SAMPLE EXAM PAPER
商业信息系统代考 Pacific airways needed a strong COBIT governance mechanism in its place to approve, prioritise, and manage IT investments on an ongoing basis.
INSTRUCTIONS
This exam accounts for 50% of the total assessment in FIT9123.
The total marks for all questions in this exam are 50 marks.
This exam is divided into TWO sections:
SECTION QUESTIONS MARKS
SECTION A
Short answer questions (5 x 5 marks = 25 marks)
SECTION B
Mini-cases
(25 marks)
SECTION A. Short answer questions
(5 x 5 marks = 25 marks)
There are FIVE (5) questions included in Section A. Each question carries 5 marks. Answer all of them.
Question A1
What is meant by the impact of implementing an information system? Discuss with examples.
Question A2
Why is it important for a business manager to be aware of systemic effects? Explain. 商业信息系统代考
Question A3
Does the management philosophy pursued by the top-level managers of defender and prospector organisations affect the distribution of IT budget in their organisations? Discuss.
Question A4
Some scholars argue that “Renting IT applications (e.g. ERP) for a monthly fee from an Application Service Provider is certain to be part of the future of every business in the Internet age”. Do you agree with this view? Discuss.
Question A5
Can in-sourcing IT applications be expensive? Discuss.
SECTION B. 商业信息系统代考
Mini-Case Based Answers. (25 marks)
Question B1: IT governance at Pacific Airways (10 marks)
Pacific Airways flies to more than 100 destinations in over 60 countries and operates nearly 700 flights per week. The airways was launched in 1985 and has since then undergone dramatic growth and currently has over 100 aircrafts. In 2008, the airways announced over US$1.37 billion net profit.
The IT department of the airways is responsible for leading implementation of an IT governance framework. COBIT was chosen as an appropriate framework which was successfully implemented over two phases. The initial phase of the COBIT implementation was the formation of a project team consisting of six senior business managers from such business units as customer services, ticket sales, cargo services, logistics, flight operations, and IT. The team first identified tangible and intangible IT assets and their owners.
Next, the team determined control owners and the appropriate employees responsible for all major and minor IT processes included in COBIT framework.
The COBIT control objectives became the basis of their policies, and the COBIT control practices were used to write procedures. The team also documented the roles and responsibilities in the procedures. Using these procedures as a basis, and through the cooperation of senior IT and business managers, COBIT team was able to establish a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance of IT processes.
Pacific airways needed a strong COBIT governance mechanism in its place to approve, prioritise, and manage IT investments on an ongoing basis. Successful implementation of COBIT further enabled the airways to align its IT investments with the business goals and for IT to deliver useful value to the airways. The critical factor that facilitated the success of COBIT at Pacific Airways is the involvement of the business units at the highest levels in a partnership with IT to ensure that effective strategic alignment is achieved. The CIO of the airways commented: “The IT governance philosophy can no longer be a black box with the senior management of the company delegating it the IT leadership. Successful IT governance require intimate cooperation between business units and IT department’.
Discussion Questions 商业信息系统代考
B1) Do you agree with the view expressed by the CIO of Pacific airway that successful IT governance implementation cannot be done by the senior IT leadership alone? Discuss. (10 marks)
Question B1: IT strategy and business strategy at an international petroleum company (15 marks)
‘Gamma’ is a U.S. subsidiary of an international organisation engaged in the exploration,production, refining, and marketing of petroleum products. Its revenues exceed $20 billion, with a net income of over $1 billion. It employs about 15,000 people. The organisation strictly follows a top-down centralised management hierarchy. Gamma has been operating in a stable fashion, with little changes in its strategic orientation, organisation structure, or corporate philosophy.
It has been historically very successful and has pursued a business strategy that enables the organisation to defend its dominance through high efficiencies of organisational processes and utilisation of assets and competing based on producing low costs items. The organisation does not seek opportunities for significant growth. The IT/IS function is highly centralised, with a central IT/IS group serving various business areas by helping minimise business costs. However, IT/IS is perceived as ‘notstrategic’ in nature – ‘telling business people how to do things rather than listening to their needs’. The IT function relies on IT systems – much of which are developed and maintained by external IT vendors who provide services at a very reasonable cost.
Discussion Questions
C1a) What is the type of business strategy followed by Gamma? Discuss. (5 marks)
C1a) What is the type of IT strategy followed by Gamma? Discuss. (5 marks)
C1c) Is there an alignment between the chosen IT strategy and business strategy of Gamma? (5marks)
