Technical Skills

Assignment: For each team presentation provide a 1 page essay – about 500 words (2 pages total – about 1000 words) that provides an Executive level review of the team presented material. Your write up should:
1. Provide insights that complement the views of the instructors and class discussion. Please note, this is not to be a summary of the discussion held in the classroom. You should demonstrate critical thinking and understanding of the course material by using the principles of this course to analyze each presentation. We expect that your analysis will provide additional insights that build on those of the instructors.
2. Based on your analysis provide specific suggestions as to how each team could address the insights/issues you have identified above i.e. describe the actions the Technical Executive should take. Again, these should be insights/issues you have identified that build on the instructors comments. We expect you to demonstrate your ability to apply the materials presented in the lectures by giving feedback that could help the teams improve their presentations.

The following is the set of instructions provided to each of the teams for Assignment 10:
Background
Having completed their assessment of technical skills and associated Belbin team roles, Todd Kinsley and Fred Tanth now turn their attention to the question of whether placing the VisionWorx engineering staff in the Robotics Systems Business Area was the right decision. Friction between that staff and the rest of TDI’s engineers reporting to Fred has continued to increase. And there is a growing concern over the potential of diverging development processes, tools, and consistency of metrics. Todd and Fred have decided to meet offsite to discuss the situation, develop organizational structure alternatives and metrics with the output being a recommendation to TDI’s senior leadership on a way forward.
Objective
Applying the concepts presented in the Module 10 lecture, each student team will assume the roles of Todd Kinsley, VP Robotics Business Area and Fred Tanth, VP of Engineering; will characterize the TDI engineering organization structure currently in place, elaborate on the areas causing issues, recommend an organization structure (with rationale) for moving forward, and develop a balanced scorecard to assess performance with particular emphasis on elements relevant to engineering performance.
Assignment
For this assignment, your team collaborating in the roles of Todd Kinsley and Fred Tanth, will present an assessment of the current organization structure, recommend a future structure, and present a balanced scorecard to be used to assess technical organization performance within the context of TDI overall objectives. This presentation will be made to TDI’s Strategic Planning Group, as role-played by the professors, during the virtual-live session at the end of Module 10. You should:
1. Describe the current organization structure and present pros and cons.
2. Define a new organization structure for TDI that is designed for more effective performance.
3. Develop a Balanced Scorecard using the format of Kaplan and Norton HBR Article Sep-Oct 93 with particular emphasis on the technical organization measures for each of the four categories.
4. Be prepared to brief your perspective during the virtual-live session, with particular emphasis on the approach and rationale that you, as the Business and Engineering executives, will take to establish an organization that will be effective in performing the work envisioned for TDI’s future addressing the pre-acquisition portfolio and support expansion into Hazardous Operating Environment Robotics. Remember, you have acquired the people along with the product form VisionWorx, and for this type of technology – a significant part of the competitive advantage resides in the heads of the staff. How will you retain that after you merge the two organizations?
a. One chart picturing the current organization structure
b. One chart describing the pros and cons of the current structure
c. One chart picturing a future organization structure, with particular emphasis on Engineering
d. One chart describing your rationale for choosing the new organization structure
e. One chart presenting your balanced scorecard according to Kaplan and Norton HBR article Sep-Oct 93, with particular emphasis on the performance of the Engineering activity. Present rationale for your choices of balanced scorecard elements.
f. One chart describing the significant risks you see from the technical executive’s perspective and how will you address them
5. Also include a slide summarizing your key take-away points from the Boeing video and the Guest Interview video with Dr. Peter Pronovost.