Respond to Discussions

1st Respond to Discussion – Project Management (250 words minimum)

Hello Class,

We are in week seven and getting towards the end of the project lifecycle. This week we are looking at quality and risk. Quality can be a fluid term based on perspective so it is important to develop a shared understanding with all the project stakeholders. Risk is inherent with life, but the project team must to its best to identify and assess potential in order to manage risk effectively. 

How is defining and meeting client expectations a good measure of quality in a project?

Defining and meeting client expectations a good measure of quality in a project. The customer will judge a product not only by the end state product that was created but also by the process or the way the project was run (Project Management Skills). Even if the customer is satisfied by the product but not by the process, they may deem that the quality of the product is lacking. So project managers must respect the perception of the customer and communicate effectively to get the product and the process right. 

What is the difference between known and unknown risks in a project?

There is risk associated with nearly everything, even as simple of my going to my kitchen to go get a glass of water. That being said project managers must do their best to predict and control risk because good risk management enhances the chances of completing a successful project. The risks that the project team are able to identify and analyze are the known risk and all the others are unknown (Saylor, 2012). 

What are the major elements in managing project risk?

Major element of managing project risk are defining, analyzing, assessing, evaluating, and avoiding or mitigating risk. Defining risk and analyzing its effect on a project is crucial in supporting the efficient management of the risk. Risk assessment is important because it includes evaluating risk then putting resources and effort to avoid or mitigating risks.

2nd Respond to Discussion – Project Management (250 words minimum)

Q1. How is defining and meeting client expectation a good measure of quality in a project?

(Discuss)

 A project manager has to have a plan for how one can meet customers' requirements to have a successful project outcome. The customers expect quality work. To understand what quality means to the customer is one has to know what quality means in general. According to the International organization for Standardization (ISO) quality is "the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements." (CompTIA, 2009).    There are some quality measurement methods that a project manager can use to achieve the project goal. Those tools are: "flowcharting" is one of the methods used in quality improvement process to simplify complicated project and to clarify team's responsibility and role, "Benchmarking" is the second technique used by project managers in order to make sure the product results are better than other competitors that are in the same field. By utilizing those types of quality improvement methods, one can make sure the project is meeting the customers' need.      

Q2. What is the difference between known and unknown risks in a project?

           To answer the above questions first, one has to know what risk means. A risk is “the possibility of loss or injury.” (CompTIA, 2009) Therefore, a great project manager is a one who is prepared to resolve for any possible accident that could occur during the project process time frame. A project can have known the risk, which the project manager and the team can evaluate the project for a likelihood of potential risks could affect the project form achieving the goal. For example, “Safety risks are common on construction projects,” (CompTIA, 2009) change of the exchange of the local currency during the progress of the project and climate change such as for projects that depend on rainy weather. So, those known risks can make it easier for project managers to get ready for solutions as they appear. However, the difficult part would be whenever a project faces with unknown certainty activities, for instance, one could not be able to complete one of the main pieces of the project process because of a transportation delay that was caused by "Terrorist Attack" on a particular day. Another unforeseen reason could be when a significant team leader has to leave the project for family death reason without inputting thought on the project process. These and other similar reasons could affect the project outcomes or delay the project form completing on schedule and within budget.

Q3. What are the significant elements in managing project risk?

  There are two types of elements that are utilized to manage project risk. Those elements are called "risk assessment" and "risk mitigation."  The risk assessment used for "identification of potential risk and the evaluation of the potential impact of the risk." (CompTIA, 2009) Also, the risk mitigation plan would be used "to eliminate or minimize the impact of the risk events -occurrences that have a negative impact on the project." (CompTIA, 2009) Therefore, by utilizing those techniques, one can manage the risks appropriately as they occur. 

Work Cited

CompTIA A+ Certification. (2009). Axzo Press.Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/

            access/content/group/science-and-technology

3rd Respond to Discussion – IT Management (150 words minimum)

1. What is the difference between customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, and employee relationship management? Give a specific example of each one.

Customer Relationship Management, CRM, utilizes database software to collect, analyze, and interpret customer data to provide an enhanced level of customer service and targeted marketing.  Customer Relationship Management data analysis is run by a company’s marketing department, not its customer service department.  An example would be Salesforce, a cloud based program providing sales, customer service and engagement apps.

Supplier Relationship Management, SRM, focuses on how to leverage relationships with suppliers to ensure mutually beneficial interaction between supplier and customer.  We use SRM to properly manage logistics and delivery times, as well as to develop new product to meet future customer needs.  Fishbowl Inventory is for small and mid-sized companies allowing for inventory control, material requirement planning and work order management.

Employee Relationship Management, ERM, software that supports relationship building between an organization and its employees.  The focus here is to allow employees to feel valued within an organization through collaboration, determining employee needs, open communication, and a work-life balance.  An example is BirdDogHR. 2. In regards to the organization or company you have chosen to analyze this semester, what types of enterprise applications are they currently using and how are they using them? What other enterprise applications might you recommend for your organization, and why?

The organization I have been reviewing has only 6 office staff, and 30 field staff. We do not utilize any sort of CRM, SRM, or ERM software as most of the field staff only enter the office area once a week to collect their paychecks and sundry materials for the upcoming weeks.  We are a subcontractor for larger contractors and are more on the supplier side of the equation as opposed to demand side.

4th Respond to Discussion – IT Management (150 words minimum)

1. What is the difference between customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, and employee relationship management? Give a specific example of each one.

I can’t say how happy that I am to be on the final 25% of this course, Coming into this course I was very stressed and for lack of a better word paranoid about taking it but I am happy to say that it has gone rather smooth to this point. This week we are looking at the relationships that a business will venture into from all sides from an IT perspective. First off customer relationship management or CRM is all about the business to customer relationship and how to better the process to make the customers life easier. There are many ways to do this one of which is recommendations to items that are similar to the item be purchased to the customer. This can be used in all situations and may even give the customer insight into items they did not know about or think about. The reason businesses need to take this seriously is to get returning customers much like some people only drive fords or Chevy’s the idea is the same. SRM or supplier relationship management “this focuses on keeping suppliers satisfied by evaluating and categorizing suppliers for different projects” (Baltzan, 2012). We can look at this from multiple angles but this is the same idea as customer relations just concerning the supplier making their lives easier and more predictable by providing software that can help predict orders of supplies and simplifying the process on both side. ERM is about simplifying the employee and HR processes this is one aspect that the Air force is great at and yet leaves the user confused at times. I say that it is great at it because there really is no HR per say we have automated systems and self-service systems that give the Airmen the power to update all of their information, check on the status of their files and see the self-service items such as retirement contributions and assignment recommendation of where they would like to go. The reason I say that the Air force is bad at this is because there is no one stop shop to complete all of this information. Everything is under a different application and the Airman has to “know” which one is the correct path. 2. In regards to the organization or company you have chosen to analyze this semester, what types of enterprise applications are they currently using and how are they using them? What other enterprise applications might you recommend for your organization, and why?

I would recommend an all-encompassing database management system or an application that can be accessed via the web where every personal item that an airman needs to complete can be updated or accessed. Even an application that is for a search help to find out what application they need to go to would be helpful.

5th Respond to Discussion – Web Design Form Input Validation (150 words minimum)

Form input validation has incredible value for the people using the information that is collected from the user. Form input validation ensures that all of the information inputted by the user is in the proper format and accurate as possible. For the user, it prevents the site owners to have to reach out to them to re-validate information. When the forms have structure, it makes it much easier for the user to be able to fill out the form as well. There are two types of validation: pogo-sticking and inline validation. Pogo-sticking is where the user fills out the entire form, clicks submit and then the form spits out the issues with whatever lines. This can be annoying to the user to have to keep clicking submit after atttempting to resolve the issues with the form. Inline validation is much better because once the user moves onto the next field, it continuously validates the prior lines and tells you right away if a field is incorrect. You are able to correct as you go. 

6th Respond to Discussion – Web Design Form Input Validation (150 words minimum)

Class,

Welcome to week 7! It is crazy to think that we are almost done. Reading through this weeks course, It looks like I understand quite a bit about forms. HTML5 has some features such as user validation that makes using forms well worth it. This is true for both user and whoever will be receiving the completed forms.  Now you have the ability to request a specific format and ensure that the user is entering exactly what you want. This makes the form show up in the format that is easiest for you and leaves little to no room from random information. Not to mention it makes it look way better. Required is by far one of my features. It makes the user put in the information that you may need. What happens if you have an order and a question arises? now thanks to requiring them to put a phone number, you have the ability to call them. I like this because most users will skip information they feel is unimportant, however it could assist you in some way. Pattern is another validation tool that assist with the ability to ensure that the user is putting in the correct format of characters such as date, email address or time. It is also interesting to add JavaScript to the validation by presenting a pop-up message to clue the user what exactly is required.I do think that their is some limits to the validation process. There is no way to validate all the information that is collected. You cannot verify exact birth dates or other information. They could follow the rules that you implemented however the information would follow the pattern and still be wrong. 

7th Answer question, use your own words or paraphrase (minimum 150 words)

Describe the difference between organizational risk and project risk in your own words and give an example of each that is not used in the text.