Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
- Determine the appropriate tools and technology to support decision making in the functional areas of business
Scenario
You are currently a business consultant hired by Exotic PetSavr, a nationwide nonprofit that specializes in the rehoming of exotic pets when their initial owners can no longer take care of them. The structure of the company includes a small nationwide office that supports its local independent partners. Overall, the organization typically consists of well-intentioned people who lack business savvy. Thus, the executive director requested that you create a matrix of which tools and technologies the business would want to use for decision making in different circumstances it may encounter. The executive director also wants you to include short justifications of some of the options you’ve included. This will give anyone in the organization—including the well-intentioned businesspeople and volunteers who run the local partnerships—insight into the rationale that informs the decision evaluations. For your convenience, the executive director has already compiled critical decisions in order to work with actual examples of decisions that PetSavr employees and partners make that they need tools for.
Directions
Decision-Making Tool Matrix: For the first step in creating your matrix, you will identify tools based on the critical decisions provided by the executive director. To begin, review the critical decisions, and choose tools that might be used to inform decision making in each of the relevant functional areas. As you identify these tools, be sure to select a variety of data and technology tools, to provide the Exotic PetSavr employees and partners with options. Add these tools to your matrix.
Determination: Now that you have identified the tools, you will determine a rating for each tool or technology by determining the tool’s relevance to the scenarios. Because many of the employees and partners are in need of business training, they need more information about the justification for 10 of your evaluations. Thus, once your matrix is complete, choose 10 individual evaluations (cells in the matrix) that might be useful to explain to the organizational member. You should include the following in your determination:
- Describe the process and output of each tool regarding decision making. This familiarizes the PetSavrs with the tools themselves.
- Determine the rating of each tool in the matrix by determining the relevance of the tool to each scenario.
- Be sure to justify each evaluation.
- Include all tools incorporated into the matrix and all critical issues at least once. Remember, the PetSavrs need to be able to fully understand your work.
- Include all ratings so the Exotic PetSavr employees and partners can understand your full thought process.
- Indicate whether each tool is not applicable (n/a), good, or great in relation to each scenario. Keep in mind the businesspeople may need to purchase or be trained in these, so make sure your evaluation is accurate!
- Each bullet should include a brief justification for its evaluation. This way the PetSavrs can learn about your thinking in a way that promotes their own understanding of the tools and issues.
What to Submit
Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:
Matrix of Tools and Technologies
This matrix is the final piece that all Exotic PetSavr employees and partners will have access to, and it should include 7 to 10 tools—at least one for each critical decision. Additionally, include a bulleted list that explains at least 10 of the decisions, each of which should be short in order to be concise and clear to all associated with Exotic PetSavr.
