Real-Life Decision Making
As senior management information systems specialist for a vocational college, you make sure each department has the most efficient computer equipment you can buy.
You make all the purchasing decisions based on each department's needs. That includes the college administration, student services and maintenance departments, as well as the classrooms and computer labs. Of course, you have to stay within certain budgetary restraints, so you can't always purchase everything you'd like.
The college is in the process of a major overhaul of its computer systems. Much of the equipment is outdated and no longer serves the college's or students' needs. Unfortunately, you feel the college hasn't set a realistic budget for software.
The college has to keep up with changing software. It's not very useful for a student to learn a word-processing or accounting program that prospective employers no longer use. But not enough funds have been authorized for you to do your job.
The budget allows you to purchase only half of the software you need. You can't possibly load each of the new computers with an operating system, a database management program, spreadsheet and word-processing programs.
You explain this to the powers that be, and they offer a solution -- buy what you can and copy the rest. Unauthorized copying of software is illegal. But everyone does it. What will you do?