EDTEC 684 • Project Management

Case Study Assignment

The Case of the Struggling Contractor vs. the CashBlaster 2000

Instructions

Working together in your existing groups, please review the information below and prepare a response to present in class on Wednesday, November 28th. My intent with this assignment is not to have you write a formal RFP response (thankfully, from your perspective, I’m sure). Rather, I would like you to put yourself in the position described, consider the RFP requirements and your available resources, and then make some conclusions about how you would respond to the RFP. Your presentation will highlight those conclusions and the considerations your made along the way.

Deliverable

Prepare a short and simple five-minute briefing that your team will present in class on Wednesday, November 28^th. Your response should give a succinct summary of your thoughts if you were to develop a formal response to the RFP.

Consider the following in your response:

Faced with this exact situation, what would you do? What would you make sure not to do?
How would you respond to the RFP? Would you meet each requirement, or would you negotiate?

schedule

budget

deliverables

scope of work

compensation

your expectations of the client

Are there specific questions you would need answered by the prospective client prior to drafting a RFP response? If so, what are those questions?
What factors would influence your response to the RFP? What factors would have little, if any, relevance?
What project management skills and abilities will be required:

to write the RFP?

to direct the project, should you be awarded the contract?

Make sure to highlight the considerations you made to arrive at your decisions regarding the RFP components.

Background Information

Your Role: You and your teammates have banded together to form a small, three-person consulting/contracting firm – “Instruction by Design”. Your first year brought modest success; expenses were covered and each partner earned a decent salary. You developed three different web-based, e-learning courses for two Fortune 500 clients. Now, in your second year, projects haven’t been quite as abundant. In fact, times are lean. Instruction by Design continues to seek opportunities, but they’re hard to come by…

Opportunity: Instruction by Design receives the RFP summarized below. You must decide how to respond. Considering the need to keep your firm afloat, you decide to bid the project. A closer review of the RFP reveals some rather extreme conditions. Keeping in mind you need the work, outline your response to the RFP. What conditions are you willing to work to meet? What conditions will need to be modified? Assuming no additional information is available, what assumptions will you make in order to bid the project?

Request for Proposal

Up and A’TM, a leading maker of ATM machines used by hundreds of banks across the country has recently developed a new cash machine –the CashBlaster 2000. It is due to be installed in 5,000 kiosks by March 1, 2002.

Individuals in the ATM departments of each bank installing the CashBlaster will need to be trained on the operation, servicing, basic repair, and troubleshooting of this advanced model. These individuals will be the first line of response to problems and responsible for the day-to-day servicing of the machine. While these personnel are experienced ATM servicers, the new CashBlaster boasts advanced features and mechanisms that go beyond current models.

The results of this initial launch of our state-of-the-art CashBlaster 2000 will make or break the machine’s future success in the marketplace. Up and A’TM has made a significant investment to develop new technology and an advanced cash dispensing machine. Therefore, we will not compromise on training. We invite responses to this proposal from qualified organizations with a demonstrated ability to deliver the type of training described herein.

Requirements

Content: Up and A’TM seeks to develop a set of web-based training modules to address the following topics:

· History of Up and A’TM ATM model line

· CashBlaster description and features

· Basic machine operations performed by customers

o Withdrawing cash

o Making a deposit

o Making a balance inquiry

o Making a loan payment

o Transferring funds

· CashBlaster maintenance schedule

· CashBlaster maintenance procedures

o Adding cash

o Balancing the machine

· The five most common problems encountered

· Troubleshooting the three most typical malfunctions

· When to call Up and A’TM for service

· Our plan for future models

Design: Given the highly visual aspects of the subject matter, the web-based training should integrate graphical representations of the CashBlaster 2000, video-based demonstrations of the procedures (Up and A’TM can provide already existing raw video footage of the necessary procedures), and online simulations to test the student’s understanding of the subject matter. In addition, each module should have some type of assessment that enables the learner to assess his/her understanding of the content. The assessment scores will be used to evaluate the individual’s qualification to service the machines – and therefore should be stored in a management database accessible by Up and A’TM as well as supervisors at customer sites.

Platform: The web-based training must be viewable using either Internet Explorer or Netscape. Other necessary requirements, plug-ins, and coding will be determined cooperatively between Up and A’TM and the selected vendor.

Deliverables: The vendor will be responsible for both the design and production of the web-based training.

The final product must include:

· Course menu with links to each module

· Course content, as described above

· Assessment at the conclusion of each module to test understanding

· Video examples of the two maintenance procedures

· Interactive simulations of the two maintenance procedures to assess learner skills and understanding in performing the procedures

· Tracking system to detail each learner’s progress through the modules and performance on the assessments

Schedule: Because the CashBlaster 2000 will be installed by March 1, 2002, the web-based training program must be available in its entirety by February 15, 2002. While we realize that conducting the web-based training with our many customers will be difficult to achieve with just 15 days (Feb 15-Mar 1), Up and A’TM is willing to aggressively pursue this 15 day window in order to provide you with the necessary time to develop excellent training.

Milestones:

· We anticipate awarding the contract by November 30, with work commencing immediately.

· Draft modules should be delivered for review by our subject matter experts by January 7.

· The final course must be up and running by February 15.

Developed by James Marshall

San Diego State University • Department of Educational Technology