Final Paper: IT Acquisition Management - Course ABC, Semester 1

This assignment solution is a comprehensive analysis of IT Acquisition Management. It begins by defining IT Acquisition Management and its importance, differentiating it from commodity purchases. The paper then delves into the purposes of organization charts, flowcharts, and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), highlighting their similarities and differences. A significant portion of the paper focuses on the application of IT Economic Corporation templates, particularly the 12th template for efficient WBS creation and performance requirements. The solution includes a detailed breakdown of a Performance Work Statement (PWS) with required outcomes, performance standards, monitoring methods, and incentives/disincentives. The student expresses disagreement with a group's position on PWS suitability, arguing for its effectiveness in long-term and complex IT service contracts. Furthermore, the paper identifies and recommends solutions for potential risks in evaluation processes. Finally, it outlines guidelines for deciding on the performance of activities, differentiating between in-house and outsourced functions, and provides a case study analysis of a project manager's ethical responsibilities when dealing with discrepancies in team member time charging.

Final Paper
Acquisition Management
ABC
[Pick the date]

Final Paper 1
Question 1
Meaning of IT Acquisition Management:
IT Acquisition Management is the process by which the companies obtain the IT resources for
carrying out various activities of business like production, management, selling of goods,
procuring the raw material via the online channel etc. (Barton, 2014). The companies are well
aware of the criticality of the IT systems now-a-days and they focus on acquiring it in the right
manner. The management of IT acquisitions involves proper planning, and procurement. In
addition to this, the considerations like accessibility and security is also addressed.
Importance of IT Acquisition Management:
The information systems are the main assets for the companies now. The management is
required because they help the company in the long run by supporting the initiatives of the
business. When IT acquisition happens, the companies become more responsive to the
emerging opportunities and thus they get more clients for their business. Also, the acquisition
management helps in identifying the essential applications and the companies set the priorities
for their project.
Difference between IT acquisition management and commodity purchases:
IT acquisition management is more of a virtual process and commodity purchases is more of a
physical process. The commodity purchases happen through the futures contracts on the
exchanges that help in standardizing the quantity and the quality of the commodity that is
traded. But, IT acquisition management helps in facilitating the purchases of the commodities.
The purchases of commodities require physical delivery but the IT acquisition management is
mostly done on the systems and everything is managed in the IT world.

Final Paper 2
Question 2
The main purpose of organization chart:
The organization chart shows the hierarchical structure and the chain of command that flows in
an organization. It basically helps in making a pictorial representation of the structure of the
company and when an outsider views it, he can easily understand that what goes on in the
organization, how the work is flowing, what is the chain of command, etc. (Isermann, 2012). The
company is divided into the various levels of authority and that gets depicted in the chart. Also,
the chart makes it easy for the people to comprehend the relations between the departments
and the people in the company.
The main purpose of flow chart:
When ideas have to be represented in a graphical manner, then flowcharts are used. With the
help of these, the working of complex systems can be shown. The purpose of these is to
visualize something graphically that makes it more effective to understand and implement. It
helps in explaining the process clearly with the help of symbols and texts (Froeling, 2013). Also,
they help in giving a gist of the process flow in just one glance. One common use of flowcharts
is that they help in creating the process documentation
The main purpose of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS):
Work Breakdown Structure enables the project managers to plan their work in an efficient
manner. The main purpose of this is that it helps in reduction of the complicated activities to a
collection of few tasks (Koenigsberger, 2016). This helps the project manager as the tasks can
be overseen in an effective manner than the complex activities. Since these structures are
measurable, so the specific costs can be assigned by the project managers for each of the
tasks. Then, it also helps in keeping a track of the progress of the schedule of the project.

Final Paper 3
Organizational chart

Final Paper 4
Flow Chart

Final Paper 5
Work Breakdown Structure
Similarities and differences between organization chart, flow chart and WBS:
Similarities Differences
 All three gives a pictorial representation
in the form of chart that makes the
understanding of things easier.
 The main purpose of all of them is to
represent the flow of activities in the
company/project etc.
 The charts help in determining the
output of the activities that are planned.
 All the three are used for different
purposes. The purpose of organization
chart is to make the structure of the
company very clear, the use of flow
chart is to make the flow of activities
very clear and the propose of WBS is
to reduce the number of tasks.

Final Paper 6
Question 3
The most useful template for me was the 12th template out of all the IT Economic Corporation
templates. This is because the template made me prepare the work breakdown structure in the
most efficient manner. I could get the solution of my problem by making the Gantt chart. Using
this template enabled me to determine my objectives and the standards that were required for
implementing the solution. I was able to summarize all the performance requirements in the 12th
template. This made sure that nothing is missed and I was sure that the entire basis was
covered by me. Here, the performance work statement is used that laid the foundation of the
contract that requires to be modified for making up the oversight.
Question 4
Performance work statement
Required Outcomes Performance
Standards
Monitoring Methods Incentives/Dis-
incentives
The electronic health
records have
improved.
99% of the records
have improved
Random checks on
the records
+10% of the contract
price for 100%
improvement.
-10% of the contract
price if the
improvement is less
than 85%
The patients records
can be accessed and
updated, medications
can be prescribed, lab
results can be viewed
and communication
can be established
with the patients.
Also, the personal
work schedules can
be viewed.
99% things have
become accessible
Using the app for
accessing the records
and data
+10% of the contract
price for 100%
accessibility.
-10% of the contract
price if the
accessibility is less
than 85%

Final Paper 7
Question 5
I disagree with the group’s position and I think that PWS is suitable for long term as well as the
complex IT service contracts. The group says that it is unrealistic if we ask the agencies to
specify services at the time of contract and the terms must be clear, specific, objective and
measurable. According to me, when the services are not known in advance, one cannot rely on
the other party and simply enter into a contract with them without knowing what they are
capable of delivering. These things are included in the ‘terms of contract’ without which no
contract can be formed. If the group says that there are the terms of contact cannot be decided
in advance, then there is no point of taking services from anyone and entering into a valid
contact. Both the parties must be clear about the objectives that they wish to achieve in the long
term and fir that clear, measurable objective are required to be set in advance (Appelbaum,
2000). There should be scope for only minor changes that comes due to external environment.
The group says that this cannot happen when the future needs are not known in advance and
they are not fully understood. I believe that planning is the first and foremost thing before any
process or activity. Planning requires foreseeing the future and all the future plans and
processes are based on that. It is important because it helps us to now where we want to each
in the future. So, it is important to determine the future needs so that the present actions can be
performed.
The group also says that priorities and the requirements are set when the performance happens
and the circumstances and conditions cannot be overseen. I think that if the people who are
performing an activity does not know that what are the priorities or the things that they have to
take care while doing something, how can they perform a job.
So, PWS can work well with the long term contracts as well as with the complex IT systems.
Question 6
Risks:
 The evaluators may not agree with each other that can create a lot of differences in the
ratings.
 The identification of focus areas and the identification of differences is also a time
consuming task and they may miss on many things.
 The information that the evaluators use may not be from a valid source.
 The parameters on which the ratings are decided may differ from person to person. For
example, even if something has one negative, they may give it unsatisfactory so the
other positives are avoided.
Recommendations:
 There must be mediator who must be appointed for solving the issues between the
evaluators and enabling them in giving an objective judgment and rating.

Final Paper 8
 The focus areas must be based on the project, no hypothetical statements must be
encouraged.
 The source of information should be valid.
 The parameters should be based on certain pre-defined criteria.
Question 7
Guidelines for deciding the performance of activities:
 If the company is specialized in a function then that activity must be performed in-house,
otherwise it should be outsourced.
 If the organization is spending too much time on a particular activity and it is not able to
allocate time to other important things, then it must outsource that function or activity.
 If the organization does not have adequate resources and the cost of obtaining
resources is higher than the fee paid to contractor, then it should not do it in-house,
rather it should be sent to third party (Heywood, 2001).
 If the organization does not have the proper links, approaches or referrals for doing
something faster, then it should give that to a contractor who has established channels
of communication.
 The organization’s core business must not be sent to the contractor. So, if the IT is the
core business, then the company should spend time to perform the establishment of IT
systems in-house, otherwise it should focus on its core business that may be
procurement, delivery, production etc. and must outsource the IT systems.
 If the work is causing issues in the flexibility of company, then it should not be performed
in-house.
Question 8
In the given case, the project manager has discovered that two of his team members had
charged time to the project for 3-5days and they did not actually work on those days. But the
customer did not know about this and he counted the time while making the payments.
The project manager in this case should tell the customer about the problem. This will help in
paying the contractor accordingly, and this will help them in establishing good relations for the
future. Also, the two team members must be penalized for this act so that they do not damage
the reputation of the project manager in the future when he will work with other clients. The
customer must be made sure that his project did not have any issues and the processes will
work as planned. This will assure him that he gave the contract to the right party and he can
work with him in the future. The project manager has the responsibility of finishing the project
with effectiveness and efficiency. So, he must focus on that and if everything is on trach then he
can just let the customer know about this at the end of project and can give him the authority to
take any action or step for the future. He should also make sure than if the project suffers from
any issue in the future then he will help him and give it a priority.

Final Paper 9
References:
Appelbaum, E. (2000). Manufacturing advantage: Why high-performance work systems pay off.
Cornell University Press.
Barton, B. A., & Costanza, M. E. (2014). Data Acquisition, Management and Tracking.
Froeling, V., Meckelburg, K., Schreiter, N. F., Scheurig-Muenkler, C., Kamp, J., Maurer, M.
H., ... & Kroencke, T. J. (2013). Outcome of uterine artery embolization versus MR-guided high-
intensity focused ultrasound treatment for uterine fibroids: long-term results. European journal of
radiology, 82(12), 2265-2269.
Heywood, J. (2001). Outsourcing dilemma: the search for competitiveness, the. FT Press.
Isermann, R., Mannale, R., & Schmitt, K. (2012). Collision-avoidance systems PRORETA:
Situation analysis and intervention control. Control Engineering Practice, 20(11), 1236-1246.
Koenigsberger, F., & Tlusty, J. (2016). Machine tool structures. Elsevier.