Kava Company’s Post Office Development Planning Research Paper

Introduction

Rationale and plan on Kava

The fundamentals of business decisions of the company’s post office to be taken in the context of Kava are organizational processes, human resources, and ethics. In the context of these elements, it should be noted that a thorough understanding of the specific requirements of the customer is essential. Thus the consecutive phases of feasibility evaluation, planning, design and implementation guidelines are to be decided initially at a very early stage of the post office. These guidelines are to be aligned with the outcome of the requirement engineering process. The iterative waterfall model is to be employed for post office planning process and Scrum approach will be adopted due to the small size of the post office team, limited time, effective dependency on informal communication techniques and ambiguity in requirements during the early phases (Bowers, 2006). The post office meticulously focuses on the architecture, design and planning, algorithms and user interfaces, which constitute the set of most critical evaluation elements. Bearing such issues in mind, a rich architectural design that provides for a scalable, loosely coupled and modular system, free of complex technicalities, has to be crafted.

The Iterative Waterfall Model and The Scrum approach were used as management tools for the post office. The Scrum approach is an iterative incremental structure which helps in the management of complex initiatives like the development of a new product. The post office also makes use of the agile business development methodology which is compatible with the Scrum approach (Ren, 2008).

Factors affecting decision implementation

The probable factors affecting decision implementation can be categorized. The following factors affecting decision implementation have been associated with the execution course of a general post office and given the condition of Kava these elements should be thoroughly taken into account. Each factor affecting decision implementation has been categorized in accordance with the level of impact it may have on the overall progress of the post office. In addition, a risk prevention or mitigation strategy has also been drafted.

1. Time shortage: This has been classified as a high impact risk. In order to avoid this particular risk the timeline and activities for each execution stage has been carefully defined and has to be clearly communicated to all the team members. A proper planning and managing framework (Scrum) has been adopted so as to ensure that the course of execution is planned well in advance and monitored throughout the implementation phase.
2. Technical Competence / Skilled Resources: Categorized under the medium impact Category. In order to mitigate this risk element personnel should be provided with adequate training and knowledge transfer mechanisms must be used.
3. Limited Customer Interaction: Categorized under the medium impact category. In order to mitigate this risk factor a team member was assigned the role of the customer liaison (Koskinen, 2009).
4. Miscommunication: Categorized under the low impact category. So as to deal with such a risk all major communiqués are to be manually as well as digitally documented. Team members in managerial positions are to make sure that all communications are clear and transparent.
5. Server Malfunctioning: Categorized under the low impact category. In order to mitigate this risk factor regular updates must be backed up in an effective manner.

Evaluate resources and actions

Minimally, a post office plan must be capable of providing satisfactory answers to fundamental questions like why, what who when in the context of the post office. It must be able to enlighten the reader about the problem or value proposition tackled by the intended deliverables of the post office and state the basic reasons underlying its instantiation. It should be able to provide information about the work that is to be carried out during the development post office and describe the key outcomes and deliverables. In addition, it should provide information about the resources implicated and the responsibilities and functionalities of the personnel involved in the post office. The structure and formation of teams should also be described in such a document.

Finally, information about timelines, milestones and delivery dates should be explicitly mentioned in a post office plan document. Additionally, the document may also include information about the assumptions made for the smooth progress of the post office, budgetary considerations and risk evaluation (Vaagaasar, 2009).

Bearing in mind such requirements this post office plan adopts a comprehensive approach describing all the necessary elements that are required to explain the post office entirely and is structured in a manner that would facilitate a smooth and quick execution of the post office activities. The post office plan includes the following:

The Decision System development process involved a range of activities. These activities were required to be allocated and controlled in a manner that maximized the productivity of team members and the overall operation execution. Being a multicultural team, as Kava is a multi-cultural, multi ethnic nation, interaction amongst various teams emerged as one of the key areas of consideration from the management viewpoint. Various schemes were employed in order to ensure that an effective communication framework exist through which team members could interact. Scrum meetings and kick off meetings were regularly organized in the course of the implementation process. The discussions in each meeting were carefully documented with a clear account of the meeting procedures and responsibilities allocated to specific individuals to be carried out prior to the subsequent meeting.

Ethical implications from the stakeholders

The stakeholders in this post office are the customer and our company. Thus the post office plan was addressed to the client and a copy of the post office plan was also forwarded to the top level management of our company. In order to maintain transparency as well as to foster a better understanding amongst the post office team members and the various stakeholders in the post office an effective communication framework was needed. However, interaction up to a certain limit is considered to be constructive. In case the boundaries are violated there is a negative influence on the post office outcome. Thus an optimum level of interaction was necessary for the effective fulfillment of the post office objectives. Thus, it was decided that post office stakeholders were to meet and review once after the completion of each stage of the post office operation in order to monitor the overall progress of the post office. These meetings also served the purpose of better understanding the stakeholders and gather update and clear doubts which were hindering the smooth execution of operations (Johnson, 2006).

References

Bowers, J. (2006). System dynamics in post office management: A comparative analysis with traditional methods. System Dynamics Review, 12(2), 121-139.

Johnson, K. (2006). Organizational structures and the development post office planning sequence. Public Administration and Development, 4(2), 111-131.

Koskinen, K.U. (2009). Post office-based company’s vital condition: structural coupling. An autopoietic view. Knowledge and Process Management, 16(1), 13-22.

Ren, Y. (2008). Risk management capability maturity model for complex product systems (CoPS) post offices. Systems Engineering, 6(21), 116-124.

Vaagaasar, A.L. (2009).Post office management improvement efforts – creating post office management value by uniqueness or mainstream thinking? Post office Management Journal, 40(1), 19-27.