Question 1. Decision-Making Methodology Project
Write a final project report describing the project that you conducted during this course, using the Decision-Making Methodology Project Overview as a guide.
Write a 3,500-4,200-word executive memo, summarizing your findings and recommendations. The memo should consist of the following:
- Executive Summary
- Table of Contents
- Problem Statement
- Identification of Alternative Solutions
- First Client Meeting
- Discovery and Dialogue
- Second Client Meeting
- Final Reflection
Decision-Making Methodology Project Overview:
There are a number of decision-making models you might apply to the problem you have selected for this project. However, many will contain some or all of the following components, which are summarized here to guide the development of your project.
a. Identify the problem. If you solve the wrong problem, you have not solved the problem at all. This critical first step needs to be undertaken with care to ensure that the problem is correctly identified. Often a problem can be structured as the gap between the current state and a desired state. If sales are flat and the organization's objective is for them to grow 15 percent, you clearly have a performance gap. If it takes 10 days to create a price for a custom order and the expectation in the marketplace is for it to take less than 1 minute, you have a gap. One of the most common mistakes in identifying a problem is to bury it under a solution. Avoid framing the problem as "Should we introduce an upgraded version of the software (product) to increase our sales to the objective growth rate?" Note that the new product is a possible solution to increase sales and is posing as the problem when it really is not. You should also check with the key stakeholders to make sure this really is a problem and that you have correctly captured the problem in your problem statement.
b. Investigate the cause of the problem. There are a variety of analyses to discover the cause(s) of a problem, particularly when it is correctly stated as a performance gap. This step is important since it will generate ideas for possible solutions. If sales are flat and you want them to grow 15 percent, investigating the causes of why your customers are not buying might turn up a variety of reasons: poor customer service, a stagnant market for your business, products that are out of line with customer needs, a crowding of the market with viable products from other competitors, non-competitive price, inappropriate distribution channels, and so forth. You can now research and analyze each of these to narrow the scope of what has caused your problem.
c. Generate alternative solutions. The results of your research and analysis when you investigated the cause of the problem will prompt several possible alternative solutions. You should be able to brainstorm others as well. The value of this step is to avoid the temptation to grab the first solution that comes to mind or the one that someone else suggests to you. In the sales problem, it might be tempting to jump to the conclusion that you need a new product to revive sales (because that helped in the past) or that you should lower price (because yours is the highest in the market). While these often-suggested solutions might be the best one(s), you are well advised to analyze other possibilities. Remember, if you jump on price reduction and that is not the right solution, you very quickly destroy value for the organization. New products can be expensive and time-consuming to develop. What if your customers were just irritated because they could not get timely and accurate information on the status of their order? It might be far less expensive to implement this solution, particularly if it addresses the real cause of the problem.
d. Analyze the alternatives. After you have narrowed your possible solutions to the ones that most closely align with the causes of the problem, you need to access the information required to analyze them. You should have more than one candidate solution, and ultimately the solution you choose may involve a combination of candidates. However, you will select the most value-adding solution if your analysis includes an evaluation of benefits and costs. It is quite possible that the most favored solution is the most expensive (and time-consuming). Clearly you want to assess the benefits against the costs and include the time value of money. Several courses in your program have given you the tools to perform your analysis. Often the bottleneck in this step is the availability of accurate information to perform your analysis. Therefore, it is wise to explore the data you will require in this step when you are selecting the problem you will address.
e. Select and justify your solution. Your analysis of the alternatives should suggest the selection of one solution or a combination of several possible solutions. Before you finalize your recommendation, you should consider the implementation plan, the willingness of the client to accept this solution, and any significant risks that might derail it as you try to implement it. These other factors might cause you to modify your recommendation, but by thinking them through and constructing risk mitigation plans for them, you will greatly enhance the probability that your solution will in fact solve the problem and meet the client's objective.
Components of the Decision-Making Methodology Project:
Note: This is a typical list of components in many problem-solving projects. Organization or industry circumstances may dictate that items either be added or deleted.
Executive Summary (required for the final report)
In preparing the executive summary, keep in mind that the summary will probably be the only part of the project top management will review. It will be assumed that the full document provides all the support needed to reinforce both your conclusions and recommendations. For that reason, it is imperative that any recommendations you make in the summary be fully documented in the full project report, and that no conflicts exist between the summary and the project report. As you plan the summary, decide which conclusions and recommendations you consider the most important for management to accept.
Your summary should be 700-1,400 words that highlight the recommendations from the project. Key findings and supporting data can be in bullet format. Conclude with a summary of recommended future action.
Table of Contents (required for Decision-Making Methodology Project Final Report)
Problem Statement
The problem statement should include both the manager’s definition of the problem as well as your analysis of the causes underlying the problem. What factors do you believe should also be explored to assure that you are dealing with the correct problem?
Identification of Alternative Solutions
1) What alternative solutions are you considering?
2) What decision-making methodology will you use to explore these alternatives?
First Client Meeting:
1) What do you need from the client?
2) What have you agreed to provide?
3) What was the time schedule for the project?
4) What were the confidentiality requirements for this project?
5) Will the project require feedback at a later date?
6) What resistance did you encounter during the initial client meeting? How did you deal with it?
Discovery and Dialogue:
1) What did you do to discover the real problem (as opposed to the presenting problem)?
2) What problem redefinition occurred?
3) How did you locate the data you needed to analyze your alternative solutions?
a) What methodology did you use?
b) How did you obtain the data?
4) What techniques did you use to analyze the data?
5) What were the results of your analysis?
6) What conclusions did you draw?
Second Client Meeting:
1) How did you prepare the feedback for the client?
2) What happened when you presented the feedback?
3) What recommendations did you make? What was the client’s reaction to these recommendations?
4) What method do you recommend to the client for implementation?
5) Will your recommendations engage employees in the process?
a) If so, how?
b) If not, why not?
Final Reflection
Reflect on the problem, the solution, and the client’s acceptance of the solution.
1) What are your final recommendations to the client?
2) What limitations, if any, do you see in your approach?
3) What unintended consequences might there be? How will you reduce the probability that these will occur?
Background:
NWT is a major technology company that has seen many of its experienced employees depart over the last few years. The impact of this is insufficient workforce to take on jobs that it takes on. Known for its quality work, NWT is concerned that further erosion of its talent base will result in further reduction of its bottom line. The company was of the opinion that it offered a generous and competitive compensation package. Concerned that further departures will begin to affect the quality of its work, NWT has retained a consultant to assist in addressing the problem.