IT Strategy in Action

James D. Mckeen | Queen’s University
Heather A. Smith | Queen’s University

URL: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,3110,0136036317,00.html

Based on a real company, IT Strategy in Action includes twelve mini-cases to help students understand how different IT management techniques are used in companies today.  Mini-cases are NOT simply abbreviated versions of standard, full-length business cases.  They differ in two significant ways:

• A Horizontal Perspective — These mini-cases take a slice through a number of coexistent issues.  Rather than looking for a solution to a specific problem, students analyzing these must first identify and prioritize the issues, mimicking real organizations–where the challenge lies in “knowing where to start.
• Highly Relevant Information — Unlike standard cases which inter-mix irrelevant information, each sentence exists for a reason and reflects relevant information.  As a result, students must analyze each case very carefully so as not to miss critical aspects of the situation.

Learn by Example

Teaching with mini-cases is very different than teaching with standard cases because students must learn and apply various skill sets to solve each problem.  Unique skills sets must apply, including:

• What first appears as a straight-forward “technology” problem, may in fact be a political problem OR one of five other technology problems, therefore much detective work is required.
• Problem identification and prioritization skills are essential for future managers to learn for the simple reason that it is not possible for organizations to tackle all of the problems concurrently.
• Students can learn to balance the problem solving skills learned in other classes with the new skill sets learned with solving these cases.