Stakeholders and Boundaries in Strategic Information Systems Planning

Abstract

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is a specific subset of the overall Strategic Planning process for any organisation. This paper argues that current methods of SISP, and stakeholder discovery, produce unrepresentative lists of stakeholders and unacceptably narrow system boundaries resulting in a plan that contains insufficient knowledge about the organisation and its environment. To address this insufficiency, this paper shows that a more inclusive list of stakeholders can be obtained using the Framework and its tools introduced in this paper. The Framework introduced here includes a number of novel tools for system planning for the organisation in its environment. To grasp the complexity of a CIS and its stakeholders within an organisational context we have devised a diagrammatic model - the “Stakeholder Web”. The web shows a classification and grouping of stakeholders using a holistic view of the situation. The Framework also highlights the use of the Interaction Matrix, which is used to show existing (formal) communication links and commonalities of interest, between stakeholders. These two tools are used in conjunction with each other through a process of action research and participatory techniques in the organisation. The paper shows through a retrospective analysis of the case of UH (a university), that use of the proposed Framework throughout the process of SISP in this organisation, would have shortened the planning process and improved the system subsequently developed.