BARTON LEGAL SERVICES: A CASE STUDY ON SOFTWARE PROJECT
BARTON LEGAL SERVICES: A CASE STUDY ON SOFTWARE PROJECT
Task 1: Objective of Information Systems
A. More developed information sharing between the four practice areas
According to systems thinking, having a coherent business strategy or model cannot be achieved when division managers view a particular problem in a myopic way (2006). In the present condition, the four practice areas have on-going dispute regarding company resources because of the lack of commitment to boost overall performance. Partners are being myopic in such a manner that their individual area goals are highlighted to defeat organizational cohesion. An assumption that can be inserted here is that partners leading each area (e.g. banking and finance, capital market, litigation and tax) have sub-goals. Although disparity is typical for any organization because of functional differences, it is apparent that organizational goals are not optimize because the contention for resources would only result to win-loss or even loss-loss situation for each party.
However, through technology-supported information sharing across the four practices, partners can evaluate their resource-related decisions in a more informed and holistic manner. This can lead them to address and focus on organizational goals. Face-to-face communication in order for information sharing to be possible will not maximize the potential of the endeavor because of the on-going tension. However, when the software package is already installed, recorded communication can result for messages that require compound judgment from the receiver. This type of communication is suggested for messages that embody utmost importance and requires action in an accurate and acceptable level. In addition, when the message has the capability of storage and retrieval at any given time, personal gaps between partners could not threat data travel since they are on a “standby” mode.
Constraints in achieving this goal are also connected to the resource contention issue among partners. For example, some partners may not volunteer to disclose some crucial information of their operations as this may lead to discovery of fraud, overspending and other anomalies that no one wants to happen. In effect, software benefits may not be as maximal as expected and its costs can exceed them because of the lack of cooperation.
B. Tighter electronic information security
The current case shows that corporate and customer information is more vulnerable for computer attacks because staff members have an internet connection. Computer attacks such as sabotage of data or networks, system penetration by an outsider, virus, and unauthorized insider access can cause various problems to business firms. In 2002, the most common of these are theft from proprietary information and financial fraud that resulted to an aggregate of at least $250 million losses (2003). This is a technical issue that can be resolved by developing the software. Further, customers would be able to continue the personal relationship with Barton because such trust can be protected especially the larger clients which favor a company that has better technical ability.
When corporate computers will not directly travel in the internet, computer attack can be minimized. Perhaps, one of the most destructive incidences of attacks for Barton would be the loss of privacy and bank account leakage of their customers. Software package can include networking technology to limit the scope of information travel electronically. If organizations are connected via intranet or internet that works only within the firm due to proprietary value, having network security such as firewalls can limit the view of outsiders for intentional or accident contact of firm’s virtual address. In this case, the company will be able to concretize the personal relationship it builds with its clients by having a more secured databank.
Initially, financial constraint will interrupt the inclusion of computer security into the software package knowing that the firm is not doing well. As a result, only efficiency issues (e.g. savings in paperwork) will be prioritized and risk more expensive security components. In addition, the willingness of the management and employees to create internet access policies or IAPs to sustain technology-related computer security is blurred. Evidences such as the practice area resource disputes and differences in job description (i.e. solicitor’s “ground work”) support this view.
C. Improved operational efficiency
Efficiency cannot only minimize costs but also boost performance of the company and would directly affect profits in a positive way. For example, the corporate and customer information in paper requires laborious retrieval and storage and also they are susceptible to wastage as they are “inflexible”. However, electronic database is far more efficient that can efficiently deal with computer-based crimes, search for large amount of information and avoid time-consumption in paperwork which the traditional work cannot accommodate proficiently. In this way, employees can be more productive and customer satisfaction will increase due to improved service. The detail-oriented nature of legal services requires paper evidences and other numerous attachments which are not only confidential but also enormous in number. Running them into an electronic system can result to enhanced security and manageability.
However, there are constraints that if not tackled early would result in diminishing the efficiency potential of the software. Technological change provides competitive advantage to firms that adapt it first (2003). The current situation implies that Barton is a late mover in upgrading its processes especially creating a technology. This is aggravated by the 6-month long software development until its usage which can curtail the competitive advantage the company can get in the technology. For example, competitors can steal Barton customers by the time of software development and may no longer be that effective in bringing them back. In addition, since information management relies on the level of available technology because technological change is a subset of a larger strategy, Barton may not have significant technology on-hand that can limit the potential of the software.
D. Organizational motivation to embrace modern processes
The case shows that partners lack the initiative to withstand personal differences towards the achievement of company goals. They are yet to obtain an objective stance towards resolution of conflict. Also, solicitors are embedded to their traditional working methods to sustain work flexibility. Due to this, potential resistance prevents the company to adopt modern and more efficient ways in completing the tasks. In this regard, the installation of software package can eradicate these improvement bottlenecks. First, being be-spoke, the software is expected to be developed within the culture of the organization. Thus, partner’s personal differences as well as practice area functions will be considered. Another is that it is integrated that would enable the consideration of the human resources aspect of modernizing operations as well as its operational/ finance aspects to the benefit of contending solicitors.
In the contrary, this structure will be constrained by the fact that the software will be developed by an IT consulting firm. Therefore, the level of constraint in achieving this specific goal will rely on the level of participation of organizational members. Apparently, the type of software development that the company will enter is built-in house where IT consultants will develop the software within the company premises. However, the absence of IT department or engineers within Barton will limit the participation of organizational members in software design and function. No one better knows and understands employees rather the organizational members itself. As a result, change resistance at Barton would only amplify if IT consultants will not able to convert technological jargon of the software into understandable components of each working environment.
Task 2. Task Management Plan
Tasks impact to the objectives of the project
In Figure 1, there are basically five key stages in order to create and install a software package. The identification of each stage is highly related to the four objectives named above. For example, Task 1 can indicate on what level Barton can accomplish improvement in operational efficiency. This can serve as a guide for IT consultants in designing realistic and competitive software. Also, they can be more confident in rationalizing the demands of the partners which can be too narrow or too innovative. The presence of any first-mover in technology adoption especially the direct competitors of Barton can serve as the framework in technological positioning of the software to suit corporate goals.
On the other hand, Task 2 will enable organizational motivation to adopt technology with relative ease and minimal resistance. Although the labor force of Barton is relatively small, the crucial ground task solicitors should be emphasized and there is no other way to do this but to inject their thoughts and ideas into software design. In this way, factors such as the need for training, extended adoption time or additional compensation will be identified. In addition, this will also settle the conflicts of partners to allow the optimal information sharing and cooperation in maintaining database features included in software design. Task 3 is the actual design of the software which addresses the requirements of the four objectives. Lastly, both initial and final testing/ adjustment are intended to assess the level of corporate and customer information which may be undermined in the design process due to focus on its functional and human resources characteristics.
Elaboration on the components of each tasks
The relationship of each task is “finish-to-start” which means no succeeding task can start until its preceding task is finished. In Task 1, IT consultants will be met by partners through a meeting that specify the level of technology in Barton which may include actual tour in the two main offices. Afterwards, when IT consultants have already identified the nature and strengths of the corporate technology, they will compare it to the industry standards as well as to Barton’s direct competitors. They will feedback to partners the comparative evaluation and rationalize the relative strengths and weaknesses of the company’s technology. In Task 2, the technology needs of employees are determined and this will be matched on the requirements to attain Barton goals. If there is a conflict, IT consultants will have to balance impact of resistance to the impact of strategic loss.
In Task 3, the reports of the preceding tasks are integrated and will be matched to the level of innovativeness of the software. It is important to emphasize such action because the bespoke and integrated features of the software would not be possible if Task 1 and Task 2 are minimally considered. This task also involves the purchasing of needed specifications to create the software. Task 4 and 5 are two-tiered to address security issues in its optimum state. Since the intended software design is to transfer the internet connection of PCs into a network or other more secured conditions, two round-up security checks can prevent operational failures that can instantly abolish the software. The company might end up in litigation and would be ordered to extract the software to prevent further computer attacks.
Importance of time scales and resource allocations
Theoretically, poor project management can be a cause of internal conflict and inadequate authority (1981). The former is characterized by poor schedule and budget control because of the absence of cooperation between the project team and functional organizations. This readily explains how the planning stage under the project life-cycle can be ineffectively made with this situation. As a result, time and cost objectives are at risk of distortion. As the project team would want to keep the objectives, the conflict can induce bottlenecks especially in coordination. In effect, the project team is bound to devise tactics to solve such bottlenecks which ultimately result in limiting the scope of the project, revising the original objectives and attempting to stand on their own.
The latter is highlighted by non-commitment of resources, personnel and facilities to the project as the top-management failed to provide backing on the project manager. The negative symptom of this is likely to emerge in the execution phase where the planned schedule and resource proposals are not diligently followed. There can be delays in issuing budgets to pay for supplier invoice or using project members to do other responsibilities that can hamper project efficiency. As a result, output targets like cash flows or early completion are reduced on their probability to be obtained. Task floats that can be used for flexibility to delay or expedite certain activities can be exhausted due to such symptoms.
However, with these circumstances, project objectives are not entirely unattainable because usually there are trade-offs. Using the integrated risk management model, project objectives can be transcribed to three most crucial project elements which is time, cost and quality (2003). Quality is the most complex and difficult to discern making it also difficult to evaluate. The management can simply choose their best engineers and maybe in the right position to assume a quality output. However, their assessment can only be figured out after testing and completion of the project. As such, this situates cost and time in the forefront of project analysis and consideration to become the foundation of objectives.
The banana curve clearly shows the trade-off between time and cost (2003). When project time is reduced, the cost usually escalates while the reverse is likely true. For a project initiated by an average manufacturer, the curve is very useful to obtain optimal returns from the project. This trade-off can be represented by two conflicting project objectives such as “To be able to finish the project as early as possible to position resources on their regular responsibilities and early inflows from the finished project” and “To implement the project efficiently to reduce the risk of loss and maximize project returns”. From this, priority is necessary for effective decision-making. This goes beyond time, cost or quality aspects but on how much the company believes on the feasibility of the project to provide benefits. But the question is “What is the ultimate objective of the project?”
Task 3. Non-Technical Implementation Problems and the Leadership Style
Decision problem against various stakeholder demands
Aside from innovation, projects typically affect a set of stakeholders which includes customers, employees, suppliers, the government and the public. What the project team and the company want are to minimize the negative effects of the project to them and maximize positive effects to aid in profitability and longer product life. This is where legitimacy theory takes place (1996) where an entity is required to provide evidence that it is indeed legitimate to be operating within a societal framework. Indication of failure to legitimize includes environmental pollution, employee abuse and fraudulent marketing. But stakeholders have their way to counter the company through hostile lobbying, product boycott and employee strikes.
In the contrary, the project is not perfectly funded, scheduled and customized according to specific needs of individual stakeholders. The project requires prioritization as it cannot satisfy all of them (2003). This is a rational strategy because the project has its own specific objectives that may not be intended to indirect stakeholders. The inability to obtain this goal can also be caused by the lack of stakeholder focus. As a result, most companies go on with stakeholder priority (e.g. customers) and leave others with minimum attention (e.g. environmentalists). The latter, however, can pose project closure even when successfully completed if the product does not meet certain standards. Due to this, environmental disclosures are used for corporate image-building (1996).
Options to mitigate possible retaliation of non-priority stakeholders are available to the company. However, such are in nature, are simply reactive tactics where ambiguity of success are minimally analyze throughout the life of the project. In addition, they are also necessarily includes unethical execution (e.g. greasing and fraud) to address any stakeholder difficulty. As a result, project members are squeezed in a challenging situation. If they will not use these options, they may risk not exploiting opportunities because of the associated substantial costs, time and quality constraints of a project with diversified stakeholders. On the other hand, not having second thoughts to refuse such options may lead to risking reputation and conscience that can have strategic and personal complications (e.g. Enron scandal).
Leadership style
In the case of Barton, stakeholders are affected by the security (i.e. customers, government and the public), cash flow (i.e. shareholders of Barton) and simplicity of use (i.e. employees) of the software package. The company is also small and may not represent the needs of all its stakeholders. And due to this smallness, employee may feel that they are valuable in the operations of the company. However, as shown above, implementation problem may exist in non-consideration of one or two stakeholders. As a result, there is a need for Barton to adopt a leadership style that is contemporary and compatible with its labor size, business model and varying stakeholders.
Leadership-from-behind is a modern and commonly situational approach of leaders to effectively and efficiently manage its subordinates and achieve organizational goals (2003). Since leadership success is not only measured in what goals are achieved but also how much resources are used, leadership-from-behind seemed to answer this two-tier considerations overtaking the post from the traditional in-front leadership especially in a and ever-changing environment of today.
In times where liberty and child privacy is the trend, it is wise for parents to be largely reactive by conducting regular counsels to the unwilling and adventurous generation. Website interactivity which reported to result pornography, illicit messages and “sexual adventurism” of users is the latest concerning news to parents. In-front leadership which includes restrictive rules and resolutions that often defeat the perceived rights of the children could aggravate the difference in point of view. This will also require extensive overseeing in the children’s “outlets” that could set aside ample parent’s time and efforts. At a certain degree, short-term success through avoidance could result but it will be offset by such impractical and inefficient method and is also prone to child’s rebellion and more extreme secrets.
Invading the lives of adolescents could impede maturity and independence. Leadership-from-behind let the parents be concerned passengers of their children’s life cars. It is a way to remind them that if their actions will make the vehicle crush, not only that their life would be at risk but also the whole family. This will teach them to be independent yet responsible decision makers. The concept of such leadership, however, requires parental acceptance for untoward results from such freedom and ability to mitigate adverse outcomes.
In large business organizations, this situation can be an option to a leader-CEO who exercise influence over a large number of line-managers and supervisors. Since it is impractical and inefficient to monitor and get involve in every decision of an operational department, a CEO may apply decentralization at different levels of the organization. This concept is strong when the extent of the decision is an inherent responsibility of the department and turned out to be a day-to-day operation. In a manufacturing division, the CEO will not run out of his office just because a machine burn-out occurred. Such move would only result to bad signal to the manager concerning his capability to restore operations, and ultimately, lead to low-morale on his part.
The time and effort limitation of the CEO to provide advice especially in a day-to-day basis is an obvious reason why the system is used. For their part, departmental managers need to be leaders themselves acquiring the bits and pieces of the CEO’s guidance and their adherence to the corporate culture, vision, mission and goals. However, because of the their departmental specificity and usually short-term view, managers are expected to limit their leadership up to a certain extent where an issue denotes considerable amount of corporate funds, substantial production loss or large number of affected employees. In such cases of extra-ordinary instances, the company must have the procedure to require the intervention of the top-level management and include the visionary and long-term features of CEO decision-making.
In the case of hostilities, a high-ranking commanding officer is often stationed outside the conflict territories and resorted to give orders through a communication facility. His life is deemed important particularly his years of combat experience that deploying him in an isolated and relatively small confrontation would endanger larger and more crucial future threats to public security. In another view, a subordinate would unlikely let his commander-in-chief in the field because of the respect to the latter’s rank and vital role in regards to the profession.
Parallel to the rationale of leadership-from-behind of the CEO, a commanding officer’s presence in the battalion and combat knowledge are the factors that motivate the organization and subordinate to protect his life despite of on-going conflicts. Since the courage of a high-ranking officer is unquestionable, the notion of “protecting the experience curve” could be evaluated as a long-term vision identified by the organization itself. Unlike the CEO discretion to loose or contract centralization, military procedure is more static and the notion is strictly attached to its evolutionary values.
As a conclusion, leadership-from-behind is found to include great amount of independence (adolescents), decentralization (line managers) and dedication (foot-soldiers) that parents, CEOs and commanding officers need to establish and promote. Because in the nature of the approach, leaders need not to intensely monitor and get involve in a regular basis which saves time (parents), resources (CEO) and life (official) wherein efficiency is withheld. However, the organization must set a limit to the extent of subordinate discretion to avoid huge organizational loss that can lead to early pregnancy (family), net loss (firm) or over-killing (battalion) wherein the leader should initiate and negotiate such limit. As a result, the leader can confront the on-line perpetrator (parent), call emergency meeting (CEO) or attend in the battlefield (official) to avoid such looses and provide their leadership competencies in decision-making and motivation.
Finally, leadership from behind involves trust both from the leader and subordinate. Without this factor, leaders will become dictators as subordinates will become rebels. If leaders trust their subordinate’s competencies and decision-making, the latter would be more willing to direct their objectives to the organizational goals. As the approach provides the required environment of the subordinates to grow and conduct their roles, it is largely an incentive on their part. With this, leaders should be more sympathetic and be able to disperse some of their discretions redirecting their personal goals of exercising dominance to an impersonal organizational progress.
Task 4: Impacts of mentoring and coaching on non-technical problems
In coaching, the coach can be an outsider to the specific skills and experiences of an individual while mentoring requires a mentor that personally practiced and experienced the status of the individual (2007). When applied in organizational setting, coaching has the capacity to broaden the framework of decision-making and challenges individuals to think outside-the-box. This will be useful for Barton employees to be aware of other stakeholders who could be disregarded when the current project is applied. For example, the key strengths of the company which stemmed in personal relationship could be undermined if the software would be too complex for customers. In this case, IT consultants can act as coach wherein technological changes will be implicated to customer response for the purpose of proactive action. Even though IT consultants have no direct relationship with the customers and do not specifically know business processes, they can polish the decision of the company through advising on the technological impact of the project.
On the other hand, partners can serve as mentors to solicitors. The former is the front-line of the company in meeting and keeping customers which they are able to exemplify due to their expertise and experience. As much as possible, these partners would want an efficient delivery of service to sustain their competitive edge. Otherwise, their qualifications would be eclipse by slow, expensive and inefficient service. As in the past there are minimal reliance on technology, partners have already undergo the rigorous and laborious manual operations of the office. With the motivation to keep customers particularly large companies, partners can mentor solicitors by explaining them the need to improve efficiency and modernize processes. If mentors would summarize their past experiences, protégés have the better chance of understanding the change.
Coaching does not intend to advice and show direction rather to help individuals to analyze in solving their own challenges ( 2007). On the other hand, mentoring necessitates pairing of the mentor and protégé in order to obtain information, good examples and advice. Due to this, coaching can be applied between the relationship of partners and IT consultants while mentoring is pertinent to the relationship of the management and rank-in-file employees. Partners, as they head the key practice areas, would not demand an advice from an outsider in the aspect of managing the business in its entirety. However, they can entertain technological advice because this is not their line of expertise. Coaching would enable partners to reconsider decision alternatives that include technological implications of the project.
In contrast, management that finds technological innovation as the key to continuous competitive edge may confront employee resistance to the nearing software project implementation. As resistance may delay the completion of the project and also entail some human resource cost due to turnover, mentoring can be applied to induce Theory X management style in unnamed fashion. Mentoring can replace the bold conditions of Theory X into a mild-mannered one because the change negotiators are well-respected by the employees. Theory X is a significant factor in ensuring the successful implementation of the project because technological advantage is not permanent and process modernization in enclave in continuous improvement and specific advancements. As such, Barton cannot afford its small labor force to resist the change over an extended period as total adoption beyond specified time would not receive the expected project objectives (i.e. financial and process integration).
Task 5: Issues on Communication
Principle of effective communication
Technical message is a type of information that directly affects the function of an employee. Thus, it is viewed to be more critical for the company compared to the general information. When the message failed to be correctly and sufficiently absorbed by the staff-employees, efficiency and effectiveness can be adversely affected. In the company-level message (e.g. decline in profits), it is possible that misinformation can be easily corrected and if cropped up, do not give much direct pain to the company operations. But when an employee is not aware of the change in the SOPs, customers will be the living judge. Because of this, there is a need of more careful and extensive transfer information in sending technical-level message.
Note that every actor after the company message has the possibility to receive re-message if there is ambiguity in the first hand information given. This means that feedback paper is required at every stage: to be accomplished by the receiver and reviewed and solved by the sender. The idea is to solve disputes that may transpire in the staff-employee level by filtering process done by the managers, supervisors and team leaders. In effect, team leaders will have ease in presenting the information because possible staff-employee questions or disputes are tackled and cleared in the supervisor-manager and team leader’s meeting. Not to mention that supervisor-manager already checked content information from the company.
A more complex illustration but with the same function lines are introduced when disseminating technical-type of information. When the company introduces process change (i.e. enhancement or process cut) to the staff-level employees, managers and supervisors should receive the initial information. Afterwards, they will conduct meeting for the team leaders and present the information through a PowerPoint presentation and actual demonstration. If team leaders have already brought possible questions and disputes in the staff-employee level and are satisfied, it is time for an informal demonstration in which staff-employees are used to. Team leaders will then pass the feedback papers to Human Resources Department for verification. Before staff-level employees, actors need not to pass feedback papers because they already conduct healthy discussions. The aim of such discussions is directly related to improve reception level of staff-employees.
Potential problems if communication is not applied
Emphasis on data rather than information. It is a current dilemma for managers to be drowned in data but lack information to be used in actual decision-making. This can be caused by burn-out due to over formalization of data gathering processes. By the time managers are about to plan or resolve a certain issue, these standard operating procedures pull them down in their path to bring hard decisions. Since these are rules, managers have to face time extensions (1984). However, when crucial decisions are involved, actions really speak louder than words. The risk would be higher and much more decisions could diminish its value when they are deferred in favor of deepening the rationale through data mining. In addition, the entrepreneurial spirit of the organization is set aside in favor of available data that are oftentimes assorted. Creativity and risk-taking that have far more self-esteem outcomes (2003) are undermined that can loose very important organizational aspect.
Appendices
Figure 1: Project Plan for the Creation of Bespoke and Integrated Software Package
|
Task |
Duration |
People |
Allotment to $75,000 |
|
1. Evaluate current level of technology |
½ month |
IT consultants; Partners |
10% |
|
2. Study corporate and employee characteristics |
½ month |
IT consultants; All employees |
10% |
|
3. Design software |
4 ½ months |
IT consultants |
70% |
|
4. Initial testing and adjustments |
¼ month |
IT consultants; All employees |
5% |
|
5. Final testing and adjustments |
¼ month |
IT consultants; All employees |
5% |
|
Go live |
|
|
|
Figure 2: Process Flow Chart for Technical-Level Message
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