Management Information System

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Chapter 11 Case Study Questions 1. How important is the Field Data Collection Automation project for the U.S. Census Bureau? How does it impact decision making and operational activities? The Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) project is extremely important for the U.S. Census Bureau because it involves the collection of the U.S. census. The purpose is to collect respondent information at a quicker pace while decreasing the cost of collection. The cost of implementation and the general cost of the census were over budget at $14.5 billion (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). $3 billion for the new devices and $11 billion for operational costs (2010). Automating the census collection data will make data retrieval more efficient and less costly. When they bungled the project execution they increased the cost of implementation. Moreover, their bungling delayed implementation for another decade. 2. Evaluate the key risks of the FDCA project and the key risk factors. The key risks for the Field Data Collection Automation project are the lack of validated and approved baseline requirements for the project, lack of a risk management process, and ineffective management oversight(Laudon & Laudon, 2010). Examples of the key risks that were spawned from the risk factors were failure to meet the census deadline and the lack adequate performance by the handheld devices. When they contracted to have the handhelds created, they were not clear as to the level of excellence that the products had to perform. Moreover, the producers were not held accountable as to the deadline of the project completion. Consequently, they failed at meeting the deadline and the handhelds that were created did not work. A stalwart risk management process would have had an effective management oversight that would validate approved baseline requirements. Effective management oversight would have held

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