Reference no: EM131166055

Marcus Weber, IS project manager at ICAN Mutual Insurance Co., is reviewing the staffing arrangements for his next major project, the development of an expert system-based underwriters assistant. This new system will involve a whole new way for the underwriters to perform their tasks. The underwriters assistant system will function as sort of an underwriting supervisor, reviewing key elements of each application, checking for consistency in the underwriter's decisions, and ensuring that no critical factors have been overlooked. The goal of the new system is to improve the quality of the underwriters' decisions and to improve underwriter productivity. It is expected that the new system will substantially change the way the underwriting staff do their jobs.

Marcus is dismayed to learn that due to budget constraints, he must choose between one of two available staff members. Barry Filmore has had considerable experience and training in individual and organizational behavior. Barry has worked on several other projects in which the end users had to make significant adjustments to the new system, and Barry seems to have a knack for anticipating problems and smoothing the transition to a new work environment. Marcus had hoped to have Barry's involvement in this project. Marcus's other potential staff member is Kim Danville. Prior to joining ICAN Mutual, Kim had considerable work experience with the expert system technologies that ICAN has chosen for this expert system project. Marcus was counting on Kim to help integrate the new expert system technology into ICAN's systems environment, and also to provide on-the-job training and insights to the other developers on this team. Given that Marcus's budget will permit him to add only Barry or Kim to this project team, but not both, what choice do you recommend for him? Justify your answer.