Sample Paper

IT Consulting – Final Examination (50 Marks)

Professor Eapen George

Time: 1.5 Hours

Open Book / Open Notes / Closed Internet

Q1) a) Discuss the consulting and IT consulting life cycles (2 Marks)

b) Take the example of an Indian IT company you are familiar with and discuss the phases the company works in (2 Marks)

c) Suggest approaches or models that could be adopted by the Indian IT company to move into higher up phases (2 Marks)

d) Discuss how a consultancy organization would go about creating a new practice or service (3 Marks)

e) What key skill sets would consultants in the newly created practice arm require? Suggest skills development plans for the consultants (3 Marks)

Q2) You are SPJ Consultant. Your organization has just won a major government deal to deliver IT Consultancy services to implement and leverage social networking techniques within selected departments. A number of stakeholders are involved in this highly visible shared services project. Like most government projects of this nature, the terms and conditions are very stringent. It is, however, crucial for SPJ Consultants that a successful delivery of the engagement takes place.

a) Discuss how you would go about planning the engagement and the effects of the various activities on the practice metrics (4 Marks)

b) What risk mitigation plans would you have in place? (4 Marks)

Q3) You are a senior IT Consultant with SPJ Consultants. SPJ Consultants are a consultancy specializing in IT strategies and enterprise architectures. As part of an engagement to a healthcare service provider, you have to deliver an IT strategy workshop for senior managers. The organization is looking at consolidating the many standalone IT applications into an integrated IT environment. Make and document any assumptions necessary.

ü Detail how you would go about planning (5 Marks)

ü And running the workshop (5 Marks)

Q4) Kuala Lumpur Airport Authority is looking to maximize the business potential of its airport infrastructure and is considering developing an integrated hotel resort, hospital and life sciences research facility near the airport. As SPJ Consultants, you have been advising the Authority on the IT needs of such a venture. The requirements include an almost paperless environment with an integrated IT environment that enables the various entitles in the facility to work together and exchange information seamlessly. You have suggested an enterprise architecture study to develop the plans for the integrated IT environment, and have been requested to provide a sample output of what such a study would cover.

a) Enumerate the enterprise architecture elements you would include in the study (3 Marks)

b) Detail what you would provide in the requested sample output. Make any assumptions necessary (7 Marks)

Q5) Major auto manufacturers and their dealers have been looking at ways to increase sales and improve customer satisfaction during the challenging present economic environment

EasyDeal Private limited is a company formed by some major auto manufacturers to provide loan processing for their dealerships. The company takes the basic credit application for a car buyer, validates it and applies business rules to it, before sending it to lenders. The lender processes the application, and sends it back to the dealership. Dealers indicate that this loan processing facility has been a great help in quickly closing deals that might otherwise have taken longer, or not happened at all

a) Suggest how EasyDeal has addressed, or can address, business agility goals (2 Marks)

b) Analyze the scenario to identify the business services required (4 Marks)

c) Consider if and how the 4 view solution model can be applied in this case (4 Marks)