Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

Josh and Mike met each other as roommates during freshmen year at MacAlister Col

ID: 460763 • Letter: J

Question

Josh and Mike met each other as roommates during freshmen year at MacAlister College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite a rocky start they became best friends. They are planning on going on a two week adventure together to celebrate their graduation in June. Josh has never been to Europe and wants to visit France or Spain. Mike spent a semester abroad in Aarhus, Denmark, and traveled extensively in Northern Europe. Even though he never went to France or Spain, Mike wants to go to some place more exotic like South Africa or Vietnam. For the past week they have been arguing back and forth over where they should go. Josh argues that it will cost too much to fly to South Africa one they are there. Each of them agreed that they can spend no more than $3,500 each the trip and could be gone for only two weeks. One evening when they were arguing with each other over beers with friends, Sara said "why don't you use what you learned in your project management class to decide what to do? Josh and Mike looked at each other and agreed that made perfect sense. 1. Assume you are either Mike or Josh; how would you go about making a decision using project management methodology? 2. Looking first at only cost, what decision would you make? 3. After cost, what other factors should be considered before making a decision?

Explanation / Answer

1.

Planning a trip may become a tedious task if planning process is not properly followed. To plan a trip following steps should be followed which are mentioned below:

The first step is to decide the purpose of the trip. This purpose may include the activities which one want to perform during the trip.

The next step is to identify the location which best suits with the purpose of the trip. While deciding the location, one should also look for the alternatives.

Then, the budget of the trip should be decided. This is one of the crucial step in determining both the above-mentioned steps.

The next step is the evaluation stage where the next best alternatives are analyzed. After the alternative analysis, execute the plan.

2.

Cost is the most important constraint in deciding the purchases. It is the only constraint which restricts the plan. In this case, both J and M have a restricted constraint i.e. the cost. Both cannot spend over $3,500. Based on the budget of $3,500 the location of the trip should be decided.

3.

Cost is not the sole constraint, there are other factors which helps to decide a trip. Time is a constraint for the trip. Here the time means the duration of the trip i.e. for how many days or weeks the trip should be. Apart from time, the location is another constraint i.e. the preferred destination where one wants to go for trip. There are some other factors which may affect the trip such as the food, climate etc. of the destination place.