CAS-001 · Question #160
A large corporation which is heavily reliant on IT platforms and systems is in financial difficulty and needs to drastically reduce costs in the short term to survive. The Chief Financial Officer…
The correct answer is D. Strategic architecture will be adversely impacted through the segregation of duties between the. Fragmenting IT management across multiple vendors with misaligned contract durations creates significant strategic architecture risk through segregation of duties between providers. Each provider has visibility into only their silo (desktop, network, security, or business…
Question
A large corporation which is heavily reliant on IT platforms and systems is in financial difficulty and needs to drastically reduce costs in the short term to survive. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has mandated that all IT and architectural functions will be outsourced and a mixture of providers will be selected. One provider will manage the desktops for five years, another provider will manage the network for ten years, another provider will be responsible for security for four years, and an offshore provider will perform day to day business processing functions for two years. At the end of each contract the incumbent may be renewed or a new provider may be selected. Which of the following are the MOST likely risk implications of the CFO's business decision?
Options
- AStrategic architecture will be adversely impacted through the segregation of duties between the
- BStrategic architecture will improve as more time can be dedicated to strategy.
- CStrategic architecture will not be impacted in the short term, but will be adversely impacted in the
- DStrategic architecture will be adversely impacted through the segregation of duties between the
How the community answered
(27 responses)- A11% (3)
- B7% (2)
- C30% (8)
- D52% (14)
Explanation
Fragmenting IT management across multiple vendors with misaligned contract durations creates significant strategic architecture risk through segregation of duties between providers. Each provider has visibility into only their silo (desktop, network, security, or business processing) without a holistic understanding of the overall architecture. This leads to integration failures, conflicting design decisions, accountability gaps at the boundaries between providers, and difficulty maintaining a coherent technology roadmap. At each contract renewal, institutional knowledge is lost as incumbents may be replaced by new providers unfamiliar with the environment. The mismatched contract lengths (2, 4, 5, and 10 years) mean the architecture will constantly be in flux, with different components being transitioned at different times. This severely impairs the company's ability to make strategic long-term architecture decisions, as no single entity - internal or external - has the full picture or long-term accountability needed for strategic planning.
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