Phases And Techniques Of College Essay: Completion.

Phases of College Education Completion Lifecycle

A “College Education Completion” Methodology

Given that you are reading the testbook, you are probably a college student working on a degree. Think about completing college as a project—a big project lasting many years and costing more than you might want to admit. Some students do a better job managing their college completion projects than others. Many fail entirely (certainly not you), and most complete college late and way over budget (again, certainly not you). As with any other project, to be successful, you need to follow some sort of “college education completion” methodology—that is, a comprehensive set of guidelines for completing activities and tasks from the beginning of planning for college through to the successful completion.

a) What are the phases that your college education completion life cycle might have?

b) What are some of the activities included with each phase?

c) What are some of the techniques you might use to help complete those activities?

d) What models might you create? Differentiate the models you create to get you through college from those that help you plan and control the process of completing college. 

e) What are some of the tools you might use to help you complete the models? 

Custom Load Trucking 

It was time for Stewart Stockton’s annual performance review. As Monica Gibbons, an assistant vice president of information systems, prepared for the interview, she reviewed Stewart’s assignments over the last year and his performance. Stewart was one of the “up and coming” systems analysts in the company, and she wanted to be sure to give him solid advice on how to advance his career. For example, she knew that he had a strong desire to become a project manager and accept increasing levels of responsibility. His desire was certainly in agreement with the needs of the company.

Custom Load Trucking (CLT) is a nationwide trucking firm that specializes in the movement of high-tech equipment. With the rapid growth of the communications and computer industries, CLT was feeling more and more pressure from its clients to move its loads more rapidly and precisely. Several new information systems were planned that would enable CLT to schedule and track shipments and truck locations almost to the minute. However, trucking wasn’t necessarily a high-interest industry for information systems experts. With the shortage in the job market, CLT had decided not to try to hire project managers for these new projects but to build strong project managers from within the organization.

Techniques for College Students to Complete Education

As Monica reviewed Stewart’s record, she found that he had done an excellent job as a team leader on his last project, where he was a combination team leader and systems analyst on a four-person team. He had been involved in systems analysis, design, and programming, and he had also managed the work of the other three team members. He had assisted in the development of the project schedule and had been able to keep his team right on schedule. It also appeared that the quality of his team’s work was as good as, if not better than, other teams on the project. Monica wondered what advice she should give him to help him advance his career. She was also wondering if now was the time to give him his own project.

a) Do you think the decision by CLT to build project managers from its existing employee base is a good one? What advice would you give CLT to make sure it has strong project management skills in the company?

b) What kind of criteria would you develop for Monica to use to measure whether Stewart (or any other potential project manager) is ready for project management responsibility?

c) How would you structure the job for new project managers to ensure or at least increase the possibility of a high level of success?d) If you were Monica, what kind of advice would you give Stewart about managing his career and attaining his immediate goal of becoming a project manager? John and Jacob, Inc.: Online Trading System

John and Jacob, Inc., is a regional brokerage firm that has been successful over the last several years. Competition for customers is intense in this industry.

The large national firms have very deep pockets, with many services to offer clients. Severe competition also comes from discount and Internet trading companies. However, John and Jacob has been able to cultivate a substantial customer base from upper-middle-income clients in the northeastern United States. To maintain a competitive edge with its customers, John and Jacob is in the process of modernizing its online trading system. The modernization will add new features to the existing system and expand the range of interfaces beyond desktop and laptop computers to include tablet computers and smartphones. The system will add Twitter messaging in addition to continued support for traditional e-mail.

Edward Finnigan, the project manager, is in the process of identifying all the groups of people who should be included in the development of the system requirements. He is not quite sure exactly who should be included. Here are the issues he is considering:

• The trading system will be used by customers and by staff in each ofthe company’s 30 trading offices. Obviously, the brokers who are going to use the system need to have input, but how should this be done? Edward also is not sure what approach would be best to ensure that the requirements are complete without requiring tremendous amounts of time from the stakeholders. Including all the offices would increase enthusiasm and support for the system, but it would increase the time required to compile the information. Furthermore, involving more brokers would bring divergent opinions that would have to be reconciled.
• The trading system will also include trade order entry, investmentanalysis reports, trade confirmations, standard and customized reporting, and customer statements. Edward wonders how to involve John and Jacob customers in the development of system requirements. Edward is sensitive to this issue because many brokers have told him that their customers are unhappy with the current system, and customer complaints are sometimes posted to the public comments area of the current Web site. He would like to involve customers, but he does not know how.
• Other stakeholders. Edward knows he should involve other stakeholders tohelp define system requirements. He is not quite sure whom he should  Should he go to senior executives? Should he contact middle management? Should he include such back-office functions as accounting and investing? He is not quite sure how to get organized or how to decide who should be involved.

a) What is the best method for Edward to involve the brokers (users) in the development of the updated online trading system? Should he use a questionnaire? Should he interview the brokers in each of the company’s 30 offices or would one or two brokers representing the entire group be better? How can Edward ensure that the information about requirements is complete, yet not lose too much time doing so?

b) Concerning customer input for the new system, how can Edward involve customers in the process? How can he interest them in participating? What methods can Edward use to ensure that the customers he involves are representative of John and Jacob’s entire customer group?

c) As Edward considers what other stakeholders he should include, what are some criteria he should use? Develop some guidelines to help him build a list of people to include.

Phases of College Education Completion Lifecycle

a) The phases of the college education completion lifecycle are divided into three phases. They are initial phase, middle phase and the final phase.

b) The initial phase of college life consists of choosing an appropriate college, choosing major and minor subjects, moving into college accommodations and making friends. The middle phase is more about strengthening social bonds and enriching command over the area of specialisation. The final stage consists of completing projects, taking interviews and completion of the course.

c) Some of the techniques the college students can use are lectures, group discussions, reflective questions, reflection on the learned knowledge, participate in various activities and participate in group simulation methods to complete their college education (Teaching.uncc.edu 2017).

d) The various models of college education which can be created are:

The student support model was designed by the innovation laboratory of the Southern New Hampshire University to help the weak students. The models works on a online programme which helps the students to acquire the knowledge at their own paces. The students create the academic plan and take projects to illustrate their learned skills (library.educause.edu 2017).

This new models will allow the branches of the colleges share common policies like education, curriculum and enrolment controlled by central system. This model will allow the branches offering specialisation in several areas cater to their students and yet remain integrated.

The student based model will allow the students to decide the programme they want to choose like a one year programme or a two years programme. The curriculum and the course content will be determined by the college after that.

The student support model allows the students to decide their course content and does not incorporate the system of completion examination. The distributed model will allow the colleges to educate students having diverse needs and yet control their division in an integrated manner. The student based model is a combination of the previous models. It allows the students the liberty to decide their programme according to their needs. It also allows the colleges to control the course contents and examine all the students based on a common set of parameters. This confirms the compatibility and uniformity which ultimately helps the students to get better jobs.

e) The students, in order to complete their education can use tools like setting their goals, align the degrees earned in schools and colleges to their preferred jobs, use the data to take decisions, take part in simulation activities and taking part in projects and seminars (ed.gov 2017).

Techniques for College Students to Complete Education

a) Custom Load Trucking has decided to promote its highly performing system analysts to the position of project manager. It was the good decision because this opportunity will allow expert employees to apply their experience and knowledge while serving as project managers. The employees like Stewart are accustomed with the environment and culture of the company. Thus, they will be in a better position to take decisions and lead project teams. This will make the company more self reliant which will earn it a strong future position.

It is suggested to CLT to employ new project managers and provide them with employment benefits like higher salaries and incentives (Werner et al. 2015). New employees will have their own experiences, ideas and knowledge which will add to the knowledge base of the company. They can also bring about new changes and innovation in the operating strategies of the projects department (Beck 2014).

b) Monica should first create a set of criteria to appraise the project managers. The first two criteria should be setting the targets and areas of performance as per the business requirements of the company. These important criteria should be accompanied by managerial competencies, disciplinary and ethical standards. Then the target performance and the achieved performance should be compared in all respects based on the criteria. Monica should also take peer, subordinate, management and client feedback about the employee in order to promote him. Then she should mark their areas of deficiencies and decide on improvement plans (Bednall, Sanders and Runhaar 2014).

c) Monica should structure the jobs of the new project managers under the project portfolio management or project based structure.  This structure will have several projects which will be parts of the strategic business objectives.  The structure will have existing, newly promoted and newly employed project managers. There will be a variety of situations which will demand managerial skills and competencies of the project managers. The newly acquired project managers will come into several types of projects and acclimatize themselves with the organisational culture of the company. The new project managers in this structure will be able to learn from the experienced and the existing employees. It will also allow them to apply their acquired knowledge and bring about innovations in project management (Schwalbe 2015).

d) Monica should advice Stewart, as the new project managers should acquire his position and start managing his own projects. She should also advice Stewart to undergo training sessions like active training programmes, brain friendly lectures, learning approaches which allow him to use his experiences and alternative project methods. This will help Stuart to deal with project better and help him to rise in his career as a project manager (Ramazani and Jergeas 2015).

Models of College Education

a) Edward should use the questionnaire to interview the large number of brokers and get accurate feedback within a short time. He can frame a set of research questions which the brokers will answer online (Lim 2016). This will allow him to compile the feedback from all the brokers which he can compile statistically (Lopez-de-Silanes, Phalippou and Gottschalg 2015). This method will allow him to gain feedback from each broker and get clear picture about investor opinion within a short time. Interviewing each broker would have been time consuming.

b) Edward can and should involve customers in the process of installing the new online trading system by arousing interest in them. He should use the marketing department to promote the new system and highlight its advantages like access from smart phones and tablets before the consumers. The marketing team should conduct a survey to know about new trends in technology and customer needs. The company can also give sales promotion and discount offers to create interest among the customers (Buil, Chernatony and Martínez 2013). The marketing department can also send short messages on mobile phones and emails to involve the customers (Chutijirawong and Kanawattanachai 2014).

Edward can use statistical methods to study that the customers he chooses represent a wider population accurately. He can use sampling methods like random sampling, stratified sampling and convenience sampling. These methods are simple and will allow Edward to get an accurate idea about the customer needs and tastes (Cramér, H., 2016).

c) Edward should include other stakeholders like government departments, stock exchanges, financial institutions and competitors. He can use the degree of involvement of the various types of stakeholders as criteria to consider them. For example, the primary stakeholders or consumers consume the trading services directly. Their direct involvement in consuming the services acts as the criterion of making them primary stakeholders. The next criterion of dividing the categories of stakeholders is their role in policy making. The key stakeholders have more power to force policies on the service providers compared to the other categories. The degree of involvement of the stakeholders can be divides them into the following categories.

They are the actual benefactors who consume the services and products.

Parents, schools, community and social workers who create demand among the primary stakeholders form this group. They also include the police, landlords, employers and the labour contractors.

The governments, state assemblies and the policy makers are the key stakeholders.

The media and the influential people are also a part of the stakeholders because they can also influence the company.

• Include all the stakeholders mentioned above in the product designing process.
• Point out the advantage of the new system.
• Give them same importance because they are all interdependent and interconnected.

References:

Beck, U., 2014. The brave new world of work. John Wiley & Sons.

Bednall, T.C., Sanders, K. and Runhaar, P., 2014. Stimulating informal learning activities through perceptions of performance appraisal quality and human resource management system strength: A two-wave study. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(1), pp.45-61.

Buil, I., De Chernatony, L. and Martínez, E., 2013. Examining the role of advertising and sales promotions in brand equity creation. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), pp.115-122.

Chutijirawong, N. and Kanawattanachai, P., 2014. The role and impact of context–driven personalisation technology on customer acceptance of advertising via short message service (SMS). International Journal of Mobile Communications, 12(6), pp.578-602.

Cramér, H., 2016. Mathematical Methods of Statistics (PMS-9) (Vol. 9). Princeton university press.

ed.gov. 2017. College Completion Tool Kit. [online] Available at: https://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/cc-toolkit.pdf [Accessed 31 Mar. 2017].

library.educause.edu. 2017. Breakthrough models for college completion. [online] Available at: https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2012/11/ng1233-pdf.pdf [Accessed 31 Mar. 2017].

Lim, C., 2016. An emperical study on the service quality and customer retention in the Singapore stock broking industry.

Lopez-de-Silanes, F., Phalippou, L. and Gottschalg, O., 2015. Giants at the gate: Investment returns and diseconomies of scale in private equity. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 50(03), pp.377-411.

Ramazani, J. and Jergeas, G., 2015. Project managers and the journey from good to great: The benefits of investment in project management training and education. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp.41-52.

Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Teaching.uncc.edu. 2017. A Brief Summary of the Best Practices in College Teaching | The Center for Teaching and Learning | UNC Charlotte. [online] Available at: https://teaching.uncc.edu/learning-resources/articles-books/best-practice/instructional-methods/best-practices-summary [Accessed 31 Mar. 2017].

Werner, S., Kuiate, C.S., Noland, T.R. and Francia, A.J., 2015. Benefits and Strategic Outcomes: Are Supplemental Retirement Plans and Safer Driving Related in the US Trucking Industry?. Human Resource Management.