Part 1: Compose a 3-4 page essay on the topic (cover page is NOT included):
What Does It Take to be a Successful IT Manager?
In your essay you may wish to consider issues such as:
• What kinds of characteristics and skills do successful IT managers generally possess?
• Are successful IT managers born with these skills and characteristics or do they have to work hard to acquire them?
• Any controversial issues you may find in your reading.
Case assignment expectations:
Use information from the modular background readings as well as any good quality resource you can find. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.
The following items will be assessed in particular:
1. Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of what makes an IT manager successful.
2. Some in-text references to modular background readings.
Please note that these are not to be treated as questions to be answered with bullet points, but just as things to think about as you formulate your own ideas about the topic. Be sure to use appropriate academic referencing in your citations and references from the literature.
References:
1) Lee, S. M. and Lee, C. K. (April 2006), “IT managers' requisite skills,” Communications of the ACM, volume 49, issue 4
2) Sisco, M. (2003) “What makes a successful IT manager”? TechRepublic
3) Brewer, J. (2005) Project Managers, Can We Make Them or Just Make Them Better? Proceedings of the 6th conference on Information technology education, Conference On Information Technology Education (formerly CITC), Newark, NJ, USA, Pages:167-173
Part 2: You have been asked to become familiar with the characteristics and skills that are shared among successful IT managers, behaviors they tend to demonstrate, and actions they take.
Consider the question of what it takes to be a great IT manager.
Your task for this assignment is to use the knowledge you have learned in this module, and apply it to an IT manager, either yourself, someone you really admire, or someone has not done a great job. Make sure to use concrete examples to support your opinion. You will need an appropriate title page, 3-4 pages of solid descriptive narrative and appropriate citations and references.
If you are not currently working in an IT capacity, simply use a typical project setting from your current or a former work setting.