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Managing the delivery of IS services: The role of IT infrastructure

8 September, 2015 - 16:42

Before launching into a discussion of system failures and management techniques intended to avoid them, we want to introduce some terms intended to give us a common set of definitions and a common understanding of how IT supports the delivery of IS services. Perhaps it is a problem within all disciplines, but the IT field seems particularly prone to assigning varying definitions to common terms. Unsurprisingly, the lack of universally accepted definitions can result in miscommunication. Given this somewhat chaotic state of affairs, we do not claim that the definitions and usage employed in this chapter are authoritative. However, they do reflect the understandings of important IS researchers and practitioners. We provide this cautionary note because we recognize the terms can be differently understood and that that assuming a common understanding of particular terms often leads to miscommunication.