The Critical Operational 1

Running Head: The Critical Operational Strategic Need for IT Project: An Influential
Communications Approach.

Module 3 – Case Assignment

Course #: ITM524

Fundamentals of Information Technology Management

Introduction
 The Critical Operational 2

Most information technology (IT) courses (particularly at the undergraduate level) focus

primarily on the technical side of IT. However, as an IT professional enters the work world

he/she is face with a snowball of social issues. This is especially true if such IT professional is

stepping up the managerial ladder where an effective 360 degree communication will become

one of his/her most valuable tools for success. This paper begins with a discussion on the

importance communication has on IT success, follow by a discussion on how a College IT

Director can successfully use persuasive communication to convince a financial committee to

pass an IT budget. An outline of the budget can also be found page seven (7) of this paper.

Communication, the Key to IT Project Success: Oral, written and even non-verbal

communication is vital to IT success. The success of most projects, whether handled by a

dedicated project team or a cross-departmental team, depends upon a set of crucial

communication skills and techniques (Charvat, 2002). Project communications refer to the

specific behavior and techniques used to motivate, lead, delegate, and report back to all

stakeholders working on the project (Charvat, 2002).

According to Charvat (2002), there are three clear communication channels that

managers need to establish once a project has started, which are, the upward, the downward and

the lateral channels. The upward channel refers to the communication with senior executives,

which aims to highlight issues, risks and expectations as well as to socialist project funds and

garner senior executive support. The downward communication channel requires delegation

skills since the IT manager is required to provide directions to his/ her project team. In this

channel of communication the IT manager highlight tasks pending, schedule tasks dates and

communicate any other relevant information to his/ her team. And the lateral channel refers to
 The Critical Operational 3

the communication with clients, vendors and functional mangers, which involves negotiations

for resources, budgets and time allocation.

The communication with the clients is perhaps one of the most crucial one, since they are

the ones using the system in the end. If the IT manager fails to keep a client informed of his/ her

progress on a project, the relationship will probably fall apart (Freedman, 2000). Therefore,

clients should be informed at every opportunity. A good communication with the clients can

bring value to the engagement in a number of ways: It helps set clients’ expectations, acts as an

assurance factor that bolsters the client’s confidence, builds consensus around the project and

helps market its benefits, and gives the client and the various constituencies in the organization

an opportunity to give feedback on the results of the IT team efforts (Freedman, 2000).

During the IT project planning a communication plan should also be developed. Mochal

(2006), outlined a list of steps to follow when developing creative and proactive communication

plans: 1) Identify the project stakeholders (steering committee, sponsors, client, etc); 2)

Determine the communication needs for each stakeholder in order to disseminate the correct

information to the right person since not all stake have unique communication needs; 3)

Brainstorm how to meet the needs, which helps to determine the information each stakeholder

needs to know, how often they needs an update, and the best manner to deliver the information to

them; 4) Implement mandatory communication, which includes project status reports,

government required reports, legal reports, etc; 5) Prioritize the other communication options,

which will determine the effort required to create and distribute each of the identified

communication options outlined in step 3 (Mochal, 2006).

Selling the IT Budget: Selling an IT budget to an organization’s finance/ budget analysis

committee can be an extremely difficult task, especially when the budget is competing with other
 The Critical Operational 4

equally important departmental projects. In order for one to be successful in this venture he/she

must master the art of effective persuasive communication. It is the task of the IT Director of the

Bahamas Baptist College to effectively present an improvement IT project’s budget (see page) to

the institutions budget committee to assure its success.

In preparation for such an imperative presentation the IT Director need to do his home

work. The IT Director has to know the audience which he will be trying to persuade, in this case

the budged committee. Snap judgments about the proper 'pitch' to even a close work colleague to

gain support for an upgrade budget can come off-track (Myers, 2007). The Director should try to

know the committee’s knowledge of the project as well as their technical awareness, this will

allow him to better allocate the time spent between disseminating projects information and the

actual persuasion. When a presenter knows his/her audience he/she will be better able to present

the issues form the perspective of the audience. The focus of the presentation should be on the

benefits of the decider (budget committee) and/ or the system. Persuading others is not about the

presenter, it should be targeted on the other person/s, likely even the organization (2007).

Psychologically, persuasive communication is the act of attempting to persuade or alter

someone's beliefs, attitudes and, ultimately, behavior (Myers, 2007). In the presentation the IT

Director should use his knowledge of what consitutes persuasive communication to his

advantage. Take for example the intellectual element of persuasion which is how a person

perceives/ views a situation/ object (Myers, 2007). In order to sell the Virtual Learning

Opportunities (see budget) the IT manager should make reference to successful e-learning

programs that all the committee members are familiar with or have experienced. In other words

the Director would have setup the budget committee intellectually.

 The Critical Operational 5

If the BBC IT Director is to be successful in selling the IT budget he must know the

'persuasion influence factors!' There are four major (and often overlapping) factors which can

help to determine how effective the strategy chosen to influence the budget committee to pass

the IT budget will be. These are; (1) the message source, (2) believability of the message, (3)

environmental factors as well as (4) how well a message can be understood and retained (Myers,

2007). For example during the presentation the Director may ask one of the budget committee

members to share his/her experience on how the lack of proper Instructional Software is

prohibiting a rich learning experience at the institution. In this manner the Director is likely to

have a credible insider with a believable real story. The presentation room with all the members

of the budget committee is the ideal environment for such discussion. Finally, the committee

may well be persuaded by one of the committee members with common-sense experience rather

than listening to an IT Directors’ non interactive presentation. In short, the IT Director must take

notice of these persuasion influence factors to help insure others act favorably on his

recommendations (Myers, 2007).

In presenting the budget the IT Director should consider using a common five step

persuasion presentation sequence. First, clearly establish the needs that must be met (Myers,

2007). In his presentation the IT Director should highlight the need to expand the learning

experience beyond the traditional brick and mortar classroom which will increase the institutions

revenue since it will be able to accommodate more students both local and international. Second,

propose a plan for satisfying those needs (Myers, 2007). Here the IT Director needs to

demonstrate how he will satisfy the needs of e-learning. This is where he will show why the

institution needs to acquire new software and hardware that will facilitate e-learning as well as

employing the personnel with the required knowledge and skills to maintain them. Third, explain
 The Critical Operational 6

how the plan will be carried out in the detail required at the moment (Myers, 2007). Here the

Director needs to present a phase by phase perches and implementation of the resources listed in

the budget. For example he could break down the procurement over a three year period since

everything will not be required all at once. Fourth, describe how those results will satisfy each

need; and finally, ask for the deal...that the process be carried out (Myers, 2007).

During the presentation the IT Director should make sure not to overlook the non verbal

communication. If an executive wants to be perceived as credible and forthright, he or she has

got to think "outside the speech" and recognize the importance of nonverbal communication

(Goman, n.d). In order to persuade the committee the Director needs to be enthusiastic and show

interest in what he is presenting. If a person doesn't care about (or believe in) what he is saying,

his gestures will automatically become lethargic and restricted (Goman, n.d).

The Director should keep in mind that it is not over at the end of the presentation. He

needs to follow up to keep the decision made. Decision-makers get 'buyer's remorse,' come up

with alternative ideas they like better or otherwise sometimes decide to simply renege on a 'done

deal (Myers, 2007).' To prevent this from occurring, the Director need to constantly

communicate with the committee members, reminding them benefits that the organization will

derive from the project.

Conclusion

The key to IT success is an effective 360 degree communication. Selling an IT budget to

a financial committee requires effective persuasive communication skills. For BBC’s IT Director

to succeed at selling his IT budget, he has to know his audience (budget committee) so he can

effective present his persuasive arguments from his audience standpoint.

 The Critical Operational 7

The Bahamas College IT Budget for 2010 - 2012

School Year
2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Software Procurement 118,000 118,000 118,000
New Ksyward Applications 10,000 10,000 10,000
Remote Access to Network Resources 13,000 13,000 13,000
Virtual Learning Opportunities 15,000 15,000 15,000
Instructional Software 80,000 80,000 80,000

Hardware, Facilities & Networking 450,600 450,600 450,600

Equipment Components, Backup Tapes,
Adabpters, Cables, 38,000 38,000 38,000
Mobile Computer Labs (2 per year ) 50,000 50,000 50,000
Additional Computers (66 per year) 72,600 72,600 72,600
Servers (5 per year) 40,000 40,000 40,000
Network Switches, Routers 30,000 30,000 30,000
Replacement Computers (200) 220,000 220,000 220,000

Operation, Maint, Upgrade, Communications 289,590 289,590 289,590

Skyward Blk Hrs., Sch Mess, & Fus 15,000 15,000 15,000
Maintenance and Support 150,590 150,590 150,590
Netsmart, Arc Serve, Anti-Virus, Firewall,
Novell, Help Desk, etc.
Internet Service 4,000 4,000 4,000
AccessTV/Video Upgrade 15,000 15,000 15,000
Integration /Assessment Study of Network 4,000 4,000 4,000
Environmental Scan for Successful Partnerships 1,000 1,000 1,000

Professional Development 18,800 18,800 18,800

Skyward User Conferences 3,500 3,500 3,500
Technician Training/ Certification 9,300 9,300 9,300
Information Literacy 5,000 5,000 5,000
Educational Tech Competencies (ETC) 1,000 1,000 1,000

Human Resources in Support of Technology 65,000 65,000 65,000

Maintain Existing Technology Positions 65,000 65,000 65,000

Other 97,500 96,000 96,000

Assure instructional content 500 500 500
Review/Revise ETC 1,000 0 0
Administer ETC 500 0 0
Explore adult and student literacy opportunities 500 500 500
School library resources 95,000 95,000 95,000

Total 1,039,490 1,037,990 1,037,990

 The Critical Operational 8

Reference

Charvat, J. P., (2002). Project communications: A plan for getting your message across. Tech

Republic. Retrieved October 24, 2009 from

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1061894.html

Freedman, R. (2000). Keep clients in the loop with a good communication plan. Tech Republic.

Retrieved October 24, 2009 from

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1028905.html?tag=rbx ccnbtr1

Goman, C. K. (n.d.). The silent language of leadership. Retrieved October 31, 2009 from

http://www.hodu.com/silent-languages.html

Mochal, T. (2006). Use a communication plan for your larger, complex projects. Tech

Republic. Retrieved October 25, 2009 from

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6137190.html?tag=rbx ccnbtr1

Myers, K. (2007). The persuasion game: one key to an IT manager's long term success!

Retrieved October 31, 2009 from

http://cdad.tuiu.edu/CourseHomeModule.aspx?
course=781&term=82&module=3&page=custom2
The Critical Operational 9