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CASE ANALYSIS Mary managed the small IT group ofa growing business. Mary's boss Joe, the CFO, was on Mary's back to cut costs in the
CASE ANALYSIS Mary managed the small IT group ofa growing business. Mary's boss Joe, the CFO, was on Mary's back to cut costs in the IT group. The Joe felt Mary could cut a staff member or two and maintain their current service level. Mary was also receiving a steady flow of complaints about the response time to calls to the help desk. She had two people answering the help desk phones and three desktop support staff responding to the problems. Mary had to do something. She thought that she might save money by outsourcing the group's help desk function. She called a few vendors, all of whom claimed they could save her money. Mary was not sure if this would shorten the group's response time to help desk calls. She felt that she needed to do some research before she made a decision. She decided to construct a project plan for the research. After closing the office door, she sat down at her computer using Excel and started to identify all of the steps she needed to take before she phoned vendors for bids on taking over the help desk. The investigation would have to be a secret or her staff would worry about their job security. First, Mary decided that she needed to identify the department's current level of service. This required knowing the current volume of calls, the length of time until the call ticket is assigned to a desktop support person, and the time it took to close the ticket. She thought that she could accomplish all of this in one week by doing all three steps simultaneously. After she determined the current service level, Mary thought that she should informally poll all company managers to see what improvements in IT group service they would like. She figured two days to make all the phone calls. She could then call the finance department to get up-to-date payroll information on her staff's salary and overtime expenses. Mary thought that if she called right away, she would surely hear back in one day. Mary also decided to call other IT managers in the city to try to establish a benchmark service level. She thought that step would take a week and she could start after finding the current service levels. Last, after every other step was completed, Mary could prepare a request for proposals to send to IT outsourcing vendors. She thought that the preparation of an RFP would take two weeks. She decided to start this planning project right away. Today's date is September 19, 2022. Assignment: Prepare a WBS with the steps that must be completed before Mary can contact outsourcing vendors. If Mary starts on September 19, 2022, how long will it take to get ready to contact outsourcing vendors? Directions for the Assignment: 1. To create the WBS, open the Excel workbook and fill in the Tasks that you can identify from the narrative. Hint 1: there should be nine tasks in total. Hint 2: there are four major tasks with one major task having three subtasks and another major task having two subtasks. Hint 3: Using the cells identified, place the data you extract in each cell as identified. 2. Assign a Task Number (and subtask number) to each task. Again, there should be four major tasks, meaning you list numbering should not be greater than four. You can number subtasks as 1.1, 1.2 etc. 3. Assign a start date for the task and the duration for each task. 4. Create a Gantt Chart using Excel and the detailed instructions below. a. Select the range C3:E11 and then on the Insert tab, in the Charts group, select the Recommended Charts button: 12 Recommended PivotChart Charts Charts Select the All Charts Tab then select Bar then choose the Stacked Bar chart. Click OK. b. Right-click anywhere in the chart area and choose Select Data... in the popup menu: Delete Reset to Match Style Change Series Chart Type... Select Data... 3-D Rotation.. Add Data Labels Add Trendline... Format Data Series... In the Select Data Source dialog box:In the Legend Entries (Series) group, Edit the existing series to name it "Start" add select the data in cells D3:D11. Click OK. Add a new data series named "Duration" and select the data in cells E3:E11. Click OK. Correct data in Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels by clicking Edit and selecting data from C3:C11. Click OK. Click OK again. C. Right-click one of the dates along the category axis and select Format Axis... in the popup menu: Delete Reset to Match Style A Font... Change Chart Type.. Select Data... 3-D Rotation.. Add Minor Gridlines Add Major Gridlines... Format Axis.. On the Format Axis pane, in the Axis Options tab: . In the Axis Options section, set the Minimum (9/19/2022) and Maximum (10/31/2022) values to correspond to the earliest and latest dates in the data. You also may want to set the Major unit to 7 to indicate weeks:. .. w- Homework Chapter 04 - WBS and Gantt Charts - Saved to my Mac Home Insert Draw Design Layout References Mailings Review View ? Tell me Share Comments Calibri (Bo... v 11 ~ A A Aa A EVENEEVEE AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDc AaBbCcDdEE AaBb( AaBbCCDdEE Paste BI U vab X X |A DAY Normal No Spacing Heading 1 Heading 2 Title Subtitle Styles Dictate Editor Pane x Office Update To keep up-to-date with security updates, fixes, and improvements, choose Check for Updates. Check for Updates Format Axis X Axis Options Text Options 4 Axis Options Bounds Minimum 07/01/2015 Reset Maximum 09/01/2015 Reset Units Major 7.0 Reset Minor 1.4 Auto Vertical axis crosses Automatic Axis value 42140.0 Maximum axis value Display units None w display units label on chart Logarithmic scale Base 10 Values in reverse order Tick Marks D Labels Number In the Number section, choose the format you prefer: Page 4 of 7 8 of 953 words English (United States) Focus + 94%... w- Homework Chapter 04 - WBS and Gantt Charts Home Insert Draw Design Layout References Mailings Review View ? Tell me Share Comments Calibri (Bo... v 11 ~ A A Aa A EV EVEVEE AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDc AaBbCcDdEE AaBb( AaBbCCDdEE Subtitle Styles Editor Paste BI Uvab X X|A DAY Norma No Spacing Heading 1 Heading 2 Title Dictate Pane x Office Update To keep up-to-date with security updates, fixes, and improvements, choose Check for Updates. Check for Updates Format Axis X Axis Options Text Options Axis Options Tick Marks D Labels Number Category Date Type 14 - Mar Locale (Location) English (United States) Format Code [S-en-US]d-mmm;@ Add Linked to source Click on the top "X" to close the menu On the Format Axis pane for the vertical axis: in the Axis Options group, set the option labeled At maximum category and check the option labeled Categories in reverse order: 94% Page 5 of 7 946 words English (United States) Focus +... w- Homework Chapter 04 - WBS and Gantt Charts Home Insert Draw Design Layout References Mailings Review View ? Tell me Share Comments Calibri (Bo... v 11 ~ A A Aa A EV EVEVEE AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDc AaBbCcDdEE AaBb( AaBbCCDdEE Paste BIUvab X X|A DAY Norma No Spacing Heading 1 Heading 2 Title Subtitle Styles Dictate Editor Pane x Office Update To keep up-to-date with security updates, fixes, and improvements, choose Check for Updates. Check for Updates Format Axis - X Axis Options Text Options 4 Axis Options Axis Type Automatically select based on data Text axis O Date axis Horizontal axis crosses O Automatic At category number At maximum category Axis position On tick marks Between tick marks Categories in reverse order D Tick Marks D Labels Number Click on the top "X" to close the menu. e. Right-click in the first data series and choose Format Data Series... in the popup menu: Delete Reset to Match Style Change Series Chart Type.. Em Select Data... 3-D Rotation... Add Data Labels Add Trendline... Format Data Series... To makes the first data series invisible, on the Format Data Series pane: . Set Fill to No fill, Page 6 of 7 946 words English (United States) Focus E + 94%... w- Homework Chapter 04 - WBS and Gantt Charts Home Insert Draw Design Layout References Mailings Review View ? Tell me Share Comments Calibri (Bo... v 11 ~ A A Aa A EVEVEVEE AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDdEe AaBbCcDc AaBbCcDdEE AaBb( AaBbCCDdEE Paste BIUvab X X|A DAY Normal No Spacing Heading 1 Heading 2 Title Subtitle Styles Dictate Editor Pane x Office Update To keep up-to-date with security updates, fixes, and improvements, choose Check for Updates. Check for Updates Set Border to No line: Format Data Series X Series Options Fill No fill Solid fill Gradient fill Picture or texture fill Pattern fil Automatic Invert if negative 4 Border No line Solid line Gradient line Automatic Click on the top "X" to close the menu. f. Resize the chart to make it readable. 5. What is the date that the RFP can be released to solicit proposals from firms for outsourcing? 6. Write a short description of the project about one paragraph and present findings regarding the WBS and project timeline (about one paragraph for both). Page 7 of 7 946 words English (United States) Focus E + 94%AutoSave OFF A ABC 9 9 ... Homework Chapter 04 - WBS and Gantt Chart Template Home Insert Draw Page Layout Formulas Data Review View Tell me Share Comments Calibri (Body) v 11 AA ab Wrap Text General LY AP - O. E Merge & Center v $ ~ % " Conditional Format Cell Insert Delete Format Sort & Find & Analyze Paste BIUV DVAv DV Filter Select Data Formatting as Table Styles A1 fx A C D F G H K L M N P Q R S T U w Task Number Task Name Start Duration (days) 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.0 2.1 2.2 3.0 4.0 16 18 19 20 38 39 40 41 42 44 Sheet1 + + 100% Ready
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