IT Use In Decision Making: Torrens University Assignment Answer

Answer :

IT Use in decision making

Executive Summary

In order to make effective decision making for the new project in  Torrens University has been taken into consideration. In this report,  deployment of the decision-making tools in the decision making of Torrens  University has been taken into consideration for accepting the new project.  There are several sources of data such as primary and secondary sources which  are used to gather the required information.  The new project for the college is to set up  internal control system in the work process. This report has shown how Torrens University uses data analytics for its decision making and data visualization  to identify the hurdles which might face in its decision making for installing  the internal control system in university. In the end, a summary related to  the decision-making tools  for the new  project has been given which shows the methods to make the decision taken by  university more effective.

Introduction

The decision-making tools are used by the organization to the gathering, evaluation and analyzing the data for the effective decision makings. All the organizations to strengthen their decision-making process and making more informed decisions use these decision-making tools.  The data collection method assists in formulating effective strategies, data planning and aligning the data analysis decision making process for the project implementation in University. In this report, the implication of the data analysis, data collection method and data visualization in the decision making have been used for the decision making in project acceptance and implementation in Torrens University. However, the reliability of the gathered data gathered from the sources is the main concern for managing he resources in project.

Background details of the Torrens University

It is a private Australian university which is having its branches in several areas of Australia. However, this university is part of the Laureate International University network which is providing certified Laureate University-based degrees to students. It is the biggest 40^th university in Australia. 

Project Description 

The new project for the Torrens University would be to arranging the internal control system in process. It will help in mitigating the issues, problems and errors in the process. This will be automated check system which will easily detect the issues and problems in the process. 

Research Questions

What are the possible decision-making tools which could be used by the Torrens University in its decision-making process of selecting the project? 

How decision-making tools help in making more informed and effective decisions in newly selected project?

How data visualization and decision making are interlinked with each other?

Source of Data 

The sources of the data are based on the two portions of the data collection methods such as primary sources (Observation, interview, meetings and survey methods) and secondary sources (Journal articles, documents, official gazettes, annual report and books). These both sources of data are used to gather the important data for its decision-making process in the newly selected project.  However, with the advancement of technologies, data gathering sources are increasing and researchers could easily gather the required data from the general public (Christodoulou, Karacapilidis, & Tzagarakis, 2013).

Social media tools and methods

With the advancement in the technologies, there are several social media apps which could be used by researchers to gather the imperative data, for instance, Orkut, Twitter, Pinterest, and facebook to make more effective decision in project.. Torrens University may use these social media apps to identify the issues, problems, and hurdles faced by students in its university to make the better university program through its more updated decision-making process for the managing the resources of the project (Carton, & Adam, 2016). 

Google Analytics:

This is another source of data which is used by managers of Torrens University to get the traffic report of the hits and likes on its Google image section on its newly accepted project. It gives the details of the organic and non-organic hits and details of the visitors to the company to implement the new project. It gives data related to the students' like, dislike and what they are expecting and demanding from the university. It helps Torrens University to make the campus more customized and formulate more effective decision making for the educational courses offered to students (Johnson, Kim, & Church, 2010) 

Customer handling software

Customer relation management is one of the best software which helps in gathering the required information of the stakeholders of the project. It helps in tracking the client's interest, choices, and values of the project (Sadovykh, & Sundaram, 2017).  The CRM software tool will provide the filtered data to the management team which will help them to evaluate and assess the student's choices and what they are expecting from the students for the project.

Data communication method

The data communication method is associated with the gathering the data from the phone class and ticket raised for the project. This is the best method which helps the university to resolve the grievances of the students and provide up to date informed solutions for the implementation of the project (internal control system). This method is used by the project managers to filter the genuine data gathered and use them for the better strategic decision-making process in the organization.

Survey methods 

These are the method which is accompanied by the stratified and sample survey method for the project. It gives a brief idea about the student's choices related questions which helps project managers to make the necessary amendments in its structure, strategic planning, and work process of project. 

Deployment of Data Analytics for Decision Making and identify trends

The data collection method and data analytics for decision making help in developing more effective project management structure. Project managers by using data collection method and data analytics for the decision making is becoming more competitive in the market and easily delivering its student's oriented services considering the market trend, business factors changes and adaption of the new courses with the existing ones  (Sauter, 2011). However, there are following four types of data analytics which can be used for decision making.

Descriptive Analytics:

This decision-making tool helps in assessing the past trend of a past projects.  It pulls historical data from the various sources and helps project managers to make more informed decisions based on the gathered data (Gorte, 2017). This descriptive analytics tools help in evaluating the past historical data and identify the trend to identify the possible issues in the decisions making in project. 

Diagnostic Analytics:

This analytics helps in comparing the available historical data with the other data available on the sites. It checks the reliability of the data by evaluating and comparing it from the different cited sources. This is a useful tool to provide an in-depth analysis of the gathered data and helps Torrens University in its effective decision making.

Predictive Analytics:

This analytics tools help project managers of the university to spot the future challenges and threats at the spot. It helps in evaluating future possibilities based on historical data of the project. It analysis the past trends and evaluate the gathered data to assess future outcomes for the project (Phillips, n.d.). However, due to the other external factors, the possibility of the identified changes may vary and results given by this tool may be wrong. 

Prescriptive Analytics: 

This analytics decision-making tool helps in evaluating the future factors and challenges which might be faced by project managers. This is a useful tool which helps the university to prepare a road map to overcome the possible hurdles in new project (Schoenherr, & Speier‐Pero, 2015). It gives a path to overcome the challenges and issues which might be faced by project managers of Torrens University in its decision making. Nonetheless, this tool is mostly accepted by the companies which are having large complexities in its business process.

It is found that if the project managers is having fewer complexities in its business process then it will be more inclined towards using descriptive and diagnostic decision-making tools. 

Data Visualisation and Decision Making

The data visualization is the graphical representation of the data which is accompanied by producing the image and graphs to present the gathered information for the project. It helps in the interpretation of the data easily and helps in assessing the trends and future changes might be seen. This tool makes complicated data easy to understand and make it more attractive for the users of the project. In data visualization, graphs, charts, tables, and other methods are used to make more informed decisions in project (Patel, Shah, Thakkar, & Kotecha, 2015). The project managers could use this data visualization tool to make more improvised decision and converting large complicated data in an easy format.  The visualization helps in synthesizing the information and making more effective comparison in the gathered data.  

Decision Making

These are the below tools which could be used by the Torrens University in its decision making. 

Decision Matrix:

This decision matrix tool is used to make more informed decisions by evaluating the available alternatives of the project. These alternatives are assessed and based on the ranking allocated to them based on the risk and return factors, the best option is selected by the Torren University while selecting the particular options in project. 

Garbage Can:

It is another decision-making tool which helps in assessing the problems based on the facts, figure and available alternatives for the problems of project. In this tool, the alternative which requires least efforts is chosen by the decision-makers of the project. After that, decision-makers use the identified alternative to find the solution for the project (Allred, et al. 2011). This tool provides the reaction after the situation as it is based on the chances and uncertainty found in the situation. 

Consensus Method:

This is another method which helps in finding creative decisions for the mutual agreement in project. Ideally, this method is used when decision-makers of the project are facing issues in finding a particular alternative in their decisions making the process. This is mostly used in the group decision making and the mutually agreed decision is selected.

Conclusion and recommendations

After assessing the information on the decision-making tools and data visualization, it could be inferred that these tools will help project managers to make more vigilant and effective decisions. However, due to the complex business structure, it is advised that Torrens University should use the prescriptive analytics tool which would help in strengthen its project management decisions. However, all the four data analytics tools are important but in the case of Torrens University, prescriptive analytics tool will be more effective in its decision-making process for the project (Allred, et al. 2011). The data visualization would also be imperative for the university to set trends, patterns through the graphs, charts, and tables for the project. It will help them to make a more effective comparison in its available decision-making project options. This identified decision-making tool should be aligned with the consensus model for the project of internal control system in process.