master in technology management la salle campus barcelona

Master of Science in Technology Management and Digital Innovation

Lead Information and Communication Technologies management and be a pioneer of the digital and innovation transformation amidst technological revolution. The program that trains CIOs: 3rd Best Master´s in Spain.

IT Strategic Planning

Description
The course focuses on the correct application of the strategy defined by the General Management to make the company more competitive in the market. To provide a global and integral vision of the strategy to be followed within the technology department in order to carry out an IT strategic plan aligned with the company's objectives. Understanding the business strategy of organizations is key for technology management to develop and implement initiatives that maximize the results of the company, and the value they offer to their customers. The main objective of this course is to understand the different factors and processes that impact the IT strategic planning of an organization and how to measure the current state of them in order to undertake effective decision making from the IT management (CIO). Finally, the correct formulation of the IT strategic plan allows to visualize in a global and orderly way how the IT area contributes to the business.
Type Subject
Optativa
Semester
First
Credits
5.00
Previous Knowledge
Objectives

The main objective of IT Strategic Planning is to understand, propose and correctly apply the strategy defined by the General Management, making the company more competitive in the market. To provide a global and integral vision of the strategy to be followed within the technology department in order to carry out an IT strategic plan aligned with the company's objectives.

This alignment by the IT department with the company's objectives is essential for the company, as it will allow it to grow and consolidate in a market as competitive as the current one, even becoming essential for its own survival. For this reason, the IT department is a transversal area of the company that knows the needs of each of the departments that make up the company and must contribute to its differentiation through technology.

Contents

- Session 1: Digital Strategy
- Session 2: Digital Organizations
- Session 3: The CIO and the IT function
- Session 4: The strategic planning process
- Session 5: IT Governance
- Session 6: IT-Business alignment
- Session 7: Strategic definition of the systems plan
- Session 8: Operational definition of the system plan

Methodology

Online modality:

The teaching methodology used in the online modality is based on a proprietary methodology developed by La Salle URL called SDBL (Self Directed Based Learning). SDBL is an active methodology based on situational learning and self-directed learning. With situational learning, the student is taught, through challenges, to address real problems and situations of the company with which he/she can consolidate the new knowledge acquired. With self-directed learning, the student decides how to advance in their training based on their previous experience.
On a weekly basis, the LMS (Learning Management System) platform releases the content of a new topic. The way the week works is as follows:

- Synchronous kick-off session:
o The teacher gives an overview of the contents and tasks that the student will encounter during the week. The objective of this meeting is to try to discover and reveal on a personal level which aspects of the week's topics may be more difficult for the individual student.
o The teacher resolves possible doubts of the students about the previous week's topic.
- Between synchronous connections:
o The student visualizes the content of the sessions and develops the tasks given to him/her about the week's topic to consolidate knowledge and identify doubts.
- Synchronous check point session:
o The teacher solves any doubts the students may have about the contents of the current week.
o The teacher presents additional content or case studies that are of interest to the students.
o The teacher generates debate and discussion among the students about the contents of the week in course with the objective of helping the students in their assimilation, therefore, improving their learning.
o The teacher provides oral feedback on the deliverables recorded by the students in the previous week's feedback well, emphasizing the difficulties and errors encountered. This instance is for feedback only and not for grading. The feedback wells are an instrument for the students to validate with the mentor, in general terms, the resolution of the tasks set. In this way, the feedback wells are created to give the mentee an opportunity to test the answers with the mentor. Based on the feedback provided by the mentor, the student will be able to finish developing the task and present it as a final deliverable, with the advantage of having had previous advice from the teacher.

- Rest of the week. The objective is to finish the development of the tasks of the current week based on the clarifications received in the synchronous check point session to overcome the exercises, tasks and/or deliverables of the topic. It is worth mentioning that most of the time dedicated during this last part of the week should be spent on solving the tasks and deliverables, rather than on assimilating content (an aspect that should have been resolved between the kick-off and check point sessions).

The LMS platform makes the gradual opening of content (week by week) so that the whole group follows the same academic itinerary. In other words, the sequential opening of topics is done so that all students in the program are working on the same subjects simultaneously.

On-site modality:

- Combination of theoretical classes with presentation and discussion of practical cases based on own experiences and reference case studies.
- All sessions will be conducted in an interactive way, always seeking student participation to promote the emergence of new ideas and to obtain different points of view and experiences from them.
- Specific business cases will be used to show the results of the actions taken by the companies over time.

Evaluation

Online modality:

Subject Note:

Deliverables Sessions: Each student must deposit in the delivery well on the date indicated at the latest.

- Spanish Oil Company.
- StarBank.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Final evaluation: Students will work in groups to solve an exercise proposed by the professor. This exercise will be defended by each group during the evaluation weeks.

- IT strategic plan.

The professor will publish the grades in the eStudy and, if any student needs more information about it, he/she can contact the professor directly by email.

On-site modality:

- 10% Class participation
- 20% Prioritization of demand and action plan
- 20% IT alignment
- 10% Final test exam
- 40% IT Strategic Plan (group work)

In both cases:

Demonstrate academic integrity in the totality of their work.

If the student is caught cheating in any type of exam, plagiarism or rehashing of exercises, activities, assignments, presentations or delivering a team work in which he/she has not collaborated, it will be considered fraud, penalizing the final grade of the course or even being considered as not delivered.

The student and the group must ensure that the work they submit is their own. The student is responsible for citing all sources relied upon in their submissions, using quotation marks when language is taken directly from other sources.

Use of Artificial Intelligence tools

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help in the learning process, but its use must be acknowledged. If you have used any AI tools, include a paragraph at the end of any assignment that uses AI explaining what you used the AI for and what prompts you used to obtain the results. Failure to do so will be considered as an action that tends to falsify or defraud the academic evaluation systems and, therefore, the copying policy of La Salle Campus Barcelona - Copying Policy | La Salle | Campus Barcelona (salleurl.edu) will be applied.

In those subjects or teaching activities in which the academic guide indicates the prohibition of using AI tools, the use of these tools by students will be considered fraud and will entail the application of the copying policy of La Salle Campus Barcelona.

Evaluation Criteria

Online modality:

The following list is made up of the evaluation criteria for the deliverables of the course:

- Deliverable Subject 1
o Field of work offer 1
o Field of job offer 2
o Field of job offer 3
o Field of job offer 4

- Deliverable Topic 2
o Degree of maturity of each key area
o Project 1
o Project 2
o Project 3

- Deliverable Theme 3
o Mission and vision
o IT strategic axes
o IT strategic projects

- Final Deliverable
o Strategic formulation
o Analysis of the current model
o Design of the future model
o IT strategic plan elaboration

On-site modality:

• En la resolución de ejercicios y trabajos de asignatura los criterios a tener en cuenta son:
 Compresión de la situación planteada
 Definición y análisis de los problemas planteados por el caso
• Registro de los temas principales
 Soluciones propuestas
• Realismo y adecuación de la/s solución/es propuesta/s
• Argumentación de defensa de las mismas
• Fortalezas y beneficios de la/s propuesta/s
• Implicaciones de la/s propuesta/s (económicas y de gestión)

Basic Bibliography
Additional Material

• Strategy, Harbard Collections, 2020
• Fujitsu Digital Transformation Survey, 2022
• An Update on Business IT Alignment, Luftman & Kempaiah, 2007
• IT Assets, Organizational Capabilities, and Firm Perfomance. Aral & Weill, 2007
• IT Innovation Persintence, Stratopoulus, 2010
• Deloitte TechTrends 2022
• IBM C Survey Study, 19th edition, 2018
• Las Tecnologías de la Información en la Empresa Española 2012. Penteo & ESADE, 2013