Richard Flanagan
Online Discussion of Your Neighborhood Grocer Case
For this week’s online discussion, I would like you to answer all three of the case questions in a response to this post. As always, I want you to reply to at least four of your peer’s posts.
Week 3: Reading Questions & Activity
Readings
- What is a compensating control? When would you use one? Why? Can you give an example?
- If you had to rank the importance of the basic IT controls, how would you do it? Which is most important, which least?
- What is segregation of duties and how does it play into basic administrative controls? Give an example of two IT roles that should be segregated?
Your Neighborhood Grocer Case
Consider the following questions before class on Tuesday. Ignore the questions at the end of the case.
- YNG has grown through acquisition resulting in a mess of systems. Why did this happen and what controls can Larry put into place to ensure that it doesn’t continue into the future?
- Business application procurement seems to be a big problem. IT buys stuff the businesses’ don’t want and many of the business’ purchases have been outright failures. Why? What controls can Larry put into place to ensure that it doesn’t continue into the future?
- The most recent IT Audit will produce a finding about the sorry state of access control in the company. What controls should Larry be ready to recommend to reduce the impact of this finding?
Week 2 Discussion: The Dentdel Case
Since we didn’t get a chance to review the Dentdel Case in class, lets do it here. Please post your answer to one of these case questions.
- Which processes were ineffective and allowed this situation to occur
- Where could stronger IT Administrative controls have helped Dentdel avoid this situation?
Week 2 Wrap-up: Basic IT Contols
Great job on the discussion, this is what I want to see every week. I think you raised all the salient points but let me summarize.
To be effective an organization needs to establish as certain structure and responsibilities. Most organizations need information systems to operate so they create an IT organization. To be effective, that sub-organization (IT) needs certain things:
- Terms of Reference or a Charter – What is its mission? Why is it there? What is it trying to achieve? On this last point, the COSO list of objectives for an IT organization (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability and so on) is a good list. You should learn it.
- A basic organizational structure, arranged to insure that the work required to satisfy the Terms of Reference will get done. This implies that resources are allocated to different tasks and that someone is responsible for leading each area of work.
- Monitoring – there needs to be a “culture” of monitoring, each leader should be monitoring his/her people and each level should be monitoring the work of the level below in order to make sure the required work is being done. Monitoring also implies that when problems arise, they are addressed.
- Performance Metrics – You can only monitor if you can tell a good job from a bad job and you can only tell that if you have some way of measuring success.
If you have these things, you are off to a good start. This coming week we will look at another level of administrative controls that all organizations have, not just IT organizations (things like budgets, HR policies, etc.
As for DentDel, you all got the point. Even the most basic controls like assigning responsibilities and monitoring were missing. Yes the CIO picked a technology without doing due diligence, but why? Because there was no expectation set that due diligence should be done on every project being initiated. I particularly like the comments about asking the client (in this case Sales) what they needed. There was a much better project out there, but it never got visibility because there was no process to check. Its all too easy to assume that governance at this level is being correctly, but it often isn’t. Always ask the basic questions first and then follow where they lead.
Week 2: Reading Questions & Case
Readings
- In your own words, how would you define a control environment?
- Define the three kinds of common controls and give two examples of each from your everyday life.
- What is the difference between and IT Strategy committee and an IT Steering Committee?
The Dentdel Case
Think about the following questions before class on Tuesday.
- What processes were ineffective and allowed this situation to occur
- Where could stronger IT Administrative controls have helped Dentdel avoid this situation?
Week 1 Wrap-up: Defining IT Governance
I think this case is wonderful as an opener for an IT Governance class. Why? Because there is no governance at STARS, at least nothing explicit. If we use my “Right Things, Done Right” mantra, we can illustrate what I mean. Khan is inheriting an IT organization that has no identifiable mission or charter. Senior management doesn’t recognize the critical role that IT could play in its organization. The implicit charter is probably something like, “Give the business what it needs to get the job done.” That simply isn’t good enough leadership. On the “Done Right” side, you all have pointed out the deficiencies of the effort (its not even a real organization). No organizational structure, runaway customers, out-of-control contractors, no technical standards, no project portfolio management etc. The only good news for Khan is that the only way to go is up!
The key point for this class is to recognize that both things are necessary for true governance. IT organizations, as a generalization, have tended to focus on the process of doing things extremely well and very efficiently. This is important but it is only half of the game. IT leadership and company leadership must work together to ensure that IT is doing the things that provide the most value to the company. This is a political (small p) process and not one that is comfortable to most IT people. Hence many CIO’s fail because, while they run good IT shops, they are not focused on, nor especially contributing to, the company’s goals.
Throughout this course and the program, keep the “Right Things, Done Right” model in mind. Many CISA questions will give you three answers that urgently need doing and one that seems so obvious that it can be assumed and ask you which is MOST important. Don’t fall for the trap, the one is usually about making sure that the organization is doing the right thing and must come first.
Weekly Posts and Deadlines
I want to go over your weekly activities a second time to make sure there is no confusion. Each Friday, you will find a post with questions about that week’s readings and case. Once you have finished the readings you should answer one of the weekly reading questions in a post (please use the correct category) on the class blog before 11:59pm on Wednesday ( you only need to answer one of the reading questions, not all of them.)
Then you should turn you attention to the weekly case or activity. For cases, use the questions to guide your preparation for that week’s discussion in class. Occaissionally, we will discuss a week’s case online. I’ll give you more instructions about how to do that when the time comes to go online.
Finally, once everyone’s readings comments are on the blog, I expect you to read them over and comment on them. Comments on the readings need to be posted on class blog before 11:59pm on Friday (minimum of 4 comments each week).
Welcome to MIS 5202 Online
Welcome to MIS 5202 Online! I hope you are as excited to get started as I am. We will get begin on Tuesday, August 25th when we will go through the structure of the course, what I am expecting from you, and talk about the Stars Ambulance case. On Friday of each week I will publish a list of readings questions for you to comment on using our class blog. I am looking for you to write a one or two paragraph comment on one of the questions and then comment on each other’s submissions during the week.
Case questions are there to guide your analysis of the case that we will discuss in class each week. You can of course discuss the cases online also, but you normally won’t have to. For this week all you need to do is read the Stars Ambulance case and think about these three questions
- Identify three or four of the most critical challenges facing the new CIO?
- What is the overall issue facing the new CIO?
- How would you proceed as the new CIO?
See you all on Tuesday.
Rich