The Business of IT
Goals
- Explain the purpose of an IT department in an organization
- Identify the reasons for aligning IT goals to the business mission and goals
- Describe the internal organization of and job roles within an IT department
- Explain the importance of maintaining business and process continuity
- Identify opportunities for buying versus building a solution in-house as well as insourcing versus outsourcing
- Describe the process of system deployment and integration with existing systems
- Describe user needs and other information systems requirements, including security and accessibility functions
- Identify the different types of testing
- Define project initiation, risk and business impact analysis, risk mitigation, and control
- Describe the characteristics of a project and identify its phases
- Explain IT’s role in globalization and globalization’s role in IT
Purpose of IT
The organizational function of IT is to support any technology used to assist in solving business and organizational problems.
Functions of IT
- communication
- data collection and management
- information security management
- consumer relationship management
- process improvement
Job Roles in IT
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Network administrators set up, maintain, and monitor the hardware and software that support the networking components of the computer systems.
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Systems administrators set up, maintain, and monitor devices that support business operations. These devices include anything from projectors and smartboards in a training room to the devices in the server room.
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Web administrators control the outward-facing content on an organization’s website and intranets and ensure that the sites function and integrate with back-end systems, such as supporting databases.
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Database administrators configure and troubleshoot an organization’s data repositories.
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Cybersecurity analysts monitor the behaviors of the system components for anomalies and malicious attacks. They also put measures in place to deter, detect, and mitigate internal and external threats.
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Technical support specialists provide end-user training and help users resolve issues accessing resources and systems.
IT Governance
IT governance is the system of processes that ensures the effective and efficient use of IT to enable an organization to achieve its business goals and to add value to key stakeholders in an organization.
- IT governance should be consistent with an organization’s business plan
Organizational Models for IT
Outsourcing uses the resources and skills of a developed workforce from an external organization
- offshoring: outsourcing outside the country
- project outsourcing: project management is outsourced
- nearshoring: offshoring to countries in a closer time zone or similar economic structure
Insourcing assigns a project to employees within the organization
Key Concepts
- Project Management
- System Development Life Cycle
- System Engineering Methodologies
- Quality Assurance (QA)
- Documentation
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC-DR)
Emerging Trends in IT
Globalization refers to the growing interdependence of the world’s economies and cultures, brought about by the trade of goods and services and the flow of information and people.