Shivaram Kodandaram

Both Nominal Group Technique and Delphi Techniques are consensus methods used in problem solving, idea generation and prioritization. Nominal Group Technique involves 4 stages 1) Silent Generation The group is usually sent questions (one or two) well in advance. The group is given some time to record their individual ideas to the given questions 2) Round Robin Facilitator will ask the group members to share their ideas to the group one by one. In the interim, participating members can think of new ideas and share them when they get a turn to share them. This is continued till ideas are exhausted. 3) Clarification All ideas are discussed for pariticipants understanding, partipants may or may not agree on ideas. All ideas are grouped and duplicate ideas are removed. 4) Voting All participating members then participate in multivoting and provide their scores for prioritization of ideas & solutions. Delphi Technique Delphi Technique is also a highly structured group interaction like Nominal Group Technique. The interactions happen between the panel members and group members via a set of questionnaire instead of face to face communications. The questionnaires are shared to all respondents (Group of experts), the questionnaires are group of statements and respondents are asked to rate them, comment, explain them and also disagree on the statements given. The panel members collate the responses of the first questionnaire and they use them to create the second questionnaire. The ratings are evaluated along with the comments provided by the respondents to frame the next questionnaire. The process continues. The number of questionnaires or survey is decided by the panel and the decision as to when consensus has to be reached is made at the the beginning. Preference of Delphi over Nominal Group Technique Both the techniques rely on a system of iteration or rounds - the questionnaires in Delphi Technique and discussion structure in Nominal Group Technique. Both require moderators, however role of Delphi moderators are higher if Nominal Group Technique is considered. Nominal group technique is used to make small to medium sized decisions as it can be performed quickly and relies on the knowledge of participants. However, Delphi requires weeks of going back between panelists and decision makers, sufficient time is available with participants for submitting key information. Hence, it makes it perfect to address important issues which require a thorough examination options and expertize.

Parkinson's law: The amount of work which needs to be done gets adjusted to the time available for its completion. Example: 1) Shopping at a Super Market: Even though we have a list of items which needs to be purchased, excessive time is spent basis availability of individuals ie time available with him for shopping. When there is urgency, the same list of items are purchased in very less time ie again basis availability of time of individuals 2) Development of Software projects: When buffer time is included in development of software projects, the project team spends more time in looking at additional features, but finally end up with the same features due to difficulty in including them due to inappropriate design with in the given time. The development team will only focus on development of given features if the timelines are provided appropriately basis requirements. Considering above, productivity can be improved from below points. a) Understand requirements & Set Goals Understand requirements / expecatations from the project/task and set quantifiable goals appropriately basis business impact b) Define in-scope & out of scope Clearly define scope on what needs to be done and what is not in scope for the project/task c) Resource Management with roles and responsibilities Aligning skilled resources for respective tasks helps them to directly get on to their job/task. Unskilled resources might spend too much time in just finding out on - what / how it should be done. Define the role of all the team members, so there is no confusion or ambiguity on expectations from each of them. d) Identify Trade-off, dependencies & create a plan with milestones/timelines for everything Identify dependencies with in project early, so that you can plan alternatives incase of any uncertainity. Any project/task without a timeline, may end up getting themselves de-prioritized as team might look at other tasks/projects which they feel is important for delivery.

FIFO (First in, First Out) assumes that the first unit or the oldest unit of the inventory is first sold. FIFO is widely used as companies sell products in the order in when they are purchase. Example A Company bought equipments on 2 seperate occassions which were at 2 different prices in a month 1) 500 equipments at $100 2) 800 equipments at $120 The company sold 400 equipments at the end of the month. So after selling 400 equipments COGS = (400 equipments * $100) = $40000 Remaining inventory value = (100 equipments * $100) + (800 * $120) = $106000 LIFO (Last in, Last Out) assumes that the last unit to get into the inventory would be the first to be sold. Many companies may not leave their inventory sitting idle in stocks, hence LIFO might not be recommended. After selling 400 equipments at the end of the month. COGS = (400 equipments * $120) = $48000 Remaining inventory value = (500 equipments * $100) + (400 equipments * $120) = $98000