Service Request SR-rm-004, Final Paper

University Degree Mathematical and Computer Sciences

Service Request SR-rm-004, Final Paper Page |

University of Phoenix

April 18, 2010

SERVICE REQUEST SR-RM-004

OVERVIEW

The IT department at Riordan Manufacturing has received a service request to analyze the current HR system in place. A recent memorandum sent by Hugh McCauley, COO of Riordan Manufacturing was sent to the IT Project Manager that the HR system integration project was approved. Hugh McCauley is requiring a single integrated application of the existing tools that are used today in the current HR system. The Human Resources at Riordan Manufacturing would like to take advantage of a more sophisticated, state-of-the art, information systems technology in their department. (Riordan, 2006).

BACKGROUND

Dr. Riordan, a professor of chemistry, who had experience in processing polymers into high tensile strength plastic, founded Riordan Manufacturing. Realizing the opportunity through the commercial applications for his patients, Dr Riordan started Riordan Plastics in 1991. In 1992 Dr Riordan obtained Venture capital, which he used to purchase a fan manufacturer, Inc. in 1993. Riordan began to expanding into the production of plastic beverage containers when it acquired it facilities in Albany, George. Riordan has recently expanded in 2000, opening its operations from Michigan to China and their Pontiac facilities were retooled for plastic parts; they have become a global plastics manufacturer, which manufacture various plastic products such as plastic beverage containers produced by their Albany facilities in George, custom plastic parts produced by its Pontiac facilities in Michigan, and plastic fan parts produced from their Hangzhou facilities in China. Riordan has many customers such as automotive part manufactures, aircraft manufactures, the department of defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliances.

EVALUATION

As reported by Riordan's Human Resources the companies HR system was installed in 1992. It is a part of the financial systems package and keeps track of the following employee information:

Personal information (such as name, address, marital status, birth date, etc.)
Pay rate
Personal exemption for tax purposes
Hire date
Seniority date (which is sometimes different than the hire date)
Organizational information (department for budget purposes, manager's name, etc.)
Vacation hours (for non-exempt employees)

Riordan's systems are currently done manually and there is no integration between any of the systems used in the HR department. Managers are in need of up-to-date information about their employees available at their fingertips. Business stake holders want HR supporting and aligned with their business strategy, responding to demands of growth and innovation. As stated in this article “HR alignment is a vital process to advance agency accountability. By defining, maintaining, and assessing HRM goals and measures, communicating them throughout the agency, and using the information to make management decisions, agencies are able to ensure that the management of human resources contributes to mission accomplishment” (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 1999).

GATHERING TECHNIQUES AND DESIGN METHOD

In order to design an HR system that meets Riordan's needs and addresses its inadequacies we must begin by using a one-on-one interview. The most common for gathering requirements would be to sit down with Riordan and its IT department and have a brainstorm session to define the needs of the system. The session can be curtailed to discuss current processes, uncover future needs, or determine the problems the customer is looking to resolve (PM Hut, 2009).

Fact-finding techniques will be used in the process to gather the system requirements which consist of seven techniques:

Review existing reports, forms, and procedure descriptions
Conduct interviews and discussions with users
Observe and document business processes
Build prototypes
Distribute and collect questionnaires
Conduct JAD sessions
Research vendor solutions

This is a preview of the whole essay

Fact-finding techniques will be used in the process to gather the system requirements which consist of seven techniques:

Review existing reports, forms, and procedure descriptions
Conduct interviews and discussions with users
Observe and document business processes
Build prototypes
Distribute and collect questionnaires
Conduct JAD sessions
Research vendor solutions

Rapid Application Development (RAD) techniques will be used in the process as well but are not limited to, future growth, cost and benefits analysis, interviews with key employees, document reviews, observations, and sampling. Data gather from these methods will allow IT to create a graphical model which will include diagrams and schematic to represent aspect of a system. This ensures that complex relationships are fully understood. (Satzinger, John W., Jackson, Robert B., Burd, Stephen D., Johnson, Richard, 2004)

SCOPE

The scope of this project is to integrate the existing variety of tools in use today at Riordan into a single integrated application by purchasing a single application or integrate suite of applications. As the Corporate office in San Jose currently has a license for a fully integrated Windows based ERP manufacturing, distribution and financial management software application specifically designed for plastics processors and process and assembly manufacturers. The license does not include application source code. Expansion of this system is to be looked at to asses if this should be used to implement the HR module of this system.

FEASIBILITY

The Management team has set a deadline of 6 months to complete this project. The proposed system will reduce cost by having one central HR department instead of multiple departments conducing HR responsibilities. The Return on Investment will out way the cost of implementing this system as the time it takes compile data from multiple systems.

One Employee Database, will result in less redundant data entry

Efficiency - Better planning – Better decision
Cost saving / Budget controlling
Database updated in real time with every decision/action taken by employees specially helpful for multiple location Organization
No referring back to HR manual time and again as the application is configured according to the guidelines provided, avoiding employee delays and confusion.
Complete data security from internal and external intruders

As stated by EmployeeWise, "A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) also has advantages in HR management because it curtails time and cost consuming activities leading to a more efficient HR department. This system reduces the long HR paper trail that is often found in most HR divisions of companies and leads to more productive and conducive department on the whole.” The system will provide greater throughput, shorter response time, and timely information. The tangible benefits of an integrated HR system will be measured by cost reduction and avoidance; error reduction; and increased flexibility.

SYSTEM’S ARCHITECTURE

To integrate the Human Resource Management system into a single repository the following tools will be applied from the requirements previously identified to carry out the functions of the system: Context Diagrams and Data Flow Diagrams. As defined by Gordan Simpson, "Enterprise Architecture - The goal of successful enterprise architecture is to explore the entire business and define an application and infrastructure framework that has the potential of delivering workable solutions for the foreseeable future (2003)". A new system will be created and work in tandem with the HRIS system to incorporate the following informational areas:

Online forms will be available for the managers to be able to change employee information.
Centralized storage of training and development records that can be accessed online through the intranet.
Job application informational system that allows the recruiters to be able to get to their information through the intranet as well as have those applications submitted online through a web portal.
A workers compensation B2B connection to allow online access to the workers compensation records.
Employee individual files and reviews need to be stored in a centrally, instead of a decentralized method for storing employee files.
FMLA information area will be incorporated into the system
Create an area for the employee compensation manager to get access to his records via the intranet that ties into the mew HR system.
Create an employee relations area for collecting complaints, grievances, and harassments.
Create a bridge application to pull employee information from the HRIS system and populate the new HR tools system.

SYSTEM TOOLS

The online form will be using a web based interface with security linked back to AD with LDAP connections. Active Directory is a technology created by Microsoft that provides a variety of network services. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol or LDAP is an application protocol for querying and modifying data using directory services running over TCP/IP (Wikipedia, 2010). PHP and AJAX will be use to communicate with the systems. There already exist a WAN and LAN network infrastructure which can be use for the web services. But WAN usually means the company has to lease a line to maintain a network to its remote office. This can become very expensive since it is base on the distance and transmission speed between offices. VPN is a technology that already exists and is widely use by most organization. VPN is a private network that uses public network to connect securely to remote location. With VPN, you would not have to lease dedicated lines to connect remote offices to the network.

VPN Configuration:

Intranet connection – Connect remote offices to the company’s network.
Extranet - A link provides secure access directly to another LAN.

CONTEXT DIAGRAM

This diagram shows that the existing ERP system.

DATA FLOW DIAGRAM

The following Data Flow Diagram is a high level view of the processes for the integrated system.

IMPLEMENTATION

There are six major activities involved in the implementation phase: (1) coding, (2) testing, (3) installation, (4) documentation, (5) training, and (6) support. To ensure projects supports strategic business objectives and resources are effectively implemented into the systems architecture, careful oversight is required. During this phase, the application development will begin with a review of the requirement documentation which should describe the proposal’s purpose, identify benefits, and explain how the proposed system supports one of the organization’s business strategies. In addition, survey and interview should be done by end-user to ensure business objectives are still in scope.

Coding

Developers will begin creating the backend of the new HR system. Coding of the application will be broken into three areas:

Data - the creation of DBMS, tables and data structures
Functionality - Administration functions and interface for the new system
GUI - The user interface will finalize the coding

Coding for the HR system project will be done in a modular fashion, allowing for a core of functionality or framework, and then each component of the application will be plugged into the new system as a module.

Testing

Testing phase will commence and be completed as the modules are finished. During unit testing, programmers will test the programs that will interact with DBMS before these programs are integrated into the new system. A comprehensive testing plan will be conducted in order to prepare for any possible data errors the program would encounter. After completion of the module testing, integration testing and load system testing will be performed. Integration testing involves testing for the two or more independent programs that will interact with each other and send information to the DBMS and accounting department’s module. To ensure the integration of the system, ASP vendor and internal system analyst will perform test data that will simulate actual conditions of the system and overall system integration.

Installation

After completing system testing, the remaining system implementation will be preparing a separate operational and test environmental, system changeover, post-implementation evaluation of the system, user training, managers and IT staffs as well as final reports to the management. The HRIS will be using the current established Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity that is in place. The platform will rigorously test this network capability, specification and performance prior to installation processes. The project team and external software team will conduct operational test in separate test areas to maintain system security, integrity and test the system security features of the operational environment. Operation environment testing is including hardware and software configuration and setting, system utilities, networking, telecommunication that may affect system performance. The IT staff will perform acceptance tests repeatedly several times after any modification to ensure no new issue arises.

Documentation

Documentation is critical to the success of the support and future maintenances. All aspects of the project will needs to be documented for future reference. A high level flow diagram should be created and keep up today with any modification. This will allow programmer to understand the overview of the system. The source code should contain programming comments or header notes to help guide the next programmer understanding of each modules. This also ensures that future modification can be made with ease if comments or header notes exist. Installation documentation as well a flow diagram is critical for the network administrators to be able to deploy the application again once accepted from the virtual working environment created.

Training

Proper training is important to ensure the success of the new system deployment. Prior to training sessions, project team leader will distribute electronics copies and hardcopies of Microsoft Office Word document format to the users, managers and IT staffs. End User Involvement is a key rule to system implementation according to Lientz and Rae (2007). When there is a problem with the application it will be up to the help desk to troubleshoot the issue, and determine whether the problem needs to go back to the IT programming team. Continued support of the application will need to be done until the application has become obsolete or replaced. According to ArtWeb.us (2006), End user support and training is an ongoing effort that is carried out through the implementation of help desks and training programs. Enhancements and upgrades to the system occur throughout the life of the system to maintain and extend its productive life.

By re-using the defined processes within the project, saving time, resources and money is possible. Using Modular design approach or framework programming, will allow developers and programmers the ability to reuse the previous code or module effectively. This will result in money saved and less time in the development process. Documentation will be the same way, creating templates for documentation will keep it standardize, which will allow them to be created in a fashionable timely matter.

References

Apollo Group, Inc. (2004). Riordan Manufacturing. Retrieved from

ArtWeb.us. (2006). The Phases of the SDLC Implementation. Retrieved from

HUT, P. (2009 ). Key Processes during the Project Initiation Phase. Retrieved from

Kapur, S. (2009). Why Invest in HR automation?. EmployeeWise. Retrieved from

Lientz, Bennet & Katherine Rae. (2007). Change Management and System Implementation—

Nine Major Risks. Retrieved from

Satzinger, John W., Jackson, Robert B., Burd, Stephen D., Johnson, Richard (2004).

Chapter4: Beginning the Analysis: Investigating System Requirements. Systems

Simpson, Gordon (January 20, 2003). Importance of Application Architecture. Weblogic.

from:

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (1999). Strategic Human Resources