This case asks you to write a response letter.

The Case: Response to Questions from Princeton Engineering Systems to Northwest Engineering

You are an engineer working for Northwest Engineering Consultants (NEC). Your supervisor, Ellen Prentice, has received a request for information from Alan Michaels of Princeton Engineering Systems (PES), and she has passed on to you the responsibility of preparing for her signature a reply to that request.

In compiling information to use in your reply, you find that your discussions with department managers yield the following generalizations: The training manual for the VITLOC tool, on the whole, is on a par with other software tools and is particularly useful because of wide use of pull-down menus in the on-screen training program. However, the printed document is cumbersome because it is too large for convenient desktop use, and the engineers would prefer a smaller manual in a flip-chart format that could free-stand next to the computer screen. In addition, many managers complained about the lack of field support from PES. The managers would like to have an occasional chance to talk about better ways to use the tool with a representative from PES.

The Task

Write a response to Letter 1, for Ellen Prentice's signature. Your response will take the form of a letter report of about two to three pages including the graphics. Use appropriate letter form (including single spacing) and use at least one table or graph. The following tables contain the only information that you have at your disposal. Do not reproduce the tables in their current form; the data were designed for another situation. It is your job to determine how much of this information to include in your reply letter, and then to interpret it for your reader. For example, you might want to convert some of the tabular data to a line graph so that you can show data trends.

The Provided Information

VITLOC Design Tool Usage (average hours-per-week)

Of Total Design Effort, the percent (%) per activity VITLOC tool was used

Tips for Completing the Task

1. Interpret your data rather than just presenting it. Just because you've neatly summarized your data in a table or shown data trends in a graph doesn't mean that the table or graph is self-explanatory or that your reader will come to the same conclusions that you have. Use the text to discuss the significance of the facts.
2. Integrate text and graphics. Place graphics as close to your discussion as possible. (However, some discussion introducing the graphic should come first unless you are referring to a graphic introduced earlier in the letter.)
3. Adopt a business-like tone. Remember proper tone is critical to the success of a business letter. Look very closely at your word choice when you revise. Is there any language that might be interpreted as bossy, condescending, or negative?

Documents/Information/Samples

Letter 1

PRINCETON ENGINEERING SYSTEMS
39 Princeton Pike Road
Princeton, NJ 08544

July 1, 1998

Dr. Ellen Prentice
Vice President, Engineering
Northwest Engineering Consultants
3 Uffeda Way
Poulsbo, WA 98370

Dear Dr. Prentice:

The Computer-Aided Engineering Division at Princeton Engineering Systems is in the process of redesigning the training course and manual for its VITLOC design tool, which your engineers have been using for the last four years. Our goal is to ensure that we are providing our customers with the training they will need to effectively use this valuable tool. To meet our goal, we are collecting usage data from the businesses and industries that use the VITLOC tool.

We would appreciate any information regarding the following questions:

1. How many hours a week on average do your design engineers use computers to conduct the following technical activities: Planning and estimating, User analysis, Configuration control, Defect removal, Maintenance, and Enhancements. We would like to get a 4-year history of your usage data if possible. We are interested in both the total number of hours per week averaged over each year and the specific hours with the VITLOC tool. Do you see any trends as far as any particular activities are concerned?
2. Overall, in what areas do you feel the VITLOC training package is particularly useful? Weak? Can you give us any information about how our training manual measures up with other similar documents?
3. Do you have any additional recommendations?

Thank you for your participation in this survey. Your response will be helpful in redesigning our training program. If you have any questions, please call me at (555) 587-5392.

Sincerely,

Alan Michaels
Head, Training Committee