Establishing Baselines and Assessing Success of ZeroTier
Unit 8 Assignment: Establishing Baselines and Assessing Success
This assignment will assess your knowledge based on the following Course Outcomes:
MT400-5: Evaluate methods to implement and deliver benefits from a Business Process Management (BPM) project.
GEL-8.03: Apply critical thinking to formulate a logical solution to a problem.
In this assignment, you will evaluate a specific business process based on the criteria detailed below. If you already have selected a business process, continue using that and skip to the next paragraph. If you have not yet selected the business process you will use for these assignments, then begin by selecting one. Email your instructor and clearly describe the objective of this process, the participants, and the strategic significance for the company. The business process you select must have a clear beginning and an end, with identifiable, specific steps. Your instructor will confirm that the process you selected is suitable or will ask you to select another one.
For this assignment, compose a paper that answers the following questions (use the subheadings/numbered questions below to organize your paper):
Part 1: Implementation Strategies
You will use critical thinking to evaluate the suitability of the four implementation strategies discussed in Step 2 for your project (big bang, parallel, relay, combination). You will then select the best fit and describe how this implementation should be customized for your situation.
For each of the four strategies, analyze the specific pros and cons of using it for your project. The analysis should be based on how each strategy applies to the process you selected and the nature of your selected organization. Do not simply repeat the generic pros/cons from the book. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy and how these would manifest themselves for your project.
Select the one you think will work best in your situation. Justify your selection.
Explain how you would design and execute this implementation strategy for your selected process.
What would be required for the success of this strategy when rolling out your revised process?
Part 2: Establishing Baselines
To begin, list three metrics that you think can help you quantify the performance of the current process. Next, list and define the metrics clearly, explain why each metric is important in the assessment of the process, and then give an example of the statistic units. For example, if your metric is “speed of processing,” it may be defined by how quickly each employee audits a tax form, and the example would be that “on average, you would expect eight tax forms audited per hour.” If you have already done this in a previous assignment, you may copy and paste a summary from that assignment.
Then, revisit the metrics you selected for your baseline. For each metric, clearly discuss the following:
1. Describe what the metric is: how is it calculated and used currently?
2. As far as being used as a justifiable project goal, what kind of a change in this metric would constitute success? How did you arrive at this figure? If this target change figure is not possible to estimate now, then describe how you would compute it if you were actually carrying out this project: who would be involved and where would the data come from?
Part 3: Case Analysis
Read the following case study and answer the questions at the end.
In 2020, ABC Computer Company decided to implement a BPM project to reduce the assembly cost per computer with the following goals:
Decrease the labor cost per computer.
Increase profit for each computer sold by 5%.
To track the success (or failure) of the project, they determined the following baseline data for 2020:
Total # of Computers Sold Materials Cost per Computer Labor Cost per Computer Average Retail Price Per Computer Average Profit Per Computer
8958 $462 $178 $899 $259
implementing the BPM project, ABC Computer Company reviewed the value of the project after a year and identified the following information:
Total # of Computers Sold Total Materials Cost Total Labor Cost Average Retail Price per Computer
9562 $4,176,000 $1,385,000 $925.97
Using the data provided above, calculate and fill in the following table (show all your work; completing the table without the calculations will result in no credit):
Materials Cost per Computer Labor Cost per Computer Average Profit per Computer
A
After the table is complete, address the following questions:
Why is it important to ensure that the baseline data is accurate?
Was the project successful? Why or why not?
Establishing Baselines and Assessing Success
Your name
Subject and Section
Professor’s Name
June 16, 2023
Part 1: Implementation Strategies
The success of the onboarding process enhancement at ZeroTier depends significantly on the choice of the right implementation strategy. We have four strategies: big bang, parallel, relay, and combination.
1 Big Bang Strategy: This method involves a sudden and complete shift from the old process to the new process (Li, 2020).
1 Pros: The immediate transition can quickly yield improvements if the new process is superior. This can also be cost-effective, eliminating the need to run old and new processes simultaneously.
2 Cons: Unforeseen issues with the new process could disrupt onboarding entirely, negatively affecting the customer experience.
2 Parallel Strategy: This strategy runs the old and new processes simultaneously until the new process is fully functional and reliable.
3 Pros: This provides a safety net, ensuring customer onboarding can continue if problems occur with the new process.
4 Cons: Running two processes simultaneously can be resource-intensive and potentially confusing for staff.
3 Relay (Phased) Strategy: Here, the new process is implemented in stages or phases.
5 Pros: This allows for a gradual transition and testing of specific aspects of the new process, minimizing risk.
6 Cons: The transition process can be slow, and improvements may take time to fully realize.
4 Combination Strategy: A mix of the aforementioned strategies based on the specific requirements of the process and the organization.
7 Pros: This can provide a more flexible and customized transition.
8 Cons: This requires a complex planning and coordination process.
After evaluating these strategies, the relay strategy seems the most suitable for ZeroTier's onboarding process improvement. Given the technical nature of the process and the potential risks involved in a complete immediate switch (Big Bang) or managing dual processes (Parallel), a phased implementation allows for testing and gradual acclimation to new procedures.
The relay strategy will be customized in three stages:
1 Beta Testing: The new onboarding process will be tested with a small group of new customers.
2 Partial Implementation: If the beta stage is successful, the new process will be introduced to a larger, yet still limited, portion of new customers.
3 Full Implementation: After successful partial implementation, the new process will replace the old one entirely.
For this strategy to succeed, continuous monitoring, feedback collection, and iterative improvements are required as training for the sales and support teams.
Part 2: Establishing Baselines
Three metrics can be used to measure the current state of the onboarding process: Customer Onboarding Time, Customer Satisfaction Score, and First Contact Resolution Rate.
1 Customer Onboarding Time: This metric measures when customers sign up for ZeroTier until their network is fully configured and ready to use....