Derrick A. Gyamfi

Hi Iyana,

I like your point on ensuring that the relationship between the IT strategy and the business strategy is continuously and consistently maintained. I think this feature is often overlooked although it is important as the planning and implementation of the strategy.

Hi Sarush,
Great response! I think it is important for quantitative metrics to be set for IT projects. However, the nature of this company’s business strategy makes me wonder how metrics will be set in the IT environment for the acquisition, expanding, and reselling of IT infrastructure. Moreover, will this metric tracking come at a cost to the business?

Hi Jason,
I am in support of your idea of having the IT department strengthen its policies and controls with its primary system. As mentioned in my post, I would strongly suggest it will be in the best interest the IT managers and directors to ensure all that the IT infrastructure of all potential acquisitions are examined by an external auditor…[Read more]

Hi Hanqing,
These are well-written steps to aligning an IT strategy to a business strategy. I think one of the most important ones (if not the most important) is to create an IT vision. This is because without understanding the vision of the department it will very difficult to understand how to govern and have policies that are in line with it.…[Read more]

Hi Xinteng,

I agree with your point on making sure everyone in the organization understands the business’ objectives and goals. It will be detrimental to the overall vision of a business if its IT component did not buy into its strategy. Great point!

Hi Karabo,

Thanks for sharing this article on banking. From your post, I noticed that although it is crucial to get stakeholders involved in all projects, the level of importance varies in various projects. In your case, since the stakeholders are also the customers if their needs and wants are not taken into consideration in implementing the…[Read more]

Hi Ping,

Thanks for sharing your experience operating your coffee shop. I liked how you correlated the corn example to a project and your parents being key stakeholders or better yet investors of the project. With that said, your project will not be successful without their role. This also leaves me to wonder the extent of which stakeholders…[Read more]

Dongjie,

Per your researched article, I think conflicts between projects and stakeholders can be detrimental to the collective success of the project. Not only should this encourage a project manager to actively get stakeholders’ input on subject matters regarding the project, he or she should make it a point facilitate an open environment and…[Read more]

Hi Xiaozhou,

I agree with your insight on discussing your comprehensive plan with stakeholders. I think sometimes it is even necessary to go the extra mile and give stakeholders the opportunity full comprehend their role in a project and how it will impact their lives. Thanks for sharing this experience.

Hi Yingyan,

Great response! I really like how well you related the project and stakeholder aspect of things to your graduate school application process. I think when it comes down to it a lot of things we do in our daily lives are actually scaled down projects and its great to see that correlation. Thanks!

Lezlie,

I agree that the undefined project scope is the most significant risk of this project. The tendency of Ella to put together a team with laying out the project objectives, roles, goals, and deliverables of the project makes me wonder her reasoning behind appoint Jim as project manager. Despite this, I think this can also be a positive…[Read more]

Xiaomin,

With regard to your question about who the team should report to, I believe with Jim being the appointed project manager, he is the designated go-to person for the project. However, this also leads me to consider the various types of projects we discussed in class last week; I wonder where this project will fall. Great question!

Great attention to detail there Folake! I think communication will be a pivotal part of this project. This is because although the different expertise of each team member may help the team, this can also hurt the team as well. For example, without proper communication mechanisms, it might be difficult for the IT knowledgeable team members to…[Read more]

Well said Haitao! I think you have a great point about Jim being new to the company. When you think about it, I think this might come back to hurt the company since he hasn’t fully merged into the company mission, vision, and values.

I completely agree with your take on the potential risks Jim will face. I think you hit the nail right on head mentioning coordination aspect of the project. I think it will be difficult to keep an assistant director of information technology, an assistant director of marketing, and a store manager engaged in a project they are not directly…[Read more]