Transformation: Corporate Development and IT (363-0425-00L)

Assistant

Markus Kreft

Lecture Info

Time: Mon, 12:30–18:00

Location: Online (Zoom Link via Moodle)

Lectures take place via Zoom. Recordings are provided a few days after the lecture for self-paced learning. However, attendance of at least 30% of the Zoom sessions (i.e. on 2 dates) is required for admission to the exam.

Introduction

The lecture treats the main challenges of business transformation and the alignment of corporate development and IT activities. It presents a holistic approach to business transformation projects by introducing an integrated model dealing with three main design areas “strategy”, “processes” and “information systems” and applying this model to various case studies

Learning Goals

The goal of the lecture is to understand the main challenges of corporate transformation and to demonstrate the application of a holistic project procedure model for corporate transformation projects with special emphasis on the alignment of business and IT. The student should understand and be able to explain:

• the main reasons for corporate transformation,
• the relevant management processes to manage corporate transformation,
• the interdependencies between strategy, processes and information systems, especially how this three levels interrelate,
• the critical success factors for the successful accomplishment of large scale corporate transformation projects,
• the main instruments of project, quality and change management and
• the different types of resulting IT projects.

Content

The globalization of the world leads to an increasingly faster pace in business transformation. Enterprises have to adapt faster and even faster to the environmental changes in a global economy to remain competitive and to make sure they stay in business. In today’s information age this does not only mean to adapt business strategy and business processes but also to adapt information systems to the new circumstances. The fast adaptation trough large scale corporate transformation projects that change strategy, business processes and information systems is critical to ensure competitiveness for tomorrow. The introduction of new business processes and information systems typically takes years in very complex large scale projects. Many projects fail because of insufficient alignment between decision makers in business and IT. Unclear understanding of the overall project scope, undefined roles and responsibilities, unclear project processes, quality problems and resistance to change are some typical problems found in such projects. The lecture is subdivided into following modules:

• Corporate development – introduction and motivation,
• Parallelization of corporate development and complexity reduction,
• Planning process and project portfolio management in corporate development,
• Management of large scale projects – integration of strategy, processes and information systems,
• Quality management in large scale projects,
• Project management in large scale projects,
• Change management within projects. The lecture is accompanied by
  four case studies that are used to exemplify the contents of the lecture
  by applying the concepts to real situations in corporate life.

Lectures