NOTE: As this is your first example problem there are discussion questions provided for you.

Overview

You and your team ofIT professionals are currently employed byMotorparts Corp. Your team isresponsible for all IT functions within the company that uses UNIX as their primary operating system. Print services are provided by Microsoft print servers. Each department has their own print server that handles all oftheir needs. These systems were installed prior to you and your team being hired at Motorparts Corp. (2 months ago) and since everything has been working correctly you have not made any significant changes to the system.Most of your time has been spent performing routine maintenance on the systems as this is what you felt was most important when you were hired.

Total annual sales of Motorparts Corp are normally $50,000,000, 30% of which are sold to auto parts retailers with the remaining sales going to major North American auto manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler).

Situation

At 12:00 p.m. you receive a call from the Sales department informing you that they are unable to print any documents, including invoices. They inform you that it is vitally important that they have their invoices printed and mailed to customers by 4:30 p.m. today.

At 12:05 p.m. you receive another call, this time from the shipping department. They too are having difficulty printing documents and are desperate to have their Bills of Lading printed in order to ship stock to customers. They want the problem corrected by 4:30 p.m. today.

This problem is isolated to these two departments. All other departments are functioning normally.

Your team quickly looks at the situation and determines that there is a problem with the print servers located in each department. You estimate that it will take about 3 hours to diagnose and correct the fault with each server and that all of your team members will have to be present at each location in order to correct the problem. It is now 12:30 p.m.

Required (Use point form)

A) You will have 20 minutes to discuss this in your groups.

1)Analyze the above and define the primary problem.

2)Based on your expertise and the information you have, what further information would you need to solve the problem. Develop a list of questions you need to ask. Where would you look for this information?

3)Indicate your course of action.

4)What information led you to this decision? Why was this significant?

5)What impact will your decision have on all those involved?

B)Group leaders will rotate to another group to discuss the above for 10 minutes.

C) Return to your original groups. Group leaders will have 10 minutes to review their discussions with the other groups and determine whether any new information will influence their original conclusions.

Assume that it is two days later and you meet with your team members to review the situation. Both departments are now functioning normally.

6)Do you believe your analysis of the problem was correct?

7)What information do you now have that would make you believe that your decision was/was notthe best option?

8)Did your discussion with othergroups have any influence on your original decision? How?

9)What problem(s) still exists (relating to the original situation)?

10)What steps would you take to minimize the risks of this problem(s)?

1) Problem Identification

Primary Problem

Secondary Problem(s)

2) Problem Analysis

i) What knowledge do you have about the problem?

ii) Questions that need further analysis to resolve problem(s)

3) Possible Solutions

4)Information Analysis

i) How did the information you gained influence your decision?

ii) Significance of this information on your final decision

5) How would your final course of action effect the organization

Motorparts Corp

Server/Print Server Map