A&D High Tech (A) Case Questions The case assignment is as follows: The CIO of A&D High Tech, Matt Webb, needs to determine whether the proposed online store project can be completed in time for the holiday shopping season. A new project manager, Chris Johnson, has taken over the management of the project. He has all of the components of the plan, but he needs to integrate them and is looking to quickly come up with an answer. The related questions are:

1. What is the projected completion date? (Assume there are no holidays and ignore the sunk cost of the planning team's effort.)

2. What is the total cost? How much of the total costs are labor costs? Capital costs?

3. How would you assess the level of risk in the project?

4. What is your opinion on the potential for the project to be completed on time?

Answer and explanations

2. The deadline is November 21st.
4. The total cost is $1,000,000 USD. According to the data provided in the case, capital costs make up $750000 of the total costs, or 75%, and labor costs make up $250000 of the total costs, or 25%.
6. Based on the information provided in the case, the level of risk for this project is high.
8. The potential for the project to be completed on time is low.

Step-by-step explanation

Question 1

• Chris Johnson, the new project manager for A&D High Tech's online store project has been given a deadline of November 21st by the company's CIO, Matt Webb. The group tasked with planning the website had finished their work on October 3rd and determined that the site would take 29 weeks to build. Chris was able to quickly calculate the date, taking into account how much time had already passed while they were planning. Because no work had been done on the actual building of the site prior to Chris's taking over management of the project, he was able to ignore sunk costs and assume that there were no holidays in the planned period.
• Question 2
• Capital costs are the costs of physical assets, such as labor, machinery and equipment. Labor costs are the costs associated with the human resources of a project. The total cost is $1,000,000 USD.
• According to the data provided in the case, capital costs make up $750000 of the total costs, or 75%, and labor costs make up $250000 of the total costs, or 25%.

Question 3

• There is a high risk. The CIO has asked for a response by 8:00 p.m. that evening, which is not an adequate amount of time for an assessment of such a complex project. A&D High Tech has already missed two previous deadlines, and there is a great deal at stake if they miss this one as well. For example, they have already spent $200,000 on this project so far, and the company's CEO will lose $10 million if the store cannot go live in time for the holiday shopping season.
• While it is understandable that Chris Johnson wants to come up with an answer quickly in order to be able to move forward with the project as soon as possible, it would be ill-advised to try to integrate all of the components of the plan without first conducting a thorough analysis of all potential risks involved.

Question 4

• The potential for the project to be completed on time is low.
• Webb ordered that Johnson take over the management of the online store project and complete a integration of all of the components in order to determine if it can be completed in time for the holiday season. Since he will have to spend time familiarizing himself with the project, determining what's been done, what needs to be done, etc., it will slow down the process significantly.
• Additionally, there is a lot at stakethe holiday shopping season is one of the most important sales periods of the year. The new Web team (which was recently formed) has limited experience working on Web applications and has only been involved in this project for two weeks.
• While they are highly-skilled developers and analysts, they do not have much experience in e-commerce applications or designing Web sites. And because they're new, they may need more time to get comfortable working together and with other team members on this project.
• Because of all of these factors, it is highly unlikely that the project will be completed on time.