MGT 505 Managing in an Age of Information Technology Change sample papers, module by module

Reviewed by Douglas Renshaw, MBA Managing in an Age of Information Technology Change Aspen University Free custom samples in 24–48h

MGT 505 prepares managers to lead technology work they may not perform themselves, studying how IT departments operate, how software projects go wrong and how to manage the people who build and run systems.

The short version

Send the exact assignment or rubric from your classroom and a custom MGT 505 sample written to it lands in 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. MGT 505 is Aspen’s Managing in an Age of Information Technology Change course. It centers on the challenges that fast-paced, frequently changing IT environments present to managers, including factors common to IT departments, the symptoms of IT-related problems, the characteristics of software projects and the skills needed to manage IT personnel and IT projects. Searches like "MGT 505 module 3 assignment example", "MGT505 sample paper", and "MGT 505 module samples" land on this page.

What MGT 505 is really about

MGT 505 is a management course about technology, not a technical course. Students learn why software projects run late more often than other projects, how to read the early symptoms of an IT problem and how decisions about vendors, outsourcing and priorities shape what technology teams can deliver.

The course gives particular attention to people: hiring and keeping technical staff, managing specialists whose work a manager cannot easily judge, handling the friction between IT and the business units it serves and leading teams through constant change in tools and platforms.

What MGT 505’s assessments ask for

Expect an assessment of an IT department's problems, a software project risk analysis, a staffing and retention plan for technical employees, a vendor or outsourcing recommendation, an IT governance proposal and a recovery plan for a troubled technology project.

Where students lose points in MGT 505

Students lose marks by treating IT problems as purely technical, by ignoring how business decisions create IT failures, by recommending tools instead of management practices and by proposing project fixes without addressing scope and staffing.

The MGT 505 drawers

Module 1

MGT 505 Module 1 assignment example

Helping a non-technical operations vice president at a composite Mobile, Alabama, tile and flooring distributor decide how to manage a six-person IT department after its manager resigned, with Carr's argument that IT has become a commodity, Brynjolfsson and Hitt's evidence that IT pays off only with complementary changes in how work is organized, Bharadwaj's link between IT capability and profits, a table sorting the company's systems into utility and capability and a role for the manager. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 2

MGT 505 Module 2 assignment example

Diagnosing the IT department of a composite mid-size city in Kansas from its symptoms, a 140-request backlog, departments buying their own software, repeated outages and an exhausted staff, with Brooks's lessons on why adding people to late work makes it later, Peppard and Ward's view of IS capability as an organization-wide property, Ross, Beath and Goodhue's three IT assets, a table tracing each symptom to a cause and a plan built around a governance board and a cleaned-up backlog. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 3

MGT 505 Module 3 assignment example

Explaining to the board of a composite South Dakota grain cooperative why its farmer contract app is harder than a new grain bin, with Brooks's four essential difficulties of software, Boehm's risk-driven spiral model, Flyvbjerg and Budzier's evidence that IT projects carry fat-tail cost risk, a table comparing the app with the cooperative's construction projects and a plan built on short cycles and early tests with farmers. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 4

MGT 505 Module 4 assignment example

Producing a defensible estimate for rebuilding the website of a composite Nashville online musical instrument retailer after the team's four-month guess, with Jørgensen's review of expert estimation, Boehm's software cost estimation economics, Brooks's warning that people and months are not interchangeable, a table comparing three estimates and a range-based schedule with checkpoints. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 5

MGT 505 Module 5 assignment example

Reducing 25% annual turnover in the twelve-person software team of a composite Grand Island, Nebraska, farm equipment manufacturer, with Moore's evidence that work exhaustion drives IT turnover, Joseph, Ng, Koh and Ang's meta-analytic model of why IT professionals leave, Ang and Slaughter's comparison of contract and permanent IT workers, a table of causes from exit interviews and a plan built on workload limits, career paths and fewer contractors in core roles. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 6

MGT 505 Module 6 assignment example

Deciding which IT work a composite Joplin, Missouri, freight brokerage should keep, outsource or move to the cloud, with Lacity and Willcocks's finding that selective sourcing outperforms all-or-nothing choices, Lacity, Khan and Willcocks's review of outsourcing outcomes, Marston and colleagues' business view of cloud computing, a sourcing table for six services and contract and exit terms that limit lock-in. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 7

MGT 505 Module 7 assignment example

Designing IT governance for a composite three-county transit authority in central Pennsylvania where the board, operations and IT each decide technology spending separately, with Weill and Ross's five IT decision domains and governance archetypes, Chan and Reich's review of what alignment means, Luftman's maturity model for business and IT alignment, a decision rights table showing who decides each domain now and who should and a quarterly portfolio review. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 8

MGT 505 Module 8 assignment example

Deciding whether to rescue or stop a composite Minneapolis food cooperative's enterprise system rollout, now fourteen months late and $1.1 million over budget, with Keil's study of why software projects escalate, Keil, Mann and Rai's survey of escalation factors, Montealegre and Keil's four phases of de-escalation from the Denver airport baggage system, a table of escalation warning signs and a recovery plan with a stop point. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Using a MGT 505 sample the right way

Read a finished MGT 505 paper for how it traces a technology problem back to a management decision. Your organization's systems will differ, so keep the diagnosis method and use your own evidence.

MGT 505 questions, answered

Do I need technical skills for MGT 505?

No. The course is written for managers who lead technology work and focuses on decisions, people and projects rather than programming.

Why do software projects fail so often?

Common causes include unclear requirements, optimistic estimates, changing scope and weak communication between business users and developers.

What does IT governance mean?

The structures and processes an organization uses to decide which technology investments to make and to hold IT accountable for results.