Opening Statement

Anne Roberts, the director of the Project Management Office for Information Technology at a large retail chain, stood in front of 500 people in the large corporate auditorium to explain the companys new strategies during a monthly all-hands meeting. She was also streaming live video to thousands of other employees at other locations, suppliers, and stockholders throughout the world. The company had come a long way in implementing new information systems to improve inventory control, sell products online, streamline the sales and distribution processes, and improve customer service. However, a recent security breach had alarmed investors and the stock price plummeted. People were anxious to hear about the companys new strategies. Anne began to address the audience, Good morning. As you know, competition is fierce in our industry. We have made a lot of progress the last few years to become a more agile organization, especially in valuing people over process and responding to change over following a plan. We all have to work together to overcome recent problems. Our two most important goals include providing the best computer security possible and improving online collaboration tools for our employees, suppliers, and customers. Our challenge is to work even smarter to deliver solutions that provide the most benefit for the company by leveraging the power of information technology. If we succeed, well continue to be a world-class corporation. And if we fail? someone asked from the audience. Lets just say that failure is not an option, Anne replied

Closing Statement

When the Super Bowl ended, Tom told his friends how the tablet idea for his college was killed. After several people voiced concerns about the idea at the faculty meeting, the president of the college directed that a committee be created to formally review the concept of requiring students to have tablets. Because the college was dealing with several important enrollment-related issues, the president named the vice president of enrollment to head the committee. Other people soon volunteered or were assigned to the committee, including Tom Walters as head of Information Technology, the director of the adult education program, the chair of the Computer Science department, and the chair of the History department. The president also insisted that the committee include at least two members of the student body. The president knew everyone was busy, and he questioned whether the tablet idea was a high-priority issue for the college. He directed the committee to present a proposal at next months faculty meeting, either to recommend creating a formal project team to fully investigate requiring tablets or to recommend terminating the concept. At the next faculty meeting, few people were surprised to hear the recommendation to terminate the concept. Tom Walters learned that he had to pay much more attention to the needs of the entire college before proceeding with detailed IT plans. Tom and his friends found several articles online about the NFLs use of Microsoft Surface tablets. They laughed when they read about the Patriots refusing to use them after a while and their coach smashing one on the sidelines. Tom said, If Coach Belichick had one at the end of this game, he would have smashed another one!

Assignment

1. Review the Opening and Closing case about Tom Walters tablet project presented in Chapter 2 of this class textbook. Also find at least two articles about the NFLs adoption of tablets. Using the four frames of organizations presented in Chapter 2: a. Contrast the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames as they relate to adopting tablets for Toms college versus NFL. b. What do you think the main factors were in cancelling Toms project early versus continuing the NFL tablet project? 1 Document key points of two articles reviewed, and answers to a. and b. items in a paper (use MLA style formatting)

this is an IT Project Management Class