Problem Statement (Case #1)

One of my students submitted a problem statement document.
(See the images below for the actual problem statement document)

Below are my comments to their problem statement document:

1. It is highly impossible that there doesn't exist a process to monitor the current status of the customer order. It may not be formal and written, but they do have a process.
2. The problems that you stated concentrates in the lack of process and disorganized forms. These are not problems directly solvable by an IS.
3. Your first problem (Inaccurate order status information) is a result of a problem that leads to some business problem, and therefore should not be the highlight of the problem statement.
4. Your second problem of "delay in delivery" is a business problem and therefore is correct but the information problem which causes it are not present.
5. Your problem of "insufficient monitoring procedures on supplies at hand" is a valid problem but I am not comfortable using the phrase insufficient monitoring. Reading through your discussion suggests that the necessary data needed in order to track and monitor supplies and usage of supplies are not captured. The business problem with regards to this may be the increase in raw materials inventory cost affecting income of the business.
6. The problems that you need to state must be in this form:
• Business Problem: What are the frequently happening situation in the business that they see as "problematic". e.g. Orders with a more urgent deadline are incorrectly scheduled, therefore not meeting its deadline.
• Information Problem: What among the five (5) Basic Information Problem do you see as the reason why the Business Problem is happening. e.g. With the number of orders and jobs (estimated at 100 per day) being scheduled, the storage in which these information doesn't allow the immediate access to the necessary information needed to determine the priority in which orders and jobs should be executed. There were also evidence that the necessary data needed to the proper scheduling of the order/jobs (as well as the determination of the status of the order) were not completely recorded.

Online Team Apps from Google

I happen to see this video (see below) introducing Google Apps Team Edition. Have use Google Apps before and have written and created ideas together with Kiran Budhrani using the collaborative features of Google Apps. Any group of students who are working on a project will find this Team Edition very useful.



To try Google Apps Team Edition, click this link

In De La Salle University-Manila, most of the students are using their personal Yahoo and Google email accounts, this may pose some apprehension on the use of this online apps (the team edition requires the use of a university email address). With De La Salle Philippines hoping to get all DLS Schools migrate to a single email platform (in which case is Google), I'm speculating that Google Apps Team Edition will become a preferred platform for team collaboration.


Disclaimer: This is not an advertisement. I may be a Google fan and user, but the intention of this post is to introduce to students and faculty members alike online applications that I happen to find and use, and find very useful for academic purposes.