MANAGEMENT IN ACTION - SOCIAL ECONOMIC AND ETHICAL ISSUES

TITLE OF PROJECT: Challenges faced by Executives in IT Company.

NAME OF STUDENT: Vartika Tiwari

PROGRAMME NAME: MBA-HR

PROBLEM AND ITS BRIEF A consultant is someone who is a qualified individual to provide appropriate and apt solutions and their implementation procedures to the client. There is a need for expertise in the present company. There are situations that arise where companies do not have the in-house expertise required for a specific undertaking, and therefore a consultant is hired. Being a consultant is not an easy task. One has to face so many troubles before coming up with proper solutions. It starts with building a relationship with the client organization and thereby identifying and diagnosing the problems faced by the organization. The challenges faced by the company are: Lack of Clarity in the Scope of the Business Functions In the translation of the customers needs into the delivered product or service, vague requirements may not be properly understood. The subsequent design documents may, therefore, be poorly defined and documented. Business Requirements Not Well-Managed The customer may not fully understand all of the projects requirements at the beginning of the project. The customer may use imprecise language such as I guess, I want or Maybe we should consider or may not fully articulate what is required. Requirements may be vague, incomplete and may not be specific enough to be measurable Conflict Between Business Groups For any project to be successful, the reporting relationships should be clear across various levels within the organization.

OBJECTIVE The objective behind whole of this trouble taking process had far more reaching impact on the health of the organization and therefore it must had to be solved. The whole process was to be undertaken so that the client could get certain alternatives which could help the client organization .The objective was to find a sound and appropriate solution for this organizations problem. The objective behind identifying this problem was since as a consultant its the work of us to solve clients problem. The identified problems were tracked down through series of steps taken. Once the problems were suitably seen by the consultants only then can further appropriate solutions could be provided.

DIAGNOSIS The first major problem identified was lack of clarity in the scope of business functions. This problem was diagnosed after we saw that the customers requirements were not being transferred properly into the final product or services. The subsequent designs and documents were poorely documented . it therefore resulted in the scope of business functions. We also found out that every project of the company and the resuting functions were not clearly defined and therefore resulted in varied problems. Another problem that was that the company was not properly managing its business requirements. It was seen that the organization was failing because at times the clients were unable to define what exactly they wanted from the vendor. This was diagnosed by looking into various reports of the firms and interviewing people. Third problem was conflict between business groups , and was diagnosed by talking with staff in the company . The reporting relationships were not proper and which lead to further problems when any new project came in the way. The problem here could be seen once you talked to the client. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION METHODS The problem was identified majorly through talking to the people in the management of the company. The management was unwilling to discuss but then since the problem was creating shortage in their productivity it was easier to talk to them by making them understand exactly why we as a consultant were there. Certain amount of data was made available by the firm itself including reports etc , and also the website was used to gather data about the company and management. Few of the times telephonic conversations were required so it was continued and the process was taken forward. SOLUTIONS SUGGESTED Lack of Clarity in the Scope of the Business Functions I as a consult reognize my role as one of defining the business solution boundaries i.e., ensure the project scope definition aligns with the proposed solution to support the business needs. This is then translated into the Business Requirements Document. This is approved and signed off by the customer as an agreement on the requirements.

The challenges were basically requirements that have not been well documented due to assumptions being made that the requirement is obvious. That detailed documentation is not required because the solution is temporary i.e., it will work for now. Major thing is to fully integrate the costs associated with satisfying the requirements with the investment to clarify the Business Function Scope right up front.

An effective way to do so is to capture challenges and document them in the Project Scope Statement. The resulting document will articulate the full scope requirements as reflected in the document and there will be a much greater understanding and clarity of the projects scope among all stakeholders and business functions.

So basically we say that in order to have clarity in business function the organization must prepare a proper document before starting off with any project, so that everyone knows the kind of work required from them and the proper way to complete them. Business Requirements Not Well-Managed

When the business requirements are not well managed in the company various other challenges come in the forefront. The requirements may be vague, incomplete, and may not be specific enough to be measurable. This ambiguity may also lead to products delivered to customers such as May be technically sound but fall short by not improving the business process. Does not meet customer expectations . Results in increased costdoes not address the needs, so there will be another initiative, and another. The solutions that I propose for the firm are :

Investing enough time at the beginning of the project to ensure the requirements are understood and documented, in a Business Requirements Document (BRD). The customer group must then sign off the BRD.

Creating a checklist template to collect customer requirements. This approach helps the requirements gathering process and reduces the possibility of things being missed during the interview process.

Ensuring that the requirements gathering process is separated from the design process. Understanding the requirements is not the same as determining how to design a solution to address the requirements. The design process comes after the requirements gathering process.

Involving a customer representative from all of the affected departments or business functions. This involvement should exist throughout the project to increase understanding of the projects goal and ensure any changes to the requirements are in the best interest of the product or service design requirements. May be technically sound but fall short by not improving the business process.

Conflict Between Business Groups The key responsibility is to perform a sequence of analysis techniques in order to obtain customer requirements. The reporting relationships should be clear across various levels within the organization. For example, the consultant may be working with administrative staff, examining their requirements for increased productivity and then later in the day working with senior management, analyzing their need for more detailed reports. The primary role is to elicit, structure, validate and communicate business and user requirements. Essentially here it is to find and bring a new role who bridges the gap between the customer/user community (high level requirements) and the technical community (technical requirements). As a result, customer acceptance of a final product or service is highly dependant on this roles ability to translate those needs into a proposed business solution. Since all these problems are to be recognized by the firm sooner or later , there must be consideration of finding new roles as suggested by the consultant who could help in the furthering of roles and responsibility. The consultant role is important for most projects. Consultants ensure that the stakeholder needs are identified and fully met throughout the project. This translates into more successful projects because their customers expectations are realized. LIMITATIONS Although the solutions provided are appropriate but to suggest them and to actually work them in the organization are two different things. 1. The major limitation was that it was time consuming. 2. Another limitation was that although a consultant can provide definite reporting relationships but to implement them is the task of the client organization and it might be successful or might not be at times.