Ictict517 V3
Ictict517 V3
Ictict517 V3
Welcome to the unit ICTICT517 - Match ICT needs with the strategic direction of the enterprise.
This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to ensure information and communications
technology (ICT) services meet current and future internal operational enterprise requirements.
It applies to individuals whose responsibilities may include maintaining and supporting critical
infrastructure for objectives in small-to-medium sized organisations.
ANALYSE CURRENT STRATEGIC PLAN OF THE
ORGANISATION TO UNDERSTAND THE INDUSTRY
ENVIRONMENT AND CURRENT ORGANISATIONAL GOALS
When setting out to match the ICT needs of an organisation with the strategic direction of an
enterprise, it will be necessary to analyse the current strategic plan of the organisation.
Strategic plans will provide a range of information regarding the direction of the organisation, and
this will enable understanding of the industry environment and current organisational goals.
When matching ICT needs for the strategic direction of an organisation, it will be necessary to ensure
that both current and future needs are being matched appropriately.
STRATEGIC PLANS
A strategy is a plan of action that has been designed in order to achieve a specific goal or resolve a specific problem.
A strategic plan is an internal document used to communicate and explain the organisation's goals, each of the actions that
need to be carried out in order to achieve these goals and all of the other critical planning steps and elements related to the
organisational goal in question.
The strategic business plans within the organisation will set out the:
Business goals
Strategies to achieve them
Financial plans
Marketing plans
Goals for the future
Growth goals
INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENT
The organisational goals of an organisation will be written into the strategic plans and will include a
range of specific goals that the organisation needs to achieve in order to ensure that it is moving in the
correct strategic direction to maintaining growth and success under both current and future
conditions.
Organisational goals may be categorised as either:
Quantitative organisational goals
Qualitative organisational goals
ANALYSING THE PLANS
It is important to conduct an in-depth analysis, of the organisation and the strategic plans that are
already in place in order to understand how the strategic plans align with the specific organisational
goals and the industry environment.
The strategic plans of an organisation will contain the organisational goals and a range of statements
that can be used to determine how these plans are aligned with the industry environment that the
organisation must operate within.
COMPARE INFORMATION RELATED TO CURRENT
OPERATIONAL PRACTICES AND THE STRATEGIC PLAN TO
DETERMINE POSSIBLE ICT GAPS AND IMPROVEMENT
OPPORTUNITIES
Once a full understanding of the organisations strategic plans, organisational goals and industry
environment has been gained it will be necessary to compare this information with the current
operational practices in order to determine the possible ICT gaps.
This will allow for a range of improvement opportunities to be determined.
CURRENT ORGANISATIONAL PRACTICES
Current organisational practices are the current actions that are undertaken within an organisation.
Current organisational practices that may need to be investigated in relation to the gaps in ICT support
may include:
Management of data and information
Customer interactions and access to information
Security
Storage practices
Communications management
Knowledge storage and management
Ease of workflow
MAKING EFFECTIVE COMPARISONS BETWEEN CURRENT ORGANISATIONAL PRACTICES AND STRATEGIC PLANS
When making effective comparisons, it will be necessary to ensure that all similarities and differences
between current organisational practices and strategic plans are identified.
As a part of these comparisons, it will be necessary to identify the ICT support that is currently
available and the manners in which this either hinders or improves the compliance of current actions
against the strategic plans.
DETERMINE POSSIBLE ICT GAPS
It is essential that as a part of making comparisons between current organisational practices and
strategic plans that any possible gaps in the ICT systems or support that is currently being offered to
the organisation that may be causing deviation from the organisation's strategic direction are able to
be identified.
When making comparisons between current organisational practices and strategic plans, it will be
necessary to measure the required actions against the actual actions and determine gaps.
GAP ANALYSIS
A gap analysis is a method that can be used to identify any areas within the ICT system that are not
meeting the needs of the organisation.
When conducting a gap analysis, it will be necessary to:
Determine the required actions needed to achieve goals set out in the strategic planning process
Determine all resources including ICT needs that are required in order to achieve these goals
Identify any areas where the required actions and current actions are not equal
Determine which of these actions are impacted on by the ICT systems that are employed within
the organisation
Determine the potential for ICT improvements that may be used to close these gaps
IDENTIFY IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR ICT SYSTEM
Throughout the process of comparing current organisational practices to strategic plans and conducting a gap analysis
within the organisation, it will be possible to identify a range of opportunities for improvement in regard to the ICT system
that is used to support the organisation.
Improvement opportunities that may be identified within the ICT system may include:
Any areas where the current strategic plans are not supported by current ICT systems
Any current actions related to practices that are not aligned to current strategic directions due to lack of ICT support
Areas where the organisation is being restricted due to ICT systems
Any areas where the achievement of strategic direction could be enhanced by making changes to ICT systems
REPORT INFORMATION REGARDING THE
EFFECT OF ICT DEVELOPMENTS TO AN
APPROPRIATE PERSON
Once the organisational relationship and need for any possible changes or developments in the ICT
system have been identified it will be necessary to document this information in a manner that reports
how the effects of ICT developments can impact on the organisation to an appropriate person.
REPORT INFORMATION
The reporting of information involves the displaying of information in a clear and factual manner that
will enable effective decision making or data collection.
APPROPRIATE PERSON
An appropriate person to report information regarding the effect of ICT developments to may vary
depending on the specific organisation but will most likely be:
Managers
Supervisors
Decision makers
Key stakeholders
ICT development personnel
Project leaders
Board members
THE EFFECT OF ICT DEVELOPMENTS
When reporting the effect the ICT developments in the workplace, it will be necessary to ensure that
the reports provided include a range of information including:
The current status of ICT systems
The current needs of the organisation
The proposed developments in detail
Reasons behind these required developments
The effects that these developments are likely to have on the organisation
How these effects could be implemented and why
TOPIC 2 - EVALUATE EFFECT OF
CHANGES
The purpose of conducting reviews is to analyse information in order to determine the need for any
potential changes or extra needs.
PLANNING AND CONDUCTING REVIEWS
The planning and conducting of reviews on reports or other data sources can be conducted by the
following of these actions:
Assess all existing documents and data for their availability and relevance to the questions that
need to be answered
Access the documents and data sources following organisational procedures
Ensure that the confidentiality and security of all documentation and data sources through the
review
Verify the authenticity and accuracy of documentation and data sources through investigative
procedures
Extract and summarise all data that is relevant to the questions being asked by the review
REVIEW INFORMATION ON CURRENT ICT SYSTEMS THAT ARE SUPPORTED BY THE ORGANISATION
It will be necessary to ensure that a thorough review is conducted on the organisations ICT system
and it will be necessary to ensure that a range of information is collected such as:
Software elements
Hardware elements
Network elements
ICT capabilities
Security
Effectiveness at meeting current required goals
IDENTIFY AND SPECIFY OPERATING
SYSTEMS SUPPORTED BY THE
ORGANISATION TO FORECAST FOR
PLANNING
It is also important to identify and specific the operating systems supported by your organisation.
An ‘operating system’ is the low-level software that supports a computer’s basic functions – common
examples include Microsoft Windows® and Apple MacOS®.
You can identify/specify your organisation’s operating systems by looking at computers themselves,
by reading relevant documentation and by speaking with key people.
EXPLAIN CURRENT SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY TO FORECAST FOR PLANNING
It will be necessary to explain the current system functionality in order to allow for the forecasting to be
conducted regarding the future needs of the organisation.
When explaining current system functionality, it will be necessary to ensure that a range of factors about the
system is defined, and this may include an explanation of:
Information processing capacity
Information storage capacity
Security capabilities
Use authentication and access
Number of users that the system supports
Amount of bandwidth that the system uses to complete tasks
Error reporting
Amount of traffic that the system can handle
Current hardware and software functionality and capability
FORECASTING
Forecasting is a forward planning model that can be used to estimate future trends events.
Forecasting is an important planning technique that can be employed within an organisation to ensure
that plans can be made to meet future needs of the organisation.
FORECASTING METHODS
Forecasting methods that may be utilised in planning to meet ICT needs with the strategic direction of
the organisation may include:
Delphi techniques
Model building
Projection
Scenario planning
COMPARE AND DOCUMENT ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
CURRENT AND PROPOSED ICT SYSTEMS
It will be necessary to ensure that the advantages and disadvantages of both current and proposed ICT
systems are able to be compared and suitability documented for use in decision-making and planning
processes in relation to ICT within the organisation.
CURRENT ICT SYSTEM
The current ICT system is the current software, hardware and usability of the information technology
and communications system that is implemented into the organisation.
PROPOSED ICT SYSTEM
The proposed ICT system includes all changes that need to be made to the ICT system in order to
meet the strategic directions of the organisation.
REVIEW CURRENT AND PROPOSED ICT SYSTEMS
It will be necessary that the following process is used to review the current and proposes ICT systems
using the following process:
1. Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
2. Evaluate the current plans and projections
3. Revise the current plans and projections
MAKE COMPARISONS
A factor regarding an ICT system that would be considered an advantage is something that provides
favourable outcomes for the organisation.
A factor regarding the ICT system that would be considered to be a disadvantage would be a factor
that does not improve or hampers outcomes or plans of the organisation.
DOCUMENT ITEMS AS ADVANTAGE OR DISADVANTAGE
Once all of the features and functions of the current and proposes ICT systems have been classified as
either an advantage of a disadvantage it will be necessary to ensure that these are documented clearly.
It is essential that when documenting comparisons the similarities and differences are clearly defined
to ensure that the documentation can be used to inform on decision-making practices within the
organisation.
DETERMINE THE OBJECTIVES AND
IMPLICATIONS OF INTRODUCING CHANGES
It will be necessary to determine the objectives and implication of introducing changes into the
organisation so that the planning of the introduction of changes can be conducted carefully.
OBJECTIVES OF INTRODUCING CHANGES
When a range of changes are implemented within an ICT system in order to match the ICT needs with
the strategic direction of the organisation they will be done so in order to achieve specific outcomes.
The objectives of introducing changes may include:
Improving outcomes for communication within the organisation
Increasing data security
Increasing traffic and bandwidth capabilities of the ICT system
Reducing the number of errors
Improving or increasing scalability
Creating benefits for the organisation
Improving the ability of the organisation to maintain strategic direction
Improving the matching of ICT needs with the strategic direction
DETERMINE THE IMPLICATIONS OF INTRODUCING PROPOSED CHANGES
It will be necessary to assess each of the proposed changed for their implications on the organisation.
Every change that is made within an organisation will have a range of direct impacts and indirect
effects.
It will be necessary to map the proposed changed within the organisation in order to identify:
All departments that these changes will impact on
The manner in which these changes will impact on departments
Analyse all direct and indirect implications
DOCUMENT FINDINGS AND FORWARD TO
APPROPRIATE PERSON FOR FEEDBACK
Once a full analysis has been conducted on the objectives, and potential implications of the
implementation of proposed changes have been conducted it will be necessary to ensure that the
findings are documented and forwarded to an appropriate person for feedback.
Making changes within an organisation can be a complex and large task that needs to be managed
carefully in order to ensure that all implications of the change are able to be successfully managed.
FINDINGS OF INVESTIGATION
The findings of an investigation, analysis or review are the facts and information that has been
obtained from the actions taken.
DOCUMENT
The process of documenting the results of data analysis is to present the facts in a readable and clear
manner so that they may be used for evidence or argument so that the organisations can suitably
respond to the information that has been collected and collated.
DOCUMENT FINDINGS TO SUBMIT FOR FEEDBACK
When documenting findings to submit for feedback, it will be necessary to ensure that:
Appropriate templates are used
All findings are clearly explained
Appropriate terminology is used throughout the documentation
The reasons behind all changes are explained
All objectives and implications for each finding is explained in detail
Findings are recorded to organisational and industry standards
FORWARD TO APPROPRIATE PERSON FOR FEEDBACK
It will be necessary to ensure that once all findings are documented, they are forwarded to the
appropriate person for feedback.
An appropriate person may be:
Stakeholders
Board members
Team members
Change management personnel
FEEDBACK ON PROPOSES CHANGES
It is essential that formal plans are developed to implement the proposed changes according to
organisational policy and procedures. Implementation is the process of putting the required actions
into place within the organisation.
Plans to implement proposed changes should:
Contain information on all required changes
Have step by step implementation processes
Be developed within organisational policies and procedures
Be developed within approved strategies for change management
Be aligned with change management theories and frameworks
Be aligned with change management procedures
STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change management strategies should be based on the uptake and planning for the changes to
ensure that the recovery processes and positive direction changes within organisations can be
successfully managed.
Change management strategies may include:
Setting goals
Looking to the future
Putting action plans in place
Assessing the need for change
Planning for change
Implementing change
CHANGE MANAGEMENT THEORIES AND FRAMEWORKS
Once plans for the implementation of proposed changes have been developed it will be necessary to
ensure that a range of action plans for the implementation and the specific changes that are to be
made are created.
It is essential that all standards, targets and implementation methods are suitably detailed within these
action plans.
ACTION PLANS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION
Action plans identify each of the activities that will need to be conducted in order to enable the
successful implementation of proposed changes to the ICT network.
This includes all of the relevant information required to set out and achieve that goal including:
Financial plans
Promotional strategies
Resource requirements
Risk management issues and strategies
Specific actions, initiatives and tasks to be undertaken
Staffing/responsibility requirements and arrangements
Timelines
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY INTRODUCTION
As a part of the development of action plans for the implementation of ICT changes, it will be
necessary to ensure that a clear introduction of the implementation strategy for these changes is
written.
The written introduction to the strategy should explain the organisation's roles and functions and how
the action plans will enable these processes.
WRITING ACTION PLANS
It is important that action plans are written in clear and plain English with all terminology explained and jargon, and other
technical explanation should be avoided.
Action plans should also be written using the SMART acronym.
Action plans written using the SMART acronym will be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
Procedures
MONITORING PROCESSES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
As a part of the action planning process for the implementation, it will be necessary to ensure that a monitoring process for
the implementation is created.
It will be necessary to create a range of management system monitoring and quality processes for the implementation
strategy; this will include:
Efficiency measures
Outcomes measures
Quality measures
Recording and reporting
Governance structures
Procedures
ENSURING THAT STANDARDS, TARGETS AND IMPLEMENTATION METHODS ARE DETAILED
Throughout the development of action plans that are to be used for the implementation of proposed
changes to ensure that ICT needs are able to be matched with the strategic direction of the
organisation, it will be necessary to ensure that the following actions are completed needs of the
implementation are met:
STANDARDS
TARGETS ARE DEFINED
IMPLEMENTATION METHODS ARE DETAILED
STANDARDS
Standards that may need to be included in the implementation plan and actions plans may include:
Organisational standards
Industry standards
Australian standards
Quality benchmarks
TARGETS ARE DEFINED
It will be necessary to ensure that the actions plans and the implementation strategy that are
developed for the implementation of proposed changes to the ICT system include detailed
implementation methods.
All required steps, resources and instructions should be detailed in the related documentation.
FORWARD DOCUMENTATION TO
APPROPRIATE PERSON FOR FEEDBACK AND
APPROVAL
Once the implementation plans and action plans have been developed and documented, it will be
necessary to ensure that the documentation is forwarded to the appropriate person for feedback and
approval.
CHANGE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND ACTION PLAN DOCUMENTATION
When forwarding implementation plans and action plans to the appropriate person for review it is
important to ensure that the Implementation Plan and Action Plans are inserted into the templates
correctly and written for the audience intended, this way you will be able to get the most useful
feedback and have the best chance of receiving approval for the implementation.
FORWARD DOCUMENTATION FOR APPROVAL
Each organisation will have a process for submitting process changes, and it is important that these
processes are followed exactly, change control and correct approvals processes are very important
within an organisation to ensure that all changes provided by and used within the organisation meet
the standards required.
Approvals processes will contain information on:
Who to submit the documentation to
How to submit the documentation
What will need to be included with documentation
FORWARD TO APPROPRIATE PERSON
The appropriate person that you should forward the documentation to will be decided by your
organisations submitting and approvals process for documentation.
Appropriate persons may include:
Authorised business representative
Management
Supervisor
TOPIC 4 –REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE
Technical problems are any issues that are caused by deficiency, incompatibilities or issues that relate
to or are caused by technology that is used as a part of the ICT systems to meet the needs of an
organisation.
Technical problems may include:
Security risks
Network communication issues
Bandwidth management
Connectivity issues
Compatibility issues
MANAGEMENT REQRUIEMENTS
There is a range of management requirements that pertain to ICT networks and any technical
problems that may arise.
It is essential to ensure that all management requirements are able to be effectively determined
through the use of appropriate analysis and planning methods.
PLANNING AND ANALYSIS METHODS FOR TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS
There is a range of planning and analysis methods that may be used for technical problems and
management requirements, and these may include:
DATA AND INFORMATION ANALYSIS
GAP ANALYSIS
TROUBLESHOOTING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING NETWORK
DIAGNOSTIC UTILITIES
WORK BREAKDOWN TOOLS FOR RESOURCE AND IMPLEMENTATION
PLANNING
DATA AND INFORMATION ANALYSIS
Analysing information is the systematic process of examining the data collected in a way that illustrates the correlations,
interrelationships and in patterns in data.
It is important that analysis is conducted so that trends and developments that are shown in the information that you have
collected about a subject can be reported on.
Careful analysis of information can provide:
The answers to certain problems
The relationship between two or more different factors
Why events have occurred
The probability of an event occurring
Information that leads to new ideas
Supporting information for an existing theory
Information related to performance
GAP ANALYSIS
A gap analysis is an in-depth review of current and desired scenarios in order to determine the gap
between these two situations.
TROUBLESHOOTING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING NETWORK DIAGNOSTIC UTILITIES
There is a range of troubleshooting tools and techniques that may be used and these including a range
of network diagnosing utilities such as:
Ping
Tracert or traceroute
Ipconfig
NSlookup utility
Netstat
WORK BREAKDOWN TOOLS FOR RESOURCE AND IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) sets out and defines the full scope of the work required to
deliver the management requirements for technical problems.
The WBS displays the full scope in a way that shows how each of the work element relates to each
other.
ASSESS AND DOCUMENT THE HARDWARE PLATFORM USED BY THE ORGANISATION AND NETWORK, AND THE SUBSEQUENT SECURITY GUIDELINES
REQUIRED
A hardware platform is a set of compatible hardware that can be used to run the organisations
software.
Within the ICT network hardware platforms will be used by the organisation and the network itself.
Assessments of the hardware platform that is used by the network and the organisation will involve:
Physical assessment
Reading of network architecture design plans
Reading of specifications sheets
HARDWARE PLATFORM COMPONENTS
The IT network elements are the range of elements that must make up the IT portion of the network
this will include the use of the internet and all digital communications.
IT network elements may include:
Gateway
Local area network (LAN) switch
Router
Server
Wireless network
Multimedia
SECURITY REQUIREMENTS
Security must be across multiple platforms and may include the following security protocols, standards and data
encryption requirements:
Authentication, authorisation and access control
Directory server security
Encryption
Kerberos security, such as pre-authentication and ticket validation
Network share permissions
Password security
Secure socket layer (SSL) certificates
Transport layer security (TLS):
COMPARE COMPETING AND COMPLEMENTARY INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS
When aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the strategic needs of an organisation, it will be
necessary to compare the competing and complementary internal and external operating
environments.
Operating environments that are competing will be doing so in order to obtain resources and manage
own needs.
Operating environments that are complementary are those that aid and assist each other.
IDENTIFY AND ASSESS TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCT DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATING AND FORECASTING VENDOR AND TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
It will be necessary to identify and assess the technology and product directions that can be used for
evaluating and forecasting vendor and technology trends.
CONDUCT A MARKET ANALYSIS
A market analysis must be conducted in order to identify and assess technology and product
directions within the ICT industry.
Market analysis may include investigations into:
New directions in products and technology
Areas of growth within the ICT industry
Competitor analysis
SUMMARY
Now that you have completed this unit, you should have the skills and knowledge to ensure
information and communications technology (ICT) services meet current and future internal
operational enterprise requirements.