ICT601A Agile IT Project Management and Governance

Assessment 1: Case Study

Assessment Overview

Scenario:
In 1990, XYZ Financial Services Limited commenced its journey in the non-banking finance industry. XYZ Financial Services Limited has a vision to transform non-banking finance into a more accessible and customer focussed industry. Since 1990, XYZ has grown rapidly, providing finance to millions of individuals to buy cars and renovate their homes.

XYZ Financial Services Limited is guided by a firm belief in people, their dreams, and their potential to achieve those dreams. Hence, their socially inclusive business model facilitates loans to customers based not on their current financial status, but their future earning capacity. Today, as one of the leading non-banking finance companies, they are proud to have worked with over 3 million customers.

A newly appointed CEO for the company has commenced taking over from the founder. Since arriving at the organisation, the new CEO has found a business that is solid and growth focussed but with old IT systems, most of which have been there since the company started. The CEO has also found that the executive team is working in silos with no collective vision for the organisation and with little knowledge of IT governance and the value of investing in IT.

The organisation has been very successful and grown rapidly. However, the organisation’s technology has not kept pace with the size of the organisation and still uses the original systems from when the company was small. This has meant that the organisation has been receiving complaints from customers about slow services and also the processing of loans. Staff have also complained about having to work overtime to process loans due to the poor performance and stability of the loans systems. The lack of investment in IT is holding back the CEO’s strategy for expansion and investment in new products.

The board has approved a major investment in IT to upgrade the systems to the required scale of the organisation’s needs and to support and expand future growth.

However, the organisation has no IT governance framework and a poor project management culture. The organisation recognises that they cannot make a successful investment program in IT without good IT governance and project management. So, the CEO has engaged you as a consultant to advise them and the board of directors on implementing best practice in IT governance and project management.

Consultant's Report Requirements

You are required to write a report for the CEO and board that addresses the following areas:

1. Discuss the benefits of implementing an IT governance framework within the organisation.
2. Recommend and justify an IT governance model to use in the organisation.
3. Describe the role of project management in the IT context.
4. Discuss how to align project management with IT strategy.
5. Explain the difference between agile and traditional project management methodologies.