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Discussion board # 1

Do you think all variances should be investigated and reported to top management or just those that are significant and/or over budget? Why?

Respond to post # 1 (SB)

I believe that significant variances should be the variances that management should be concerned with. If every variance was reported to management and investigated, the company could spend much more money on the time spent looking into each one. Looking at it from the outside in, if we brought every variance to management to investigate and pull management, supervisors, and possibly foremen that oversee the projects, we now have all of those salaries that the company is paying for to talk about each and every variance. However, if the same variance comes up over and over, it should be brought to management’s attention to investigate why it is occurring so often and implement corrective actions to alleviate it.

Discussion board # 2

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using the balanced scorecard approach to performance evaluations of managers? When you become a manager, would you like to participate in this form of evaluation? Do you think you could manipulate criteria if evaluated by this format? Please elaborate.

Discussion board # 3

Project management is essential for the operations in various industries such as information technology, hospitality, engineering, and others. Discuss a project you were involved in that was not successful. Explain why the project failed and what you think needed to be done to make it successful. This can be a project from work or a personal project.

Respond to post # 2 (JW)

Project management is definitely an essential component to operations. There will always be a project to complete, after you think your done with that one. Even after completing or not completing a project, you always have to revisit the project. A project that I feel I was not successful in because I was working on too much at the same time. I was researching a project seeing we could determine how to place staff effectively in operations, through the results if the puzzle they completed. This project is not totally lost right now, it's just taking a little longer than anticipated. I had to restructure our training program from the ground up. I've constructed a management training program, frontline staff training program and a yearly refreshers through QR Codes. Too which has been successful.....Next time, I will focus on one thing at a time and not stress myself for what I didn't get done.

Discussion Board # 4

Discuss how you can apply the concepts learned in this course in your future professional, personal, or academic pursuits. How might the lessons you have learned positively impact your career success?