CTA to Prioritize 20 Different Technology Projects

Case Type: organizational behavior; business optimization.
Consulting Firm: IBM Global Business Services (GBS) first round full time job interview.
Industry Coverage: transportation; government, public sector; software, information technology (IT).

Case Interview Question #00828: Our client is the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). CTA is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago ‘L’ and CTA bus service. The CTA is an Illinois independent governmental agency that started operations on October 1, 1947 upon the purchase and combination of the transportation assets of the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and the Chicago Surface Lines streetcar system. Today, the CTA is one of the three service boards financially supported by the Regional Transportation Authority.

The CTA has just received $300MM funding from the Regional Transportation Authority and want us to identify which of the 20 different technology projects should be implemented and in which order. Currently, they have a 30 year old IBM Mainframe system. They have written bridge and translation code to interface with some of their newer IT systems. However, everything is controlled by this old IBM mainframe. How would you advise them?

Additional Information: to be provided to candidate after relevant questions

* CTA is a public service operator. They may take on negative net present value (NPV) projects if it serves the public. They may also prioritize based on public, not financial, needs.
* CTA does not want to fire any of its employees.
* Almost all CTA technology employees know only old mainframe systems.
* No one knows the original code for the mainframe system. Bug fixes are being done by people who only know bits and pieces of the system.
* CTA has enough money to do all 20 technology projects.
* The IBM mainframe system in use is from 1970s and there are not many people who can support it. However, almost all systems are controlled by this mainframe system.
* There are two high profile projects — Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and Smartcard for toll booths.

Possible Solution:

First, I analyzed the mainframe core. I would first assess the impact of each project on three areas of CTA’s technology infrastructure:

* Impact on the core mainframe system.
* Impact on the translation/bridge software.
* Impact/requirement for new IT system.

I would then assess the person hours needed to implement the project. I would then organize the projects using the following criteria:

* How critical is the project to public needs?
* Does the project impact critical systems of existing infrastructure?
* Economic impact of project — measured in dollars and person hours.
* Personnel training required for new system.

I looked briefly into the two high profile projects, using the criteria above. I guessed that the Smartcard project is more critical and I would choose that over an ERP implementation.

This case was really about keeping the business goals of the client in mind. The most important issue was to realize that the client CTA’s goal is NOT to cut costs but to provide service. I was later told that CTA had enough money to do all the 20 projects. They were required to implement some money losing projects as well because as a public service operator they were legally obligated to implement them.

The interviewer also wanted to see what criteria I would use to prioritize different projects. He wanted to see if I could logically structure my approach, and assess the impact of my recommendations on the technology infrastructure and business goals of the client.