..ISP and BP..

Today, enterprise database is deployed on distributed, heterogeneous hardware and systems software environments.2 The hardware platforms are both multiple-vendor and multi-tiered, with different architectures. In short, most businesses have embraced some form of downsizing, decentralization, and distributed processing. Critical to the enterprise database environment is the capture of the business model and the implementation of the enterprise's memory: its data architectures. Once the data architectures are
implemented in a sophisticated, generalized manner, software tools can be quickly and effectively deployed to create the necessary business systems to collect, update, and report critical business data.

The business systems can be implemented through a network of databases across different computing platforms. To make database a success, each must be carefully defined, deployed along with high-quality processing systems, and effectively utilized through high-level natural languages. To have database success is to be organized. And with an organized enterprise, the past can be researched, the present can be mastered, and plans for the future can be set into place.

Before going deeply into the relationship between the business plan and Information System(IS), let us first discuss the description of each parties.

Business Plan

A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on organizational mission which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.

Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers. External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit's services. For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks.

Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.

Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department. Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may also address the project's place within the organization's larger strategic goals.

Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal.

For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. Venture capitalists are primarily concerned about initial investment, feasibility, and exit valuation. A business plan for a project requiring equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation.

The format of a business plan depends on its presentation context. It is not uncommon for businesses, especially start-ups to have three or four formats for the same business plan:

* an "elevator pitch" - a three minute summary of the business plan's executive summary. This is often used as a teaser to awaken the interest of potential funders, customers, or strategic partners.

* an oral presentation - a hopefully entertaining slide show and oral narrative that is meant to trigger discussion and interest potential investors in reading the written presentation. The content of the presentation is usually limited to the executive summary and a few key graphs showing financial trends and key decision making benchmarks. If a new product is being proposed and time permits, a demonstration of the product may also be included.

* a written presentation for external stakeholders - a detailed, well written, and pleasingly formatted plan targeted at external stakeholders.

* an internal operational plan - a detailed plan describing planning details that are needed by management but may not be of interest to external stakeholders. Such plans have a somewhat higher degree of candor and informality than the version targeted at external stakeholders.

Typical structure for a business plan for a start up venture[8]

* cover page and table of contents
* executive summary
* business description
* business environment analysis
* industry background
* competitive analysis
* market analysis
* marketing plan
* operations plan
* management summary
* financial plan
* attachments and milestones

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan)

Information System Plan

Characteristics of a Quality ISP

A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.

• 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.

• 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 must 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.


The ISP Steps

The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.

The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise. Once developed, each identified information system is seen in context with all other information systems within the enterprise.

The following are the steps in Information System Planning:

• Create the mission model

The mission model, generally shorter than 30 pages presents end-result characterizations of the essential raison d=etre of the enterprise. Missions are strategic, long range, and a-political because they are stripped of the who and the how.

• Develop a high-level data model

The high-level data model is an Entity Relationship diagram created to meet the data needs of the mission descriptions. No attributes or keys are created.

• Create the resource life cycles (RLC) and their nodes

Resources are drawn from both the mission descriptions and the high level data model. Resources and their life cycles are the names, descriptions and life cycles of the critical assets of the enterprise, which, when exercised achieve one or more aspect of the missions.

• Allocate precedence vectors among RLC nodes

Tied together into a enablement network, the resulting resource life cycle network forms a framework of enterprise=s assets that represent an order and set of inter-resource relationships.

• Allocate existing information systems and databases to the RLC nodes

The resource life cycle network presents a Alattice-work onto which the Aas is@ business information systems and databases can be Aattached. See for example, the meta model in Figure 2. The Ato-be databases and information systems are similarly attached. ADifference projects between the Aas-is and the Ato-be are then formulated. Achievement of all the difference projects is the achievement of the Information Systems Plan.

• Allocate standard work break down structures (WBS) to each RLC node Detailed planning of the Adifference projects entails allocating the appropriate canned work breakdown structures and metrics. Employing WBS and metrics from a comprehensive methodology supports project management standardization, repeatability, and self-learning.

• Load resources into each WBS node

Once the resources are determined, these are loaded into the project management meta entities of the meta data repository, that is, metrics, project, work plan and deliverables. The meta entities are those inferred by
8.Schedule the RLC nodes through a project management package facilities. The entire suite of projects is then scheduled on an enterprise-wide basis. The PERT chart used by project management is the Resource Life Cycle enablement network.

• Produce and review of the ISP

The scheduled result is predicable: Too long, too costly, and too ambitious. At that point, the real work starts: paring down the suite of projects to a realistic set within time and budget. Because of the meta data environment , the integrated project management meta data and because all projects are configured against fundamental business-rationale based designs, the results of the inevitable trade-offs can be set against business basics. Although the process is painful, the results can be justified and rationalized.

• Execute and adjust the ISP through time.

As the ISP is set into execution, technology changes occur that affect resource loadings. In this case, only steps 6-9 need to be repeated. As work progresses, the underlying meta data built or used in steps 1-5 will also change. Because a quality ISP is Aautomated@ the recasting of the ISP should only take a week or less.
(http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262)

As a summary, any technique employed to achieve an ISP must be accomplishable with less than 3% of the IT budget. Additionally, it must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.

The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.

Now, the relationship between IS plan and business plan is that IS planning is dependent on the business plan of a firm or company, in which IS plan needs to function as how the firm needs it and how will it able to increase the capacity of the firm. The business plan can also become a guide for the project team in order for them to make an Information System that would be very much close to fit the firm perfectly.

Let us first define Information System(IS).

What is IS?
In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, processes, data and technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.

Some make a clear distinction between information systems, ICT and business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system is typically seen as having an ICT component. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes.

Alter argues for an information system as a special type of work system. A work system is a system in which humans and/or machines perform work using resources (including ICT) to produce specific products and/or services for customers. An information system is a work system whose activities are devoted to processing (capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying)information.

Part of the difficulty in defining the term information system is due to vagueness in the definition of related terms such as system and information. Beynon-Davies argues for a clearer terminology based in systemics and semiotics. He defines an information system as an example of a system concerned with the manipulation of signs. An information system is a type of socio-technical system. An information system is a mediating construct between actions and technology.

As such, information systems inter-relate with data systems on the one hand and activity systems on the other. An information system is a form of communication system in which data represent and are processed as a form of social memory. An information system can also be considered a semi-formal language which supports human decision making and action.

Information systems are the primary focus of study for the information systems discipline and for organisational informatics.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_system)

The later subject we have taken last semester was all about IS. And as a peek of my learnings of the first day:

Great and fun! That’s how our first class in MIS has been. It was all smiles and laughers from the moment the class started until it ended. Even when I was already outside the class room, I still can’t stop grinning; I can’t stop thinking how our teacher interpreted his students’ reaction when he gives a bunch of assignments.

Anal. Geom. was my first subject under the supervision of Sir Randy Gamboa then, followed by Stats and now in MIS. I am expecting that I’ll be able to understand MIS as clearly as possible and I hope that learning every single thing about MIS would be a lot of fun than the last two subjects I have gone under Sir Gamboa.

Management Information System or MIS deals with managing/supervising hard ware, soft ware and people ware. It has four basic keys, which are planning, directing, organizing and controlling. Other than these things, I have also learned the differences between managing and supervising. I have learned that managing is actually controlling while supervising is just giving directions and guides.

Blog was required to us by our teacher. So, I was obliged to establish a blog of my own. Then, I realize blogging is fun. Blogging as a way of sharing views, opinions and even experiences does works for me.

Over all, it was a lot of fun, really. The way Sir Gamboa welcomed the transferees was warm, really warm, and warm as they were in a hot seat. Then I have concluded that students in Tagum Campus love to sing. That’s all, I guess…^_^

A subject that I expect to give me jaw-aches, due to constant smiling and laughing; backaches because of being in a sitting position for too long; headache for squeezing out every English word from my vocabulary and maybe even heartache at the end of the semester.


Now that we have unederstood the nature of IS and have defined the scope of IS, we will now discussed about the risk associated with it. As a reference we will be using the details and informations have used and learned from hubport company.

Risk Associated with IS/IT Change

Hubport Interactive is an IT based company that enables a business to build an imperative subsistence in the online B2C (Business-to-Consumer) space. They empower their customers' websites to attain optimum function and revolutionizes business by creating online channels to effectively connect with existing clients and successfully tap new ones. Their accomplished E-Commerce Storefront encoders, Retail Shop Managers, and Online Marketing Consultants provide the technology backbone that launch prospering and profitable websites.(http://www.hubportinteractive.com/about-us.htm)

As the interviewee say, the company started only with eight people, which is composed of six(6) developers and two(2) designers. They don't really have an IS to keep track of their business' movement. They only use one(1) computer and basic softwares for their business. Records for the deadline is aided by pen and paper. From that very simple alliance they have evolve into something big that they even reached and surpassed the boundary of the Philippines. Now, they've been working with more or less one hundred and fifty(150) staffs. The speaker added that they started establishing and using IS for their growing business in the year late 2006, particularly on the month of November.

As he has discussed that the role of IS/IT in the business is, it is the core or the backbone of their business, in which these systems keep track of their customers, old and new, and their staffs. He define IT/IS very important, that is ranging from software, which is essential for website developing and it can identify errors and split them up much faster than usual, with manual; hardware on the other hand, acts as the server and it is necessary for the staffs to have at least one(1) computer each, these hardwares are connected to each other, which is technically called networking, particularly by WAN or wide-area network, they use WAN because the company is based from the main office, which is located at the United States of America or USA, through internet; peopleware as the speaker says, are the one who develops, secures and maintains hardware and software, thus software and hardware relies on the people ware. As he said, "Hardwares would just be there without peopleware". These three things work together to uphold the business thus, enabling them to reach the full functionality of their company so they can provide the very best solution they can give for their clients and customers.
The risk associated with Information System change in Hubport Interactive.

Hubport Interactive is the same organization or company we have visited for the first assignment, which is identifying their best practices regarding Information System. Now, I would have to tackle about the risks associated with IT change in the company.

As the IT Officer enumerated, the following are the risks they would have to take when changing IS:

* Data loss
Data loss may come in two reasons, first is, the data which is stored for quite sometime will be given up for the new data. Since system's memory is limited and coming in of new data is a continuous process, they would have to delete old data and will try to use the space for the new data; a secondary reason is, changing into new IS will tend to risk their data, especially when the new system has features that won't be compatible with the old system.

* Rejection of staffs
This may also come in to two situations. First, as from what we all know that there is always resistance between technology and people, meaning people tend to deny that IS/IT is a big help when it comes to maximizing time. Thus, when a new system is implemented, staffs will tend to reject it. The staffs will choose to use the old one other than the new one. It is maybe because, they find it hard or time consuming to learn the new system without knowing that they would have a better use of their time on the future if and only if they give time on learning the new system. The second reason may be hiring new personnel who knows best regarding the new IS, will push the company to ask the old IS personnel to resign, which is a very critical choice. It may be a bad move but that's business, the company will have to hire people or staffs who have a better understanding of what the position their trying to fill and reject those who are not needed.

Further problem of rejection of staff/s may also give high risk regarding the cost of the new personnel. This may push the company to pay bigger amount than the older system and personnel.

What is an IS Plan?

IS plan is a process for developing a strategy and plans for aligning information systems with the business strategies of an organization.

Here is a sample of Information System Plan of the Agriculture Department of State of Tennessee:

Prior to the beginning of the fiscal year (July 1), each agency develops an Information Systems Plan (ISP) covering a threeyear planning horizon. Year One identifies projects for the current fiscal year for which funding is already in place. Year Two covers the following fiscal year where funding will be requested in the budget submitted in October. Year three covers future projects. Development of the agency's ISP is a cooperative effort between executive management, business staff, and Information Systems staff. Agency executive management and business staff, with Information Systems staff assistance, perform the following activities:

Review of the strategic business plan for the agency, including the statement of mission,
goals, objectives, strategies, and priorities that set business direction.

Assessment of the current technological environment within the agency, including
evaluation of the primary hardware requirements, application software, and connectivity.

Development of an Information Technology Strategy based upon the analysis of the
current environment and the business goals to be achieved. This strategy identifies the
agency's short and longrange goals related to managing and sharing information and information technology in support of the agency’s business strategic plan. The strategy also addresses agency technology weaknesses and needs.

Information technology projects are identified and documented in the ISP in support of the Information Technology Strategy. These projects may include traditional application development or acquisition projects, as well as projects involving specific technologies including voice response systems, geographic information systems, and communication infrastructure projects. Each project with initial costs over $100,000 is described in a Project Proposal. The Project Proposal addresses the business process to be impacted by the project and specifies the business strategy or objectives supported by the project. A Cost Benefit Analysis document is also included to detail the costs, benefits, risks, and funding sources for the project. The Project Proposal and Cost Benefit Analysis provide a framework for an agency’s executive management to evaluate and prioritize proposed projects, as well as provide a mechanism to monitor costs and benefits during project implementation. These documents also provide executive management in State government with the information needed to understand the business impact to the State, prioritize projects on a statewide basis, and recommend funding.

The Information Systems Plans are reviewed and authorized by Management Advisory Committees (MACs) within each agency. Management Advisory Committees perform the following functions:

1. Sets the information technology agenda as an adjunct to the development of the
business strategy for the agency.
2. Ensures that the agency information technology strategy is carried out and that projects
are appropriately targeted to support specific business strategies.
3. Reviews the cost assumptions and benefit estimates in order to approve submission of
the project.
4. Sets priorities within the agency for a project in relation to other projects competing for
resources.
5. Ensures that authorized projects meet targets established in the project proposal and
cost benefit analysis.
6. Ensures that technology projects are in line with business needs and direction.
7. Authorizes the Information Systems Plan and the technology projects contained therein.
(http://www.tn.gov/finance/oir/planning/ispprocess.pdf)

If I were to prepare an IS plan for the university, I will follow the following steps in creating my Information System:

*Study the requirements and the processes and systems needed by both staffs and students. 

*Make sure the systems I will implement is a great help and is fully functioning.

*I will have to do a research and interview students and staffs with regards to the University's System, especially on busy days.

*I would have to provide a solution with regards to the problems of the student.

*Finally, implement the System

As for my opinion I would like to have every system in the university be a Mobile Application, so it would be easier for both parties (staffs and students) to get information and would be able to save money and time.

It would be best to have a security for the Information and this will only allow individual to access their own information only.

A Worthy IT Professional

On our later subject HRM, we were asked to develop a job description of the job we want to hold in the future. As an answer I've chosen the job called game developer. The next paragraphs are the description of the said job.

A good story line, nice graphics and characters, unique animation schemes and a bug-less programs is what a good game holds. The story of the games must reach the player’s mind as if it was somewhat real or life-like thus, making the game interesting. Graphics and the compilation of arts that moves through animation are the things that make it fun and a bug-less program is what keeps the player’s patience and makes them want to reach the goal of the game. Common game story line may involve strategic games, word games, dress up game and escape games, which is one of my favorites. Games enables player to be in control of the game thus, letting them act as the main character of the game. Through this gamers will be able to develop quick thinking to win the game.

Games, particularly computer games also called video games, were introduced as a new kind of entertainment on the year 1971. The growth of technology has made it more popular. As years pass, many kinds of computer games have been developed including LAN or local area network and online games. LAN games can be played on everyone’s desktop. Online games can be played with the aid of internet, this way a certain player can play with another player no matter how many miles they’re apart. These games have even reached the cell phones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games).

The ones who make and develop games are called games developer or games programmer. The job needs a vast and wide range of imagination thus, making it possible to create a unique story and characters. A good skill in arts and animation would make the things on the developers mind to come into life. The sound effects can make the game exciting. This also helps to catch the people’s eyes because a good graphics is a big impact on how the game will sell. Of course, the most important skill to have is knowledge with regards to programming language such as, C++, Java and any other programming language. A good skill in arithmetic will turn your program to become bug-less.

A game developer meets problems during and after producing the games, thus the most important attitude a developer can have is patience. This will enable him to find and correct bugs that are found during or after the game have been produced. The pressure of meeting deadline may be stressful but, this is just one thing a good developer should overcome because a simple bug on the game will destroy the game thus, making the game boring and unfair for those who doesn’t know the bug yet, which will push them to stop playing or choosing another game, which are better than the one you have just developed.

I both love arts and anime so I guess a games developer would be the best job for me in the near future. I would love to be part of a team that creates a new kind of game. Since I am a type of person who doesn’t want to be exposed in unfamiliar crowd, a job like this would fit me best. Another thing is, I would be able to give out my talent and skills with teammates, whom I already know and comfortable with. With this kind of profession, I can also work alone and I’d be able to work at home then, just sell my developed game to those who are interested.

As for this subject, MIS 2, we were asked to think about ourselves worthy to be called an IT professional, how do we see ourselves 10 years from now, what are our strategies to get there?

When we think of the title "IT professional" and the span of time, 10 years from now, we may think that it is still too far away, but as fast as how the climate changes, 10 years is indeed a very short time. Even the firms in the country or even all over the world, make plans for their companies in a span of little time, because they are aware that they should surpass how time passes.

As for my plans for the next 10 years, I would first set my visions, then get through my missions and reach my goals step by step.

My vision would be: "Worthy to be called IT Professional."

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware."[1] IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

Today, the term information has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information technology is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

In recent days ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems. SIGITE is the ACM working group for defining these standards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology


the best way, for me, to interpret an IT Professional are those people who has vast and very wide knowledge with regards to Information itself, he/she is able to manipulate information naturally. He she must have experiences with regards to the profession itself.

My mission for now is, of course, be a worthy IT professional and for me to reach that and to hold that title is to have a step by step strategies. The following are my steps on reaching my mission and even my vision:

First, I would have to earn a bachelors degree that has connection to my vision. I would have to keep my study as my priority while I'm still reaching for my diploma. I would also have to get good grades in order foe me to land a good job.

Second, I would have to land a good job that is exactly my interest and that would be able to make me even more competent as a person striving to be called an IT professional. I would need to have as many experience as I can while I'm on the go for enjoying what I have at present.