Business Case
Ernest Rasche and his wife, Estelle, immigrated to the United States from Lower Slovenia in 1921, settling in Muncie Indiana. Rasche had been a talented plumber in the old country; he quickly found work at the XYZ Plumbing Supply Company. Nine years later, with his life savings and a small loan from the Second National Bank of Muncie, Rasche was able to purchase the XYZ Plumbing Supply Company from its owner, who had decided to retire. The Rasches had five children. One by one each child left home, starting his or her own franchise of the XYZ Plumbing Supply Company in a different city.
Over the years the XYZ Plumbing Supply Company and its franchises proved quite successful. There are now a total of twenty-three offices across the United States. Each has its own IT department, servers, and network attached storage (NAS). All use the same business applications: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Inventory Management, as well as their own customer-facing website.
George Rasche, Ernest Rasche's grandson, is currently CEO of XYZ Plumbing Supply Company, Inc. Martha Wilson, XYZ's Chief Technical Officer (CTO), has proposed to Rasche that they centralize IT by developing a private cloud. Her proposal is to buy commercial blade servers, racks, and NAS from the Acme Computer Company. Zenith Software will be responsible for porting the current business applications to the private cloud. Argos Data Centers, Inc., will upgrade the physical facility to ensure adequate cooling, power, and physical security. The private cloud will be operated and maintained by the XYZ Plumbing Supply Company IT department. Rasche agrees to the plan, proving that (1) operations will not be disrupted, and (2) work will be completed in 18 months. Martha Wilson will be the Project Manager.
Assignment 3: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (20 points)
Develop a WBS for this Project. DO NOT DEVELOP A GANTT CHART. All I want to see is a task decomposition. See Marchewka p. 133, Figure 5.9 for an example. Insert your WBS below.
Assignment 4: Risks (10 points)
Fill in the following:
Internal Negative Risk 1: __________________________________________
Internal Negative Risk 2: __________________________________________
Internal Negative Risk 3: __________________________________________
External Negative Risk 1: __________________________________________
External Negative Risk 2: __________________________________________
External Negative Risk 3: __________________________________________
External Negative Risk 4: __________________________________________
External Negative Risk 5: __________________________________________
Internal Positive Risk 1: __________________________________________
External Positive Risk 2: __________________________________________
Assignment 5: Risk Management (18 points)
For each negative risk above, indicate whether you will avoid, accept, mitigate, or transfer the risk, and how (2-3 sentences).
Internal Negative Risk 1: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
Internal Negative Risk 2: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
Internal Negative Risk 3: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
External Negative Risk 1: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
External Negative Risk 2: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
External Negative Risk 3: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
External Negative Risk 4: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
External Negative Risk 5: accept, avoid, mitigate, or transfer (choose 1)
How?
Assignment 6: Outsourcing (20 points)
List five potential mistakes XYZ may make in outsourcing parts of this project. Explain how they can mitigate or avoid each mistake (2-3 sentences).
1. Mistake: _____________________________________________
Mitigate/Avoid: _____________________________________________
2. Mistake: _____________________________________________
Mitigate/Avoid: _____________________________________________
3. Mistake: _____________________________________________
Mitigate/Avoid: _____________________________________________
4. Mistake: _____________________________________________
Mitigate/Avoid: _____________________________________________
5. Mistake: _____________________________________________
Mitigate/Avoid: _____________________________________________