Department of Software Engineering

Bahria University Islamabad Campus

Reading Assignment-4
(EMG 617) Information Systems Management
Zeeshan Ahmed
01-246202-012

1. Read the given article “Why IT Fumbles Analytics by Marchand & Peppard” and write an
abstract.

Abstract:

Why IT fumbles analytics explain that the conventional approach to IT projects is not

sufficient nor it is useful anymore. Companies that are heavily spending on IT tools and

hiring data scientists are growing rapidly while the companies that are treating big data and

analytics projects same as IT projects, their growth has stopped. For successful growth and to

enhance productivity companies need to focus more on information rather than technology.

Marchand and Peppard had introduced alternative approach to IT projects that help managers

to make an organization data driven and to create usable information which helps in decision

making, improve efficiency, lower cost and increase productivity. Study shows that it’s

crucial to create and use information and for that purpose project team members show be

from cognitive and behavioral sciences not just from engineering, computer science and

math. The reason is that manager need to exploit information not just technology. Analytics

project doesn’t have defined outcomes, it is a shorter initiative that someone sensed to define

a problem such as project frame questions, data provide answers, develop hypothesis,

iterative experiment to get results out of it. Authors analyzed 50 international organizations

from different industries which explains the five guidelines to help companies to achieve

successful IT projects that provide insight of data being generated. In first guideline author
explained that companies should hire such employee which can collect and analyze data and

can reach conclusion on the bases of analysis and make valuable decisions. Chemco a

chemical company is an example who created data analyst group which help managers and

employee to use that data to get information about the product and customer’s interest. As a

result, CRM customer relationship were created and sales were increased. In second guideline

author recommended second order questions which improve decision making. Make teams

with cognitive and behavioral scientist who come up with new innovative ideas and create

new business values. There should a collaborative culture between managers and data

scientists, a platform where they can freely share their thoughts and knowledge. This reduces

the chances of error as well as failure in projects. Project manager should focus on solving

business problems instead of deploying technology. It is just because analytics projects are

not large as deployment of ERP systems and CRM systems. Hence managers identify

unknown risks and create an environment to make discoveries and to improve firm’s

operational and strategic performance.