Knowledge and Change Management, Ethics and Professionalism in Information Technology - Assignment Example

Reflection Name: Number: Course: Lecturer: Date: Reflection Introduction There are many issues which have been said of information technology in the course of this learning. There are many things that I have learnt and I have had my own reflections on these things. This paper will give a reflection of the things that I have leant in the course of my learning concerning the various aspects of information technology. Knowledge management In this area, I learnt the contributions that knowledge management is making to redesign of businesses. This has been enhanced by the contributions of information technology in knowledge management. The undertaking of business process redesign (BPR) is for the benefit of achieving improvements which are in order-of-magnitude over other outdated form of organization. There are developments which have been made by the academicians and the practitioners in the business and technology world which are aimed and overhauling the structuring of the forms of the current focus of concern (Armstrong & Sambamurthy, 1999). Many of these developments have not been successful yet. The main aim of this paper is to suggest the use of Data Mining as a tool and technique that can be used to support the process of overhauling the design of a business by getting all the information which is needed but are hidden in large volumes of data stored and maintained by the organization and the company through the various models of data mining. There have been surges in the use of knowledge which are stored in the statistics and the knowledge base systems. It is because of this that organization are suing data mining and other tools to manage the data for optimal use of it. There has been an influx of the use of systems that are computerized to come up with viable solutions for the many industrial processes in existence today. Knowledge based systems, and by extension expert systems, have played a crucial role in the computerization of the industrial processes in existence today (Bakos & Brynjolfsson, 1993). Change management From the lectures that we have had, and from the discussions that have taken place during the semester, I have learnt that it is not enough to have good systems and new ways of doing things. What is important is how the change will be undertaken. With the change in many systems where automation is adopted at a fast rate, there is the need to have effective IT alignment processes. There are many changes which are being undertaken in information technology perspective. This is so because many businesses are adopting new ways of doing things. There has been therefore the need to align the services and the way the processes are undertaken. There are stages that are undertaken when working on change management (Armstrong & Sambamurthy, 1999). The first phase when undertaking change management in an IT environment is planning. This involves translation of business objectives into quantifiable IT services. This phases helps close the gap between managers and expect and what IT offers. To close this gap, IT needs continuous dialogue so as to clarify business requirements in business terms. When business needs change, the IT should be able to adapt and modify their services accordingly. CIOs should ensure use of disciplined service level management process that will agreement on specific IT services and service levels needed to support business objectives. The management can then carry out translation of service definitions and service levels into rules and priorities that empower and guide IT resources. Lastly, the IT needs a way to measure and track both business level services and the underlying capabilities that support the services. The second issue will be the choosing of the model which will be followed. This phase identifies those resources that are required to ensure IT service delivery at dedicated levels. It involves mapping the IT assets, processes and resources back to IT services then prioritize and plan resources that help support business significant services. For successful prioritization of resources, IT needs a service impact model and a centralized configuration and asset management database to tie the infrastructure components back to specific IT services. This combination is crucial if IT is to effectively plan, prioritize, and constantly convey services at accepted service levels and at the same time reducing costs. There will also be the need to have a proper management. The manage stage allow the IT personnel to convey assured levels of service. For CIOs to ensure that their organization meets prospects, they need to provide a single position for business users to forward all service requests. These requests also need to be prioritized based on pre-defined business precedence. To ensure the effectiveness of the service desk, the IT staff needs to offer: A means for prioritizing service requests considering business impact that they have. A well-organized change management procedure to reduce the danger of negatively affecting service level dedications. IT event management system to examine and handle components that promote business essential services. The fundamental operational metrics that facilitate service delivery at guaranteed levels, as well as the way for quantifying and following the progress of service level dedications using the metrics. There will also be the need to have effective measurement procedures. This phase aids cross-organization visibility into operations and service level dedications. For ongoing service availability, component-level metrics and measures are actually important. Interpretation of these measures in a wider business context, including their relationship to business-critical services however supports real-time resource allocation decisions. Lack of business context for interpreting measures and metrics cause isolated functional groups to miss a holistic view of IT services that promotes business’s set objectives. Ethics and professionalism With the advent of information systems and the Internet, I have come to realize that computer ethics is a very important subject that should be given attention by all IT professionals. With computers that have increased the speed, the possible scope of criminal acts and the difficulty to investigate such crimes makes the issue of ethics in IT a difficult task to undertake. Furthermore, money in electronic form is much easier to steal: while one billion Kenya Shillings in cash occupies about 15 cubic meters, in electronic form is just 32 bits plus some application-dependent headers. People may not be any greedier than in generations past, however the avenues to express greed had grown enormously. The use of business information system and communication technology brings many benefits for business firms. The increasing globalization and range of services offered by Web 2.0 platform, offers nearly unimaginable opportunities for organizations in terms of access, speed and choices. Further, corporate billing, payroll or inventory tracking are delivered as online services. This phenomenon can presents itself as along benefits, but there are many risks if proper measures are not taken into consideration. The fundamental principle of criminology is that crime follows opportunity, and opportunities for fraud abound in today's world. The explosive nature of computer systems and other related technologies, and the speed of change, created numerous opportunities for organizations, however, con, they created widespread vulnerabilities that every organization should be aware of. Information systems risks are usually classified into accidental and intentional. The foremost intentional risk is the risk of fraud. The ability to edit, alter or otherwise manipulate digitized data to derive benefit from its misrepresentation in a way that is often unnoticeable increases significantly the fraud opportunities. Furthermore, connected computers have lowered the level of proficiency required to commit fraud and made it a borderless phenomenon. Technology literacy This is an interesting topic to me as there are many factors that lead to technology literacy. I find the issue connected to that of digital divide. There is the need to realize that there many factors which have contributed to this digital divide. It is interesting to note how digital divide and the lack of technology access and knowledge affect the economy of a given country. In focusing at global divide, it is also important to look at the effects to economic and social aspect of life. The new technology of US boosted the economy to a higher part. In spite of the fact the technology introduced prosperity and proliferation, the poverty rate was maintained at its base. There is an estimation of up to forty million people in America who do not get access to health insurance and at least 15 percent of American children are under the umbrellas of poverty. The issue of poverty has been stopped by both technology and market forces which have been embarked on than poverty. The point at which they have stopped is no making profit anymore. In addition, there is an expansion of the gap that exists between the rich and the poor in the US and is nearing fifty per cent for the last twenty years. The issue behind this is that as new and newer technologies are developed, it is those with skills that benefit the most leading to long stand economic disparities. It is as a result of digital divide that the wealth disparities are manifested. Teamwork There is need to have teamwork in IT just like in any other field. I find this aspect interesting because the teamwork that is advocated for in the field of IT is not the same as the traditional teamwork. It uses advanced tools to achieve the said teamwork. There are systems which are used to achieve teamwork and these are the systems that are most employed to manage the issues that come up in information technology. I find it interesting to be talking of teamwork and yet there is the issue of automation of the human elements. Conversations are handled by social networking technologies and many other processes of teamwork. References Armstrong, C., & Sambamurthy, V. (1999). Information technology assimilation in firms: The influence of senior leadership and IT infrastructure. Informatin Systems Research , 10 (4), 304-327. Bakos, Y., & Brynjolfsson, E. (1993). Information technology, incentives, and the optimal number of suppliers. Journal of Management Information Systems , 10 (2), 37-53. Read More