Final Exam

GMBA Exam Spring 2012
Your task in this exam is to stitch together a cogent narrative about your understanding of
IS Management drawing on a subset of the books and cases we have read and discussed
this term. In particular I am looking for you to develop a line of thinking about the
management of the IS resource from a process management point of view which takes
into account the studies on IS strategy and the tactical operational management of IS
resources. I also want you to reflect on what you learned/gathered in the SAP hands-on
experience.
From the list of papers and books below, pick at least one (and no more than two) work
from each of the four thematic groupings below and include it in an analysis table. Using
the technique we learnt this term prepare a table-driven analysis with 3- 5 criteria for
analysis. This will yield a table of from 4 x 4 to 6 x 8. Then prepare the essay around
this theme: “Taking a process-oriented view of the organization and its IT/IS resources
allows…”
All exams are to be submitted on Sharepoint, Ms.doc files, table and essay in a single file,
by no later than noon April 5 th . You are allowed to refer to any sources you choose, and
to discuss the problem in your cohort. BUT, the work you present in the table and essay
must be the product of your mind and computer.
The articles you have read are:
I. Process Oriented Perspective
1. Jay Cousins and Tony Stewart: What is Business Process Design and Why Should I
Care?, RivCom, Inc. Whitepaper, April 2002 (8 Pages)
2. Laury Verner (2004): The Challenge of Process Discovery, BP Trends, May 2004
3. Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf: Meeting the Challenge of
Disruptive Change, Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000.
4. Stephen M. Shapiro: The 7R’s of Process Innovation, The 24/7 Innovation Thought
Leadership Series, 2002.
II. Case Exemplars
1. Managing Innovation at Nypro, Inc. (A), Harvard Business School, 9-696-061,
1998.
2. "Siemens Power Corporation: Surviving R3", S. G. Hirt , May 13, 1999
3. C. Brown & I. Vessey, NIBCO's "Big Bang", Indiana Univ. Teaching case , 2000.
4. Dairy Farm Group – Redesign of Business Systems and Processes, The University
of Hong Kong, 99/45 C.
III. IT and Value Creation
1. MIT Sloan Management Review Video and article : "Value Creation, experiments
and Why IT Does Matter", Michael Schrage
2. Stephen H. Haeckel: "Adaptive Enterprise Design: the Sense-and-Respond
Model" Planning Review 42 (23), 6-13, (May/June 1995)

IV. Process Commodification
1. "The Coming Commoditization of Processes", Thomas Davenport, Harvard
Business Review, June 2005, pp.2-8.
2. Tom Davenport, “IT as an Enabler of Process Innovation” (Chapter 3) in Process
Innovation, 1992, 39-69 [only pp. 44-66 are required reading] NOTE: This is
listed on the Study.net site as item 4.1 Process Innovation