Our corporate Travel Department needs to make reservations for employees more quickly. Currently all reservations are made through the travel department. The employee calls or emails a reservation request, it is received by an internal Travel Planner, and the internal Travel Planner calls the outside travel agent or airline to make the reservation using specially discounted fares. When the reservation receipt is received by the internal Travel Planner from the travel agent or airline, the internal Travel Planner forwards the reservation receipt to the employee. The entire process takes from four days to a week. The Travel Department would like to reduce the cycle time to one or two days and allow employees access to negotiated rates to make reservations.
From reading the case study description provided, which item below is NOT a valid external agent?
- Internal Travel Planner
- Travel Agent
- Employee
- Airline
- All of the above are External Agents
You Answered: A
Correct Answer: A
Correct! An external agent sends information to and receives information from the area of study. They act independently and are not controlled by the project. In this example, the Internal Travel Planner is included inside the area of study because they can be impacted directly by the outcomes of the project. A process can be changed or a system can be updated to automate their work. You have control to adjust how and when work gets done with those inside the project. You can’t as easily do that with external agents.
