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CRITICAL BUSINESS THINKING
Instructor Note: There are few right or wrong answers in the business
world. There are really only ecient and inecient, and eective and
ineective business decisions. If there were always right answers businesses
would never fail. These questions were created to challenge your students to
apply the materials they have learned to real business situations. For this
reason, the authors cannot provide you with one version of a correct answer.
When grading your students’ answers, be sure to focus on their justi#cation
or support for their speci#c answers. A good way to grade these questions is
to compare your student’s answers against each other.
1. SELECTING A SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY
Project Purpose: To understand additional system development
methodologies.
Potential Solution: There are numerous other systems development
2. UNDERSTANDING PROJECT FAILURE
Project Purpose: To avoid project failure.
Potential Solution: Primary reasons for project failure include:
3. MISSING PHASES IN THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
Project Purpose: To never skip phases in the SDLC.
Potential Solution: Every phase in the SDLC must be followed or else
4. REFUSING TO SIGN-OFF
Project Purpose: To understand the importance of sign-o.
Potential Solution: Sign-o is the system users’ actual signatures
5. SAVING FAILING SYSTEMS
Project Purpose: To understand how to save a project.
Potential Solution: The scope of the project can be decreased. The
6. EXPLAINING PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Purpose: To explain project management.
Potential Solution: Without project management, it is impossible to
determine whether a project is on the path to success. Scope creep occurs
7. APPLYING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
Project Purpose: To develop a Gantt chart.
Potential Solution: A Gantt chart is a simple bar chart that depicts
project tasks against a calendar. In a Gantt chart, tasks are listed
APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE BUSINESS PROJECTS
Instructor Note: There are few right or wrong answers in the business
world. There are really only ecient and inecient, and eective and
ineective business decisions. If there were always right answers businesses
would never fail. These questions were created to challenge your students to
apply the materials they have learned to real business situations. For this
reason, the authors cannot provide you with one version of a correct answer.
When grading your students’ answers, be sure to focus on their justi#cation
or support for their speci#c answers. A good way to grade these questions is
to compare your student’s answers against each other.
AYK 1: Methods Behind Methodologies
Signatures Inc. specializes in producing personalized products such as coee
mugs and pens with company logos. The company generates over $40
million in annual revenues and has more than 300 employees. The company
On your #rst day, your team is told that the project is failing for the following
reasons:
Determine what your #rst steps would be to get this project back on track.
This is a great project to get your students thinking about the problems they
are going to face when they start managing project. There are numerous
things your students can do to get the project on the right track including:
AYK 2: The Travel Store
This is a great project for explaining the advantages and disadvantages of
outsourcing. In 2008, The Travel Store faced a dilemma. The retailer had
tripled in size over a three-year period to $1 billion in sales, but it had done
so despite operational de#ciencies. The company’s inability to evolve its
business processes as it grew was causing problems. Within a year, sales and
pro#ts fell below expectations, and its stock price plummeted from
approximately $10 a share to less than $2 a share.
The advantages of outsourcing include:
The challenges of outsourcing include:
AYK 3: GEM Athletic Center
First Information Corporation is a large consulting company that specializes
in systems analysis and design. The company has over 2,000 employees
and #rst quarter revenues reached $15 million. The GEM Athletic Center is
interested in implementing a new payroll system. The current payroll
process is manual and takes three employees, two day each month to
complete. The GEM Athletic Center does not have an IT department and is
outsourcing the entire procurement, customization, and installation of the
new payroll system to First Information Corporation. First Information has
just been assigned the GEM Athletic Center project and must de#ne the
initial business requirements for the development of the new payroll system.
Data File: MaggieCleaver.doc, AneeLogan.doc, JimPoulos.doc,
BusinessRequirements.doc
This is a good project for students to gain a #rsthand look at the diculty
involved with gathering business requirements. This project is best
performed in a group. First, ask your students to review
BusinessRequirements.doc, which explains many tricks and tips on gathering
accurate business requirements. Second, ask your students to document the
business requirements for the new system. Finally, ask them to list any
assumptions they are making or questions they would need to ask for any
missing information they might require.
Sample Business Requirements could include:
Sample missing business requirements and assumptions include:
AYK 4: Confusing Co7ee
Business requirements are the detailed set of business requests that the
system must meet to be successful. At this point, there is little or no concern
with any implementation or reference to technical details. For example, the
types of technology used to build the system, such as an Oracle database or
the Java programming language, are not yet de#ned. The only focus is on
gathering the true business requirements for the system. A sample business
requirement might state, “The system must track all customer sales by
product, region, and sales representative.” This requirement states what the
system must do from the business perspective, giving no details or
information on how the system is going to meet this requirement. Gathering
business requirements is basically conducting an investigation in which users
identify all the organization’s business needs and take measurements of
these needs.
AYK 5: Picking Projects
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or
service. According to the Project Management Institute, project management
is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations
from a project
One of the most dicult decisions organizations make is determining the
projects in which to invest time, energy, and resources. An organization must
The projects that contain business critical needs should be prioritized #rst,
and the projects that are simply nice-to-haves should be last. For example,
developing backup and recovery strategies are considered business critical
needs. Whereas enhancing the employee intranet and developing an
employee vacation tracking system are not as critical to running the core
business.
Student answers to this question will vary. The important part of the answer
is the justi#cation for their answer. Potential answer includes:
AYK 6: Keeping Time
Time Keepers Inc. is a small #rm that specializes in project management
consulting. You are a Senior Project manager and you have recently been
assigned to the Tahiti Tanning Lotion account. The Tahiti Tanning Lotion
company is currently experiencing a 10 percent success rate on all internal IT
projects. Your #rst assignment is to analyze one of the current project plans
being used to develop a new CRM system.
Data File: BadProject.mpp, MSProjectGuidelines.doc
Please note that you do not need to use the data #le if you are not covering
Microsoft Project in your course. You can view the sample project plan on
page 274 or open the Project Plan in your course in badproject.mpp if you
have project and just want to show the plan to the students.
There are numerous issues in the project plan. Primary issues include:
