Mgt 230 - Riordan Service Request

Riordan Service Request

Sean Cole

MGT/230

05/30/2016

Rosa Chandik

Riordan Service Request

Riordan Manufacturing Chief Operating Officer Hugh McCauley has pivoted towards wanting a more sophisticated, robust, state of the art HR system to be designed and implemented by Q2 of 2017; there has also been an emphasis placed upon a 3 month project deadline to allow for this quick rollout.  In an effort to meet these challenging tasks and deadlines it is imperative that this system design is thoroughly planned and documented to allow for proper rollout with minimal need to correct any bugs that may arise. There should be proper identification of the key stakeholder, use system analysis tools and information gathering techniques to properly meet the needs of the client, and discuss the areas of project feasibility examined in the SDLC analysis phase.  

Outlook

Riordan Manufacturing will need to take a bottom up approach to determining the best candidates for key stakeholders.  This will allow them to understand who the core user base will be and then work up from there to those who may need less interaction or only high level reporting.  With that said the end point users are the starting point, followed by the HR team lead, then likely any other high level manager who may need additional access, the server and backend managers, then the C.I.O. (Chief Information Officer) and C.O.O. (Chief Operating Officer)  At the officer level these are needed from an overall project capacity means, they are likely to have the project funds approval and the timelines are set by them, they may also be able to identify any additional stakeholders that may need to be in place from other organizations and they are likely the executive sponsors of the project.  The HR manager will have a firm understanding of the current system view and can provide some analysis and feedback regarding the current view vs the new system as we move forward in the project lifecycle.  Server/IT managers will have a firm understanding of the databases and other backend processes in place from an IT perspective that can be beneficial to the overall speed and ability of the system as it is placed into operational functionality.  Finally the endpoint or front end day to day users are the people who will operate this new system on a daily basis and as such their input is highly regarded as to what needs to be a function or can make overall system use easier for the overall company.

In an effort to gather as much information as possible to ensure this system is implemented with minimal flaws or missed details it would be beneficial to deploy various techniques to ensure all avenues are explored.  A strategy should be evolved by the analyst to gather information. Strategy consists of identifying information sources, evolving a method of obtaining information from the identified sources and using an information flow model of organization. The main sources of information are users of the system, forms and documents used in the organization, procedure manuals, reports used by the organization and existing computer programs.  There are three key methods that you can use to obtain human information requirements from organizational members. These three methods are interviewing, joint application design (JAD), and surveying people through questionnaires. Although different in their implementation, these methods have a great deal in common too. The basis of their shared properties is talking with and listening to people in the organization to understand their interactions with technology through a series of carefully composed questions.  Each of the three interactive methods for information gathering possesses its own established process for you to follow in interacting with users. If followed, these systematic approaches will help ensure proper design and implementation of interviews, JAD workshops, and questionnaires, as well as support insightful analysis of the resulting data. Non Invading methods such as sampling, investigation, and observing a decision maker’s behavior and physical environment that do not require the same degree of interactivity between analysts and users will be covered in an upcoming chapter. By using interactive methods with unobtrusive methods you will achieve a more complete portrait of the organization’s information requirements. (Harris W3Computing, 2010)  One thing to keep in mind during these methods as they are used is to keep each interaction as constant as possible.  By doing so you can set the control for the questions going out and thus the only variance will be the answers which should be the action wanted vs. differing the questions and having responses that can be all over in regards to targeting.

There are also a multitude of system analysis tools that can leveraged from an overall opportunity perspective.  Modeling, Prototyping, and CASE (Computer Aided System Engineering) tools are a few that come to mind in regards to these analysis opportunities. Modeling produces a graphical representation of a concept or process that systems developers can analyze, test, and modify. A system analyst can describe and simplify an information system by using a set of business, data, object, network, and process models. A business model, or requirements model, describes the information that a system must provide.  A data model describes data structure and design. An object model describes objects, which combine data and processes. A network model describes the design and protocols of telecommunications links. A process model describes the logic that programmers use to write code modules. Although the models might appear to overlap, they actually work together to describe the same environment from different points of view.  Prototyping tests system concepts and provides an opportunity to examine input, output, and user interfaces before final decisions are made. A prototype is an early working version of an information system.  A prototype can serve as an initial model that is used as benchmark to evaluate the finished system, or the prototype itself can develop into the final version of the system. Either way, prototyping speeds up the development process significantly.  A prototype based on careful fact finding and modeling techniques can be an extremely valuable tool. (Galleon, 2013)

        Through all this data collection there is one thing to keep in mind, gathering information before adopting new technologies can be the most difficult step in the process, often due to human errors and inconsistencies.  With that being said key factors to ensure the information required for the project is gathered successfully will be as follows.  Management commitment level: In general, management commitment refers to the emotional or psychological obligation that upper management demonstrates toward the project.  Many times this is done by choosing a “champion” or a high-level manager within the organization who acts as sponsor and leader for the project. The champion should possess enough clout within the organization to gain necessary resources and exposure for the project to succeed.  The champion should also be held accountable for the success or failure of the project.  Interaction between users and IS personnel: Interaction between users and IS personnel is described as the quantity and quality of communication and the amount of group activities performed, including feedback from and to one another during the process.  This can be bolstered by JAD or other group meeting type events or even assignment of member to the project team itself.  Planning: Studies have shown that a work plan and schedule for completion are necessary for project success.  Reports of projects where an effort was nominally started without a specific plan or schedule, only to be forgotten in short order, are not unusual in most organizations.  The existence of a project champion and a formal project approval process, including a project plan, helps to ensure that planning activities take place. (Dr. Lee, 2014).  A few other options along with these would be to incorporate a cost benefit analysis, and a requirements analysis. A feasibility analysis or study can also be performed which typically occurs during the analysis phase of the SDLC.  These include analysis of project requirements in terms of input data and desired output, processing required to transform input into output (also known as IPO), cost-benefit analysis, and schedule of the project. The feasibility analysis also includes the technical feasibility of a project in terms of available software tools, hardware, and skilled software professionals. At the end of this phase, a feasibility report for the entire project is created. (Choudroy, 2016)

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