IMS5042 Strategic Planning for IS Semester 2, 2004; Week 3 Tutorial The relevance of Philosophy to IS Aim Some students see

e philosophy as being something which academics talk about, but which has no connections to anything which happens in the real world. This tute exercise aims to make you aware that even if you do not think of yourself as a philosopher, you do in fact have philosophies! It does so by linking the aspects of philosophy which we have examined to specific issues/problems in IS. Exercise The following table lists the eight aspects of philosophy which we discussed in class last week, and against each aspect gives two statements which reflect opposing philosophical positions. I have directed most of the statements very specifically at issues in IS, but some are expressed in more general terms. Look through each pair of statements and decide which one you support more strongly. Compare your views with those of the class as a whole. Pair off with people who hold opposing views and discuss why you differ not with a view to changing their mind, but just to try to understand why they see things differently. Philosophical aspect Statement 1 Comprehensiveness vs Trying to build big integrated incrementalism systems like SAP, etc is a waste of time and money. You are better off getting the individual systems right and you can sort out system integration issues later Rationality vs nonrationality Statement 2 Building systems one at a time leads to long-term inefficiencies and system incompatibilities. You must develop the big picture framework of how everything fits together before you start to build individual systems An Information System is an People are the single key orderly collection of data and component of all information technology aiming to support a systems and people are not specific information need rational; therefore analysis based rational analysis is essential to solely on an assumption of getting it right rationality is dangerously misguided Fashions come and go, but the In a rapidly-changing IT and fundamentals in IT and business environment, there is no business never change. If you such thing as certainty. You identify the fundamentals and must always be willing and ready stick with a strategy for to change your ideas about managing them, then outcomes in order to adapt to everything will work itself out changing circumstances Acting without being clear what It is often impossible to be sure you want to achieve leads to about what you want until you

Determinism vs contingency

Directedness vs emergence

Formalisation vs adhoc planning

waste of time and effort. Work out where you want to get to, then decide how you are going to get there Structured techniques are essential to help manage complex activities like systems planning and development. Without a rigidly controlled process to ensure that everything is done properly, chaos will ensue Our thinking about how to do things is too limited by the constraints of what exists now. To really explore every possibility we must develop a vision of what could be, unconstrained by the present day The IS and IT in an organization are there to provide key organisational infrastructure. Strategies in these areas should be determined on the basis of organisational objectives, and their impact on specific individuals or groups is irrelevant IS and IT are technical areas in which only people with expertise and special knowledge can understand what is possible and what is needed. Planning and decision-making in these areas should be left to the relevant experts

have seen them in action. Try things out, see what happens and develop your strategy as you go Planning is a creative process and you cant structure creative processes. Every IS is different, every organisation is different, and you must adapt and modify to the needs of the moment. Formal processes inhibit creativity and impose uniformity where it should not exist Dreaming about perfect worlds is a complete waste of time. We should be focussed on how to fix the problems we have now, rather than worrying about visions which will never be achieved

Utopianism vs pragmatism

Unity vs pluralism

The IS and IT in an organization are like any other scarce resource allocation and decision-making about them results in outcomes which favour some parts of.the organisation at the expense of others.

Dictatorship vs democracy

Everyone in an organisation is affected by decisions about IT and IS, and the impacts of IS/IT decisions on the organisation are best understood by the people who are affected by them. Therefore, everyone should be given the chance to have their say on IT and IS issues.