| Course | MGT 505 Managing in an Age of Information Technology Change |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | MBA IT diagnosis |
| Length | About 1,035 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 505 Module 2
One Hundred Forty Requests and Nine Exhausted People: Diagnosing a City IT Department From Its Symptoms
Student Name
Master of Business Administration, Aspen University
MGT 505: Managing in an Age of Information Technology Change
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
One Hundred Forty Requests and Nine Exhausted People: Diagnosing a City IT Department From Its Symptoms
The City of Prairie Hills, a composite city of about 68,000 people in Kansas, runs its information technology through a department of nine: a director, three analysts, two network and server technicians, two help desk staff and a database administrator. The department supports 22 city departments, from police and utilities to parks and permits. Complaints have grown for two years. Department heads say requests take months, the permit system crashes regularly and calls to the help desk go unanswered. Two analysts resigned last year. The city council has proposed hiring three programmers. The city manager asked for a diagnosis before approving the cost.
The Symptoms
Several symptoms stand out. The request backlog holds 140 items, some three years old. At least six departments have bought software on their own, including a parks scheduling system and a police evidence tracker, without telling IT, which then must support systems it never reviewed. The permit system fails about twice a month, frustrating builders. Staff overtime averages twelve hours a week, and an engagement survey shows the IT team with the lowest morale in city government.
Why Adding People May Not Help
Brooks (1995) drew on his experience leading a large software project to describe what has become known as Brooks's law: adding people to a late software project makes it later. New staff must learn the systems from those already busy, and the number of communication paths grows faster than the number of people. More programmers might eventually help Prairie Hills, but hired into a department with no way to set priorities, they would spend months learning, take time from current staff and leave the underlying problem untouched.
Capability Belongs to the Whole Organization
Peppard and Ward (2004) argued that an organization's ability to get value from information systems is not located in the IT department alone. It depends on how business units define needs, set priorities, adopt systems and work with IT staff. Ross et al. (1996) described three IT assets that firms must build: a human asset of skilled IT staff who understand the business, a technology asset of shared, well-managed infrastructure, and a relationship asset of trust and shared responsibility between IT and business leaders. Prairie Hills has weaknesses in all three, but the relationship asset is weakest: departments see IT as a slow service desk, and IT sees departments as sources of unplanned work.
Tracing Symptoms to Causes
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| 140-request backlog | No process for setting priorities across departments; every request treated as urgent |
| Departments buying their own software | Slow responses push departments to act alone; no purchasing review |
| Permit system outages | Aging server with no assigned owner; patches skipped under workload |
| Help desk delays | Help desk staff pulled into projects |
| Low morale and resignations | Constant overtime; criticism without authority to set priorities |
What Department Heads Said
Interviews with eight department heads revealed frustration but also understanding. Most did not know what other departments had requested or why their own requests waited. The parks director bought scheduling software because a request for a simple online form had waited fourteen months; she did not know IT had been rebuilding the utility billing system, which affected every resident. Several heads said they would accept waiting if they understood the priorities and had a voice in setting them. This is the relationship asset Ross, Beath and Goodhue describe, and its absence explains much of the conflict.
What IT Staff Said
The IT staff described a different picture: every department head calling the director directly, each insisting their request was urgent, and no one with authority to say no. Analysts were moved between projects weekly as complaints came in, so few projects finished. The two analysts who resigned cited constant switching and overtime, not pay. Their accounts suggest that the department's productivity problem is largely created by the absence of agreed priorities.
Why Shadow IT Is a Signal
Departments buying their own software is not simply disobedience. It is a signal that IT cannot respond to needs at the speed departments require. Banning it without fixing response times would push needs underground. The purchasing rule recommended below pairs review with a promise: IT will review any proposed purchase within ten business days.
Recommendations
The city manager should create an IT steering committee of five department heads and the IT director, meeting monthly, to rank requests by value to residents and the city. The committee's first task will be to cull the backlog, closing requests no longer needed and ranking the rest. The permit system's server will be replaced within ninety days, with a named owner. A purchasing rule will require IT review before any department buys software. Help desk staff will be protected from project work. The hiring decision will wait six months, until the committee can see where capacity is truly short.
What the Steering Committee Will Do
The committee's charter will be short. It will meet monthly, review new requests above a set size, rank them against criteria agreed in its first meeting, such as safety, service to residents, legal requirements and cost savings, and publish the ranked list to all departments. Requests below the threshold will go to the help desk queue. The IT director will attend as a member, not as the person who must say no alone.
Costs
The steering committee costs department heads about two hours a month. Replacing the permit server costs about $28,000. Delaying the three programmer positions avoids roughly $260,000 a year of pay and benefit costs while the city learns where capacity is truly short; if the cleaned backlog still exceeds what the team can deliver, the committee will have the evidence to justify specific hires.
Measures
The city will track backlog size and age, permit system outages, help desk response times, unapproved software purchases and IT staff overtime and turnover.
Conclusion
Prairie Hills' IT symptoms point to causes in how the city sets priorities and works with its IT staff. Brooks's lessons warn that more programmers alone would not fix them, and Peppard and Ward and Ross, Beath and Goodhue show that IT capability depends on relationships across the organization.
References
Brooks, F. P., Jr. (1995). The mythical man-month: Essays on software engineering (Anniversary ed.). Addison-Wesley.
Peppard, J., & Ward, J. (2004). Beyond strategic information systems: Towards an IS capability. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 13(2), 167-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2004.02.002
Ross, J. W., Beath, C. M., & Goodhue, D. L. (1996). Develop long-term competitiveness through IT assets. Sloan Management Review, 38(1), 31-42.
What the MGT 505 Module 2 instructions ask for
Module 2 of Aspen's MGT 505 turns to the trouble signs managers see in IT departments and what lies behind them. A paper here generally diagnoses one department's problems from its symptoms and recommends remedies aimed at causes. Follow your classroom's Module 2 prompt for requirements; this example examines a city's IT department. List the symptoms with evidence, such as backlog counts, outage records and staff turnover. Use research to explain how IT problems arise, including causes outside the IT department. Trace each symptom to likely causes. Consider whether obvious fixes, such as adding staff, would help. Recommend changes in priorities, relationships and processes, and set measures.
How this MGT 505 Module 2 example is built
The paper opens with the City of Prairie Hills, whose IT department supports 22 departments with nine staff. The council has proposed hiring three programmers. Brooks's book on software engineering explains why adding people to a late project makes it later, as new staff must be trained and coordination grows. Peppard and Ward's Journal of Strategic Information Systems article argues that IS capability depends on how the whole organization works with IT, not only on the IT unit. Ross, Beath and Goodhue's Sloan Management Review article describes human, technology and relationship assets. A table traces symptoms to causes: the backlog to having no way to set priorities across departments, shadow purchases to slow responses and the outages to an unpatched server no one owns. The plan creates an IT steering committee of department heads, culls the backlog and fixes the permit system first.
Reading the MGT 505 Module 2 grading rubric
Diagnosis papers are graded on separating symptoms from causes, using research to explain how IT problems arise and recommending changes that address causes. This example shows that the council's proposed fix, more programmers, treats a symptom. Brooks's lessons explain why. Peppard and Ward and Ross, Beath and Goodhue shift attention to how departments and IT work together. The table makes the diagnosis traceable, interviews with both department heads and IT staff support it and the plan's measures test whether causes have been fixed rather than symptoms hidden.
MGT 505 Module 2 help: mistakes that cost marks
IT diagnosis papers often stop at listing problems or blame the IT staff. Separate symptoms from causes, and look for causes in how the organization works with IT, such as how priorities are set. Another weakness is recommending more staff or new software without asking why work is late. Use research on software work and IT capability. Talk to the people who request IT work, not only to IT staff. Recommend changes with owners and dates. Finally, measure whether the causes change, not only whether symptoms ease for a month. Hear from both sides, the people who request work and the people who do it.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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MGT 505 Module 2 questions, answered
What does MGT 505 Module 2 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 505 covers IT department problems and their symptoms in this module, so an MBA paper diagnosing an IT department and recommending remedies is typical. Look at your classroom prompt.
Why does adding programmers not always help?
Brooks observed that adding people to a late software project often makes it later, because new people must be trained and communication grows.
What is IS capability?
Peppard and Ward describe it as an organization-wide ability to use information systems for value, depending on business units as well as the IT department.
Where can I find a free MGT 505 Module 2 sample paper?
The example above diagnoses a city IT department's backlog, outages and shadow purchases and recommends a governance board and backlog cleanup.
What is shadow IT?
Technology bought or built by departments without the IT department's knowledge, often a symptom of slow IT responses and weak governance.