A&D High Tech
Contents Executive Summary 2 Analysis 3 Online store project 3 Problem statement 3 Alternatives 5 Overtime Work 5 Additional Resources 12 Recommendations 14 Risks and Contingencies 16
Executive Summary
A&D High Tech is a US medium size company that started to operate in the business of computer systems products and services in 1988. Due to fierce competition and decreasing profit margins, the company founder and CEO was seeking other growth opportunities by adopting two new strategies, namely: * Increasing sales nationally * Utilizing modern technology to increase operational efficiency
The company online store was the answer that would enable A&D High Tech to realize both growth strategies. Moreover, it would help the company gain a new competitive edge. That’s why, it was decided that it would be the company’s top priority. In this report, we address a problem the company is facing which is meeting the deadline for launching an online store before Christmas. The project will cost around 1 million USD and will be finished by the 27th of November according to the initial plan; however, as outlined later, finishing by this deadline is too risky.
We are presenting two alternatives for carrying out the project in a shorter time frame, like working overtime or hiring extra resources. We have mixed the two alternatives so that the tasks that are quality sensitive/critical will be crashed by subcontracting additional resources to avoid employee fatigue that can effect the quality of the work, while the tasks that are indivisible or have a learning curve that need to be done by one resource will be crashed by overtime work.
In addition we are highlighting some risks and indicating some actions to mitigate these risks. For example the contracted developers may be less skilled than the current resources. Accordingly, they may take a longer time to finish their tasks. Mitigation for this would be a preventive action where the
Executive Summary
A&D High Tech is a US medium size company that started to operate in the business of computer systems products and services in 1988. Due to fierce competition and decreasing profit margins, the company founder and CEO was seeking other growth opportunities by adopting two new strategies, namely: * Increasing sales nationally * Utilizing modern technology to increase operational efficiency
The company online store was the answer that would enable A&D High Tech to realize both growth strategies. Moreover, it would help the company gain a new competitive edge. That’s why, it was decided that it would be the company’s top priority. In this report, we address a problem the company is facing which is meeting the deadline for launching an online store before Christmas. The project will cost around 1 million USD and will be finished by the 27th of November according to the initial plan; however, as outlined later, finishing by this deadline is too risky.
We are presenting two alternatives for carrying out the project in a shorter time frame, like working overtime or hiring extra resources. We have mixed the two alternatives so that the tasks that are quality sensitive/critical will be crashed by subcontracting additional resources to avoid employee fatigue that can effect the quality of the work, while the tasks that are indivisible or have a learning curve that need to be done by one resource will be crashed by overtime work.
In addition we are highlighting some risks and indicating some actions to mitigate these risks. For example the contracted developers may be less skilled than the current resources. Accordingly, they may take a longer time to finish their tasks. Mitigation for this would be a preventive action where the