1. Whom am I trying to persuade?
2. What am I trying to persuade this person to do?
3. What information does this person need so he or she is persuaded to take this action?

Authors: Anthony Garcia, Joshua Hay
Source: An Outsider’s Perspective on Your Web Site
Subjects: IT Questions, Website Questions

• How often do IT projects fail to deliver what was expected?
• Are end users surveyed about the quality of the IT service and, if so, what were their responses?
• Is IT regarded as an enabler or as an inhibitor of change?
• Are sufficient IT resources, infrastructure and competencies available to meet strategic objectives?
• What has been the average overrun of IT operational budgets? How often and by

… [ Read more ]

Author: Rick Sidorowicz
Source: Performance Improvement – A Classic Checklist
Subject: IT Questions

• How does this proposed project help the organization achieve its objectives? Why should we invest in this? An IT project should either add value or reduce risk.
• Is the project’s objective measurable? If it isn’t, how will you know that the project is done and/or successful?
• Who was involved with creating the proposed solution? Did the project team involve the right people to truly create

… [ Read more ]

Author: George Spafford
Source: Learning to Ask IT the Right Questions
Subject: IT Questions

• Organizing model. Should the company adopt a centralized, decentralized or hybrid approach?
• Investment. What should the company invest in, and how much should it invest?
• Architecture. Should the company emphasize stability or flexibility? To what degree? Should applications be externally purchased or internally developed? Should there be a single, comprehensive ERP application, or multiple applications?
• Standards. Which components of technology should the organization standardize, and which

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Authors: Deepak K. Goyal, Richard M. Melnicoff, Sandy G. Shearer
Source: Is There a Smarter Way to Approach IT Governance?
Subject: IT Questions

Questions to Ask to Uncover IT Issues

• How often do IT projects fail to deliver what they promised?
• Are end users satisfied with the quality of the IT service?
• Are sufficient IT resources, infrastructure and competencies available to meet strategic objectives?
• What has been the average overrun of IT operational budgets? How often and how much do IT projects go over budget?
• How much of the IT effort

… [ Read more ]

Source: Board Briefing on IT Governance, 2nd Edition
Subject: IT Questions

The following is a series of questions you should ask partners before you link your systems, whether through supply-chains, customer-relationship management, or as a member of an exchange. The sensitivity level of the data to be shared will dictate the appropriate depth of inquiry:

• Are the devices–servers, routers, and firewalls–your company will use to collaborate dedicated to our company, or are they also used

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Author: James Kalyvas
Source: Judicious Partnering
Subject: IT Questions

• Is it growing faster than revenues?
• Does it increasingly support older applications that require continual work to adapt to business changes rather than applications that accommodate business changes faster and at lower cost?
• Is there a mechanism to determine how IT spending aligns with the business’s value-adding processes?
• Is there conflict over IT budgets absent an analytical business case-bound decision process?
• Is there a process in place

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Authors: Gary A. Curtis, Richard M. Melnicoff, Tor Mesoy
Source: Value Discovery: A Better Way to Prioritize IT Investments
Subject: IT Questions

• What is our purpose? Does our organization have a clear mission or charter, and is it being followed?
• Who are our customers? Segmentation analysis is vital in distinguishing, for example, customers who use IT systems outside the office most of the time from customers who don’t travel at all.
• What do different customers want and need to be more effective in their jobs? How can

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Author: George Tillmann
Source: In Search of Overhead Heroes
Subject: IT Questions

Companies can ask these basic questions to determine whether IT capabilities are contributing to–or hindering–their growth.

1. Is your total IT spending below or above the average for your industry?
   (Clearly below, 1 point; average, 2 points; clearly above, 3 points)
2. What share of your IT budget is spent on new capabilities?
   (0-10%, 1 point; 11-35%, 3 points; above 35%, 4 points)
3. Who decides the size

… [ Read more ]

Subject: IT Questions

• Have the firm’s competitors invested in m-business technology? If so, where and how?
• Have companies in complementary industries invested in m-business technology? If so, where and how?
• How large or significant are m-business opportunities and threats in the firm’s arena?
• To what extent does mobile technology support or threaten the firm’s existing business model?
• What degree of business transformation is required to implement a wireless solution within

… [ Read more ]

Authors: David Reibstein, Tony O’Driscoll, Venkatesh Shankar
Source: Rational Exuberance: The Wireless Industry’s Killer “B”
Subject: IT Questions