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 Contents vii

Section II   IT Governance 87

Chapter 7 Creating IT Shared Services 88

IT Shared Services: An Overview 89
IT Shared Services: Pros and Cons 92
IT Shared Services: Key Organizational Success Factors 93
Identifying Candidate Services 94
An Integrated Model of IT Shared Services 95
Recommmendations for Creating Effective IT
Shared Services 96
Conclusion 99 • References 99

Chapter 8 A Management Framework for

IT Sourcing 100
A Maturity Model for IT Functions 101
IT Sourcing Options: Theory Versus Practice 105
The “Real” Decision Criteria 109
Decision Criterion #1: Flexibility 109
Decision Criterion #2: Control 109
Decision Criterion #3: Knowledge Enhancement 110
Decision Criterion #4: Business Exigency 110
A Decision Framework for Sourcing IT Functions 111
Identify Your Core IT Functions 111
Create a “Function Sourcing” Profile 111
Evolve Full-Time IT Personnel 113
Encourage Exploration of the Whole Range
of Sourcing Options 114
Combine Sourcing Options Strategically 114
A Management Framework for Successful
Sourcing 115
Develop a Sourcing Strategy 115
Develop a Risk Mitigation Strategy 115
Develop a Governance Strategy 116
Understand the Cost Structures 116
Conclusion 117 • References 117

Chapter 9 The IT Budgeting Process 118

Key Concepts in IT Budgeting 119
The Importance of Budgets 121
The IT Planning and Budget Process 123
viii Contents

Corporate Processes 123

IT Processes 125
Assess Actual IT Spending 126
IT Budgeting Practices That Deliver Value 127
Conclusion 128 • References 129

Chapter 10 Managing IT- Based Risk 130

A Holistic View of IT-Based Risk 131
Holistic Risk Management: A Portrait 134
Developing a Risk Management Framework 135
Improving Risk Management Capabilities 138
Conclusion 139 • References 140
Appendix A A Selection of Risk Classification
Schemes 141

Chapter 11 Information Management: The Nexus

of Business and IT 142
Information Management: How Does It Fit? 143
A Framework For IM 145
Stage One: Develop an IM Policy 145
Stage Two: Articulate the Operational
Components 145
Stage Three: Establish Information Stewardship 146
Stage Four: Build Information Standards 147
Issues In IM 148
Culture and Behavior 148
Information Risk Management 149
Information Value 150
Privacy 150
Knowledge Management 151
The Knowing–Doing Gap 151
Getting Started in IM 151
Conclusion 153 • References 154
Appendix A Elements of IM Operations 155

Mini Cases
Building Shared Services at RR Communications 156
Enterprise Architecture at Nationstate Insurance 160
IT Investment at North American Financial 165
 Contents ix

Section III   IT-Enabled Innovation 169

Chapter 12 Innovation with IT 170

The Need for Innovation: An Historical
Perspective 171
The Need for Innovation Now 171
Understanding Innovation 172
The Value of Innovation 174
Innovation Essentials: Motivation, Support,
and Direction 175
Challenges for IT leaders 177
Facilitating Innovation 179
Conclusion 180 • References 181

Chapter 13 Big Data and Social Computing 182

The Social Media/Big Data Opportunity 183
Delivering Business Value with Big Data 185
Innovating with Big Data 189
Pulling in Two Different Directions: The Challenge
for IT Managers 190
First Steps for IT Leaders 192
Conclusion 193 • References 194

Chapter 14 Improving the Customer Experience:

An IT Perspective 195
Customer Experience and Business value 196
Many Dimensions of Customer Experience 197
The Role of Technology in Customer Experience 199
Customer Experience Essentials for IT 200
First Steps to Improving Customer Experience 203
Conclusion 204 • References 204

Chapter 15 Building Business Intelligence 206

Understanding Business Intelligence 207
The Need for Business Intelligence 208
The Challenge of Business Intelligence 209
The Role of IT in Business Intelligence 211
Improving Business Intelligence 213
Conclusion 216 • References 216
x Contents

Chapter 16 Enabling Collaboration with IT 218

Why Collaborate? 219
Characteristics of Collaboration 222
Components of Successful Collaboration 225
The Role of IT in Collaboration 227
First Steps for Facilitating Effective Collaboration 229
Conclusion 231 • References 232

Mini Cases
Innovation at International Foods 234
Consumerization of Technology at IFG 239
CRM at Minitrex 243
Customer Service at Datatronics 246

Section IV  IT Portfolio Development and Management 251

Chapter 17 Application Portfolio Management 252

The Applications Quagmire 253
The Benefits of a Portfolio Perspective 254
Making APM Happen 256
Capability 1: Strategy and Governance 258
Capability 2: Inventory Management 262
Capability 3: Reporting and Rationalization 263
Key Lessons Learned 264
Conclusion 265 • References 265
Appendix A Application Information 266

Chapter 18 Managing IT Demand 270

Understanding IT Demand 271
The Economics of Demand Management 273
Three Tools for Demand management 273
Key Organizational Enablers for Effective Demand
Management 274
Strategic Initiative Management 275
Application Portfolio Management 276
Enterprise Architecture 276
Business–IT Partnership 277
Governance and Transparency 279
Conclusion 281 • References 281
 Contents xi

Chapter 19 Creating and Evolving a Technology

Roadmap 283
What is a Technology Roadmap? 284
The Benefits of a Technology Roadmap 285
External Benefits (Effectiveness) 285
Internal Benefits (Efficiency) 286
Elements of the Technology Roadmap 286
Activity #1: Guiding Principles 287
Activity #2: Assess Current Technology 288
Activity #3: Analyze Gaps 289
Activity #4: Evaluate Technology
Landscape 290
Activity #5: Describe Future Technology 291
Activity #6: Outline Migration Strategy 292
Activity #7: Establish Governance 292
Practical Steps for Developing a Technology
Roadmap 294
Conclusion 295 • References 295
Appendix A Principles to Guide a Migration
Strategy 296

Chapter 20 Enhancing Development

Productivity 297
The Problem with System Development 298
Trends in System Development 299
Obstacles to Improving System Development
Productivity 302
Improving System Development Productivity: What we
know that Works 304
Next Steps to Improving System Development
Productivity 306
Conclusion 308 • References 308

Chapter 21 Information Delivery: IT’s Evolving Role 310

Information and IT: Why Now? 311
Delivering Value Through Information 312
Effective Information Delivery 316
New Information Skills 316
New Information Roles 317
New Information Practices 317
xii Contents

New Information Strategies 318

The Future of Information Delivery 319
Conclusion 321 • References 322

Mini Cases
Project Management at MM 324
Working Smarter at Continental Furniture International 328
Managing Technology at Genex Fuels 333
Index 336
 Preface

Today, with information technology (IT) driving constant business transformation,

overwhelming organizations with information, enabling 24/7 global operations, and
undermining traditional business models, the challenge for business leaders is not
simply to manage IT, it is to use IT to deliver business value. Whereas until fairly recently,
decisions about IT could be safely delegated to technology specialists after a business
strategy had been developed, IT is now so closely integrated with business that, as one
CIO explained to us, “We can no longer deliver business solutions in our company
without using technology so IT and business strategy must constantly interact with
each other.”

What’s New in This Third Edition?

• Six new chapters focusing on current critical issues in IT management, including
IT shared services; big data and social computing; business intelligence; manag-
ing IT demand; improving the customer experience; and enhancing development
productivity.
• Two significantly revised chapters: on delivering IT functions through different
resourcing options; and innovating with IT.
• Two new mini cases based on real companies and real IT management situations:
Working Smarter at Continental Furniture and Enterprise Architecture at Nationstate
Insurance.
• A revised structure based on reader feedback with six chapters and two mini cases
from the second edition being moved to the Web site.

All too often, in our efforts to prepare future executives to deal effectively with
the issues of IT strategy and management, we lead them into a foreign country where
they encounter a different language, different culture, and different customs. Acronyms
(e.g., SOA, FTP/IP, SDLC, ITIL, ERP), buzzwords (e.g., asymmetric encryption, proxy
servers, agile, enterprise service bus), and the widely adopted practice of abstraction
(e.g., Is a software monitor a person, place, or thing?) present formidable “barriers to
entry” to the technologically uninitiated, but more important, they obscure the impor-
tance of teaching students how to make business decisions about a key organizational
resource. By taking a critical issues perspective, IT Strategy: Issues and Practices treats IT
as a tool to be leveraged to save and/or make money or transform an organization—not
as a study by itself.
As in the first two editions of this book, this third edition combines the experi-
ences and insights of many senior IT managers from leading-edge organizations with
thorough academic research to bring important issues in IT management to life and
demonstrate how IT strategy is put into action in contemporary businesses. This new
edition has been designed around an enhanced set of critical real-world issues in IT
management today, such as innovating with IT, working with big data and social media,

xiii
xiv Preface

enhancing customer experience, and designing for business intelligence and introduces
students to the challenges of making IT decisions that will have significant impacts on
how businesses function and deliver value to stakeholders.
IT Strategy: Issues and Practices focuses on how IT is changing and will continue to
change organizations as we now know them. However, rather than learning concepts
“free of context,” students are introduced to the complex decisions facing real organi-
zations by means of a number of mini cases. These provide an opportunity to apply
the models/theories/frameworks presented and help students integrate and assimilate
this material. By the end of the book, students will have the confidence and ability to
tackle the tough issues regarding IT management and strategy and a clear understand-
ing of their importance in delivering business value.

Key Features of This Book

• A focus on IT management issues as opposed to technology issues
• Critical IT issues explored within their organizational contexts
• Readily applicable models and frameworks for implementing IT strategies
• Mini cases to animate issues and focus classroom discussions on real-world deci-
sions, enabling problem-based learning
• Proven strategies and best practices from leading-edge organizations
• Useful and practical advice and guidelines for delivering value with IT
• Extensive teaching notes for all mini cases

A Different Approach to Teaching IT Strategy

The real world of IT is one of issues—critical issues—such as the following:
• How do we know if we are getting value from our IT investment?
• How can we innovate with IT?
• What specific IT functions should we seek from external providers?
• How do we build an IT leadership team that is a trusted partner with the business?
• How do we enhance IT capabilities?
• What is IT’s role in creating an intelligent business?
• How can we best take advantage of new technologies, such as big data and social
media, in our business?
• How can we manage IT risk?
However, the majority of management information systems (MIS) textbooks are orga-
nized by system category (e.g., supply chain, customer relationship m
­ anagement, enterprise
resource planning), by system component (e.g., hardware, software, ­networks), by system
function (e.g., marketing, financial, human resources), by s­ystem type (e.g., transactional,
decisional, strategic), or by a combination of these. Unfortunately, such an organization
does not promote an understanding of IT management in practice.
IT Strategy: Issues and Practices tackles the real-world challenges of IT manage-
ment. First, it explores a set of the most important issues facing IT managers today, and
second, it provides a series of mini cases that present these critical IT issues within the
context of real organizations. By focusing the text as well as the mini cases on today’s
critical issues, the book naturally reinforces problem-based learning.
 Preface xv

IT Strategy: Issues and Practices includes thirteen mini cases—each based on a real
company presented anonymously.1 Mini cases are not simply abbreviated versions of
standard, full-length business cases. They differ in two significant ways:
1. A horizontal perspective. Unlike standard cases that develop a single issue within
an organizational setting (i.e., a “vertical” slice of organizational life), mini cases
take a “horizontal” slice through a number of coexistent issues. Rather than looking
for a solution to a specific problem, as in a standard case, students analyzing a mini
case must first identify and prioritize the issues embedded within the case. This mim-
ics real life in organizations where the challenge lies in “knowing where to start” as
opposed to “solving a predefined problem.”
2. Highly relevant information. Mini cases are densely written. Unlike standard
cases, which intermix irrelevant information, in a mini case, each sentence exists for
a reason and reflects relevant information. As a result, students must analyze each
case very carefully so as not to miss critical aspects of the situation.
Teaching with mini cases is, thus, very different than teaching with standard cases.
With mini cases, students must determine what is really going on within the organiza-
tion. What first appears as a straightforward “technology” problem may in fact be a
political problem or one of five other “technology” problems. Detective work is, there-
fore, required. The problem identification and prioritization skills needed are essential
skills for future managers to learn for the simple reason that it is not possible for organi-
zations to tackle all of their problems concurrently. Mini cases help teach these skills to
students and can balance the problem-solving skills learned in other classes. Best of all,
detective work is fun and promotes lively classroom discussion.
To assist instructors, extensive teaching notes are available for all mini cases. Developed
by the authors and based on “tried and true” in-class experience, these notes include case
summaries, identify the key issues within each case, present ancillary i­ nformation about the
company/industry represented in the case, and offer guidelines for organizing the class-
room discussion. Because of the structure of these mini cases and their embedded issues, it
is common for teaching notes to exceed the length of the actual mini case!
This book is most appropriate for MIS courses where the goal is to understand how
IT delivers organizational value. These courses are frequently labeled “IT Strategy” or
“IT Management” and are offered within undergraduate as well as MBA programs. For
undergraduate juniors and seniors in business and commerce programs, this is usually
the “capstone” MIS course. For MBA students, this course may be the compulsory core
course in MIS, or it may be an elective course.
Each chapter and mini case in this book has been thoroughly tested in a variety
of undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs at Queen’s School of Business.2

1
We are unable to identify these leading-edge companies by agreements established as part of our overall
research program (described later).
2
Queen’s School of Business is one of the world’s premier business schools, with a faculty team renowned
for its business experience and academic credentials. The School has earned international recognition for
its innovative approaches to team-based and experiential learning. In addition to its highly acclaimed MBA
programs, Queen’s School of Business is also home to Canada’s most prestigious undergraduate business
program and several outstanding graduate programs. As well, the School is one of the world’s largest and
most respected providers of executive education.
xvi Preface

These materials have proven highly successful within all programs because we adapt
how the material is presented according to the level of the students. Whereas under-
graduate students “learn” about critical business issues from the book and mini cases
for the first time, graduate students are able to “relate” to these same critical issues
based on their previous business experience. As a result, graduate students are able to
introduce personal experiences into the discussion of these critical IT issues.

Organization of This Book

One of the advantages of an issues-focused structure is that chapters can be approached
in any order because they do not build on one another. Chapter order is immaterial; that
is, one does not need to read the first three chapters to understand the fourth. This pro-
vides an instructor with maximum flexibility to organize a course as he or she sees fit.
Thus, within different courses/programs, the order of topics can be changed to focus on
different IT concepts.
Furthermore, because each mini case includes multiple issues, they, too, can be
used to serve different purposes. For example, the mini case “Building Shared Services
at RR Communications” can be used to focus on issues of governance, organizational
structure, and/or change management just as easily as shared services. The result is a
rich set of instructional materials that lends itself well to a variety of pedagogical appli-
cations, particularly problem-based learning, and that clearly illustrates the reality of IT
strategy in action.
The book is organized into four sections, each emphasizing a key component of
developing and delivering effective IT strategy:
• Section I: Delivering Value with IT is designed to examine the complex ways that
IT and business value are related. Over the past twenty years, researchers and prac-
titioners have come to understand that “business value” can mean many d ­ ifferent
things when applied to IT. Chapter 1 (Developing and Delivering on the IT Value
Proposition) explores these concepts in depth. Unlike the simplistic value propo-
sitions often used when implementing IT in organizations, this c­ hapter ­presents
“value” as a multilayered business construct that must be effectively m ­ anaged at
several levels if technology is to achieve the benefits expected. Chapter 2 (Developing
IT Strategy for Business Value) examines the dynamic i­nterrelationship between
business and IT strategy and looks at the processes and critical s­uccess ­factors
used by organizations to ensure that both are well aligned. Chapter 3 (Linking IT
to Business Metrics) discusses new ways of measuring IT’s e­ ffectiveness that pro-
mote closer business–IT alignment and help drive greater business value. Chapter
4 (Building a Strong Relationship with the Business) examines the nature of the
business–IT relationship and the characteristics of an effective relationship that
delivers real value to the enterprise. Chapter 5 (Communicating with Business
Managers) explores the business and interpersonal competencies that IT staff will
need in order to do their jobs effectively over the next five to seven years and what
companies should be doing to develop them. Finally, Chapter 6 (Building Better IT
Leaders from the Bottom Up) tackles the increasing need for improved leadership
skills in all IT staff and examines the expectations of the business for strategic and
innovative guidance from IT.
 Preface xvii

In the mini cases associated with this section, the concepts of delivering
value with IT are explored in a number of different ways. We see business and
IT ­executives at Hefty Hardware grappling with conflicting priorities and per-
spectives and how best to work together to achieve the company’s strategy. In
“Investing in TUFS,” CIO Martin Drysdale watches as all of the work his IT depart-
ment has put into a major new system fails to deliver value. And the “IT Planning
at ModMeters” mini case follows CIO Brian Smith’s efforts to create a strategic
IT plan that will align with business strategy, keep IT running, and not increase
IT’s budget.
• Section II: IT Governance explores key concepts in how the IT organization is
structured and managed to effectively deliver IT products and services to the orga-
nization. Chapter 7 (IT Shared Services) discusses how IT shared services should be
selected, organized, managed, and governed to achieve improved organizational
performance. Chapter 8 (A Management Framework for IT Sourcing) examines
how organizations are choosing to source and deliver different types of IT functions
and presents a framework to guide sourcing decisions. Chapter 9 (The IT Budgeting
Process) describes the “evil twin” of IT strategy, discussing how budgeting mecha-
nisms can significantly undermine effective business strategies and suggesting
practices for addressing this problem while maintaining traditional fiscal account-
ability. Chapter 10 (Managing IT-based Risk) describes how many IT organizations
have been given the responsibility of not only managing risk in their own activities
(i.e., project development, operations, and delivering business strategy) but also
of managing IT-based risk in all company activities (e.g., mobile computing, file
sharing, and online access to information and software) and the need for a holistic
framework to understand and deal with risk effectively. Chapter 11 (Information
Management: The Nexus of Business and IT) describes how new organizational
needs for more useful and integrated information are driving the development of
business-oriented functions within IT that focus specifically on information and
knowledge, as opposed to applications and data.
The mini cases in this section examine the difficulties of managing com-
plex IT issues when they intersect substantially with important business issues.
In “Building Shared Services at RR Communications,” we see an IT organiza-
tion in transition from a traditional divisional structure and governance model
to a more centralized enterprise model, and the long-term challenges experi-
enced by CIO Vince Patton in changing both business and IT practices, includ-
ing information management and delivery, to support this new approach. In
“Enterprise Architecture at Nationstate Insurance,” CIO Jane Denton endeavors
to make IT more flexible and agile, while incorporating new and emerging tech-
nologies into its strategy. In “IT Investment at North American Financial,” we
show the opportunities and challenges involved in prioritizing and resourcing
enterprisewide IT projects and monitoring that anticipated benefits are being
achieved.
• Section III: IT-Enabled Innovation discusses some of the ways technology is
being used to transform organizations. Chapter 12 (Innovation with IT) examines
the nature and importance of innovation with IT and describes a typical inno-
vation life cycle. Chapter 13 (Big Data and Social Computing) discusses how IT
leaders are incorporating big data and social media concepts and technologies
xviii Preface

to successfully deliver business value in new ways. Chapter 14 (Improving the

Customer Experience: An IT Perspective) explores the IT function’s role in creating
and improving an organization’s customer experiences and the role of technology
in helping companies to understand and learn from their customers’ experiences.
Chapter 15 (Building Business Intelligence) looks at the nature of business intelli-
gence and its relationship to data, information, and knowledge and how IT can be
used to build a more intelligent organization. Chapter 16 (Enabling Collaboration
with IT) identifies the principal forms of collaboration used in organizations, the
primary business drivers involved in them, how their business value is measured,
and the roles of IT and the business in enabling collaboration.
The mini cases in this section focus on the key challenges companies face in
innovating with IT. “Innovation at International Foods” contrasts the need for pro-
cess and control in corporate IT with the strong push to innovate with technology
and the difficulties that ensue from the clash of style and culture. “Consumerization
of Technology at IFG” looks at issues such as “bring your own device” (BYOD) to
the workplace. In “CRM at Minitrex,” we see some of the internal technological and
political conflicts that result from a strategic decision to become more customercen-
tric. Finally, “Customer Service at Datatronics” explores the importance of present-
ing unified, customer-facing IT to customers.
• Section IV: IT Portfolio Development and Management looks at how the IT
function must transform itself to be able to deliver business value effectively in
the future. Chapter 17 (Application Portfolio Management) describes the ongoing
management process of categorizing, assessing, and rationalizing the IT application
portfolio. Chapter 18 (Managing IT Demand) looks at the often neglected issue of
demand management (as opposed to supply management), explores the root causes
of the demand for IT services, and identifies a number of tools and enablers to
facilitate more effective demand management. Chapter 19 (Creating and Evolving
a Technology Roadmap) examines the challenges IT managers face in implement-
ing new infrastructure, technology standards, and types of technology in their real-
world business and technical environments, which is composed of a huge variety of
hardware, software, applications, and other technologies, some of which date back
more than thirty years. Chapter 20 (Enhancing Development Productivity) explores
how system development practices are changing and how managers can create
an environment to promote improved development productivity. And Chapter 21
(Information Delivery: IT’s Evolving Role) examines the fresh challenges IT faces in
managing the exponential growth of data and digital assets; privacy and account-
ability concerns; and new demands for access to information on an anywhere, any-
time basis.
The mini cases associated with this section describe many of these themes
embedded within real organizational contexts. “Project Management at MM” mini
case shows how a top-priority, strategic project can take a wrong turn when proj-
ect management skills are ineffective. “Working Smarter at Continental Furniture”
mini case follows an initiative to improve the company’s analytics so it can reduce
its environmental impact. And in the mini case “Managing Technology at Genex
Fuels,” we see CIO Nick Devlin trying to implement enterprisewide technology for
competitive advantage in an organization that has been limping along with obscure
and outdated systems.
 Preface xix

Supplementary Materials
Online Instructor Resource Center
The following supplements are available online to adopting instructors:
• PowerPoint Lecture Notes
• Image Library (text art)
• Extensive Teaching Notes for all Mini cases
• Additional chapters including Developing IT Professionalism; IT Sourcing; Master
Data Management; Developing IT Capabilities; The Identity Management Challenge;
Social Computing; Managing Perceptions of IT; IT in the New World of Corporate
Governance Reforms; Enhancing Customer Experiences with Technology; Creating
Digital Dashboards; and Managing Electronic Communications.
• Additional mini cases, including IT Leadership at MaxTrade; Creating a Process-Driven
Organization at Ag-Credit; Information Management at Homestyle Hotels; Knowledge
Management at Acme Consulting; Desktop Provisioning at CanCredit; and Leveraging
IT Vendors at SleepSmart.
For detailed descriptions of all of the supplements just listed, please visit http://
www.pearsonhighered.com/mckeen.

CourseSmart eTextbooks Online

CourseSmart is an exciting new choice for students looking to save money. As an alter-
native to purchasing the print textbook, students can purchase an electronic version of
the same content and save up to 50 percent off the suggested list price of the print text.
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out reading assignments that incorporate lecture notes, and bookmark important pas-
sages for later review. www.coursesmart.com.

The Genesis of This Book

Since 1990 we have been meeting quarterly with a group of senior IT managers from
a number of leading-edge organizations (e.g., Eli Lilly, BMO, Honda, HP, CIBC, IBM,
Sears, Bell Canada, MacDonalds, and Sun Life) to identify and discuss critical IT manage-
ment issues. This focus group represents a wide variety of industry sectors (e.g., retail,
­manufacturing, pharmaceutical, banking, telecommunications, insurance, media, food
processing, government, and automotive). Originally, it was established to meet the com-
panies’ needs for well-balanced, thoughtful, yet practical information on emerging IT
management topics, about which little or no research was available. However, we soon
recognized the value of this premise for our own research in the rapidly evolving field
of IT management. As a result, it quickly became a full-scale research program in which
we were able to use the focus group as an “early warning system” to document new IT
management issues, develop case studies around them, and explore more collaborative
approaches to identifying trends, challenges, and effective practices in each topic area.3

3
This now includes best practice case studies, field research in organizations, multidisciplinary qualitative
and quantitative research projects, and participation in numerous CIO research consortia.
xx Preface

As we shared our materials with our business students, we realized that this issues-
based approach resonated strongly with them, and we began to incorporate more of our
research into the classroom. This book is the result of our many years’ work with senior
IT managers, in organizations, and with students in the classroom.
Each issue in this book has been selected collaboratively by the focus group after
debate and discussion. As facilitators, our job has been to keep the group’s focus on IT
management issues, not technology per se. In preparation for each meeting, focus group
members researched the topic within their own organization, often involving a number
of members of their senior IT management team as well as subject matter experts in
the process. To guide them, we provided a series of questions about the issue, although
members are always free to explore it as they see fit. This approach provided both struc-
ture for the ensuing discussion and flexibility for those members whose ­organizations
are approaching the issue in a different fashion.
The focus group then met in a full-day session, where the members discussed all
aspects of the issue. Many also shared corporate documents with the group. We f­ acilitated
the discussion, in particular pushing the group to achieve a common understanding of
the dimensions of the issue and seeking examples, best practices, and guidelines for deal-
ing with the challenges involved. Following each session, we wrote a report based on the
discussion, incorporating relevant academic and practitioner materials where these were
available. (Because some topics are “bleeding edge,” there is often little traditional IT
research available on them.)
Each report has three parts:
1. A description of the issue and the challenges it presents for both business and IT
managers
2. Models and concepts derived from the literature to position the issue within a con-
textual framework
3. Near-term strategies (i.e., those that can be implemented immediately) that have
proven successful within organizations for dealing with the specific issue
Each chapter in this book focuses on one of these critical IT issues. We have learned
over the years that the issues themselves vary little across industries and organizations,
even in enterprises with unique IT strategies. However, each organization tackles the
same issue somewhat differently. It is this diversity that provides the richness of insight
in these chapters. Our collaborative research approach is based on our belief that when
dealing with complex and leading-edge issues, “everyone has part of the solution.”
Every focus group, therefore, provides us an opportunity to explore a topic from a
­variety of perspectives and to integrate different experiences (both successful and oth-
erwise) so that collectively, a thorough understanding of each issue can be developed
and strategies for how it can be managed most successfully can be identified.
 About the Authors

James D. McKeen is Professor Emeritus at the Queen’s School of Business. He has been
working in the IT field for many years as a practitioner, researcher, and consultant. In
2011, he was named the “IT Educator of the Year” by ComputerWorld Canada. Jim has
taught at universities in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States.
His research is widely published in a number of leading journals and he is the coau-
thor (with Heather Smith) of five books on IT management. Their most recent book—IT
Strategy: Issues and Practices (2nd ed.)—was the best-selling business book in Canada
(Globe and Mail, April 2012).

Heather A. Smith has been named the most-published researcher on IT management

issues in two successive studies (2006, 2009). A senior research associate with Queen’s
University School of Business, she is the author of five books, the most recent being IT
Strategy: Issues and Practices (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012). She is also a senior research
associate with the American Society for Information Management’s Advanced Practices
Council. A former senior IT manager, she is codirector of the IT Management Forum and
the CIO Brief, which facilitate interorganizational learning among senior IT executives.
In addition, she consults and collaborates with organizations worldwide.

xxi
 Acknowledgments

The work contained in this book is based on numerous meetings with many senior IT
managers. We would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to the following individuals
who willingly shared their insights based on their experiences “earned the hard way”:

Michael Balenzano, Sergei Beliaev, Matthias Benfey, Nastaran Bisheban, Peter

Borden, Eduardo Cadena, Dale Castle, Marc Collins, Diane Cope, Dan Di Salvo,
Ken Dschankilic, Michael East, Nada Farah, Mark Gillard, Gary Goldsmith, Ian
Graham, Keiko Gutierrez, Maureen Hall, Bruce Harding, Theresa Harrington,
Tom Hopson, Heather Hutchison, Jim Irich, Zeeshan Khan, Joanne Lafreniere,
Konstantine Liris, Lisa MacKay, Mark O’Gorman, Amin Panjwani, Troy Pariag,
Brian Patton, Marius Podaru, Helen Restivo, Pat Sadler, A. F. Salam, Ashish
Saxena, Joanne Scher, Stewart Scott, Andy Secord, Marie Shafi, Helen Shih, Trudy
Sykes, Bruce Thompson, Raju Uppalapati, Len Van Greuning, Laurie Schatzberg,
Ted Vincent, and Bond Wetherbe.

We would also like to recognize the contribution of Queen’s School of Business

to this work. The school has facilitated and supported our vision of better integrat-
ing academic research and practice and has helped make our collaborative approach
to the study of IT management and strategy an effective model for interorganizational
learning.
James D. McKeen
Kingston, Ontario

Heather A. Smith
School of Business
June 2014

xxii
Section I

Delivering Value with IT

Chapter 1 Developing and Delivering on the IT Value Proposition

Chapter 2 Developing IT Strategy for Business Value
Chapter 3 Linking IT to Business Metrics
Chapter 4 Building a Strong Relationship with the Business
Chapter 5 Communicating with Business Managers
Chapter 6 Building Better IT Leaders from the Bottom Up

Mini Cases
■ Delivering Business Value with IT at Hefty Hardware
■ Investing in TUFS
■ IT Planning at ModMeters
 Chapter

1 Developing and Delivering

on the IT Value Proposition1

I
t’s déjà vu all over again. For at least twenty years, business leaders have been
­trying to figure out exactly how and where IT can be of value in their organizations.
And IT managers have been trying to learn how to deliver this value. When IT was
used mainly as a productivity improvement tool in small areas of a business, this was
a ­relatively straightforward process. Value was measured by reduced head counts—
usually in clerical areas—and/or the ability to process more transactions per person.
However, as systems grew in scope and complexity, unfortunately so did the risks. Very
few companies escaped this period without making at least a few disastrous invest-
ments in systems that didn’t work or didn’t deliver the bottom-line benefits executives
thought they would. Naturally, fingers were pointed at IT.
With the advent of the strategic use of IT in business, it became even more difficult
to isolate and deliver on the IT value proposition. It was often hard to tell if an invest-
ment had paid off. Who could say how many competitors had been deterred or how
many customers had been attracted by a particular IT initiative? Many companies can
tell horror stories of how they have been left with a substantial investment in new forms
of technology with little to show for it. Although over the years there have been many
improvements in where and how IT investments are made and good controls have been
established to limit time and cost overruns, we are still not able to accurately articulate
and deliver on a value proposition for IT when it comes to anything other than simple
productivity improvements or cost savings.
Problems in delivering IT value can lie with how a value proposition is conceived
or in what is done to actually implement an idea—that is, selecting the right project and
doing the project right (Cooper et al. 2000; McKeen and Smith 2003; Peslak 2012). In
addition, although most firms attempt to calculate the expected payback of an IT invest-
ment before making it, few actually follow up to ensure that value has been achieved or
to question what needs to be done to make sure that value will be delivered.

1
This chapter is based on the authors’ previously published article, Smith, H. A., and J. D. McKeen.
“Developing and Delivering on the IT Value Proposition.” Communications of the Association for Information
Systems 11 (April 2003): 438–50. Reproduced by permission of the Association for Information Systems.
2
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
The moral and intellectual regeneration of the country is keeping
step with the material regeneration. All religious qualifications and
disqualifications have been removed; the church has been divorced
from the state, and each religious denomination stands upon an
equality in every respect.
The penal laws have been repealed and the tithe system has been
abolished.
Local representative government prevails everywhere.
Nearly every official in Ireland is a native except the lord-lieutenant,
the treasury remembrancer, and several agricultural experts who are
employed as instructors for the farmers and fishermen by the
Agricultural Department, and the Congested Districts Board.
The primary schools of Ireland are now free; free technical schools
have been established at convenient locations for the training of
mechanics, machinists, electricians, engineers, and members of the
other trades.
Two new universities have been authorized,—one in the north and
the other in the south of Ireland,—for the higher education of young
men and women.
Temperance reforms are being gradually accomplished by the church
and secular temperance societies, which are working in harmony;
the license law has been amended so as to reduce the number of
saloons, and three-fourths of the saloons are closed on Sunday
throughout the island. The Father Mathew societies are gaining in
numbers; the use of liquor at wakes and on St. Patrick’s Day has
been prohibited by the Roman Catholic bishops, and the number of
persons arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct is
decreasing annually.
Every tenant that has been evicted in Ireland during the last thirty
years has been restored to his old home, and the arrears of rent
charged against him have been canceled.
The land courts have adjusted the rentals of 360,135 farms, and
have reduced them more than $7,500,000 a year.
More than one hundred and twenty-six thousand families have been
enabled to purchase farms with money advanced by the government
to be repaid in sixty-eight years at nominal interest.
Several thousand families have been removed at government
expense from unproductive farms to more fertile lands purchased for
them with government money to be repaid in sixty-eight years.
Thousands of cottages, stables, barns, and other farm buildings
have been built and repaired by the government for the farmers,
and many millions of dollars have been advanced them for the
purchase of cattle, implements, and other equipment through agents
of the Agricultural Department.
More than twenty-three thousand comfortable cottages have been
erected for the laborers of Ireland with money advanced by the
government to be repaid in small instalments at nominal interest.
The landlord system of Ireland is being rapidly abolished; the great
estates are being divided into small farms and sold to the men who
till them. The agricultural lands of Ireland will soon be occupied by a
population of independent farm owners instead of rent-paying
tenants.
The Agricultural Department is furnishing practical instructors to
teach the farmers how to make the most profitable use of their land
and labor, how to improve their stock, and how to produce better
butter, pork, and poultry.
The Agricultural Department furnishes seeds and fertilizers to
farmers and instructs them how they should be used to the best
advantage.
The Irish Agricultural Organization Society has instructed thousands
of farmers in the science of agriculture and has established
thousands of co-operative dairies and supply stores to assist the
farmers in getting higher prices for their products and lower prices
for their supplies.
The Congested Districts Board has expended seventy million dollars
to improve the condition of the peasants in the west of Ireland; to
provide them better homes and to place them where they can get
better returns for their labor.
Thousands of fishermen have been furnished with boats, nets, and
other tackle; they have been supplied with salt for curing their fish;
casks and barrels for packing them; have been provided with
wharves for landing places and warehouses for the storage of their
implements and supplies; and government agents have secured a
market for their fish and have supervised the shipments and sales.
Thousands of weavers have been furnished with looms in their
cottages at government expense, so that they can increase their
incomes by manufacturing home-made stuffs.
Schools have been established at many convenient points in the
west of Ireland, where peasant women and girls may learn lace-
making. The government furnishes the instruction free, supplies the
materials used, and provides for the sale of the articles made.
Work has been furnished with good wages for thousands of
unemployed men in the construction of roads and other public
improvements.
District nurses have been stationed at convenient points along the
west coast, where there are no physicians, to attend the sick and
aged and relieve the distress among the peasant families, and
hospitals have been established for the treatment of the ill and
injured at government expense.
 II
THE CATHEDRALS AND DEAN SWIFT

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is, perhaps, the most notable building in

Ireland, and one of the oldest. During the religious wars and the
clashes of the clans in the early history of Ireland it was the scene
and the cause of much contention and violence. Its sacred walls
were originally arranged as fortifications to defend it against the
savage tribes and to protect the dignitaries of the church, who
resided behind embattled gates for centuries. At one time St.
Patrick’s was used as a barrack for soldiers, and the verger will show
you an enormous baptismal font, from which he says the dragoons
used to water their horses, and the interior was fitted up for courts
of law. Henry VIII. confiscated the property and revenues because
the members of its chapter refused to accept the new doctrines, and
nearly all of them were banished from Ireland. He abolished a small
university that was attached to the cathedral by the pope in 1320 for
the education of priests. For five hundred years there was a
continuous quarrel between St. Patrick’s and Christ Church
Cathedral, which stands only two blocks away, because of rivalries
over ecclesiastical privileges, powers, and revenues. Finally a
compromise was reached, under which there has since been peace
between the two great churches and relations similar to those of
Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s in London. Christ Church is the
headquarters of the episcopal see of Dublin, and St. Patrick’s is
regarded as a national church. The chief reason why St. Patrick’s has
such a hold upon the affections and reverence of the people is
because it stands upon the site of a small wooden church erected by
St. Patrick himself in the year 450 and within a few feet of a sacred
spring or well at which he baptized thousands of pagans during his
ministry. The exact site of the well was identified in 1901 by the
discovery of an ancient Celtic cross buried in the earth a few feet
from the tower of the cathedral. The cross is now exhibited in the
north aisle. The floor of the church is only seven feet above the
waters of a subterranean brook called the Poddle, and during the
spring floods is often inundated, but in the minds of the founders
the sanctity of the spot compensated for the insecure foundations.
St. Patrick’s little wooden building, which is supposed to be the first
Christian sanctuary erected in Ireland, was replaced in 1191 by the
present lofty cruciform edifice, three hundred feet long and one
hundred and fifty-seven feet across the transepts. It was designed
and erected by Comyn, the Anglo-Norman archbishop of Dublin, is
supposed to have been completed in 1198, and was raised to the
rank of a cathedral in 1219. There were frequent alterations and
repairs during the first seven centuries of its existence, until 1864-
68, when it was perfectly restored by Sir Benjamin Guinness, the
great brewer, who also purchased several blocks of dilapidated slums
that surrounded it, tore down the buildings, and turned the land into
a park which not only affords an opportunity to see the beauties of
the cathedral, but gives the poor people who dwell in that locality a
playground and fresh air. Sir Benjamin purchased several of the
adjoining blocks and erected upon them a series of model tenement-
houses, the best in Dublin, and rents them at nominal rates to his
employees and others. On the other side of the cathedral are several
blocks of the most miserable tenements in the city, and sometime
they also will be cleared away. A bronze statue has been erected in
the churchyard as a reminder of his generosity.
 St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin

Benjamin Guinness was the great brewer of Dublin. In 1756 one of

his ancestors started a little brewing establishment down on the
bank of the Liffey River in the center of the city, which has been
extended from time to time until the buildings now cover an area of
more than forty acres. The property and good will were transferred
by the Guinness family to a stock company for $30,000,000 in 1886,
and since then the plant has been enlarged until it now exceeds in
extent all other breweries in the world, represents an investment of
$50,000,000, and turns out an average of two thousand one
hundred barrels of beer a day.
Sir Benjamin’s son, Edward Cecil Guinness, was elevated to the
peerage as Lord Iveagh and is the richest man in Ireland to-day. He
is highly respected, has married into the nobility, is a great favorite
with the king, is generous and philanthropic, encourages and
patronizes both science and athletic sports, and is said to be
“altogether a very good fellow.” Another son is Lord Ardilaun, who is
equally rich and popular, and owns several of the finest estates in
the kingdom.
Sir Benjamin expended $1,200,000 in restoring St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, and Lord Iveagh, his son, added $350,000 more. The
driver of the jaunting car that carried us there told me how many
billion of glasses of beer those gifts represented, and made some
funny remarks about all the profit being in the froth. But if all men
were to make such good use of their money there would be no
reason to complain.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the official seat of the Knights of St. Patrick,
and their banners, helmets, and swords hang over the choir stalls,
while in one of the chapels is an ancient table and a set of ancient
chairs formerly used at their gatherings. Since 1869 they have met
at Dublin castle. Many tattered and bullet-riddled battle flags carried
by Irish regiments hang in other parts of the cathedral, and if they
could tell the stories of the many brave Irishmen who have fought
and perished under their silken folds, it would be more thrilling than
fiction. Ireland has furnished the best fighting men in the British
Army, both generals and privates, since the invasion of the Normans.
The king’s bodyguard of Highlanders is now almost exclusively
composed of Irish lads. In the north transept is a flag that was
carried by an Irish regiment at the skirmish at Lexington at the
beginning of our Revolution and at the attack on Bunker Hill. They
brought it away with them to hang it here with the trophies of Irish
valor of a thousand years.
St. Patrick’s is the Westminster Abbey of Ireland, and many of her
most famous men are either buried within its walls or have tablets
erected to their memory. John Philpott Curran, the great advocate
and orator, and Samuel Lover, the song writer and novelist, whose
“Handy Andy” and “Widow Machree,” are perhaps the best examples
of Irish humor in literature, are honored with tablets; and Carolan,
the last of the bards for whom Ireland was once so celebrated. He
died in 1788. M.W. Balfe, author of that pretty little opera, “The
Bohemian Girl,” and many beautiful ballads, including “I Dreamt I
Dwelt in Marble Halls,” has a tablet inscribed with these words:
“The most celebrated, genial and beloved of Irish musicians,
commendatore of Carlos III. of Spain, Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor. Born in Dublin, 15 May, 1808, died 20th of Oct., 1870.”
Balfe was born in a small house on Pitt Street, Dublin, which bears a
tablet announcing the fact.
The man who wrote that stirring poem, “The Burial of Sir John
Moore,” which begins,
“Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried,”—

lies in St. Patrick’s. His name was Charles Wolfe, and he was once
the dean of the cathedral.
In the right-hand corner of the east transept is a monument to the
memory of a certain dame of the time of Elizabeth, named Mrs. St.
Leger. She was thirty-seven years old at the time of her death, and,
her epitaph tells us, had “a strange, eventful history,” with four
husbands and eight children, all of whom she made comfortable and
happy.
On the other side is a tablet to commemorate the fact that Sir
Edward Fitten, who died in 1579, was married at the age of twelve
years and became the father of fifteen children,—nine sons and six
daughters.
The famous Archbishop Whately, the gentleman who wrote the
rhetoric we studied in college, and who once presided over this
diocese, is buried in a stately tomb, and his effigy, beautifully carved
in marble, lies upon it.
The most imposing monument of all, and one which is associated
with much history and tragedy, was erected in honor of his own
family by Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork, who was a great man
in his day. So pretentious was the monument that Archbishop Laud
ordered it removed from the cathedral. This was done by Thomas
Wentworth, afterward Earl of Strafford, who was sent over by King
Charles with an armed force to govern Ireland. Boyle, who had
himself designed and expended a great deal of money upon “the
famous, sumptuous, and glorious tomb,” which was to immortalize
him and sixteen members of his family, was so indignant that he
never forgave Strafford, and afterward caused the latter to be
betrayed to a shameful death at the hands of his enemies.
The most interesting historic relic in the cathedral is an ancient
oaken door with a large hole cut in the center of it. It bears an
explanatory inscription as follows:
“In the year 1492 an angry conference was held at St. Patrick, his
church, between the rival nobles, James Butler, Earl of Ormonde,
and Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, the said deputies, and their
armed retainers. Ormonde, in fear of his life, fled for refuge to the
Chapiter House, and Kildare, pressing Ormonde to the Chapiter
House door, undertooke on his honor that he should receive no
villanie. Whereupon the recluse, craving his lordship’s hand to assure
him his life, there was a clift in the Chapiter House door pearced at
trice to the end that both Earls should shake hands and be
reconciled. But Ormonde surmising that the clift was intended for
further treacherie refused to stretch out his hand—” and the
inscription goes on to relate that Kildare, having no such
nervousness, thrust his hand through the hole and without the
slightest hesitation. Ormonde shook it heartily and peace was made.
For centuries it was said that whoever might be Viceroy of Ireland it
was the Earl of Kildare who governed the country. A long line of
Kildares succeeded each other, and their living successor, better
known as the Duke of Leinster, is now the premier of the Irish
nobility, although he is still a boy, just twenty-one. Both the Kildares
and the Earls of Desmond were descended from Gerald Fitzgerald,
who in the thirteenth century founded that powerful clan known as
the Geraldines. In the fifteenth, and at the beginning of the
sixteenth, century they exercised absolute control in Ireland, and
Garrett, or Gerald Fitzgerald, the eighth Earl of Kildare, known as
“The Great Earl,” had greater authority than any other Irishman has
ever displayed in his native island since the days of Brian Boru. At
one time his daughter, wife of the Earl of Clanricarde, appealed to
her father from a quarrel with her husband. The old gentleman took
her part, ordered out his army, and met his son-in-law in the battle
of Knockdoe, where it is said eight thousand men were slain.
Near the entrance to St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a long, narrow, brass
tablet upon which are inscribed the names of the fifty-seven deans
who have had ecclesiastical jurisdiction there from 1219 to 1902.
The most famous in the list is that of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D.,
author of “Gulliver’s Travels,” “The Tale of a Tub,” and other equally
well-known works. He presided here for more than thirty years, and
was undoubtedly the most brilliant as well as the most remarkable
clergyman in the history of the diocese of Dublin. He was the
greatest of all satirists, one of the most brilliant of all wits, and an
all-around genius, but was entirely without moral consciousness,
altogether selfish, inordinately vain, and one of the most eccentric
characters in the history of literature. He was born in Dublin Nov. 30,
1667; educated at Trinity College, where he distinguished himself
only by his eccentricities; was curate of two churches, and dean of
St. Patrick’s Cathedral for more than thirty years, although neither
his manners nor his morals conformed to the standards that are
fixed for clergymen in these days. He was more famous for his wit
than his wisdom; for his piquancy than for piety. He spent most of
his life in Dublin, died there, was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral by
the side of a woman whose life he wrecked, and left his money to
found an insane asylum which is still in existence.
The house in which Jonathan Swift was born can still be seen in
Hoey’s Court, which once was a popular place of residence for well-
to-do people, and has several mansions of architectural pretensions,
but has degenerated into a slum, one of the many that may be
found in the very center of the business section of the city. He came
of a good Yorkshire family; his mother had aristocratic connections
and was one of those women who seem to have been born to suffer
from the failings of men. His father was a shiftless adventurer,
following several professions and occupations in turn without even
ordinary success in any. Jonathan went to the parish schools in
Kilkenny for a time when his father happened to be living in that
locality, and when he was seventeen years old passed the entrance
examinations to Trinity College, Dublin. He was a willful,
independent, eccentric person, of a lonely and sour disposition, and
refused to be bound by the rules of the university. He would not
study mathematics or physics, but delighted in classical literature,
and furnished many witty contributions to college literature which
gave promise of genius. He wrote a play that was performed by the
college students with great success. His degree was reluctantly
conferred by the faculty through the influence of Sir William Temple,
a famous statesman of those days, whose wife was a distant relative
of Swift’s mother.
Shortly after graduation he became private secretary to Sir William
Temple and attended him in London during several sessions of
parliament. While there, under some influence that has never been
explained in a satisfactory manner, Swift decided to enter the
ministry, and took a course of theology at Oxford. After his
ordination in 1695 Sir William Temple got him a living in a quiet,
secluded village called Laracor, in central Ireland, near Tara, the
ancient capital, in a church that long ago crumbled to ruins and has
been replaced by a modern building. It was a small parish consisting
of not more than ten or twelve aristocratic families, among them the
ancestors of the great Duke of Wellington. The young curate’s
congregation was not very regular in its attendance, and you will
remember, perhaps, an amusing story, how the Rev. Mr. Swift, when
he came from the vestry one Sabbath morning, found no one but
the sexton, Roger Morris, in the pews. He read the service, as usual,
however, and with that quaint sense of humor which cropped out in
everything he did, began solemnly:
“Dearly beloved Roger, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places,”
etc.
Coming to the conclusion that he was not fitted for parish work,
Swift obtained the position of private secretary to Earl Berkeley, one
of the lord justices of Ireland, but, after a while, got another church,
and tried preaching again. But he spent more of his time in writing
political satires than in prayer or sermonizing. He edited Sir William
Temple’s speeches and wrote his biography, and went to London,
where he became a member of an interesting group of politicians
and pamphleteers, who supported Lord Bolingbroke. He contributed
to The Tattler, The Spectator, and other publications of the time,
and soon became recognized as one of the most brilliant and savage
satirists and influential political writers of the day. Through political
influence, and not because of his piety, he was appointed dean of St.
Patrick’s, the most prominent and famous church in Dublin. He had
not been in his new position long before he created a tremendous
sensation and set all Ireland aflame by writing a political pamphlet
signed “M.B. Drapier.”
In 1723 Walpole’s government gave to the Duchess of Kendall, the
mistress of George I., a concession to supply an unlimited amount of
copper coinage to Ireland, and she took William Wood, an iron
manufacturer of Birmingham, into partnership. There was no mint in
Dublin and no limitation in the contract, so the firm of Kendall &
Wood flooded the island with new copper pence and half-pence
upon which they made a profit of 40 per cent. The coins became so
abundant that they lost their value. Naturally the contract created
not only scandal, but an intense indignation. Many pamphlets were
published and speeches were made denouncing the transaction. The
most telling attack came from what purported to be an
unpretentious Dublin dry goods merchant, who told in simple
language the story of the coinage contract and related anecdotes of
Dublin women going from shop to shop followed by carloads of
copper coins from the factory of the Duchess of Kendall. He
mentioned a workingman who gave a pound of depreciated pennies
for a mug of ale, and declared that they were so worthless that even
the beggars would not accept them.
The money was not really so much depreciated as Swift represented,
but the merchants of Dublin followed the advice of the simple draper
and refused to accept it any longer in trade. The government
authorities made a great fuss and arrested many of the repudiators,
but the grand juries refused to indict them, and on the contrary
threatened to indict merchants who accepted the shameful money.
The printer of the pamphlet was arrested, but never punished. The
authorship became an open secret, but the authorities dared not
arrest the dean, whose popularity was so great and who exercised
such an extraordinary influence over the common people that they
accepted whatever he said as inspired and paid him the greatest
respect possible. His influence is illustrated by a story that is related
about a crowd which blocked the street around St. Patrick’s
Cathedral one night to watch for an eclipse of the moon, and
obstructed traffic, but promptly dispersed when he sent one of his
servants to tell them that the eclipse had been postponed by his
orders. He wrote “Gulliver’s Travels” about this period of his life in
the deanery of St. Patrick’s, which was a part of what is now the
barracks of the Dublin police force. The present deanery, a modern
building near by, contains portraits of Swift and other of the fifty-
seven clergymen who have served as deans of St. Patrick’s.
About the same time he wrote another masterpiece of satire upon
the useless and impractical measures of charity for the poor adopted
by the government. It was entitled:
A MODEST PROPOSAL
FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF
POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND
FROM BEING A BURDEN TO
THEIR PARENTS BY
FATTENING AND EATING THEM.
He wrote several bitter satires on ecclesiastical matters, which would
have caused his separation from the deanery under ordinary
circumstances, but the archbishop as well as the civil authorities was
afraid of his caustic pen. In discussing the bishops of the Church of
Ireland at one time he declared that they were all impostors. He
asserted that the government always sent English clergymen of
character and piety to Ireland, but they were always murdered on
their way by the highwaymen of Hounslow Heath and other
brigands, who put on their robes, traveled to Dublin, presented their
credentials, and were installed in their places over the several
dioceses of Ireland.
In 1729 the parliament of Ireland was installed in the imposing
structure that stands in the center of the city of Dublin opposite the
main buildings of Trinity College. Although the people had been
demanding home rule and a legislature of their own for years, the
new parliament soon lost its popularity. Its action provoked the
hostility of the fickle people and it was attacked on all sides for
everything it did. Swift took his customary part in the criticisms and
christened the parliament “The Goose Pie” because, as he said, the
chamber had a crust in the form of a dome-shaped roof and it was
not remarkable for the intellect or knowledge of its members.
One of his lampoons, directed at parliament under the name of “The
Legion Club,” begins as follows:
“As I stroll the city, oft I
See a building large and lofty,
Not a bow-shot from the college,
Half the globe from sense and knowledge.
Tell us what the pile contains?
Many a head that holds no brains.
Such assemblies you might swear
Meet when butchers bait a bear.
Such a noise and such haranguing
When a brother thief is hanging.”

This does not sound very dignified for the dean of a cathedral, but it
was characteristic of Swift.
He became a physical and mental wreck in 1742 and died an
imbecile from softening of the brain Oct. 9, 1745. His will, written
before his mind gave way, was itself a satire, and appropriately left
his slender fortune to found an insane asylum. The original copy
may be seen in the public records office in a beautiful great building
known as the Four Courts, the seat of the judiciary of Ireland, where
the archives of the government are kept. The insane asylum is still
used for that purpose and is known as St. Patrick’s Hospital for
Lunatics. It stands near the enormous brewery of the Guinness
company. It was the first of the kind in Ireland, and was built when
the insane were restrained by shackles, handcuffs, and iron bars, but
more humane modern methods of treatment were introduced long
ago and it is considered a model institution. The corridors are three
hundred and forty-five feet long by fourteen feet wide, with little
cells or bedrooms opening upon them. Swift’s writing desk is
preserved in the institution.
His whimsicalities are illustrated in the cathedral more than
anywhere else and among them is the “Schomberg epitaph,” found
in the north aisle to the left of the choir, chiseled in large letters
upon a slab of marble. Duke Schomberg, who commanded the
Protestant army of King William of Orange at the Battle of the
Boyne, and was killed toward the end of that engagement, July,
1690, was buried in St. Patrick’s at the time of his death, but his
grave remained unmarked. His bones were discovered, however, in
1736, during some repairs, while Swift was dean of the cathedral. In
order that their ancestor’s character and achievements might be
properly recognized and called to the attention of posterity, Swift
applied to the head of the Schomberg family for fifty pounds to pay
the expense of a memorial, which they declined to contribute. Then
Swift, whose indignation was excited, paid for the slab himself and
punished them by recording upon it in Latin that the cathedral
authorities, having entreated to no purpose the heirs of the great
marshal to set up an appropriate memorial, this tablet had been
erected that posterity might know where the great Schomberg lies.
“The fame of his valor,” he adds, “is much more appreciated by
strangers than by his kinsmen.”
Upon the other farther side of the church, between the tombs of the
Right Honorable Lady Elizabeth, Viscountess Donneraile, and
Archbishop Whately, the gentleman who wrote the rhetoric we
studied at college, is buried the body of an humble Irishman, who
was Dean Swift’s body servant for a generation. He was eccentric
but loyal, and as witty as his master. One morning the dean, getting
ready for a horseback ride, discovered that his boots had not been
cleaned, and called to Sandy:
“Why didn’t you clean these boots?”
“It hardly pays to do so, sir,” responded Sandy, “they get muddy so
soon again.”
“Put on your hat and coat and come with me to ride,” said the dean.
“I haven’t had my breakfast,” said Sandy.
“There’s no use in eating; you’ll be hungry so soon again,” retorted
the dean, and Sandy had to follow him in a mad gallop into the
suburbs of Dublin without a mouthful.
When they were three or four miles away they met an old friend
who asked them where they were going so early. Before the dean
could answer, Sandy replied:
“We’re going to heaven, sir; the dean’s praying and meself is fasting;
both of us for our sins.”
The epitaph of Sandy in St. Patrick’s Cathedral reads as follows:
HERE LIES THE BODY OF
ALEXANDER MAGEE,
SERVANT TO DR. SWIFT, DEAN
OF ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL,
DUBLIN.
His Grateful Master Caused This Monument to Be Erected in Memory of His
Discretion, Fidelity and Diligence in That Humble Station.
That long-suffering woman known as Stella, whose relations with
Dean Swift have been discussed for a century and a half, and are
still more or less of a mystery, was Mrs. Hester (sometimes spelled
Esther) Johnson, a relative of Sir William Temple, whose private
secretary Jonathan Swift, her inconstant and selfish lover, was for
several years. Swift called her “Stella” because her name, “Hester,” is
the Persian for “star,” and first met her while he was curate of a little
village church at Laracor, where she lived with a Mrs. Dingley, a
companion or chaperon, who seemed to be always by her side,
whether she was in Dublin or London. From the beginning of their
acquaintance she shared the inner life of Swift and exercised an
extraordinary influence over him. When he left Laracor for London to
become the private secretary of Sir William Temple their remarkable
correspondence commenced, and he wrote her a daily record of his
life, his thoughts, his whims, and his fancies. Those letters have
been published under the title of “Swift’s Journal to Stella,” and the
book has been described as “a giant’s playfulness, written for one
person’s private pleasure, which has had indestructible attractiveness
for every one since.”
She followed him to London and, when he became dean of St.
Patrick’s, returned with him to Dublin and lived near the deanery
with Mrs. Dingley as her chaperon until her death. But Swift was not
true to her. This eminent author and satirist, this merciless critic of
the shortcomings of others, this doctor of divinity, this dean of the
most prominent cathedral in Ireland, had numerous flirtations with
other women, and Stella must have known of them, although there
is no evidence that her loyal heart ever wavered in its devotion.
In 1694 he fell desperately in love with a Miss Varing, but seems to
have escaped without any damage to himself or his reputation,
although we do not know what happened to her. A few years later
he became involved in an entanglement with a Miss Van Homrigh,
which ruined her life and effectually destroyed his peace of mind.
The character of their acquaintance is shown by a series of poems
which passed between them as her passion developed, and he
allowed it to drift on uninterrupted from day to day, evidently giving
her encouragement by tongue as well as pen. His poetical
communications to her were signed “Cadenus,” the Latin word for
dean, and hers were signed “Vanessa,” a combination of her
Christian and surname.
It was not a very dignified situation for the dean of St. Patrick’s, and
the flirtation caused a decided scandal in Dublin. It appears that
Vanessa expected Swift to marry her and he undoubtedly gave her
good reasons, while Mrs. Johnson was regarded as his mistress to
the day of her death and bore the odium with uncomplaining
resignation. Long after both of them were buried under the tiles of
St. Patrick’s Cathedral it was discovered that they had been secretly
married in 1716, but why she consented to keep that fact a secret
has never been explained except upon the theory that she was
afraid of what Vanessa Van Homrigh might do. The latter, however,
having lost her patience and becoming hysterical with jealousy,
wrote to Stella, inquiring as to the real nature of her relations with
Swift and demanding that she should relinquish her claims upon
him. Stella replied promptly by sending Vanessa indisputable
evidence that they had been married seven years before. Vanessa,
who lived at Marley Abbey, Celbridge (now Hazelhatch Station), ten
miles from Dublin, on the railway to Cork, sent Stella’s letter to Swift
and retired to the house of a friend in the country, where she died a
few months later of a broken heart. Swift never replied; he never
saw her or communicated with her after that day, and seems to have
dismissed the affair with the same indifference that he always
showed concerning the interests of other people.
Five years later Stella died and was buried in the cathedral at
midnight by Swift’s orders, but he did not attend the funeral. She
lived in the neighborhood of the deanery, and from one of its
windows he witnessed the passage of the casket to the tomb. “This
is the night of the funeral,” he writes in his diary, “and I moved into
another apartment that I may not see the light in the church, which
is just over against the window of my bed chamber.” He then sat
down at his desk and described her devotion and her love for
himself and her virtues in language of incomparable beauty. His
tribute, written at that moment, is one of the most beautiful
passages in English literature. He preserved a lock of her hair upon
which he inscribed the words:
“Only a woman’s hair!”
“Only a woman’s hair!” comments Thackeray. “Only love, fidelity,
purity, innocence, beauty; only the tenderest heart in the world,
stricken and wounded, and pushed away out of the reach of joy with
the pangs of hope deferred. Love insulted and pitiless desertion.
Only that lock of hair left, and memory, and remorse for the guilty,
lonely, selfish wretch, shuddering over the grave of his victim.”
Swift’s extraordinary vanity is illustrated in the inscription he placed
over Hester Johnson’s grave and his selfishness by his neglect to
vindicate her reputation by announcing their marriage. The mistress
of a dean is not usually buried in a cathedral over which he presides,
but no one has ever questioned the right of Stella’s dust to be there.
Her epitaph, which was written by his own pen, runs:
“Underneath is interred the mortal remains of Mrs. Hester Johnson,
better known to the world by the name of Stella, under which she
was celebrated in the writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift, dean of this
cathedral.
“She was a person of extraordinary endowments and
accomplishments in body, mind, and behavior; justly admired and
respected by all who knew her on account of her many eminent
virtues, as well as for her great natural and acquired perfections.
“She died Jan. 27, 1727, in the forty-sixth year of her age, and by
her will bequeathed £1,000 toward the support of the hospital
founded in this city by Dr. Steevens.”
Although Swift did his best work after Stella’s death, he was never
himself again. He became sour, morose, and misanthropic. His soul
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