Summary: Understanding Information System Agility

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Introduction

They say the only thing constant in life is change. Unfortunately, the same applies in business. Responsiveness in business is one of the most important traits an organization can have. This relates to how well and how quickly an organization can adapt to changes within both its internal and external environments in order to keep up with changing stakeholder needs (Knabke & Olbrich, Understanding Information System Agility--The Example of Business Intelligence., 2013). In certain instances, being agile in their daily operations can mean the difference between survival and death. For those organizations who have mastered the ability of quickly responding to change, they get to reap the rewards of effectively competing within the …show more content…

The higher the level of integration, more efficient the IT/IS department is at enabling the business plan and thus organizational strategy. An organization can either have administrative integration which is considered the lowest level, sequential integration which is second, reciprocal integration which is third or full integration which is fourth (Thompson & King, 1997). Full integration which is the highest level of integration simply implies that there is a high degree of alignment between IS planning and organizational planning. The two planning processes occur concurrently and IS requirements are drafted based on what the organization strives to …show more content…

In order to incorporate agility in SISP, organizations need to move from command-and-control managing styles to management styles that promote empowered leadership and collaboration. This is important in ensuring that an organization has the right amount of autonomy but yet structured in a way that provides flexibility and quick response to change. Communication is also an important aspect with regards to how people conduct their dealings. Management in agile environments places great importance on knowledge management and teamwork because they want to limit the organization’s dependence of individual member’s tacit knowledge. A more people-centric approach needs to be adopted and object orientated technologies are highly favoured in agile settings – which might be a call for new skills (Knabke & Olbrich, Understanding Information System Agility--The Example of Business Intelligence., 2013). Ultimately, organizations want to be agile in order to better compete – be it through being first to the market, discovering new opportunities or neutralizing emerging

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