Intelligent Decision Making and Risk Analysis for IT Management Processes

Intelligent Decision Making and Risk Analysis for IT Management Processes

Masoud Mohammadian (University of Canberra, Australia) and Ric Jentzsch (University of Canberra, Australia)
Copyright: © 2012 |Pages: 22
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-311-9.ch011
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Abstract

IT management processes have been growing as the development of modern IT systems has grown. These are often complex with multiple interdependencies that can make it very difficult for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to comprehend and be aware of potential risks. These risks have the potential to translate into decision making inefficiencies for an organization. Risk analysis for decision making in the planning and monitoring of these systems can be a complex and demanding task. Intelligent decision making in IT management processes and systems are a crucial element of an organization’s success and its competitive position in the marketplace. This chapter considers the implementation of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM) to provide facilities to capture and represent complex relationships in an IT management process model. By using FCMs, CIOs can regularly review and improve their IT management processes and provide greater improvement in development, monitoring and maintenance of those processes. CIOs can perform what-if analysis to better understand vulnerabilities of their designed system.
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Information Technology Processes

IT processes are activities for development and maintenance of applications, supporting infrastructure (e.g., hardware, systems software, and networks), to managing human resources. Luftman, Bullen et al., (2004) described 38 IT processes that cover all aspects or IT management in an organization. These IT processes have been categorized in three main layers. These layers include:

  • 1.

    Strategic - focus is on long-term goals, for SME’s that is approximately 3 to 4 years, while for large enterprises it is ≥ 4 years;

  • 2.

    Tactical - focus is on yearly activities, for SMEs and large enterprises approximately one year. Focus is also on supporting and feeding into the strategic layer; and

  • 3.

    Operational - for SMEs and large enterprises this is the daily to monthly activities. This layer supports and feeds into the tactical layer.

The strategic layer consists of strategic planning that covers business analysis planning, architecture planning and IT strategic planning control. Figure 1 shows sub-processes of the strategic layer.

Figure 1.

Strategic layer sub-processes

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The tactical layer consists of management planning, development planning, resource planning, financial planning, and service planning. These five processes can be further divided into 15 sub-processes. For this analysis we will concentrate on the five processes only. Figure 2 shows the sub-processes.

Figure 2.

Tactical layer sub-processes

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