Construct a Technology Roadmap for moving your employer, or a firm you are familiar with, from its current IT environment to the firm’s vision of where it wants to be.
In the roadmap, summarize your approach to each of the seven activities described as follow:
A completed technology roadmap should contain the following seven elements:
- Guiding Principles: These are the principles which guide the roadmap’s development and enhancements.
- Current Technology: This is an inventory of the technology currently held by the organization.
- Gap Analysis: This analysis looks at the gap in technologies between what is currently available and what is needed.
- Technology Landscape: This is the research and development (R&D) that will be used to look for new technologies.
- Future Technology: This identifies and describes technologies for future adoption.
- Migration Strategy: This is the approach used to get from the current state to the future state.
- Governance: These are the processes that govern who creates the map (and who updates/enhances it), how it is created and updated (and on what basis), and who approves it.
In a separate section, briefly address the difficulties you think you will face in trying to deal with the five Practical Steps mentioned as follow:
The practical steps described in the text aren’t sequential steps to do in order. Rather, they are practical considerations. Here are some tips on these practical steps:
- Being bold and innovative is good, except when this runs counter to the vision of the enterprise. It always helps to be aware of where the philosophy of the enterprise lies with respect to this. Rogers (2003) classifies adopters of innovation as Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards. Without going into detail, note that an organization made up of Innovators is more likely to be open to bold and innovative work than one composed of Laggards.
- This may seem obvious, but a technology roadmap focuses on delivering business value where the use of technology makes sense. Sometimes, however, the most innovative solution isn’t the latest and greatest technology; it is the one that solves the problem at hand in the most effective and efficient manner.
- Support is key. Take another look at the TUFS case for an example of what happens when the right people don’t have a say or stake in the solution.
- New technology usually means augmenting skill sets for all involved. It almost goes without saying that those in IT will have to learn new things, but those outside of IT are not always as open to learning new things when the learning is added to their current job responsibilities. Also, some technology has a double edge to it. For example, improved remote communication may carry with it the perception of decreased personal freedom.
- Resistance to change is a legendary problem in introducing technology.
Please be concise but comprehensive in your analysis of the seven activities and five steps.
Requirements:
- Your paper should be six to eight pages in length, not counting the title or reference pages, which must be included.
- Include at least two scholarly references in addition to the course textbook. (The book is: McKeen, J. D., & Smith, H. A. (2015). IT strategy: Issues and practices (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ).
- Your paper must follow University academic writing standards and APA style guidelines, as appropriate.
- It is strongly encouraged that you submit the assignment to the TurnItIn Originality Check.
