Constructing Teaching Cases – the
Good Food Limited case study
Frederic Adam
Business Information Systems
Accounting, Finance and Information Systems
University College Cork
Ireland
[email protected]
Where the idea came from
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Not an existing company
But a patchwork of real elements
First and second hand components
Used in various format since 1995
Grounded in first professional experience in
late 80s sprinkled with the experience of
one colleague in the early 90s.
Scenario (see handout)
• Irish subsidiary of MNC
• Closure leads to management buyout
• Change of context for decision making and
decision support [important things change]
• Food business SME
• A couple of products at various stages in the life
cycle
• Some key pieces of information – 52 week
rolling plan...
• Some help provided – KPIs
Scoping and tuning the case
• “Teaching with cases is not an end, it is
means”
• So don’t just pick a case and run with it,
hoping for the best
• Teaching with a case responds to a specific
objectives
• Also must adjust the complexity
• Synchronising the teaching [PH] ***
Complexity of the case
LOW
LOW
Complexity of
Underlying Theories
HIGH
MEDIUM
HIGH
Objective of Good Food Ltd.
• Teaching / showing students [getting them
to touch with their fingers]
• How to analyse decision needs of people
• How to develop dashboard type systems –
with emphasis of the key elements: data,
computations [elementary modelling],
interface. [or programming, data access
methods, architectures etc,...]
Three distinct areas of complexity:
Business Processes
Analysis – use of tools
Development (eg: programming)
Questions asked
LOW
Complexity of the case (scenario)
MEDIUM
HIGH
LOW
Complexity of
Underlying Theories /
Techniques
HIGH
No absolute positioning – but MUST consider this equation and assess
Three distinct areas of complexity:
Business Processes
Analysis – use of tools
Development (eg: programming)
Questions asked
LOW
Complexity of the case (scenario)
MEDIUM
HIGH
LOW
Complexity of
Underlying Theories /
Techniques
HIGH
No absolute positioning – but MUST consider this equation and assess
Preliminary teaching
• General dashboard / BI material
• Sensitisation to key issues
– 3 mile Island
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Limited Attention
Performance Measurement
Operator Training
Dashboard Layout
• A tool for capturing requirements (Adam, Frédéric and Pomerol, Jean Charles (2002) Critical
Factors in the Development of EIS – Leveraging the Dashboard Approach, in Mora, Gupta and Forgionne (Eds) Decision-Making Support
Systems: Achievements and Challenges for the New Decade, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, 305-326)
• A conceptual framework (Adam, Frédéric and Pomerol, Jean Charles (2008) Developing
Practical Support Tools using Dashboards of Information, in Holsapple and Burstein, Handbook on Decision Support
Systems, International Handbook on Information Systems series, Springer-Verlag (London), 151-174)
• Examples of dashboards taken from the web + an old but
good EIS demo from the 90s.
Framework for capturing
requirements
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4
Question 5
Question 6
Question 7
Question 8
Question 9
Question 10
Question 11
Who will use this indicator?
Can it be mapped out to a specific objective at a higher level?
How frequently will managers need to monitor it?
What calculation methods are available? What unit of measurement
will be used?
What data source exists? What should be created?
How detailed should the analysis presented by the dashboard be?
How can the indicators be broken down to be more meaningful?
What threshold values should be used to differentiate between
adequate and inadequate performance? What comparisons can be
made to assess the company’s performance?
How can it be represented for maximum visual impact?
What action must be taken when good or bad performance is
measured? Is there scope for corrective action to be taken based on
the indicator?
How will it be monitored / archived in the long term
Is there any potential bias with the methods and data used for
calculations? What incentives may be given to organizational
actors?
Conceptual dimension
The question
• “Placing yourself in the position of a
business analyst specializing in the
development of interfaces for dashboards
of information, provide solutions (including
sample screens) for the specific problems
raised in the case.”
Specific problems
• Four pillars:
• Reporting on the performance of the firm with
general indicators.
• The investigation of the maintenance problem.
• The problem of getting a handle on the volumes
of product returns and trying to understand how
to reduce them.
• Ideas for developing a portfolio of new products.
With specific solutions
• Four pillars:
• Reporting on the performance of the firm with general
indicators – this is the easiest to identify and the best defined in
terms of what indicators should be used if students
understand the case.
• The investigation of the maintenance problem which is
relatively well charted – just a matter of data collection and
sound interface
• The problem of getting a handle on the volumes of product
returns and trying to understand how to reduce them which
requires a lot more vision and which students may not have
the requisite industrial understanding to find.
• Ideas for developing a portfolio of new products, which is a
high level problem where dashboards can only be of limited
help.
Reporting on Performance
• Volumes of sales—the value of sales as
they occur, where they occur.
• Respect of formula—the extent to which
consumptions of raw material followed
expected standards
• Price of components and services—the
cost of actually producing the products and
the full cost of distribution, including
discount, transportation, and so on.
Maintenance problem
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Objective and assumptions
Data collection
Triangulation
decisions
Visual factory idea
Sales returns
• Objectives and assumptions: we need to
understand what happens to our product
even when it is not in our care.
• Find a way to simulate conditions
• True story
• Observation is important – but dashboard
can be very useful presentation /
aggregation / correlation tool – reputational
systems
New products development
• Students’ knowledge of NPD wil make the
difference
• Dashboard will involve distributed / web
based systems to enable “panel” / “focus
group” activities with customers.
• Goes way beyond the dashboard concept
=> uncharted part of the case.
Conclusion
• The framework for characterising the case
gives some clues as to the process of using
and tuning teaching cases
Prior Learning
Goals of the teacher
Theoretical Underpinnings
Tools and Techniques
Facts of the Case Questions
Emergent Outcomes
Expected Outcomes
Realised Outcomes
Conclusion
• The framework for characterising the case
gives some clues as to the process of using
and tuning teaching cases
Prior Learning
Goals of the teacher
Theoretical Underpinnings
Tools and Techniques
DESIGN
Facts of the Case Questions
Emergent Outcomes
Expected Outcomes
Realised Outcomes
Conclusion
• The framework for characterising the case
gives some clues as to the process of using
and tuning teaching cases
Prior Learning
Goals of the teacher
Theoretical Underpinnings
Tools and Techniques
Facts of the Case Questions
Emergent Outcomes
Measure
Expected Outcomes
Realised Outcomes
Conclusion
• The framework for characterising the case
gives some clues as to the process of using
and tuning teaching cases
Prior Learning
Goals of the teacher
Theoretical Underpinnings
Tools and Techniques
Facts of the Case Questions
Emergent Outcomes
Expected Outcomes
Measure
Realised Outcomes
LEARN