Potential Problem Analysis (PPA) is a process of examining your existing plans t

Question

Potential Problem Analysis (PPA) is a process of examining your existing plans to identify what can go wrong with them, so that preventive action can be taken and/or recovery plans can be developed before any problems occur. Apply the potential problem solving technique to identify at least five potential problems that could occur, what the potential consequences would be, what the potential cause might be, and what you could do to either

(1) prevent the problem from occurring in the first place or

(2) recover from the adverse consequences.

Scenario: You have secured the responsibility to develop an eCommerce store for Exhaust Pros of Aurora in the city of Aurora. The owner of the business, Ron Moench, is planning to sell part of his inventory to general public but geared specially to a group call 'do it yourselfers'. However as the owner considers the implementation, he is overwhelmed by the challenges of the task having very little experience with any online technology. In addition, faces opposition from his employees, who believe their jobs will be in jeopardy. The owner lists his challenges as follows

1. The business does not have a qualified IT person to manage the eCommerce once it is operational

2. No current employee is willing to train because they feel they are betraying themselves and their fellow workers because the online store will eliminate some if not all their jobs.

3. Owner is concern about the security of the customer's information and online financial transactions.

4. Potential law suits from the consumers because of violation of privacy

5. Is the large investment involved in setting up the eCommerce store by worth it in the end?

If you identify a bad thing that could happen that cannot be avoided, what could you do as a “work-around” or to recover from the consequences? Use the template below to help you perform the analysis. List at least 4 things that could go wrong and then complete the rest of the columns.

Template:

Potential Problem Analysis Worksheet:

Anticipate Potential Problems

Anticipate Likely Causes

Select Preventive Actions

Select Contingent Actions

Identify Triggers

Explanation / Answer

Potential problems as anticipated: (i) problem of managing the ecommerce business model and ecommerce operations model. (ii) problem of maintaining the morale of the employees (iii) problem of maintaining the privacy and security of customer's information and their financial transactions. (iv) the initial investment exceeds the budgeted amount.

Likely causes as anticipated: (i) as there is no qualified IT person, there will be problems in implementing the ecommerce business and operations model (ii) as employees fear that some of them will be laid off, there will be problems of maintaining their morales (iii) as the model is new there can be problems of online hacking or fraud where the privacy of customer's information is compromised. (iv) as the ecommerce model is new, the budget is not precise or the scale is not accurate

Preventive actions: (i) hire a few experienced IT professionals and managers with background in the ecommerce model (ii) train and orient employees that ecommerce is necessary for the evolution of the organization (iii) put in place a robust IT security system that will not allow any compromise regarding the customer's details. (iv) monitor the actuals with the budgeted amount on a regular basis

Contingent actions: (i) if employees morale is reduced, then a townhall meeting should be called and employees should be oriented about the need to introduce the ecommerce model (ii) if the security is breached, then the IT system needs to be overhauled and the customers will have to be compensated for any likely loss

Triggers: (i) if any employee is fired, it could trigger a fall in other employee's morale (ii) any change in scale of the project could trigger the increase in investments.

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