In-Class Discussion Questions
In-class discussion questions for Apr 1
We will discuss these questions on Wed, Apr 1. Do not pose comments on this.
- Why can’t IVK figure out whether an intrusion occurred or something else happened?
- What is the “rush-a-change-into-production” thing? (p. 166)
- For Cho to find evidence of an intrusion, what does he need?
- What would be the ramifications of this crash? (Imagine the worst.)
- Why did Mr. Wells, IVK VP of Legal, demand to pull the plugs?
- How would you explain “wipe production servers clean, and rebuild the production configuration” (p. 170) to Mr. Williams?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 30
We will discuss these questions on Mon, Mar 30. Do not pose comments on this.
- If you were Mr. Barton, how would you explain the situation in Chapter 10 to your CEO, Mr. Carl Williams, in English?
- If you were Mr. Barton, how would you explain the situation in Chapter 10 to Wall Street analysts you’re scheduled to meet today?
- Did an attacker or attackers intrude inside of IVK’s systems?
- How would you explain the difference between a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and an intrusion?
- How would you explain “transaction is jammed up” or “the database is corrupted” (p. 164-165)?
- What does it mean by “Apparently a database index file had been somehow renamed, and another substituted in its place”? (p. 167)
- Why can’t IVK figure out whether an intrusion occurred or something else happened?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 27
We will discuss these questions on Fri, Mar 27. Do not pose comments on this.
- What would be the reasons for Ericsson or IBM not to go into the new outsourcing deal?
- What would be the reasons that they must sign the deal with Bharti?
- According to the proposed contracts, Bharti’s engineers will become the vendors’ employees. Will this work?
- What could go wrong in this long-term outsourcing relationship from the perspective of Bharti?
- What could go wrong in this long-term outsourcing relationship from the perspective of Ericsson or IBM?
- What does it mean by “You will become their slaves.” (p. 9)
- What are the difference between “hard-line” (or “real-teeth”) and “soft-cooperation” in IT Adventures Ch 14?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 25
We will discuss these questions on Wed, Mar 25. Do not pose comments on this.
- What are Barti Airtel’s core competencies? Or what should be core competencies for Bharti to compete and survive successfully?
- Why did Mr. Gupta, the managing director of Bharti, say “Budgeting for capital expenditures was a nightmare”? (p. 1)
- In a relationship between Bharti and Ericsson, What are the interests of Bharti? What are the interests of Ericsson?
- In the proposed outsourcing contract with the network vendors, how will Bharti pay, for what?
- With IBM, how will Bharti pay, for what?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 23
We will discuss these questions on Mon, Mar 23. Do not pose comments on this.
- How would you write a contract between a tutor and a student?
- What could go wrong in a relationship between the tutor and the student? What are the risks from the tutor’s perspective?
- What are the risks from the student’s perspective?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 20
We will discuss these questions in-class on Fri Mar 20. Do not post comments on this.
- What would be your choice among the three vendors in Ch. 14.
- How can we apply the contract theory in the selection?
- Which one seems to be the most capable and qualified and the best match with IVK?
- Which one is the least likely to be unskilled and inexperienced?
- Which one is the most likely to work for IVK’s best interests?
- Which one is the easiest for IVK to control and monitor?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 18
We will discuss these questions in-class on Wed, Mar 18. Do not post comments on this.
- What is the Infrastructure Replacement (IR) project for at IVK?
- Why is this project not going well?
- Why did IVK select NetiFects for the IR project vendor?
- When selecting NetiFects, what homework did IVK do?
- How do you choose your mechanic? Based on what?
- If you did not do “due diligence” in finding an outsourcing vendor, what would happen to you?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 16
We will discuss these questions in-class on Mon, Mar 16. Do not post comments on this.
- Do you fix your car by yourself or have a mechanic do maintenance? Why?
- How do you choose your mechanic? Based on what?
- Why does Apple outsource the entire manufacturing operations to offshore vendors?
- Why would a company outsource IT operation and development to an external vendor?
- What would be the reasons that Otis DID NOT outsource the development of e*Logistics?
- What’s a doctor-patient confidentiality?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 13
We will discuss these questions in-class on Fri, Mar 13. Do not post comments on this.
- How to choose bewteen Voluntary Compliance vs. Strict Enforcement? What should be consideration?
- If IT is Compete, which should the choice? What if Qualifier?
- Between Voluntary Compliance and Strict Enforcement, which one does Mr. Barton prefer?
- Why doesn’t he go for Strict Enforcement?
- What is the “Gradual Migration” approach that Mr. Barton proposes?
In-class discussion questions for Mar 11
We will discuss these questions in-class on Wed, Mar 11. Do not post comments on this.
- Why do states adopt E-Zpass for a common standard payment system?
- Why have IT systems at IVK and Accenture gotten so complex?
- When there is freedom, employees and business units are using different kinds of ITs, whatever they want. What are the problems in this case?
- What are the other risks in having one or a few IT vendors for standardized IT architecture?
- What does it mean by coupling in IT systems?
- Can the collections system at IVK be up-and-running without communicating with the loan operation system or the financial/accounting system?
- How to choose bewteen Voluntary Compliance vs. Strict Enforcement? What should be consideration?
- If IT is Compete, which should the choice? What if Qualifier?