Each student will conduct an initial short field interview with either:
- An information systems/information technology professional (it is better if the interview subject was recently involved with an information system implemented in the past 2 years, but this is not required)
OR
- A business professional who was recently involved with a recently implemented information system (If you interview a business professional such as a manager then this individual should have been involved with an information system project implemented in the past 2 years)
Table of Contents
Some Themes/questions for your interview
- What type of job does your interview subject do? For whom?
- What projects is he/she currently working on for the organization What projects has he/she recently completed?
- What IT applications has the firm recently implemented?
- Were the most recently applications developed in-house, were they outsourced development or were they application software packages that were customized and purchased?
- How much time does he/she spend in each of the following activities?
- Gathering requirements
- Researching hardware/software options
- Documenting
- Programming
- Training and developing training materials/user manuals
- Customizing existing software
- Software maintenance
- Meetings
- Other activities?
Even though the actual team based PIR course project will be based upon a very specific and detailed list of questions, the instructor would like you to have think for yourself a bit more during this initial field interview assignment. Moreover, students are encouraged to not only cover these themes but to really try to go somewhat beyond them in delving out a potential target of study that appears feasible for the PIR report. The instructor will be considering this carefully when grading this assignment. The coherence and clarity of the completed assignment will also be assessed.
To get a better idea of what kind of information system would be suitable to study for the post-implementation audit project, please see the overview description for this Post-Implementation Review project. After doing so, you are welcome to pose questions to your instructor for further clarification should you need this.
This initial interview assignment can help you identify a target of study for the post implementation review project. Even if it does not, it will help prepare you for the field research tasks you will perform later as part of the PIR project.
By and large, this is probably why smaller organizations (like local small or medium sized businesses or local community organizations) tend to work better as a target of study for this Post-Implementation Review project. In these organizations, it is simply easier to determine the relevant informants and to gain their trust and willingness to participate.
Before you submit this interview, it should be edited by you into a well-written 2-3-page interview summary – it should not be a bare bones outline or transcript of your interview (though if your interviewee is remarkably articulate, it would be nice for you to quote them). Please ask your instructor for a sample of a good interview summary.
You will submit this to the instructor that is due by the date indicated on the course schedule as a WORD document uploaded into the assignment folder (Assessments –> Assignments –> Interview with IT Professional) .
Where do you start? (Some Tips for Finding an IT Professional to Interview)
OK, so many of you are now asking yourselves: where can I find an information technology professional to interview?
Here are some suggestions: (Note: the MIS 310 course instructors have recently noticed that students have increasingly had success in finding interviewees by searching and connecting on LinkedIn).
- If you work or worked part-time or full-time in any reasonably sized organization, it is likely that there are some IT workers around (like help desk staff, programmers, analysts, network technicians or even IT managers).
- If you work for a business or government organization, you should consider interviewing the IT/MIS director for your organization.
- Your interview subject can be someone you know who is not a co-worker: a friend, relative, neighbor, or anyone you know who works in IT.
- Think about your own network of people and organizations with which you are familiar. If you volunteer for an organization or you attend a place of worship, those are good places to start.
- Consider smaller organizations, like local small businesses or local community organizations. Small organizations tend to work better as a target of study for the Post-Implementation Review project because it is usually easier to gain their trust and willingness to participate.
- Some of the unique organizations where students have located an IT professional include:
- An assisted living facility where one student’s mom was a resident
- A food shelf where a student volunteered
- The corporate office for a restaurant chain where a student worked as a server
- The YMCA where a student exercised each week
- The corporate office for a gas station chain where a student worked
- The IT analyst at the student’s local library branch
- A student who was a former Eagle scout interviewed an IT director at the Boy Scouts of America
Chapter 1 in your textbook helpfully lists a number of IT job titles/occupations.
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