Systems Development

CASE STUDY III-1

Managing a Systems Development Project at Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc.

Late Friday afternoon, T. N. (Ted) Anderson, director of disbursements for Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc. (CIPI), sat staring out the wide window of his 12th-floor corner office, but his mind was elsewhere. Anderson was thinking about the tragic accident that had nearly killed Linda Watkins, project director for the Payables Audit Systems (PAS) development project. Thursday night, when she was on her way home from a movie, a drunken driver had hit her car head on. She would survive, but it would be months before she would be back to work. The PAS system was a critical component of a group of interrelated systems intended to support fundamental changes in how billing and accounts payable at CIPI were handled. Without Watkins, it was in deep trouble. Deeply committed to the success of these new approaches, Anderson did not know exactly what he could do, but he knew he had to take drastic action. He picked up his phone and told his secretary, “Please get me an appointment with IS Director Charles Bunke for the first thing Monday morning.” Anderson would have the weekend to decide what to do. The Origin of the PAS Project Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc., is a Fortune 100 manufacturer of a large variety of well-known products for both individuals and industry. Headquartered in the United States, CIPI is an international company with facilities in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. The PAS project was one of several interrelated projects that resulted from a fundamental reevaluation of CIPI’s accounts payable process as part of CIPI’s

Copyright © 2000 (revised) by Professor E. W. Martin. No part of this case study may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission of the author. This case was prepared by Professor Martin as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate...