Designing Company-wide Information Systems: Risk Factors and Coping Strategies

摘要

Advances in information technologies offer today's organizations opportunities to reengineer patterns of work, to build electronic coalitions with external business partners and to disseminate information throughout the enterprise. However, the rewards must be balanced against the risks of cost overruns, ill-conceived prioritization schemes and technological incompatibilities. These problems often result from poor strategic planning. In order to channel limited resources to the needs of the organization, business driven planning methodologies are needed. Unfortunately, while architectural planning is important, success in planning computer architecture has proved elusive. This study develops a framework for taking an architectural approach to information systems planning. Using this framework, with the experiences of 40 planners in 20 organizations, the authors have identified the risks in the planning process and strategies for overcoming these obstacles.