Case Study

Overview: New Energy, Inc. is a fast$-$growing supplier of "green" energy solutions, including wind

turbines, solar technology, etc. Their growing sales force and varying sales commission plans

prompted the need for a centralized and automated commission system to replace their spreadsheet$-$

intensive procedures.

Project: Don is the head of Accounting and approved the project plan developed by the assigned

project manager, Mary. Their preliminary research showed that a software package was the most cost$-$

effective solution. Mary's scope statement included these project objectives:

o Research and produce a list of the three packages that best fit the company's need.

o Facilitate a decision for the best package to obtain o Procure the package.

o Install the package.

Progress: It took months to research and find the three packages. Selecting the package was

contentious. The Sales department wanted a web$-$based solution, which the VP of sales, Chris, said

would be easiest for the salespeople to use.

Accounting wanted a product that had tighter security and was easier to customize. Since the system

was being paid for with Accounting's budget, Don prevailed.

Issue $1$: Once the software contract was signed, Don became busy and largely left the installation to

Mary and the technical team. Don wanted the project completed by a fixed date, and Mary felt

pressured to get installation done without much requirements analysis, especially given she had only

one systems analyst, Bob, on the project.

Issue $2$: Bob focused his time on converting the spreadsheet data to the new system, and on

customizing the many new user interfaces available. He conducted extensive interviews of key staff to

learn their needs for the interfaces. As Bob was interviewing, Chris requested that the most common

sales interface be duplicated as a web page, and Bob agreed because it was easy. While they were at it$,$

Bob showed Chris a nifty Flash component for the page, which Chris loved, and it was added as a

requirement.

Issue $3$: During the package installation, Sales announced the addition of a new product line with an

entirely different commission structure. Don held a meeting and informed the team that the new

commission plan had to be incorporated into the project and that the deadline could not slip.

Issue $4$: During installation, Bill, a developer, and the Accounts Payable lead, Allison, discovered that

the project scope did not include changes to other systems like General Ledger $($G$/$L$).$ Bill said he

could code something quickly and that this would save Allison's team many hours every payroll. He

was ahead of schedule, so Mary agreed. Unfortunately, it took longer to code and test than Bill

thought, and consequently he didn't finish testing all of the exceptions for the new commission system.

The package was implemented on schedule, but with several problems due to some exceptions not

working correctly. There were other problems with bad data and incorrect reports. Don was not happy.