Case Analysis of the State Economic Development Agency
The immediate problem preventing progress on the development of the State Enterprise Database (SED) is the failure of the Employment Security Department to understand exactly what Ruth Blair is seeking. Specifically, they seem to misunderstand her request for read-only access to the information in the Employment Security system as a request for full access. Consequently, they are hesitant to allow her access to the confidential information. The fundamental issue underlying this problem is likely the deputy directors' failure to recognize the limitations Blair herself is willing to place on her access to the confidential information and the significance to the state of the project she is trying to develop.
Justification for Problem Definition
The State Economic Development Agency (SEDA) was established by the state legislature to foster economic development in the state by supporting existing industry, developing new business, and attracting new businesses to the state. David Prince, director of SEDA, decided to develop the SED to contain data helpful to those interested in economic development in the state. However, because such a database for the entire state would be too massive a project all at once, Prince decided to restrict the initial SED to Washington County as a test pilot for development of the entire system.
During his investigation into where the information for the SED could be obtained, Prince found that the state Employment Security Department collected much of the information he needed. Consequently, Ruth Blair, a systems analyst, was assigned the task of determining what data Employment Security collected and how the data on the businesses in Washington County could be obtained. At first, personnel at Employment Security were very helpful and eventually developed a price and contract between Employment Security and SEDA to produce the desired ...