Information System Assignment: Career Development In IS Management

Question

Task:
Task Summary
You are required to write a 1500 words professional practice reflection report on information system assignment. This requires you to by reflect on your experiences in Master of Business Information Systems (MBIS), specifically the IS Capstone and how these experiences provided you with insights into your own future as an IT/IS Professional.

Context
You have been studying Information Systems through a lens of Business, as most of you will chose careers in IS management and analytics. Technology is a strategic part of any enterprise today, large or small. Throughout your degree, you have been developing an understanding and skills that enable you to work at a high level in these environments. You are soon to graduate and follow your career path. This assessment gives you an opportunity to reflect on how far you have come and where you wish to go.

Task Instructions
Write a 1500 words professional practice reflection addressing the following questions:

• Complete the skills audit to identify your level of skills and knowledge with compared to the nationally recognized ICT skills set needed for a career in ICT.
• Identify your two strongest skills and reflect on why those are your strongest. Link this to your experiences in the MBIS and your life in general (for example you might also be influenced by family, work experience, previous study, hobbies, volunteer work etc.)
• Identify the two skills that need the most work. As above, link this discussion to your experiences in the MBIS and your life in general.
• Now that you are about to graduate, how do these skills match the job/career that you want? Find a job advertisement and match the skills and knowledge wanted in the advertisement against your audit. What do you need to work on?
• Finally, you have identified your skills levels and how it relates to your career, now choose three skills and set yourself SMART* goals for the next six months to achieve your career objectives.

Answer

Introduction
It is evident herein information system assignment that the facet of rising challenges in today's technology-enabled work climate, where technology resources are regularly used for interaction, coordination, and deployment of project management activities; technology holds an important place in the scope of project management (Brewer & Dittman, 2018). The co-located project teams are gradually moving to the electronic medium for these activities. With the ever-increasing pace of change and the complexity of initiatives, it is critical for organizations to ensure a smooth flow of relevant data and the coordination of business activities. Without the use of information and communication technologies, the aspects of smooth coordination of software projects are going to be virtually impossible (Schwalbe, 2015). The area of interest for the study will encompass the identification of necessary ICT skills that are required for developing as an adequate professional in the IT sector. The key concepts that will be addressed in this report are the importance of ICT management and technology building knowledge in IT profession. The report will assess the different type of skills through the implementation of skills audit metrics. The report will also identify two of the strongest skills that are important in developing the career in IS management. In the report, SMART goals will be integrated for achieving the carrier objectives of developing three major skills.

Skills audit for identifying the level of skills and knowledge with compared to the nationally recognized ICT skills
I think I am vested with the proficiencies of the IT Infrastructure (ITOP) skill. It is because I have scored four out of five in the SFIA skill. I have scored such high indexes as I have extensive knowledge in operating IT infrastructure that supports virtualized environment. From the skills matrix audit, I have come to identify that the information and data management skills are one of my major strengths when it comes to evolve as a project manager in the ICT sector. The high scores of 3 in information and data management skills respectively in the skills audit has further provided evidence to the above statement. However, I have observed that my knowledge in the networking skills is not in par with the industry standards as I have only managed to score one out of five. Bourgeois (2015) has supported that the presence of the knowledge of networking architectures is important for developing as an IS professional. Hence, it can be analyzed that my (ITOP) and data management skills are in alignment with the industry standards but the knowledge in networking skills fails to meet the industry standards.

I think I am vested with the skills of user experience design as I seem to have credible knowledge in human factors as well as redefining design solutions to instigate positive user response. It is further evidenced from the skill matrix as I have scored 4 out of 5 in the particular skill. Hence, it can be analyzed that my skills in the user experience design meet the industry standards. I have recently developed my skills in python programming and hence it has contributed to my rise in the programming skills and has reflected on a high score of four out five in that particular skill. On top of that, I have registered a score of 3 out of 5 in the skills of system software and it signifies the presence of extensive knowledge in the systems development domain. Hence, it can be analysed that my skills and knowledge in the domain of technology building has been in coherence with the standards set by the national ICT skills.

One of the major findings of the skills audit is that I have been excelling in the project management skills as I have scored 5 out of 5 in the particular skill. It is attributed to the fact that I have recently gained significant knowledge in the PRINCE2 methodology. However, the information security skills are not present within my attributes as I have scored 2 out of 5. Hence it can you analyze that mine project management skills are in par with industry standards whereas my Information security skills and fails to meet the standards that are set by national ICT skills set.

Figure: Skills Audit by Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA)
(Source: Learner)

Identification of two strongest skills and reflection on why those are the strongest
Through the skills audit, I have identified that project management skill is one of my strongest skill. While I was pursuing my degree in Master of business Information Systems and I was working with the development of Information System where project tasks for the IS development were not sorted in a particular order. I used my experience in PRINCE2 methodology to analyse the weakness of the current task hierarchy and divide the task into initiation, planning, execution and closing phases. The presence of such activities is in alignment with the evaluation stage of Gibbs reflective cycle as the stage implies the importance of assessing the strength and weakness of experience. According to Adeani et al. (2015), the contribution of Gibbs reflective cycle is significant in improving reflective practices. While I was working with the development of an information system, I observed that the completion of the project was taking a lot of time, which is not considered appropriate for large-scale businesses. In order to resolve such issues, I was able to implement the principles of PRINCE2 methodology that helped in reducing the slack times and save the development time of the project.

Identification of the two skills that need the most work
One of the major skills that I need to work on is my knowledge in networking skills. During a lecture session in MBIS course, I was not able to answer many questions that were asked by lecturer about BUS and Star topology. Lim (2016) has supported that the knowledge about network topology is extremely important to grow as a professional in the IT domain. Hence, it can be analysed that the lack of knowledge in network topology is responsible for my weakness in networking skills and needs to be improved significantly.

One of the major skills that need to be improved is the information security skills. While studying in the MBIS course, I was going through recent research journals about the modern practices in information security but I was not able to understand the application of the modern security measures. On top of that, when I was managing a project of IS software development, I found out that my software was liable to multiple cyber attacks in the penetration test. The prevalence of such inadequacies in information security might render my IT project as and liability to the business and in turn might adversely affect my proficiency as a project manager in the IT sector. Hence, it can be implied that the information security skills requires a major improvement if I were to succeed as a credible IT project manager.

Skill needs to be worked on after comparing with job advertisement
From the job advertisement, I came to realize that teamwork skills is one of the major absentees from my skills on date and is one of the attributes that needs serious improvement. The experiences of such nature are in coherence with Conclusion stage of Gibbs reflective cycle as the phase implies on identifying the aspects that could be improved. Potter (2015) has supported that the Gibbs reflective cycle provides an in-depth assessment of the experience.

SMART goals for the next six months to achieve the career objectives
Three skills that have been selected for improvement are Information security skills, networking skills and teamwork skills. The SMART action plan has been provided below to achieve the career objectives of improving these three core skills. The activities are in coherence with the action stage of Gibbs reflective cycle as it emphasizes on the development of alternate course of action for improving the experience. In the works of He, Parkinson & Doyle (2018), Gibbs Reflective Cycle acts as a credible framework for reflecting on future actions.

Table: SMART Action Plan
(Source: Learner)

Conclusion
The report has been exemplary in identifying the skill that is necessary for developing the career in the domain of IS management. From the report, it has been understood that the use of Skills audit is extremely important to identify the personal strengths and weaknesses that contribute to the growth as an professional prospect in the IT domain. From the report, it has been observed that the programming skills and project management skills are one of my major strengths and these skills can contribute to my growth as an effective IT project manager. However, it has also been observed that the absence of networking and information security skills can adversely affect my development in the roles of a project manager in developing Business Information Systems. The initiatives of finding a job advertisement and matching a skills against the skills audit has been one of the major reflections of the reflective report as it has helped in identifying the teamwork skills as an attribute that requires improvement. The report has also shed light on improving three core skills through the use of SMART goals to achieve the career objective.

Reference List
Adeani, I. S., Febriani, R. B., Syafryadin, S., Mangana, A. V., Kurniawan, E., Ananda, J., & Maryam, S. (2015). Using GIBBS reflective cycle in making reflections of literary analysis. Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ), 6(2), 139-148.

Bourgeois, D. (2015). Information systems for business and beyond. The Saylor Foundation.

Brewer, J. L., & Dittman, K. C. (2018). Methods of IT project management. Purdue University Press.

He, K. N., Parkinson, L., & Doyle, A. K. (2018). Information system assignment Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle.

Lim, F. P. (2016). A Review-Analysis of Network Topologies for Microenterprises. Small, 3, 15-000.

Potter, C. (2015). Leadership development: an applied comparison of Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and Scharmer’s Theory U. Industrial and Commercial Training.

Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.