Kaplan University

Subsidiary of the Washington Post Presence in over 30 countries Offers 125 Associates, Bachelors, and Masters degrees Accredited nationally and regionally Serves over 1 million students annually * Employee handbook. (2009). Fort Lauderdale, FL: Kaplan Higher Education.

Balanced Scorecard

Significant Costs Infrastructure Web-based applications Third-party vendors

Evaluation Productivity metrics Grades Project hours Potential improvements Quality Assurance (QA) and testing Marketing

Organizational Problem QA consistently approves projects as complete when there are still (sometimes major) issues with the final product Kaplan loses money both as a result of cost overruns, lost productivity, and resources tied-up with resolving student issues

Solution One Integrate QA much earlier in a modified waterfall SDLC. If they were more active during the planning and design phases of the SDLC, then the resource assigned to do the eventual testing would gain a greater understanding of the inner workings of the applications, the business rules they operate on, and the overall intent of the effort

Solution Two Implement an agile development solution like Scrum. In an agile working environment, the developers, testers, business analysts, and stakeholders work very closely together.

Solution Three Implement an extreme programming development methodology The teams work very closely together on specific work items or chains of work items that are related until they have reached a state of completion

Biases Continued economic downturn Lack of good paying jobs Curtailing of financing options Rising college costs Increased competition Online educational programs Damast, A. (2009, October 20). College tuition: going for broke. Businessweek, Retrieved from

Economic Considerations The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago(2008) Only 46% of people aged had jobs in September(2009), the lowest since the government began counting in 1948 Altman, J. (2009, October 8). The Lost generation. Businessweek, Retrieved from

Financing Considerations Students seeking federally guaranteed loans, which are popular because they offer fixed, below-market rates, could be required to pay higher fees to borrow money At least a dozen firms have stopped issuing private loans, citing problems in the debt markets More students are turning to private loans, which are more costly because they lack a federal guarantee Cho, D., & Glod, M. (2008, March 3). Credit crisis may make college loans more costly. The Washington Post, Retrieved from

Competitive Considerations More than 4.6 million college students were taking at least one online course at the start of the school year With public institutions dealing with dwindling budgets and laid-off workers trying to expand their skills, online education seems a natural, inexpensive fit Greer, J. (2010, January 26). Study: online education continues its meteoric growth. US News, Retrieved from meteoric-growth.html

Recommendations Integrate QA much earlier in a modified waterfall SDLC Requires the least amount of change to current processes Requires less training time Can be implemented quicker than the other two solutions

References Employee handbook. (2009). Fort Lauderdale, FL: Kaplan Higher Education. Damast, A. (2009, October 20). College tuition: going for broke. Businessweek, Retrieved from Altman, J. (2009, October 8). The Lost generation. Businessweek, Retrieved from Cho, D., & Glod, M. (2008, March 3). Credit crisis may make college loans more costly. The Washington Post, Retrieved from dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR html Greer, J. (2010, January 26). Study: online education continues its meteoric growth. US News, Retrieved from education/2010/01/26/study-online-education-continues-its-meteoric-growth.html