Reflection – Visualization tool 

 Challenge 

 So we were working on a consulting assignment with a local public road transport 

 organization , to identify key initiatives to be undertaken using information technology . The 

 proposed interventions were discussed and agreed with the local IT team within the 

 organization . The workshop was to be conducted with business users to help them 

 understand the benefits of the proposed interventions and gain their acceptance . These 

 users were in late forties and early fifties and were used to working without computers . 

 Workshop audience was consisted of people from different functions such as finance , 

 operations , mechanical engineering and human resources . Workshop was aimed at getting 

 them on board with the future state . Key challenges were to make them understand that we 

 understand their existing processes and empathize with specific issues within each function 

 and help them understand the solution in nutshell without sounding too technical . 

 Selection 

 Majority of audience members with exception of mechanical engineers were used to working 

 with processes as defined in a standard operating procedure ( ‘ SOP ’ ) format . For them 

 viewing a process or an idea meant referring to a word document . The idea here was to 

 convey our thoughts to the audience in a manner that does not focus on language and 

 grammar , but to makes it more meaningful to the audience . A tool to convey our 

 understanding and ideas in a consistent manner , which does n’t change due to interpretation . 

 The tool selected to get us out of this predicament was – Visualization . 

 Application 

 First thought was to create a flowchart to demonstrate the proposed interventions shown as 

 color - coded boxes which would help them understand the proposed processes . However , 

 we realized that the flowcharts will have to include work carried out by multiple functions . 

 The end result would be an attractive looking but difficult to understand figure consisting of 

 boxes which may be difficult to relate to for a novice . However , getting them to relate to the 

 process seemed difficult through flowcharts . Flowcharts seemed lifeless ! So we decided to 

 add pictures and developing content through use of stick figures to explain the functioning 

 concentrating on one decision point at a time . Each decision text at centre with point of view 

 of each functions to help co - relate generation of problem and improvement opportunities . 

 The pictures of actual work locations , and key work areas were included to help them 

 understand overall workflow in pictorial sense . The process graphic was made more 

 illustrative to eliminate text making it easy to comprehend . Interventions in terms of OUTPUT 

 rather than TECHNOLOGY were put forward to the users . The overall result was a booklet 

 of pictures which helped users understand how technology can be used to eliminate issues 

 faced by them at various stages of the process . Needless to say the workshop was a great 

 success . 

 Insight and Approach 

 We were looking at visualization tool really to explain our thoughts on the interventions and 

 proposed processes . However , as we were presenting the booklet to the audience , audience 

 members belonging to other functional areas getting engaged with processes faced by other 

 departments and started to empathize with problems which could be eliminated if technology 

 was adopted by their function . In a way visualization tool helped in getting the audience to 

 view the interrelations and worked best as a silo - thinking elimination tool . This got active 

 participation from audience during the presentation and subsequently during the 

 implementation of the designed solution . 

 I will certainly look forward to use Visualization tool to not only convey my perspective and 

 thoughts around a specific problem , but also as a means to get people to see the big picture 

 and co - relations among related activities . This can help in figuring out solutions to problems 

 not focussed upon earlier . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Visualization tool 

 Challenge 

 So we were working on a consulting assignment with a local public road transport 

 organization , to identify key initiatives to be undertaken using information technology . The 

 proposed interventions were discussed and agreed with the local IT team within the 

 organization . The workshop was to be conducted with business users to help them 

 understand the benefits of the proposed interventions and gain their acceptance . These 

 users were in late forties and early fifties and were used to working without computers . 

 Workshop audience was consisted of people from different functions such as finance , 

 operations , mechanical engineering and human resources . Workshop was aimed at getting 

 them on board with the future state . Key challenges were to make them understand that we 

 understand their existing processes and empathize with specific issues within each function 

 and help them understand the solution in nutshell without sounding too technical . 

 Selection 

 Majority of audience members with exception of mechanical engineers were used to working 

 with processes as defined in a standard operating procedure ( ‘ SOP ’ ) format . For them 

 viewing a process or an idea meant referring to a word document . The idea here was to 

 convey our thoughts to the audience in a manner that does not focus on language and 

 grammar , but to makes it more meaningful to the audience . A tool to convey our 

 understanding and ideas in a consistent manner , which does n’t change due to interpretation . 

 The tool selected to get us out of this predicament was – Visualization . 

 Application 

 First thought was to create a flowchart to demonstrate the proposed interventions shown as 

 color - coded boxes which would help them understand the proposed processes . However , 

 we realized that the flowcharts will have to include work carried out by multiple functions . 

 The end result would be an attractive looking but difficult to understand figure consisting of 

 boxes which may be difficult to relate to for a novice . However , getting them to relate to the 

 process seemed difficult through flowcharts . Flowcharts seemed lifeless ! So we decided to 

 add pictures and developing content through use of stick figures to explain the functioning 

 concentrating on one decision point at a time . Each decision text at centre with point of view 

 of each functions to help co - relate generation of problem and improvement opportunities . 

 The pictures of actual work locations , and key work areas were included to help them 

 understand overall workflow in pictorial sense . The process graphic was made more 

 illustrative to eliminate text making it easy to comprehend . Interventions in terms of OUTPUT 

 rather than TECHNOLOGY were put forward to the users . The overall result was a booklet 

 of pictures which helped users understand how technology can be used to eliminate issues 

 faced by them at various stages of the process . Needless to say the workshop was a great 

 success . 

 Insight and Approach 

 We were looking at visualization tool really to explain our thoughts on the interventions and 

 proposed processes . However , as we were presenting the booklet to the audience , audience 

 members belonging to other functional areas getting engaged with processes faced by other 

 departments and started to empathize with problems which could be eliminated if technology 

 was adopted by their function . In a way visualization tool helped in getting the audience to 

 view the interrelations and worked best as a silo - thinking elimination tool . This got active 

 participation from audience during the presentation and subsequently during the 

 implementation of the designed solution . 

 I will certainly look forward to use Visualization tool to not only convey my perspective and 

 thoughts around a specific problem , but also as a means to get people to see the big picture 

 and co - relations among related activities . This can help in figuring out solutions to problems 

 not focussed upon earlier .
### Output: 