Computer Sciences and Information Technology (Research Paper Sample)

Decision-Making in Information Technology Acquisition Student's Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number: Course Name Instructor’s Name December 15, 2022 Decision-Making in Information Technology Acquisition The reliance on Information technology (IT) solutions has increased gradually for companies as a strategically significant competitive edge. If managed, planned, and developed appropriately, IT can yield greater efficiency in business operations, effective decision-making processes, and better working environments. Kotlar et al. (2013) claim that many firms are trying to adjust to industry changes through technology acquisition. For instance, some organizations depend on technology acquisition to develop sound management information systems for their businesses. However, many IT projects fail due to the wrong selection of the development, a lack of checks on essential milestones, and poor design planning in the acquisition process. This paper centers on three critical questions in acquiring, planning, reviewing, and developing the IT acquisition. The most challenging issues in identifying and documenting IT acquisition requirements The main challenge encountered in the process of identifying and documenting IT acquisition requirements is the quality of the acquisition requirements. If the identified and recorded IT acquisition requirements are of good quality, the project will be apparent, coherent, consistent, and complete. Moreover, it will have traceability when defined using a business language instead of technical terminology that is not limited to the system features (Kirche & Srivastava, 2016). According to Wen et al. (2010), poor quality IT acquisitions lack essential metadata such as status and limited priority and lack the feasibility for implementation. For example, Hershey failed in its digital transformation project because of a need for clear goals for the transition. Thus, poor quality requirements in a project cause cost overruns, schedule delays, performance shortages, and staff loss. Organizations can address the issue of poor quality requirements in IT acquisitions by adhering to the quality standards set for IT projects (Kirche & Srivastava, 2016). Therefore, it is essential to distinguish between poor and good quality requirements by establishing appropriate controls over the scope of IT projects. Adding, deleting, and changing requirements after they have been approved up to the time a contract is signed with a service provider A contract specifies the obligations of each party involved. In the bidding process, parties can consider adjustments to the agreement in the future. It can be amended to adjust the time restrictions or increase the length of time (Cuthbert et al., 2012). For instance, parties in a contract may agree to change contract requirements to reduce or increase the product or service quality and change the mode of payment or delivery. However, once the agreement has been approved and signed, it is not allowed to alter any covered requirement by adding, changing, or deleting because the service provider might have commenced executing their duties. Song & Hwong (2012) argue that changing the conditions of a contract can lead to project delays as both parties renegotiate the additional requirements. Hence, adding, altering, or deleting contract requirements can cause an increase in the cost of the service. My experience in developing a work breakdown structure for individual project Work breakdown structure (WBS) maps a whole project from the start to the end by breaking down a big project into small core deliverables and tasks. I handled system design and development projects for many websites, including the hotel management system, food navigation system, and book e-commerce system. I developed a WBS for each website I designed and developed. I created a WBS to guide me in working within a specific timeline, simplifying the project, and managing the budget properly to deliver the entire project. It was easy to develop the tasks, subtasks, and WBS levels. However, I faced a challenge in determining the amount of information to be incorporated into the WBS. This task required extensive experience and judgment. I solved this issue by consult...