1.

What are the primary differences between operational planning, tactical planning, and strategic planning?

2.

Identify and describe several reasons why strategic systems planning is so difficult.

3.

What assumptions in traditional strategy making no longer hold true?

4.

What is a sense-and-respond approach to planning?

5.

Describe Skandia Future Centers’ 3G teams.

6.

What is a strategic envelope?

7.

Describe Shell Oil’s action labs.

8.

What is the main contribution of the stages of growth theory to IS planning?

9.

What are critical success factors (CSFs)? How do they contribute to the systems planning process?

10.

Describe Porter’s five competitive forces.

11.

Describe the components of Porter’s value chain.

12.

What is the evolution of ways companies use information to add value, according to Rayport and Sviokla?

13.

Describe the four types of applications in the e-business value matrix.

14.

Briefly describe the goal of linkage analysis planning. List the three steps involved in conducting such an analysis.

15.

Briefly describe the four steps in scenario planning, as described by Markus.

1.

Which of the frameworks for systems planning seem most useful to you? Why?

2. an>

If you were in charge of systems planning for a small firm, what questions would you ask company officers to determine which planning approach(es) would be most appropriate?

3.

In 
Chapter 2
, we stated that strategies are out and visioning is in because no one can plan in turbulent times. This chapter states that planning is crucial. How would you reconcile these two viewpoints?

1.

Survey the current literature on systems planning. What other approaches or frameworks are not mentioned in this text? What automated products are available on the market to assist IS executives in the planning process?

2.

Visit the CIO of a local organization. What planning process is used? What is the planning horizon? To what degree do the systems plans and the business plans relate to each other?

3.

Create a simple information linkage analysis chart of your current personal relationships. Put yourself in the middle box and each relationship in its own box around you, with a line from you to each of them. Who has the power in each link? How might that power shift in the future? Which is the most important relationship to you? How could you make it more win-win?

4.

Ask the CIO of a nearby company what electronic channels his or her firm has in place. Ask about the benefits both parties receive in each link.