Information Technology Acquisition

Question 1

Given the ongoing technological advancement in the current business world, IT acquisition requirements continue to play a significant role. Technology acquisition is useful in boosting a business's competitive advantage by providing the tools needed to attain its goals efficiently. However, different issues make it difficult to identify and document the IT acquisition requirements. Such challenges include the non-functional requirements and the diversity of system users. For instance, the stakeholders might share diversified views when defining the needs and applications of the new IT systems to the firm.

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According to Gasca-Hurtado et al. (2018), the issue can occur when they share different views on the current organization's technological needs diversity can create security problems by introducing a system that is incompatible with the users due to poor planning. Thus, the challenge can be addressed by ensuring that the acquisition requirements align with the organizational desired goals (Gasca-Hurtado et al., 2018). Similarly, the acquisition process can focus on the functional requirements without considering the quality attributes. The challenge can occur because of the acquisition requirements regarding the system's performance, security and policies. The non-functional requirements make it harder to define the details regarding the information technology acquisition process. However, the issue can be solved by installing new policies that guide the acquisition process.

Question 2

 A contract is responsible for indicating rules and responsibilities among the parties involved. It can be changed by the parties to adjust the time limit, payment methods and delivery modes. However, adding, deleting or changing the requirements between approval and signing the contract is not permitted. Altering the contract's requirements can interfere with the duties played by the service provider (Jung et al., 2018). Moreover, changing the contract's requirements normally involves negotiation between the parties, which can result in delays. Deleting, changing or adding the requirement can also affect the service's quality and costs.  

Given that the resources and funds required are decided during the initial project, adding, deleting or changing requirements during a subsequent project should not be possible. For instance, adding or changing ht requirements will result in additional costs or a shortage of available resources. . The components required to finalize the subsequent project might also be affected by altering the requirements. It is, therefore, important to review the contract before signing it to ensure that the requirements are kept the same.

Question 3

A work breakdown structure requires a good understanding of the problem and the proposed solution due to the challenges involved. It is normally utilized to ensure that a project is completed on a deadline (Carstens & Richardson, 2019). The strategy of structuring a project entails breaking down the deliverable tasks from the beginning until the project is completed. My experience developing a work breakdown structure for an individual project took much work.

Despite breaking down the funds and resources that the project required to be completed, it took much work to estimate the time it would take to finalize each task. Each task required a different deadline to ensure that the entire project was completed on time. Addressing the problem required consulting an expert familiar with managing the time to handle differently derivable. It also included in-depth research to ensure the proposed solutions are broken down into derivable parts within the estimated time.

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References

Carstens, D. S., & Richardson, G. L. (2019). Developing the work breakdown structure (WBS). Project Management Tools and Techniques, 63–88. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429263163-8

Gasca-Hurtado, G. P., Arias, J. A., & Gómez, M. C. (n.d.). Technique for risk identification of software acquisition and Information Technologies. Computer Systems and Software Engineering, 1995–2010. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3923-0.ch083

Jung, H., Kosmopoulou, G., Lamarche, C., & Sicotte, R. (2018). Strategic bidding and contract renegotiation. International Economic Review, 60(2), 801–820. https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12368