Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in IT Management

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Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in IT Management

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James D. McKeen and Heather A. Smith,
«Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in IT Management (John Wiley Series in Information Systems)»
John Wiley & Sons | ISBN 0470850876 | March 21, 2003 | PDF | 25,33 Mb | 384 Pages

Book Description:

Information technology (IT) presents many challenges to managers. Constant change, e-business, massive amounts of information, global operations, and building new alliances and capabilities are just some the transformations being driven by the use of IT in business today. No modern manager can afford to ignore IT or leave it to the professionals. This book tackles the tough issues of managing in an environment where IT is everywhere.

Based on the real life experiences of senior IT managers in leading- edge businesses and incorporating thorough research, Making IT Happen separates fact from fad, shows where managers can make a real difference, and provides useful and practical advice for coping in the fast-paced world of IT.

"This is the first real handbook of IT management. It's well-grounded, reliable in its recommendations, sensible, comprehensive and useful. Those are all compliments; they are what we need in the post dot.com era and after all the transformation-is-now-and-real-easy hype of IT. This is a book about putting IT to work." Peter Keen, Chairman of Keen Innovations and Professor at Delft University

"This book provides a template - targeted at the executive level - of the technology and organizational issues that need to be dealt with and well-grounded means (decision structures and decision processes) for handling these issues. A particular, and very unique, strength of the book is the manner in which McKeen and Smith skilfully blend and leverage the best thinking of leading scholars and successful IT executives. As a consequence, the book should prove valuable both for IT executives confronting today's IT management challenges and for scholars seeking to better understand this dynamic and elusive context." Robert Zmud, Michael F. Price Chair of MIS, University of Oklahoma, and Research Director, Advanced Practices Council of SIM, International

"Jim McKeen and Heather Smith have captured the essence of the most challenging pursuit of modern civilization - designing and building advanced information systems. Some believe that we are entering a new era of pervasive computing blurred with advanced networks, which delivers unprecedented and untold opportunities and capability. This book addresses the challenges with outstanding insight and wisdom. It is a must read for every person who is involved in information systems and technology - from CIOs right through to students thinking of entering this profession." Eugene Roman, Chief Information & Technology Officer, Bell Canada



Book Info:

Text addresses key issues in IT management, such as project prioritization, change management, infrastructure development, and project leadership. Offers insights into the problems business and IT managers face today in using IT effectively. Includes references and index.



From the Inside Flap:

Making IT Happen tackles a specific key issues in IT management, such as project prioritization, change management, infrastructure development and project leadership. Each chapter looks at a current hot topic, positions it within a managerial framework, and presents proven strategies for dealing with the issue effectively.

This book offers important insights into the problems of using technology effectively, which face business and IT managers today. It bridges the gap between theory and practice, combining the collective wisdom of practising IT managers with the best research available on a topic.

For graduate and executive MBA students, it introduces a real- world perspective to the study of IT management. For IT managers, this book offers achievable, near-term solutions to their pressing problems.

A follow-up to their highly-rated book, Management Challenges in IS, McKeen and Smith help bring clarity to the complex world of IT management.

Praise for McKeen and Smith's earlier book, Management Challenges in IS

"…. this is a valuable and practical review, written with academic thoroughness but delivering practical information which is immediately usable by the manager at work." The Computer Bulletin, (five star rating, and Book of the Month)

"The book …. should be compulsory reading for anybody involved at the decision-making end of IS/IT …. I found it impossible to put down and am seriously thinking of suing the authors for loss of sleep caused by HAVING to read their book!" IMS Journal

"Shorn of all the jargon, buzzwords and hype typical of the computing field, this book most speaks in business management language." New York Review of Books



About the Authors:

James McKeen is currently a Professor of MIS at the School of Business, Queen''s University at, Kingston, Canada and is the Founding Director of the Queen's Centre for Knowledge-Based Enterprises, a research think-tank for the knowledge economy. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include IT strategy, the management of IT, and knowledge management in organizations. His research has been published widely in many of the key academic Management and IS journals. Jim has been working in the field of IS for many years as a practitioner, researcher, and consultant. He is a frequent speaker at business and academic conferences.

Heather Smith is currently a Senior Research Associate at the School of Business, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada specialiszing in IT and Knowledge Management research. A former senior IT manager, she now works with organizations across North America to identify and document leading-edge practices to bring the best of academic research to practising IT managers. In addition to her work at Queen's, Heather collaborates extensively on research projects with a number of top international researchers in IT management issues. She is a Research Associate of the American Society for Information Management's Advanced Practices Council and Chair of the IT Excellence Awards University Advisory Council. Her research has been published in a variety of journals.

Since 1990, the authors have convened three industry forums on a regular basis - the IT Management Forum, the KM Forum and the CIO Brief. Each is designed to link academia and industry in order to jointly tackle important business issues. Management Challenges in IS: Successful Strategies and Appropriate Action (John Wiley & Sons, 1996) was based on their earlier work with the IT Management Forum.