purpose of IS Planning as well as it's major challeges

“Everything has its own purpose”. This quote though very simple but it has lots of meaning. My parents would always tell me about that quote. Whenever I open my problems to them (that is a rare thing for me to do, if I can still manage it, I won’t bother telling my problems to them because I don’t want them to worry about me), they would tell me, that there are things or people we encounter everyday that their purpose might be hurting us, giving us pain and challenges or brings happiness to us. But it all ends in giving us lessons or teaches us lessons, lessons that we can ponder in our lives and be able to apply those lessons for our own personal development. Hehehe, everything I wrote above was kind of a serious thing ah! Mariechelle bares it all!

Let’s start the roll balling! (isn’t it let’s start the ball rolling?) Anyway, ok, here it goes, let’s begin! Planning is the word! (again?). Well, I have actually read a quote that reminds me of the relationship of planning and success. According to Robin Sieger, a British business executive, Planning is as natural to the process of success as its absence is to the process of failure. Deep, isn’t it? For me, this is somehow similar to what I have realized, plans without actions are nothing . How can we reach our goals in life if all we have are plans? We should work hard for it!

Purpose. One thing we might have actually asked to ourselves. What is our purpose in this ever-changing, fast-pace world. I even asked myself but as of this time, I find it hard to answer it. Nonetheless, let’s get back to business. What is the purpose of an information system plan? Based on my readings, the main purpose of the information system before is primarily incorporating technology with the business to create a better production and can lessen the burden of the organization’s employees in working on their manual business operation. That was before! Right now, it somewhat the opposite! Some of the experts say, that information system plays a vital role in an organization’s success. Based on an article, it says there that, consequently, strategic information systems planning (SISP) is a critical issue. In many industry surveys, improved SISP is often mentioned as the most serious challenge facing IS managers (Pavri and Ang, 1995, Beath and Orlikowski, 1994; Martin, 1993; Porter and Miller,1985). Strategic Information Systems Planning in the present era is not an easy task because such a process is deeply embedded in business processes. These systems need to cater to the strategic demands of organizations, i.e., serving the business goals and creating competitive advantage as well as meeting their data processing and MIS needs. The key point here is that organizations have to plan for information systems not merely as tools for cutting costs but as means to adding value. [1]

For me, the purpose of a strategic information system plan is to provide direction on where the company is going in terms of the company’s management of the information system (its future needs based on the current information system) and; I may somehow relate it with strategic planning. In strategic planning, it identifies where the organization wants to be at some point in the future and how it is going to get there. It primarily focuses on developing strategies on how to achieve the vision, mission, goals and objectives of an organization. Then, the next would be, gaining competitive advantage. Of course, business is business, they compete with each other. The word MONEY comes into place and time is of the essence. I may somehow relate it with the company’s who are working and creating microprocessors in our computers; example: Business A, created a microprocessor known as quad-core, this means that it has faster processing time knowing that it has 4 processors working, compared to Business B who created a dual core microprocessor. In this analogy, relating in real-life situation, the customers would choose to go into a company with the faster processing time than the other. And with these, an organization with a good and well-developed information system plan can gain competitive advantage.

Laying down some of the purpose of an information system plan, we now come to the challenges awaiting the team who will be working in the so-called “information system plan”. As what I have written above, some experts would say that strategic information systems planning is a serious challenge in information systems planning. But what are those challenges? I’ll try to give some of them, here it goes:
• Top management support
• Project team involving IS specialists, users, and managers
• Select a planning methodology such as Information Engineering, Business Process Re-engineering, etc. to guide planning and development
On the first challenge, is the most critical one, the lack of top management support to the team. Why I said that it is the most critical one? I may say that the support from the higher management is the root of the success of the said plan. If there is support, this means that the organization is open to answer the questions of the requirement analysts (part of the planning team). As what I have remembered, in our Systems Analysis and Design I, a reporter introduced to us the steps on systems planning. The first step is the requirements analysis: who are involved in the system, who are the users of the system, what are the problems in the existing system, or what are the business problems that occur and ahm(thinking), what are the other systems that might be affected when implementing or solving the said problem. And with top management support, the analysts can get the all the requirements or data needed, the processes involved, the user’s demand (or probably the employees). in contrast, without the top management support, the planning team will be frustrated, as what I have said it is the root of the success, now, without the support, the analysts, can not get the desired requirements, therefore, there would be a big possibility of wrong analysis of the problem, wrong set of solutions, in short the output would probably be, a wrong system. Then when the wrong system is implemented, the user’s of the system will also be affected, maybe confused and even frustrated that will result in poor job performance because of these instances, there is a very big possibility that the company will go down that will again result to unemployment, the family’s of the employees will now be affected and would result to another problem which is hunger.
Assuming, that the above challenge is addressed, everything is laid down by the organization, and the planning process is on a good start. The team is enthusiastic, more focused and gives their 100% commitment on the said project. But a good start doesn’t mean a good ending. Of course there would be an instance (or normally,ahahah) that we feel tired or we find it difficult to finish the project. Here,the next challenge would be, Project team involving IS specialists, users, and managers. There is a need of a good leader. A good leader, provides direction to the team, the leader is responsible to keep his team in good shape, healthy mind, healthy relationship with others, whenever there are clashes between the team members, it would be up to the team leader to talk things over and resolve the issues. In addition, the leader should keep his team in high spirit even if things are not going as planned. Of course, another challenge, would be, the experiences and expertise of each of the member of the team. As we all know, this is a tough job, it needs a lot of experience and expertise. It is also possible that the advances in Information Technology would be another challenge. Up to date or out dated. As we know technology changes, it’s fast that in order for us not to be left behind, we must cope up to these advancements.
Another challenge is selecting a planning methodology such as Information Engineering, Business Process Re-engineering, etc. to guide planning and development. Again, as what I have remembered, during our Systems Analysis and Design I reporting, the reporter said, that after the requirements had already been defined, the team would now develop a set or group of possible solutions then, the next step would be deciding on what solution would be the best to solve the problem. The said solution would bring out more benefits to the company, it must be consistent and it would help on reaching the VMGO of the company or in other words, it is aligned with the business plan. Now after, the organization approved the solution, it is now the time to start doing the system. In selecting a methodology
Based on my readings also, another challenge to the project team is to produce quality information system plan. A good quality of an information system plan has the following characteristics: Timely. 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. Another characteristic is, it is Useable. 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. Maintainable. The ISP should 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. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away. Quality. 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. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly. Reproducible. 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.


Another challenge would be how is the Information System plan specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary.

To close this, information systems plan should work with the business plan in an organization. They should work hand in hand for the development and the success of the organization.

Let me share to you a simple text message that I received as I am making this write-up.
Here it goes: “Everything that God allows to come our way is with a purpose. He uses even the greatest error and the deepest hurt to mold us into a person of worth and value.”
We know that all of us do have our reasons for existing in this world. It is up to us to find out what are those reasons. In finding those, we’ll encounter challenges. In every challenge, there’s a lesson to ponder and let’s just bear in mind, that God won’t allow those challenges to come in our way if we can’t overcome it or if we can’t do it. Sometimes we must be hurt in order to grow; we must fail in order to know; we must lose in order to gain because some lessons in life are best learned through pain. We’ll not give up if things are not going in our way, not everything is meant to be, but everything is worth a try.

God Bless Everyone!

Ciao!