final final final!!!!!
TRANSCRIPT
Company Project
BINNJ ON THE APPLE IPAD
Instructor: Jasmin Majetic
Group Members:
Samy Alaoui Hassini
Francois Xavier Garaud
Robin Duchateau
Burcu Atman
Chiting Chang
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1
PART I ......................................................................................................................... 2
A. Livemenu............................................................................................................. 2
1) How did the idea appear? ........................................................................... 2
2) Who does the team constitute of? ......................................................... 3
B. Trough these keys enablers other ideas appeared to shape the
project ..................................................................................................................... 6
1) Lunch with Hosafros .................................................................................... 6
2) Skype call with Philip .................................................................................. 6
3) Drinks with Hayes ........................................................................................ 6
4) Coffee with Corscadden ............................................................................. 7
5) Ad vendors boardroom with the team .................................................... 9
C. What’s the final project?..............................................................................10
1 ) Advantages for customers: .....................................................................10
2) Advantages for restaurants: ................................................................... 11
PART II ......................................................................................................................12
A. Case analysis ....................................................................................................12
For the costumers; ..........................................................................................12
For the company;..............................................................................................14
For the restaurants; .......................................................................................15
B. How do they manage the time? ....................................................................17
C. Should they apply Agile or Waterfall principle? .....................................17
Waterfall ...........................................................................................................18
Agile ....................................................................................................................19
D. Should they speed up or slowdown for this project ............................. 20
1. To speed up .................................................................................................. 20
2. Slow down the project .............................................................................. 20
3. Quit the project ..........................................................................................21
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 22
1
INTRODUCTION
On one hand, we have chosen this topic because Apple
products and its way to innovate interest us. Apple is today the
company the most liked by young people. Moreover, this story is about
the construction of a start-up and it is the dream of each student from
a business school to build and realize a similar project. That is why all
members of the team immediately agreed regarding this case.
On the other hand, Apple Store, through iPad, iPhone, is a
way to create applications for all sectors and the number of creation is
unlimited. This is a huge business that Apple allows to lots of innovative
and connected people. This case shows exactly how “easy” it is to
create something useful and totally new. What was also interesting for
us was the fact that we can follow the construction of a team, a way to
manage it, these different steps that make an application viable and of
course, a final product.
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PART I
A. Livemenu
1) How did the idea appear?
The idea about Binnj came from Clay Hutcherson and was established step by
step.
In the first place, Clay Hutcherson noticed the new Apple
product: the iPad! When he was waiting for his flight, Clay Hutcherson
saw Steve Jobs’ speech about iPad. The presentation of his speech
impressed Hutcherson because he immediately knew that this new
Apple product would turn technological world upside down. As a matter
of fact, with its light form factor, full-screen touch-based navigation
system, wi-fi and 3G network connectivity, popular productivity and
lifestyle applications, access to hundreds of thousands of additional
applications from the iTunes App Store, the iPad was going to
fundamentally change electronic content consumption! There obviously
were big opportunities according to Clay Hutcherson.
From this moment Clay Hutcherson was thinking about an
idea using the iPad. A new venture began for him! With good judgment
he said, “I could create content, purchase content, license content, or
steal content.” For weeks he searched for a really good idea, but he
found nothing, until this moment…
Clay Hutcherson was in his car with his son driving to a
hockey practice. He was still thinking about an idea for the iPad. In the
car, his son was looking for a new motocross helmet on the iPhone. In
the exact same time, Hutcherson was thinking about a place to go out
for dinner that evening. And his great idea appeared: an Ipad-based real-time electronic restaurant menu platform!
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Afterwards Hutcherson spent the next six weeks analyzing
the core idea, considering how it might work, and quite literally trying
to “talk himself out of” the idea.
2) Who does the team constitute of?
Hutcherson wanted to do a great application as possible as he could, and
he knew it was a lot of work to do. That is the reason why he chose the
best people to carry out this work.
Here is Hutcherson ‘s team constitution:
Clay Hutcherson is the founder and CEO/President of Binnj.
Prior to Binnj, Clay was a management consultant at Intellectual
Ventures providing business, organizational and technical consulting
to senior leadership in the Intellectual Property Licensing business
unit that manages a US $5B invention-capital fund. He lives in London,
Ontario.
Nancy Philip is a Chartered Accountant and the CFO and
COO of Binnj. Nancy was Director of HR and CFO of CIRA in Ottawa,
Ontario. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Scott Corscadden is the CIO at Binnj. He also led the
Internet Application Group for FiLogix where he developed scalable
mission-critical enterprise web applications for Canada’s top banking
institutions. He lives in London, Ontario.
James Hayes is the Director, Sales and Marketing and leads
the sales effort at Binnj. Previously he pioneered the successful
Canadian Poker Exposition (the CPE Canada’s only poker centric
consumer show for global leaders in the gaming industry). James
Hayes lives in London, Ontario.
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Jen Hosafros is Creative and User Experience Lead for
Binnj. Jen is a freelance graphic design consultant and holds a
provisional RGD. Jen has 10 years of digital creative experience and
holds a BFA in visual arts and graphic design from Lake Superior
State University in Michigan. Jen lives in London, Ontario.
Michael Kernahan is Senior Engineer at Binnj. Michael has
experience designing, developing and releasing iPhones applications.
He worked for the very famous National Research Council (NRC) of
Canada (really big organization). He lives in London, Ontario.
Sam Maloney is Lead Software Engineer at Binnj. He is an
expert in open source technologies and enterprise Java
architectures. He lives in London, Ontario.
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Clay HUTCHERSON
CEO
Nancy PHILIP
CFO/COO
Scott CORSCADDEN
CIO
James HAYES
Sales and Marketing Director
Jen HOSAFROS
Creative and User Experience
Lead
Michael KERNAHAN
Senior Engineer
Sam MALONEY
Lead Software Engineer
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B. Trough these keys enablers other ideas
appeared to shape the project
1) Lunch with Hosafros Hutcherson learned about the big news: Ipad was released for sale in
USA on April 3, 2010. He called his friend Hosafros whom he previously
worked with immediately. Hosafros was a talented graphic designer and
Hutcherson invited her to go to a restaurant and asked her what was
wrong in the menu. The designer said that she didn’t see anything wrong
in the laminated menu. Hutcherson explained to his friend that the design
of restaurant menus has not changed since the earliest handwritten days.
Then the designer understood his point and showed her interest on this
matter and imagined a menu on the Ipad with rich colorful images, hyper-
linked pages, video, audio…etc. The project would be a kind of revolution
in the functioning of a restaurant. Hosafros agreed to participate very
soon after Hutcherson’s pitch.
2) Skype call with Philip Hutcherson sent several email to his network to discuss and have some
advice about his idea. Among these friends, Nancy Philip called him back a
few minutes later by Skype. They spoke about the project and they
realized that the costs of a restaurant would be decreased thanks to the
Ipad menu because restaurants generally spent around $12,500 per year
to print a batch of menus. Moreover, a small error caused by incorrect
prediction and bad assumption for prices would then lead to re-print of
menus. An electronic menu is helpful if restaurants want to develop new
recipes, prices fluctuations or special promotions and everything in a
multi-language dimension.
Hutcherson already came up with the name of this platform: LiveMenu. Philip was really captivated by the project and added that it is necessary
to test the application very quickly in a restaurant as a prototype. In
addition, she suggested that they had to increase their knowledge in
restaurant processing and business.
3) Drinks with Hayes Hutcherson sent a text to James Hays about his idea and received an
answer some hours later. Hutcherson and Hays were in the same class
from their MBA days, five years earlier. Hutcherson explained the entire
project to his friend with all the advantages for the restaurants and
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customers. He highlighted the advertisement and marketing perspective
with help from Internet on computer, smartphone and also explained that
the age of marketing with radio, television and newspaper is gone.
With a new electronic menu, restaurants could customize their menu as
they wish. Furthermore, customers can pay quickly when they want to
order without waiting for the server, which was the argument of
Hutcherson. The dimension and the usefulness of this project fascinated
Hayes. For Hutcherson, Hayes was exactly the proper man to supervise
the marketing dimension of the project.
As a conclusion, Hayes said their lack of industry knowledge for
restaurant could help them to reorganize all the system and exclude some
of traditional ideas that they couldn’t change if they would be already in
the restaurant field.
4) Coffee with Corscadden Some days later, Hutcherson had an appointment with his friend
Corscadden. He wanted to talk to him about his new idea. Corscadden was
a cracherjack with whom Hutcherson has worked in the past. During this
meeting, Hutcherson explained to his guest what consisted his project
and showed him two Ipads. One of them was for Corscadden if he
accepted to be a member of the team without any wage at the beginning.
Thanked to one of Hutcherson’s old friends who lived in the U.S, he
received these devices before they were released in Canada.
So Corscadden accepted to be a part of the team and mentioned two guys
who were capable of providing useful helps to build the new concept:
Samy Maloney and Michael Kernahan. The first one was an expert at
developing server-based web applications using open source technology
and the other one is a gifted application developer. Moreover, these guys
also had a big network so it could help more in Hutcherson project.
Hutcherson specified to his friend that information technology would be
the main instrumental of database and infrastructure of the LiveMenu.
The main problem regarding the construction of the project was the
absence of money. Nevertheless, Hutcherson wished that his idea would
be realized in 100 days. Corscadden said to his friend that it is an
impossible mission in a time that’s as short as 100 days. He continued to
explain the entire task to do first and mentioned in 18 months the
project would probably just be in beta testing. Hutcherson nodded and
agreed the explanation of Corscadden. They thought it would be better
not to spend too much time in the time planning and begin by doing
quickly. For Corscadden, the first work to do is to write the code. Then
they had to evaluate the requirements of customers. On one side,
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Hutcherson must manage his team in order to spend time in the learning
about restaurant industry. On the other side, Corscadden must develop
code with his team.
Moreover, it should also be useful to develop this application through
software so as not to be stuck in Appstore and be able to expend their
application to other platforms such as Android or RIM as these platforms
were not mature enough for now. But so as to concurrence Apple in that
wide market, they would improve their own platform.
As soon as Android or RIM platforms become be mature, the company will
be able to set up immediately in this market and only for “a couple of
hundred dollars a month and probably even less than that”. It will be a
new opportunity for Binnj.
Moreover, Hutcherson wanted to have an easy and effectiveness
communication between members of the team. He also hoped that
members of the team were always busy.
Tools for connecting the team and working in effectiveness,
transparency and efficiency
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5) Ad vendors boardroom with the team Firstly, Hayes had been working on restaurant market and divided it in
two categories: Enterprise Restaurant Groups (ERGs) and Small & Medium
Enterprise Restaurant Groups (SMERGs). ERGs are restaurants from
restaurant groups. There are very representative on the restaurant
market and could generate massive sales for Hutcherson. But they were
very bureaucratic and it would be difficult to get face-to-face with the
right person. Then, SMRGs were more accessible and easy to meet in
order to propose a new type of support menu. Nevertheless, it could take
more time than the big restaurant groups.
Secondly, Philip talked to Hayes about the price they can charge for the
LiveMenu and if competitors are numerous. Hayes answered to her that
he didn’t know about the price they could propose to restaurant
customers but many restaurants were already interested in the project.
About competitors, Hayes said some major software operating in the US
restaurant place did exist but no one focused on the menu and operations.
Corscadden responded by saying that everything sounded good and they
had to be encouraged and continue their efforts. He also said that all
members of the team must work hardly even if each one had some
priority tasks. The team must use a lot of Reminders in order to know
perfectly the list of tasks each one had to do.
Moreover, Hutcherson emphasized the importance of not going too fast
and sell software that would be not yet enough developed. Though the
team had to move faster so wouldn’t be overtaken by LiveMenu
competitors. Corsadden reassured his friend by saying that the real
competitors were not really numerous because they were presenting a
PDF menu but didn’t offered the same level of functionality such as
LiveMenu was going to offer.
Skype Free calls between Skype users
DropBox To share large files online with collaborators
SubversioN 100% open source software
Basecamp For overall project scheduling task management
Redmine Feature development tasks and bug tracking
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Hosafros thought that to build a two-page teaser brochure would be
useful to begin the advertisement campaign. Philip added that LiveMenu
must be able to be tested by restaurant that wanted to try. However,
LiveMenu had to be protected against copy and observation of potential
competitors.
Likewise, Corscadden spoke about news he had heard some days ago.
Ontario Private Members Bill 90 was discussing about “healthy decisions
for healthy eating act”. If the bill passed the law, it would be a big
success for LiveMenu because restaurants would be required to give the
nutritional information on all their menus. With LiveMenu, to put this
information would be very easy for restaurant.
Concluding, all team realized that the future of Binnj would be a big
success and could create a real value. Hutcherson was more realistic and
explained that now Binnj had no revenue, no product and customer. He
wasn’t certain yet that it could really please the customers and they
would be ready to pay for this service. Hutcherson finished the meeting
saying to his team that they had to continue to build the project seriously
and with efficiency.
C. What’s the final project?
As we have said before (Part A), this project concerns a LiveMenuR that
can be used by the restaurants’ customers but also by restaurants
themselves. This part is going to show you a whole summary of this
project (that’s why, sometimes, it could be redundant).
1 ) Advantages for customers: A digital menu is certainly like a great revolution for clients., for that it
allows them the possibility to check different menus of different
restaurants so as to choose where they will better enjoy their meals. We
can easily refer it to the text when Hutcherson (C.E.O. of Binnj) was
sitting in his car meanwhile driving his son to his hockey match. That is, as
we have said in the first paragraph, right at this moment he got the idea
to create a live menu –he was asking himself to know where he would go to
eat that night, and in which restaurant.
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This idea was a valid one for him because it avoided the waste of time in
the consumers’ point of view, and also allowed the customers to know
“exactly” what he/she will eat without losing his/her money in a meal they
don’t like (non-specified ingredients…).
2) Advantages for restaurants: Binnj would not only be interested in customers but also the restaurants,
which is also the most important part in this case study. As we’ve just
said before (part B), this topic is lengthily developed. This advantage was
the main point that helped Hutcherson to make people believe in his
project. When he said that it could help a lots of restaurants by reducing
their costs or help huge restaurant groups to keep an eye on each
individual restaurant they have and so on. After his pitch, everyone said
“what a great idea”, “you could earn lots of money”, “what are you waiting
for”, “I’m in”…
His network’s reaction showed that this idea was more than vague, it was
a new concept, a new idea from a man who knew nothing about this kind of
market, which made him strong for his future start-up (no idea avoids
barriers, it is like starting from scratch and improve creativity).
This live menu, as we have said before, would be based on an iPad
application. That means that it was going to be a new kind of menu. Paper-
based menus were not used to attract people and it was not based on a
marketing approach either. In each restaurant you can find the same
“boring menu” that is absolutely not interesting for customers. So, what
is highlighted in this case study is the fact that restaurants will be able
to design their own menu in their own way, and also help them to be
different from other competitors.
It is a cost reduction in a long-term plan. According to the text, a typical
North American restaurant spends around $12,500 per year for printing
paper-based menu. The main problem for restaurants and also for
Hutcherson’s friend/(future) colleagues was the iPad cost. As the iPad
was not released yet in Canada in this case study, they didn’t know how
much a restaurant would have to pay for such a high technological product
(Hutcherson bought his own iPad in the United States for around $800).
Moreover, the other problem was that Apple doesn’t offer any
opportunities to get cheaper if you buy lots of their products, even if it is
a company. This is the main doubt that his friend/colleagues had for his
application project.
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PART II
A. Case analysis
After the Livemenu was published on the market, it cannot be the same as
before because this idea is pretty unique so that we should look from 3
perspectives of this idea; costumers, company and restaurants. In addition we
should consider that there are advantages, disadvantages as well as
opportunities and threat in each circumstance. The best way to analyze with
the case is SWOT.
For the costumers;
Strengths
Clients are kings so they have the power to choose whatever
they want. They are concerned about service, quality, sanitation of
the environment etc. So that the Livemenu should take the
customers’ requests into account.
Weaknesses
iPad was just presented to market therefore clients can
easily think that device is hard be familiar with for the elderly, also
the people who do not use iPhone or similar devices before.
Usage of iPad is really different from other mobiles or
tablets, which is also like a revolution for the users.
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The Livemenu is also marginal even the CEO does not know
how to use and how to look like because of these ideas are all new to
us.
Opportunities
The application is really approachable because at the same
time clients can see the pictures and videos of the meal also calories
are already calculated. According to calculation they can easily decide
what they eat and which meal is healthier or what the ingredients are
in.
The layout design colors videos will be different from the
traditional menu.
The Livemenu with tablet are never invented before so it is
really new experience for clients. By this we mean clients will be more
curious about using it.
According to calculation they can easily decide what they eat
and which meal is healthier or what the ingredients are in.
Languages are really problems when you go to different
country even if you don’t go anywhere only you want to try new
cuisine, it can be a problem for choosing meals. In addition paper-
based menu cannot include language options more than 4 so that is
absolutely efficient for clients.
Almost everyone has the experience of waiting for the
waiter/waitress to order the meals and people sometimes get
inpatient about it. However, when you use your tablet for order you
don’t need to wait anymore.
Threats
This device is really hi-tech and also these days it is not so
common as iPad hasn’t published in Canada. That’s why customers can
be afraid to adopt this new concept
They can order wrongly and as the order goes directly to the
kitchen the customers might need to wait even longer time
Customers like good services and concern which are related
to face to face communication. Accordingly they can avoid using
technological devices.
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For the company;
Strengths
The idea is unique, unattempted and provides service, which
means the Livemenu responds to customers’ requirements.
Good network always makes you more powerful, so that a
good organization will be a plus for the team’s future.
Weakness
CEO set a time limit and it is pretty hard to finish on time.
They have a lack of time management because everyone has
full time job. They only have e-based communication tools. When the
issue happens they cannot easily react on it.
They don’t know how to sell their products also were
uncertain about the product price. They have to see the feasibility of
their sales and marketing strategy but they can’t forget the markets
and their needs.
Oppotunities
When Binnj’s competitors enter the market and they try to
share market, the team might improve their version so that Livemenu
will still be unique. Besides that the team establish the new market,
which means the power is on them.
The team has different backgrounds. That means it is a real
opportunity because variable experiences provide variable visions.
Threats
As we see this market is kind of new so that many
entrepreneurs want to enter the market, it is possible that the
others can alter software program and launch the market.
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There is a long distance between team members. It would be
difficult to connect each other.
Sales and marketing director and CEO cannot reach directly
to SMERG because there is many SMERG in the market. We can say
that it would be waste of time beginning to marketing process.
PIPEDA
For the restaurants;
Strengths
Market share and also restaurant chains provide power
towards Binnj. Sooner or later restaurant owners will decide to sign
an agreement with Binnj.
Weakness
Restaurant owners find the application very odd. The other
possibility is that the restaurant owners would think that is not worth
to try.
The other weakness is about cost for that they might not be
able to afford the device. We know that Apple doesn’t provide
discount even you want to buy more than 50 tablets.
Opportunities
The application will attract new clients because many people
want to experience using it. Even if they don’t come to have a dinner
once, news are really good advertise for marketing. The restaurants
will make a name instantly.
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Another opportunity is about appendable new
application/gadget, the restaurant owners don’t need to pay huge
amount of money every time they only need to pay for iPad once and
then the application will be synchronized by time. By this we mean the
owners will not waste their money twice.
Employee and menu costs are decreased enormously. The
owners need only few waiters/waitresses for service.
Procurement updates and stock updates provide to check
your list online and easily.
Customizable and configurable applications such as prices
description, items add more flexibility and save money.
Threats
Restaurants should bid a law and these days because of new
law, ingredients and calories should be shown on their menu so when
the owners use Livemenu the content should be more transparent.
Some clients would be more conservative and they prefer to
use paper-based menu.
Software mistakes can lead to unavoidable negative effects
and will affect the clients.
When you prefer to use Livemenu, that means communication
with clients is going down. In addition many clients give importance to
service and service process. They want to ask and take advice about
the menu and meal so that it is real threat for the owners.
As we see the SWOT analysis, it is obviously efficient for 3
sides.
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B. How do they manage the time?
They should adhere to contract. Rules and clauses aren’t mentioned in
the case so that we would see that it is a right way to start criticizing.
Firstly, all substances especially meeting time and process should be
written down clearly. For instance, specifying dates, complying with
basecamp, considering the risks etc. However, before the contract, CEO
shouldn’t have put the time limit. It is acceptable that “100-days” is like a
physiological limit but this project needs real feasibility report. That
means they will arrange the meeting time. The team should select simple,
efficient and effective tools during the process and they have to divide
their job step by step. By this way they might not have bottleneck which
is the real problem for every project and also CEO wants to enter the
market as soon as possible because he is driving the company in dark
during this time they already had meeting 3 potential clients. Because of
that he wants to publish their “unique” project as soon as possible. They
should not waste their time doing routine works. This project is their
second job so that they aren’t available when something happens. At that
point, the team has to appoint someone as an assistant who only deals with
the project and how the process goes on.
From the other perspectives they can use Apache Subversion as a source,
however; as we know, CEO doesn’t want to steal content, purchase
content or license content but they can use some software program what
they need so this process can be shorten so they have more tıme to test
their software program. In other words, projects saves time by modifying
by the way the notable thing is that project software would be unique;
they will just collect and arrange same tools and similar software.
C. Should they apply Agile or Waterfall
principle?
Now it comes down to the question of whether Binnj should apply the
principle of Agile or Waterfall to their live@menu project. We’ve
compared these two principles and there are pros and cons in both of
them.
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Waterfall
Advantage
Structural
The stages of waterfall is basically going step by step, so it’s very
structural and detailed, which can avoid making further mistakes. First
comes defining the project, then goes to planning, implementation then
leads to the closure. These steps make the company clear and aware of
what they are dealing with.
Disadvantage
Less flexible and time consuming
As a project management methodology, Waterfall has been criticized for
not being able to cope with constant changes in software projects, and
with the inability of customers to specify adequate requirements before
they have tried prototypes. Also, the huge overhead of specifying
requirements before starting the actual development may cause long
delays of a project. The iterative nature of agile makes it an excellent
alternative when it comes to managing development projects, especially
software projects
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Agile
a. Advantage:
More flexible
People don’t have to stick to the stages and can make alterations
depending on the situation. For instance, as Binnj was worried about being
late for their original schedule, they couldn’t afford to waste any more
time on going through the stages step by step. They need to know what
they need to do to make adjustments on the system of their application.
Therefore, if they apply the principle of agile, they would be able to
change something as soon as they find a problem.
Individual oriented
In Agile principle, iterations are short time frames (timeboxes) that
typically last from one to four weeks. Each iteration involves a cross
functional team working in all functions: planning, requirements analysis,
design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing. However, Team
composition in an agile project is usually cross-functional and self-
organizing, without consideration for any existing corporate hierarchy or
the corporate roles of team members. Team members normally take
responsibility for tasks that deliver the functionality an iteration
requires. They decide individually how to meet iteration’s requirements.
Focus on time to market
Agile principle puts a lot of concern in putting a product to the market in
a short period of time, like four weeks. Since Binnj needs to show their
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prototype to their clients as soon as possible, it’s better to apply agile
principle so that they can be ahead of others.
b. Disadvantage:
It does not scale well.
Many people still believe that Agile doesn’t scale well so lots of large
projects still apply waterfall as their main principle. Additionally, since
the strength and usefulness of agile are both exhibited in projects with
frequent changes, it does not offer any advantage over waterfall when it
comes to classical projects where requirements are nearly always
constant and unknowns are rare.
D. Should they speed up or slowdown for this
project
Next we’ll analyze what Binnj should do with their project from three
perspectives-to speed up, slow down or quit the project
1. To speed up First we’ve discussed why we think Binnj should speed up their project,
which is mainly because the world of technology is constantly changing
and moving forward, thus if one wants to get better business
opportunities, he or she needs to always be ahead of the other
competitors. From the text of the case, we know that there are other
companies that are doing the similar projects. Although they have
different aims from Binnj, it’s still some kind of threats because they
might change their directions and will possibly go with the similar ideas.
Furthermore, it’s hard to predict if they are really the only company
who’s working on this idea and project. In the consideration of the point
above, Binnj needs to speed up their project in order to avoid the risk of
having their ideas stolen by the others.
2. Slow down the project We also talked about the reasons of why Binnj should slow down their
project. First of all, we think the biggest issue is time limitation. Up till
the moment, no one has done the same project before, and there are
many technical issues to be resolved, which require more time to deal
with. If they rush their project, there might be more potential problems
to their system and will then cause claim from their customers. In order
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to stabilize their system, it will be better to do it step by step instead of
putting it in a rush. Secondly, lack of manpower is also one of the issues
Binnj was facing. From the article we can tell that almost every one of
them has a full time job to do other than this project. They were all
working extra hours to make this project possible, and they can hardly
squeeze more time on it. Thirdly, they didn’t even have any customers at
all and it’s better for them to build up a relationship with some customers
first, so they do not need to worry about whether they were just doing
something for nothing. If they can find some customers first, it will also
be a support and drive for them to keep moving forward, instead of
feeling lost. Due to the points mentioned above, we consider Binnj should
slow down their project.
3. Quit the project
Finally it comes to if Binnj should just quit doing this project. We feel
that this application will somehow get in the way of humanity, and will
further make people drift from each other. We all know how high
technology has dominated people’s lives nowadays, and we’ve been already
occupied by all these equipment almost twenty-four seven. Being in the
restaurant and having interactions with the waiters/waitress is an old
fashioned way, but is also more emotionally interactive Also, some of us
feel that there might be people who are resistant to these kind of new
ideas. There are still a lot of customers who are more familiar with
reading the menu from the actual paper instead of an electronic device.
In addition to that, we feel there are risks about this project because
there are no customers yet and they didn’t do enough marketing research.
There is not sufficient information on if the restaurants would be as
enthusiastic about this new device as Binnj. There are a lot of
assumptions from Binnj, but without the actual proof to support this idea.
In this case, there is great possibility that this project might fail.
22
CONCLUSION
We have following points to conclude this case.
1 ) Hutcherson found a good team
We feel that Hutcherson had a good start by finding himself a great
team with bunch of qualified people by using his own network. This also
shows us that our peers we know during our study years are important
and we can start building up our social network from school.
2 ) Register for Copyright
We suggest that after the idea was sold to the other team members, and
as soon as the project is established, Hutcherson should register for the
copyright, which by the Canadian article Bill C32 June 2nd, 2010 we know
it’s allowed to register for the copyright even before one has an actual
product. In this case, Binnj would not have to worry so much about
whether or not their competitors will be ahead of them.
3 ) Team management
We feel that Hutcherson, as the head of this project managed his team
very well by listening to everyone’s needs and opinions. However, we’d
suggest him to apply for the Agile principle so that they can move faster
with their application. Also, he could ask the marketing to dig in deeper
for the marketing research and to look for more potential clients and
further build up relationships with them so that they wouldn’t feel like
they are doing something that lead to an unknown future.
4 ) Deadline
As a conclusion, we feel that 100 days is sufficient for Binnj to complete
their prototype.