought about.
It was also stated that the business goal can be either for for-profit or non-profit reasons. When the plans at hand are focusing on generating income or is made for financial reason it is what we call “For-profit business plan”. While non-profit, from the name itself refers to plans that tend to focus on service goals and doesn't really involve gathering profit or finances. Thou it was said that non-profits may also help on maximizing profit, for the reason that they may create an avenue for the business to be advertised. Business plans also consists if target changes in target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan. Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced score card or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.

Now enough about the business plan, let us now venture into the realms of strategic/ information system planning. I was to be asked about my opinion on strategic/ information system planning, I would say that it deals with creating plans of establishing and maintaining an information system department or implement information system in a company.

I arrived to that trail of thought for my experience in developing a information system plan in the past. Last semester, we were tasked to create an Information System plan for our chosen company. The data we took consists of what were the current facilities being used, what databases or systems that are currently existing and their topology and applications. The aim of that paper was to generate new plans, ideas or solutions from the problems we have seen in their current IS status. We advised our adopted company to procure other facilities that they lack which seemed necessary for their business and we also suggested developing new systems that seemed beneficial for the company. In other words, it deals with setting ideas to “automize” a company in terms of services and taking their facilities a notch higher through the use of technology. It is a technical document intended for staff with implementation responsibility for a company's databases and systems. It describes the analysis of the Strategic Model to develop the SISP; in appendices it documents the Strategic Data Model in detail. The Strategic Plan identifies information needed by goals, objectives and key performance indicators . The SISP reviewed the mission, vision,direction, goals, strengths, weaknesses, objectives and threats that might occur and exist in a business.


From the descriptions above, it can be said that the strategic business plan is a part of the business plan. Business plan is a more general term than strategic/ information planning. Business plan is the over-all “fight plan”, made even before the business was built. Unlike in the Strategic Information Plan, it can be devised before or after establishing the enterprise. A good analogy for this is a program that has threads. A program is the business plan which holds different plans for different sectors of the company to achieve the projected goal or output. Threads (of which I will not explain any further for we are an IT community so I am expecting you are familiar with this ), are plans and one or more of those maybe the Strategic/ Information System plan, which may function differently than others but still stays true to the goal of the main program which is to reach the goals for the continued progress of a business. With all the differences between the two terms being discussed on this topic, we can observe that their main similarity is their main goal and that they are used for the same reason and that is to bring in development.

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration in IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

Computer based information systems are becoming not only a trend but also essential to the development, and execution of the over-all business plan or strategy. Business managers, however are too often besieged by the inadequate new systems with the missed target dates and over run budgets. These managers are questioning whether their firms are selecting and developing systems effectively and efficiently. To select and develop computer based information system, firms conventionally follow the systems development life cycle. The mystique that the computer is also challenged – that the computer is incomprehensible to the mortal business managers executive and must therefore be managed by technicians who may have a little understanding of the business organization. Finally these actions that the business managers and information system managers should take to develop more effective computer based systems are identified.

Computer based information systems firms are becoming increasingly vital to business and industry, More and more firms are attempting to use them to compete globally. Large and complex systems are being used to support the delivery of existing products and services to customers and for developing new products and services closely tied to their computers. They are making efforts to eliminate internal inefficiencies. Fierce competition, especially in the global market place and the falling price s of computers technology have and will continue to stimulate these endeavors.

In line with these before doing any implementation an information systems plan is to be made to attain the set goal. An Information system plan is a technical document intended for staff with implementation responsibility for an enterprise' databases and systems. It is a process for developing a strategy and plans for aligning information systems with the business strategies of an organization. Its goal is to help an organization provide business-focused Information Systems that enable and support their mission. It describes the analysis of the Strategic Model to develop the strategic information system plan; in appendices it documents the Strategic Data Model in detail. The Strategic Plan identifies information needed by goals, objectives and key performance indicators. The strategic information system plan reviewed the mission, vision,direction, goals, strengths, weaknesses, objectives and threats that might occur and exist in a business.

Like what I stated in the previous assignment, last semester, we were tasked to create an Information System plan for our chosen company. Looking back now, I tried to vision the difficulties we had encountered in creating the information system plan, and since I don't have any idea what are, specifically, the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration in information systems professionals and users while working on an information systems plan, my reply for the question given above is clearly from my own experience and nothing more. I don't have any other useful reference that would give me an idea whether I am on the right track or not, so forgive me if I got this wrong.

Well, back again to our previous argument, we, stating my group mates and I feeling like we were buried in an inch deep of water when making the IS plan. It was difficult and frustrating for a lot of reasons and if I rate all of it the top two on my list would be: 1. technicality on terms and the job itself 2. time pressure and budget.

IT world, is a whole new, limitless, unending and ever changing dimension. A system or device might be the best today but tomorrow something might surpass it. With this ever changing character, it was hard for us to devise an IS plan that will be suitable for the present status of the economy and the company. In a user's point of view, this degree of technicality, a new whole thing to him, change would be harder to accept.

Time pressure to create an IS plan is another frustrating variable, it not only pressures to the point of emotional stress but it also stresses the wallet or the budget. Lack of budget and if not enough time was given to create an IS plan that would surely be a headache to the IS professionals doing the job.

But I think on more professional level the frustrations would be caused by A: time pressure and B. the uncertainty of doing the job because of top management is not committing to the project or they don't cooperate much with the said project. Doing an information system plan needs help, guidance and assistance from the common employees to the top level management not only in financing the project but also in gathering important information and data to make the IS plan a possible goal. But a business comprises of several people working different tasks and it would be very difficult to get their time and attention, some of them aren't even familiar with the company's ICT aspects.