Please review the TOWN of EDEN BAY case study on pages 91-92 of your textbook. Afterwards, answer the four questions provided at the end of page 92 while justifying your responses.
1. Do you believe that the absence of a strategic plan or mission statement impacts the current situation? Please explain your reasoning.
– Yes, in my opinion, the absence of a strategic plan has the potential to affect the current situation for Eden Bay. Without a clear plan and direction, it becomes difficult for them to effectively manage their work and make informed decisions.
A strategic plan is crucial for providing direction and focus to all employees, enabling organizations to achieve their goals and increase their chances of success. The Town of Eden Bay’s strength lies in its adoption of a new technology system instead of relying on spreadsheets, opening up possibilities for future growth and improvement. However, they also have weaknesses such as reliance on manual processes and the absence of a strategic plan for their maintenance shop. To address these weaknesses, time should be invested in studying and creating plans to enhance operations.
The town has opportunities to further develop and study their new technology system in order to maximize its benefits and increase their chances of success.
Below are potential threats to the Town of Eden Bay along with strategies for evaluating, handling, and addressing these risks:
- Town of Eden Bay faces risks from external private companies that may impact their operations.
To effectively mitigate these threats, an initial investigation needs to be conducted involving the use of fact-finding techniques. Steps involved in conducting this initial investigation include:
It is important to include the tools mentioned in this chapter. (Hints: For Question 3, refer to the general steps of preliminary investigation (listed in figure 2-17, page 72) and the discussion that follows.) One of the initial steps in conducting a preliminary investigation is understanding the problem or opportunity at hand. The analyst must first determine the department, users, and business processes involved in the system request to evaluate and analyze the associated causes and effects of the proposed system.
The second step in a preliminary investigation is to define the project scope and constraints. The project scope is determined by clearly indicating the boundaries or extent of the project, while the project constraints are determined by the requirements or conditions that the system must meet or achieve. The third step involves using fact-finding techniques, such as analyzing charts, conducting interviews with users and managers, reviewing documents, observing operations, and conducting user surveys. This is followed by the fourth step, which involves evaluating feasibility.
The proposed projects’s feasibility is evaluated through operational, technical, economical and schedule feasibility in this step. Estimation of time and cost is done in the fifth step. The sixth and final step involves presenting the results and recommendations to the concerned department or management. The investigation report provides information on system request evaluation, cost, benefits, and analyst’s recommendations. Considering the four tests of feasibility – operational, technical, economic, and schedule – which one would you prioritize to measure the system project’s feasibility? Justify your answer. (Hints: For Question 4, there is no single “right answer”, but you must justify why YOU think that a particular feasibility-type needs to be tested first.) Technical feasibility should be performed first as they possess the necessary technical resources for development and purchase. Furthermore, they are facing challenges regarding capacity for future transaction volume and company growth.
