Tech Management

1) Compare the 2008 top 5 IT management concerns (Luftman et al) and the 2013 top 5 IT management concerns (Kappelman et al).  What concerns have changed in importance?  Are there any new concerns?  In your opinion, what changes in organizational operating environments have resulted in the differences in the priority of concerns?  Please justify your answers.

A) The top 5 IT management concerns of 2008 are IT and business alignment, Build business skills in IT, IT strategic planning, Attracting IT professionals, Making better use of information and the top IT management concerns of 2013 are Aligning IT with the Business, Business Agility, Business Productivity, Business Cost Reduction, IT Cost Reduction and Controls.
Business and alignment with IT is the topmost management concern faced in both 2008 and 2013.Since the SIM Surveys in 1980, Business and alignment with IT has been a major issue in the management concerned with the IT since 2008. As the name itself suggests that alignment, Business organizations should be able to use Information technology (IT) effectively and efficiently to achieve business objects and goals. This issue should be taken as a foremost priority concerned with Management because it demonstrates a positive relation between information technologies and accepted performance for financial measures.  The major concerns and issues of IT management that changed from 2008 to 2013 are IT strategic planning in 2008 changed its position and ranking with Business productivity in 2008 as 3rd concern for Management. Attracting IT professionals in 2008 was 4th in position, but later in 2008 that was not a concern as IT field was in boom and professionals were not less in number. This concern was replaced in position by Business cost reduction in 2013. In 2008 the 5th concern was making better use of information, but in 2013 this position was replaced by IT cost reduction and controls.  Managing the business with less cost and reduction of the cost for doing the business made a drastic come back from 2008 to 2013, it became the 4th issue and concern for managing IT. Today, teams and organizations face rapid change like never before. Globalization has increased the markets and opportunities for more growth and revenue. However, increasingly diverse markets have a wide variety of needs and expectations that must be understood if they are to become strong customers and collaborators. Organizational change is undertaken to improve the performance of the organization or a part of the organization. One of the major levers that can affect the performance of the IT organization is the degree to which it is centralized, decentralized, or federalized. So according to me the major change in organizational operating environment that resulted in change in priority of concerns are reducing the cost of doing Business and Attracting IT professionals. In the recent study and survey, it clearly states that attracting young professionals is the key to continued economic growth. But, later in 2013 this was not a major concern because the technology was in boom and employees were employed fulltime in many companies and this was not at all issue for Management of IT in 2013. Apart from this, in 2013 reduction of cost for doing business came up to the top 5 issues and concerns, taking 4th position. Comparing the issues in 2008 and 2013, the major issue which I personally feel was missing as an issue and concern for management of IT is training and development. Training and development is the field which is concerned with organizational activity aimed at bettering the performance of individuals and groups in organizational settings. Training and development (T&D) encompasses three main activities such as training, education, and development.  Major IT companies today are now lacking in this aspect of training, talent acquisition and transformation. Before an employee joins in a client project for development, he should be given proper training in the field of project development and then should be deployed in the project.

2) Which one of the 2013 top 5 management do you believe should be of primary importance to managers of technology? Develop a convincing answer and provide support for your selection.  You should have at least two external references to help support your choice

I firmly believe that among the top 5 management concerns of 2013, Aligning IT with the Business, Business Productivity, Business Cost Reduction, IT Cost Reduction and Controls, Business productivity, Agility in Business is a key issue concerned with the management of IT. Right from the year 2008 until 2013 this issue has been taking its place among the top 5 issues of IT management overall. Since the SIM Surveys in 1980, Business and alignment with IT has been a major issue in the management concerned with the IT since 2008 and continued its position as an important concern in IT management.

Business Agility is the ability of an Information Technology business to adapt cost efficiently, efficiently and rapidly in a response to the changes in the environment of business.  Here Business agility can be managed by maintaining and adapting for goods and services of IT management for meeting the customer needs and demands, adjusting to the changes in the environment of business and utilizing the human resource as an advantage. Here the terms of flexibility, balance, adaptability, and coordination comes into picture, as all these are key points for maintaining a consistent good relation with customer. Coming to a business view of perspective, agility typically refers to the ability of an IT organization to adapt consistently and rapidly to the market and changes in the IT environment, making it a cost effective and productive way.  In this view of perspective the concept of "agility"   means that an organization should arise to adjust with the response of requirements of the modern business and to operate ways in a face of extreme complexity. Business agility means that the business involves here the agile methods which integrate planning and execution which allows an organization to “for an order which is optimal including all the tasks of work and to adjust to the requirement changes as per the customer requirement.  The requirements here also change due to changing needs and wants of the stakeholders and customer. According to McKinsey & Company, the leading global management consulting firm, the benefits of agility include faster revenue growth, greater and more lasting cost reduction, and more effective management of risks and reputational threats.  Agility in business focuses on the theories mainly in agile project management, in which the project manager and delivery managers and their respective teams asses the progress and priorities throughput the entire project lifecycle, rather than at the end of the project deadline. A systematic way to change the management provides business owners with a framework of how to respond and change, taking the requirements and needs of the entire team, project and the organization into consideration.  Much number of latest technologies are useful in promoting the agility of the business. A recent development is the cloud computing which is useful in promoting business agility.  Cloud computing allows scalability and adjustable per-user costs; mobile devices enable employees to work more easily away from traditional office environments; collaboration software encourages internal communication, brainstorming and problem solving among staff; and social media permits real-time interactions with customers, creating a constant feedback loop to drive business agility efforts. Organizations need to recognize that it is not how IT is aligned with the business. And they need to know how IT and business are aligned with each other. Organizations need to go beyond just focusing on IT infrastructure.