Reference no: EM13336225

Project: Making IT Policy Decisions

An important skill when working in IT is the ability to establish clear and workable IT policies. Policies must be well thought-out, to avoid potential problems, and also clearly explained to workers so there is no misunderstanding of the policies.

Your assignment is to create a manual of IT policies for a small business. For each section of the manual, use your critical thinking skills to determine the best policy, and then explain the policy clearly and concisely. The audience is company employees who use computers as part of their jobs, including warehouse workers, office workers, and salespeople.

The details of the business for which you will be proposing policies is as follows: The company's name is ACME Commercial Kitchen Supply. The company's business is to sell and support commercial kitchen equipment. The company has about 400 users, 50 of which travel at least half of the time. The IT staff consists of 4 full-time employees. All employees work out of a single building. The IT department maintains a client/server LAN that runs on Windows Server, which includes an Exchange mail server, and a Sharepoint server for internal data sharing, plus several file servers for individual departments. The Accounting, Sales, and Shipping departments share a proprietary, custom-built application that tracks and bills customer orders. If you need any additional information about this company to complete the assignment, please e-mail me and I will provide it.

The manual should have the following sections:

User Authentication: What are the rules regarding password strength and password changes? (For example, how often must users change their passwords?)

3rd party software: What are the rules for employees loading their own private software on their work PCs, such as games, personal finance software, and so on?

Computer use during business hours: What are the rules for employees checking personal email and social networking sites during the workday?

Use of company email accounts: What are the rules for the types of messages, and the recipients, that users can and can't use their company email accounts for?

Prohibited software or activities: What types of web sites should be permanently blocked for all employees? What types of software should no employees have on their PCs at any time?

UI Modifications: What changes are users allowed to make to their Windows settings, and what changes are prohibited? If personal photos are allowed as desktop images, what are the guidelines for appropriate photos to use?

Resource tracking: What is the procedure for requesting a computer, or turning one back in again?

Training: What computer training is offered to new employees? (What topics and how long?)

Requesting Service or support: What is the procedure for requesting hardware repair or Windows troubleshooting? What is the procedure for requesting help in using or understanding Windows or an application?

Two additional sections: Think about what the audience might have questions about, or might need to know, and create two additional sections of your own choosing.