Read the following case study and answer the following questions for this conference discussion:

1. What is the decision problem (the decision that needs to be made)?

2. What is the root cause of the issue?

3. What are the symptoms of the issue?

4. What are the assumptions you are making?

5. Identify three alternative decisions that Alex can make. Explain and support your reasoning.

6. What are the associated consequences of each of the the alternative decisions you identify?

7. Make sure you use resources to support your answers.

Case Study

Alex was the general manager of a corporate division office. His company developed large software systems. Alex had four program managers reporting to him, each with a program worth between $3 and $6 million. Dave was one of those program managers.

Alex arrived at work one Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. By 8:01 a.m., every member of the finance department was lined up outside his office complaining that someone had stolen all their computers right off their desks.

The first question Alex asked was, Had we been robbed? By 8:15 a.m. he knew the answer. No robbery had occurred. The computers were not taken from the building, they had just been moved. All of the computer from the finance department had been found on the desk of Dave’s engineering team. Dave’s team was made up of 15 system analysts and programmers working on a 2-year program worth about $4 million.

Alex instructed the financial staff to leave the computers on the engineer’s desks for now, until he could figure out exactly what happened. The financial staff was understandably ready to tar and feather Dave, while Alex’s job was to keep everybody calm. Without any real information, Alex’s goal was to make sure everybody remained calm and didn’t come to their own conclusions.

By 8:30 a.m. Dave had arrived at the office, but none of his team had yet arrived. When Dave arrived Alex asked to see him in him office alone. What the heck happened, Dave? Alex didn’t yell it out, he just said it with emphasis on the word What .

Dave calmly explained that his team had committed to the customer that a specific deliverable would be in the customer’s hands by Monday morning. The team decided the only way to get it done was to work through the weekend. By Saturday afternoon they realized they were not going to get it done unless they had more computing power. So they took the computers off the desks of the finance department. They worked through Sunday and late into Sunday night and got the product delivered to the customer on time, Monday morning. When they left Sunday evening they were just too tired to put the computers back on the desks of the financial staff. So Monday morning when the financial staff arrived they found no messages, no thank-you notes, no explanations, and no computers.

Dave’s team had worked hard and had delivered the product to the customer on time. The financial staff was upset but the customer was happy.

Topic #1 – Consequences & Alternatives

Student’s reply:

Read the following case study and answer the following questions for this conference discussion:

1. What is the decision problem (the decision that needs to be made)?

Did Alex follow proper protocol in borrowing the other departments equipment?

2. What is the root cause of the issue?

Alexs department did not have the computing power needed to handle a cruch time situation.

3. What are the symptoms of the issue?

This could have caused the project to miss the deadline, it did cause equipment to be borrowed from another department

4. What are the assumptions you are making?

That the deadline would be missed without the extra computing power

5. Identify three alternative decisions that Alex can make. Explain and support your reasoning

There a few alternatives Alex could have choose rather than to take the other departments equipment. In choosing alternatives Alex must be sure to aviod the coom pitfall of Business as Usual .. Many decision problems are similar to others that have come before, choosing the same alternative becons as the easy course(hammond. 1999). Business as usual results from laziness and an over reliance on habit. He also has to keep in mind that the perfect solution seldom exists so Alex must be sure to know when to quit looking for alternatives. One alternatve Alex had was to go out and purchase equipment on his sompany credit card. This would not only benefit the current project it would up their efficiency for future projects as well. Another alternative Alex had was to just get done what he could before the deadline and turn the rest in late. He tried his hardest and dit he best he could. A third alternative Alex could have done would be to find a large computer lab somewhere and rent the space to comeplete the project. This way the project coul dbe done on time and not have to buy all new equipment.

hammond. (1999) Smart Choices: A practicle guide to making better life decisions. Broadway Books New York.

6. What are the associated consequences of each of the the alternative decisions you identify?

In this case Alex should us a consequence table(hammond. 1999) to make a clear and consice chart. One consequence of buying equipment could be his termination. If the equipment was not there to begin with it is possible that management will not like that fact that he went out and spent a bunch of money on more equipment. There could be new equipment budgeted in the new budget which starts in a few moenths for instance. A consequence of not finishing the project on time could be his termination. As a employee Alex is expected to finish projects on time. This has been communicated to him time and time again. A consequesce of using a computer lab could be stolen information. Someone could be hacking the lab and take all the work done there. This could lead to business esponiage, data theft, or even identity theft.

hammond. (1999) Smart Choices: A practicle guide to making better life decisions. Broadway Books New York.