Investing in Information:

The Information Management Body of Knowledge

Contents
Part One: Taking stock 1
Chapter 1: Introduction 2
The context 3
Four short stories 4
A global courier company can’t find the address 4
The legal profession battles with huge numbers of documents 6
Information management in education 8
Big problems in big Government 9
Success is difficult to find 11
A brief history 12
The early days 12
The maturing years 13
The beginnings of an idea 14
Attention shifts 15
A meeting of minds 17
The situation today 18
IT is “commoditised” 18
A journey with no map? 19
The management perspective 20
Management 101 in a nutshell 20
New management competencies are needed 22
Chapter 2: The Information Management Body of Knowledge 23
A simple example 24
The IMBOK Framework step by step 26
The knowledge areas 27
The information management processes 29
Summary 31

Part Two: Exploring information management 33

Chapter 3: Exploring information technology 34
What is Information Technology? 34
Nature of technology 34
Context for use 35
Strategic issues 36
Recognising technology potential 36
Acquisition of technology 37
Summary 38
Managerial issues concerning Information Technology 38
Information technology management competencies 41
Research side-note: Chasing the hottest IT 42
Research side-note: Yes, technology is cool, but don’t forget the people 42

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com

Chapter 4: Exploring information systems 43
What is an Information System? 43
Nature of Information Systems 43
Information systems maturity 46
The applications portfolio 51
Turnaround information systems 55
Strategic information systems 55
Key operational information systems 57
Support information systems 58
Classifying applications 59
The need for discussion 60
Issues in managing the applications portfolio 62
Migration around the portfolio 62
Portfolio management in complex businesses 62
Shifting attitudes 65
Benefits vary around the applications portfolio 65
Information systems project management 66
Communicating information systems ideas 67
Managing systems development 69
Needs analysis and acceptance testing – the key to success? 71
Methods, techniques and tools 73
Business and systems analysis 74
Relating business analysis to the portfolio 83
Horses for courses 84
Summary 89
Managerial issues in Information Systems 89
Information systems management competencies 91
Research side-note: Understanding organisational agility 92
Research side-note: The consequences of “enterprise systems” on organisational agility 93
Research side-note: The consequences of “enterprise systems” on organisational agility 93
Chapter 5: Exploring business processes 94
What is a Business Process? 94
Nature of business processes 95
Processes and the organisation chart 95
Identifying business processes 96
The value chain as an early indicator of process thinking 97
Business process redesign 98
Radical process redesign 99
The depth and scope of change 99
Depth of change 102
Scope of change 103
Principles of BPR 104
Development of business processes 105
Approaches to business modelling 105
The general approach 106
An analysis method 108
Managing business processes 123
The process triangle 123
Concluding comment 125
Summary 125
Managerial issues in process management 125

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com

 Business process management competencies 127
Research side-note: Outsourcing business processes 127
Research side-note: Seeing change happening, from the bottom up 128
Chapter 6: Exploring business information 130
What is business information? 130
The nature of information 130
Current issues 132
Understanding information: a portfolio model 132
Organising information: a generic model 139
Summary 151
Managerial issues concerning business information 151
Business information management competencies 152
Research side-note: Getting a grip on a flood of information 153
Research side-note: Does information management contribute to performance? 153
Research side-note: You can smile but you can’t hide! 154
Chapter 7: Exploring business benefits 155
What is benefits management? 155
Nature of business benefits 156
Benefits and the applications portfolio 158
A survey into benefits management 159
Managing benefits in the modern context 160
Two stages in achieving benefits 160
Relationship with process management and project management 162
Planning the delivery of benefits 163
A simple example 164
The benefits dependency network – a business example 166
The benefits management cycle 170
Stage 1: Identify and structure benefits 171
Stage 2: Plan benefits realisation 174
Stage 3: Execute benefits delivery plan 175
Stage 4: Review, evaluate and exploit 177
Summary 178
Managerial issues in benefits management 178
Benefits management competencies 179
Research side-note: IT capability no longer guarantees business performance? 180
Research side-note: A more optimistic worked example 180
Chapter 8: Exploring business strategy 181
What is strategy? 181
Nature of business and information systems strategy 181
Strategic contribution of IT 182
Consequences of a lack of strategy 182
Differences between information systems and information technology strategies 183
Different kinds of organisation 184
Development of information systems strategies 184
Systems strategy in context 184
The external business environment 185
The internal business environment 186
The internal IS/IT environment 187
The external IS/IT environment 187
Summary of strategic inputs 188

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com

 The strategy process 189
Current situation appraisal: 'where we are now?' 189
Opportunity spotting: 'where we could be?’ 189
Decision time: 'where we want to be?'. 190
Summary 190
Summary of approaches to strategic analysis 192
Implementation of strategy 192
Establishing the IS/IT strategic planning process 192
Common problems 193
Getting started 194
The longer term 194
Setting priorities 195
Prioritising within the portfolio segments 196
Support systems 196
Key operational systems 197
Strategic systems 197
Turnaround systems 198
The question of infrastructure 199
Summary 199
Strategic analysis tools 200
SWOT (Strategic drivers: Where are we now? Where could we be?) 201
Porter's five forces 204
Critical Success Factor analysis (CSFs) 208
Value chain analysis 210
Business modelling 221
Boston Box 227
Summary 230
Managerial issues in strategic management 230
Strategy management competencies 231
Research side-note: Strategic beginnings 233
Research side-note: Have we grown up yet? 233
Research side-note: What managers should do 233

Part Three: Operationalising information management 235

Chapter 9: Assessing information management capability 237
The survey instruments 237
The micro level 238
The macro level 238
Four cases assessed 238
The reference sample 239
Chief Information Officers 240
Real estate agent 241
Financial services company 242
Summary 243
Chapter 10: Researching information management 245
Epistemology 245
Positivist and interpretive research 245
Critical research 246
Pragmatic research 249
Final thoughts 250

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com

 Chapter 11: Some models and frameworks reviewed 251
Selected models 251
Zachman reveals complexity (1987) 252
ITIL (1989) 253
Capability Maturity Model (CMM) (1992) 254
Henderson and Venkatraman seek simplicity (1993) 255
Jacobs' ladder (1995) 256
COBIT (1996) 258
The Benefits Dependency Network (2005) 259
Consolidation 259

References 263

Bibliography 266

Index 267

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com

Figures
Copies of these figures are available for legitimate educational purposes on request.
Contact us for more information: info@imbok.info

Figure 1: A stakeholder context for Information Management 4

Figure 2: The critical area where information needs to be managed 15
Figure 3: “Think, Plan, Act, Check”: Managing information systems investments 21
Figure 4: The Information Management Body of Knowledge framework (simplified) 24
Figure 5: Five management domains, four intersections of necessary alignment 27
Figure 6: Scope and benefit of information systems 47
Figure 7: Introducing the Boston Box 52
Figure 8: The Applications Portfolio 54
Figure 9: Business units in context 63
Figure 10: Summarising management around the Applications Portfolio 67
Figure 11: The “V” Model for systems development 70
Figure 12: A data flow (process or activity) model 77
Figure 13: A simple information model 79
Figure 14: The simple information model expanded 80
Figure 15: Many-to-many relationship 80
Figure 16: More about what is in an entity model 81
Figure 17: The beginnings of the Zoo entity model 83
Figure 18: Business processes and the organisation chart 95
Figure 19: The internal value chain 97
Figure 20: Using the Value Chain to indicate the scope of change 103
Figure 21: The process of business process analysis 109
Figure 22: The business object lifecycle 117
Figure 23: Business performance at the Zoo – “Entertain visitors” 122
Figure 24: Different categories of processes 124
Figure 25: Data becomes information 130
Figure 26: The DIKAR model 131
Figure 27: The information portfolio 135
Figure 28: Researching information technology in education: a sample ontology 137
Figure 29: The manufacturing business, as seen by the management (simplified) 143
Figure 30: A generic information model for business 145
Figure 31: An example of a corporate information model: Retailing 148
Figure 32: Discounted cash flow analysis 156
Figure 33: The nature of benefits seen through the applications portfolio 158
Figure 34: First and second stage achievement of benefits 161
Figure 35: Programme and project management 163
Figure 36: An example of benefits dependency 164
Figure 37: Benefits dependencies in education, seen through the IMBOK 166
Figure 38: A simple business example 167
Figure 39: Benefits dependency networks: a simplified example 169
Figure 40: Building the benefits dependency network 171
Figure 41: The Benefits Plan 175
Figure 42: An example stakeholder analysis 176
Figure 43: The benefits review 177
Figure 44: The strategic analysis process 185
Figure 45: Michael Porter’s five forces 205
Figure 46: The simple, original form of the value chain 211
Figure 47: The value chain interpreted for a DIY retailing business 215

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com

Figure 48: A simple representation of a supply chain 216
Figure 49: Information in the supply chain – form and just a hint of function 217
Figure 50: A model for a retail business, in the form of a value chain 222
Figure 51: A sample retailing information model (before loyalty cards) 224
Figure 52: The Boston Box 228
Figure 53: "Education" and "Government" capability compared 240
Figure 54: Results for Chief Information Officers 241
Figure 55: Results from a real estate business 241
Figure 56: Analysis of macro data from a financial services business 243
Figure 57: A summary of research approaches, loosely based on Myers 248
Figure 58: The Zachman Framework (extended version) 252
Figure 59: The Henderson and Venkatraman alignment model (1993) 255
Figure 60: “Jacob's ladder”, as used in BP Chemicals 257
Figure 61: Consolidation of the frameworks 261

Published by Springer – available from amazon.com