Infrastructure Assignment

This is an individual assignment. By now you and your group should have discussed the scope of the group project. You should have an idea of what will be needed to develop, manufacture, manage, distribute, service and support the product. It is expected that any two team members will not have the exact same set of assumptions and concerns for their risks. There are many possible ways to accomplish a successful outcome for your project.

You as a key member of your team should have a fair understanding of what will be needed to go from the concept to the market place. Since you are working with a product/service under development that has yet be built and deployed you will have major assumptions and therefore suggest different tasks to be done in developing the product, setting up the business, and running the business.

The ‘GLUE' that pulls an organization together is often unseen, unknown by outsiders and frequently unknown except to a few select employees. Many innovations are driven by the introduction and insertion of new technologies in the new products. Note that there are more innovations in business models of companies than there are in innovations with new technologies.

However, when injecting new technologies into a new product, the organizations infrastructure will have to be set up or adjusted to meet the goals of the new product.

The diagram in the attachment shows the interrelationships between different activities in a product development organization. The four different levels of the diagram show tight coupling between tasks like Design of Support Capability and Sustaining Maintenance and support of the system or product. The vertical connectors between tasks in the four levels indicate a typical sequential flow that is followed in developing new products.

This diagram may or may not exactly match the tasks or sequences for your product/service. If it does not match as a model for your product/service, create a diagram with 8 or more interconnected tasks, which better describes a model for operating your venture. Insert that diagram into your document and answer the following questions. If my diagram does match your model, just refer to the titles in the boxes of the diagram and answer these questions.

1. Describe the goals of your organization in six sentences or less. That is; what is it that you will create, sell and service? Who will be your customers? How long will they continue to use your product?

2. How, where and when will you make money through the operations of your venture? What money is to be made after the initial purchase of the product?

3. Refer to this or your custom diagram. For each of the arrows in the diagram; name the three most important activities that will occur between the tasks with the arrows.

Put your highest priority activity first and your lowest priority activity third. One example might be; Design of Production Capability -> Design of Support Capability might state: "Production department publishes specifications for the product that will be used by the Service Department to test failures of any products". [For this statement, give an example of what metrics should be measured, such as the amount of electrical power consumed in Watts.]

Think of all of the measurable metrics in an automobile; engine - measured in horse power, Air Conditioner - measured in ability to hold to a requested temperature, engine acceleration - measured in time to go from zero to 60 MPH, etc.

Papers should be written in MS Word or submitted as a .pdf. Papers should be 3 - 4 pages in length; use 12 pt. font, single sided, double spaced.