Project Initiation Documents - Case Study Example

Running head: Project Initiation Documents Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date of Submission: Project initiation documents Plan of approach The basic implementation of the system will draw a correlation with the present paper based system. It will involve an in depth analysis of the functionalities, limitations and the constraints that are associated with the current paper based system and attempt to provide a solution to the impediments that are related to the present information system that is paper based. The overall goal of these new proposed web based system will be facilitate the company operations towards the process of employee application of travel expenses claim and to reduce the response duration of the application by the involved company departments in the process (Andrew & Jennifer, 2005,pp.78-104). The transitional approach will be on a continual basis rather than abrupt, in order not to completely jeopardize the business operations of the company; its implementation will be carried on while the company will still be using the traditional paper based system, upon completion, there will be a system overhaul. The new system will be evaluated for efficiency and ease of use, additional necessary requirements shall be included before the complete implementation of the system. The architectural approach will include three divisions: from the user input/ interface, the internal processing of the submitted forms by the employees and the feedback of the applications. A side process will include keeping the employees updated on their application progress. The general approach to the implementation of the system will use the conventional system development life cycle (SDLC) which will include project planning and feasibility study, analysis of the system and determination of the systems requirements from a user point of view, the actual design of the system, implementation of the system, integration and testing of the proposed system and finally maintenance of the system (Avison & Guy,2003,45-59). Proposed System description/ brief Web based applications are resident on a central server and their services can be accessed through the use of a web browser; this implies that the access to the company data and information will not be limited by geographical locations. The integration of the use of internet and database management services is an essential attribute of a web based application.The new proposed system will be based on the use of online applications to facilitate the carrying out of the company’s daily operations (McConnell, 1996, pp.45-58).The system will be web based and will be able to support the use of online applications. The basic operation principle will be whereby the system users will present their requests online on a user friendly interface after which feedback shall be sent to the via the web based application interface. The proposed information system will serve as a replacement to the conventional paper method of storing and processing of information; the employees shall be able to submit their necessary travel expenses claim forms online (Richard & Rudy, 1987,pp.85-95). The web based application system will also enable the company to access and manage its data effectively. Employees shall be required to fill and submit their forms online, which would be then verified by the accounting department; to check if they match with the company expenditure regulations and the amount will then be dispatched to the designated bank account as specified by the employee. The information system will also allow the employees to monitor the progress of their applications. All the data that will be collected will be stored in the company’s database to serve as a source of reference for future generation of the company’s financial reports. Rationale and system analysis/ feasibility analysis The new information system will be designed so as to achieve the following requirements: information system management and security, scalability, performance and availability. Information system availability Availability is a measure of system efficiency that is used to determine the durations that the system is functional and accessible when required. The proposed information system for the company will be designed such that its availability will never go below 98.9 per cent for the system to be considered efficient. . What this percentage implies is that the system of the company under proposal will never have even a single moment of a failure. For the system to attain this high efficiency level there will be redundancy for every device used on the information system so as to reduce any system discontinuity at any given time. This task will take approximately 2 weeks and it will consume approximately£ 5,000. The information system performance The information system performance requirements will be to ensure that the web based system provides the needed required capabilities to access the systems data through user input and the processing of the submitted forms by the necessary company departments. The information system will also be designed in such a way that administering tasks on the information system are performed effectively and the interface for the web based application should be user friendly without impairing the functionality of the system. The metrics that will be used to measure the network performance include the response time of the employee applications by the necessary departments, the ease of use of the interface without impairing the core functionality of the information system, and the ability of the information system to automatically generate summarized reports of each of the individual branches of the company and travel statistics. This task is very much involving hence it will take approximately three weeks with a budget allocation of £ 10,000. The information system management and security The management and security of an information system are vital in ensuring the integrity of the system. The proposed system will address these two issues through the use of implementation of security checks such as the use of user accounts and corresponding password checks. Security of the system will be measured through the ability of the system to create, edit and manage user accounts online and the ability of the system to have different access levels with different control and access lists. Since the information system will be web based, system security will form a major component of the systems attributes. System security will ensure no external factors will impair the operations of the system that would otherwise impair or jeopardize the company operations and processes directed towards employee application of travel expenses claims (Marite & Janis,2002, pp.12-16). This task is very much involving hence it will take approximately one week with a budget allocation of £5,000. The information system scalability The scalability of an information system represents its ability to cope up with emerging user and the company requirements in terms of capacity and change of services. Scalability will be an important aspect of the company system due to the dynamic employee base the company ahs in its fifty branches. For this particular case, scalability will be measured through the ability of the proposed web based system to incorporate new services apart from the intended purpose and its ability to match the changing user needs without undergoing major changes in the system architecture (Robert & Doro,2003, pp.156-170). Scalability will also be measured through the systems ability to adapt to changes in the level of operations of the company without having to alter the architectural design of the information system. This task will take approximately one week and it will consume approximately£ 5,000. Project goals and objectives Goals 1. To design an information system that is accessible and usable to staff of the company Usability of an information system refers to the ease of using the system’s applications through which system users can access the system and the services that the system offers. Usability forms a vital aspect in the design of an information system. Understanding the systems usability is important to the system users is important during the design and implementation phase. In this design, the goal was to make the system accessible and usable by many users as possible. For the case of the company, their usability also required mobility, this means the system had to use web based applications to facilitate access of the systems resources. 2. To build a reliable and efficient network through enhancing its availability A reliable information system ensures efficiency and availability, this form the most important aspects of company’s information system because the availability of the system relies on them. A reliable system is one which is free from failures and technical breakdowns. Reliability ensures that the information system serves the sole purpose for which it was meant to do. The projects goal was to design fault tolerant information system that had recovery abilities during fatal break downs. The company information system will be designed such that it had fault tolerance mechanisms that would prevent a complete system brown. All the possible potential causes of the system breakdown will be put into consideration and necessary preventive strategies were put into action. 3. To design and implement an information system that is can run web based applications that would facilitate the company to meet its objectives. One of the requirements by the company is that the system should be web based. This implies that the system should have the capability to support web based applications that are necessary for the company to meet its objectives and business needs. To achieve this, web based applications will be designed basing on the user requirements that will be gathered during the requirement gathering analysis. 4. To have a completely secure web based information system Information security is vital for any type of information system. Information security is primarily implemented so as to curb security threats such as denial of service, unauthorized access and confidentiality breaches. This will be implemented through access restrictions that will involve incorporation of employee user account portals in the web based system. The employee user account will only be accessible through the use usernames and passwords that will be set in accordance to the company’s staff preferences (Michael, 1996, 89-94). Loopholes that could jeopardize the security of the information system will be explored and appropriate measures put into place. 5. To build an information system that can function within the company’s constraints The ability of the information system to function within business constraints is of great benefit to the company. Constraints such as limitations in budgets, limited technical personnel and tight timeframes should not impair the networks functionality and continuity in operation. This can be achieved by enhancing manageability in our design whereby any person regardless of the technical know how can at least troubleshoot the system when a problem arises. The cost of maintaining the system should not be high. The aim of this goal was to increase the system cost effectiveness on the side of organization and ensuring that the system can function with the constraints that are associated with technical expertise. Objectives 1. To reduce the time the employees take to submit their travel expenses claim application forms by 50 % by the end of first three months of the system implementation. 2. To reduce the time by which the accounting department provides feedback to the employees by 60% during the first three months of the information system implementation and afterwards. 3. To facilitate employee progress on monitoring their application progress by 30 percent by the first one month of the systems operation and henceforth. 4. To increased the availability and usability of the web based system by 50 percent after three months of information system operation and afterwards. 5. To increase the ease by which the accounting department will be generating annual financial reports by 50 per cent by the first period of six months of the implementation of the information system. 6. To increase facilitate the accuracy at which information is stored in the company to 100 percent during the course of operational time of the information system. 7. To facilitate ease of access to the online application forms by the company’s employees during the first one month of operation of the information system. 8. To facilitate employee ability to efficiently access and effectively use the new information system during the first three months of operation. System requirements The information system requirements were gathered using the technique of requirements workshop; which basically involves the involved potential users of the system gather together to document the system requirements. It is an efficient method of gathering system requirements and analysis of the system requirements (Frank & Dieter,pp.45-74, 2000). Creation of domain models such as activity programs was carried out to capture collaboration so that accurate user requirements could be established. The workshop was implemented with two analysts since it is more effective than having one facilitator and an analyst. This is core task for the entire system development hence it will consume a quarter of the total money available. In regards to this task will consume approximately £ 15,000 and a time period of five weeks. The requirements specifications that were gathered during the requirement analysis are outlined below. 1. Customer requirements These requirements presented the expectations of the information system in relation to the mission objectives, the operational environment, the constraints and measures that will be used to determine the effectiveness and maintainability of the information system (Walter,2008,pp.89-100). The customers perform primary functions in the system with a primary emphasis on the user of the system as the key customer. Customer requirements also determine the operational requirements of the system. The following were the customer requirements that were gathered from the requirement analysis. a) Effectiveness in the proposed information system These made sure that the deliverables of the information system matched the deliverables that are associated with the requirements of the user. The involved the primary analysis of the current paper based system and its constraints after which its efficiency was analyzed, its constraints was also determined such that the new system will attempt to eliminate the constraints in the present system and the factors that restrict the current paper based system from operating at optimal frequency. With respect to the above, it was found that the present paper based model suffered a lot of constraints such as inaccuracies associated with data storage; the paper based model had no well structured database for storage information and the file system that the company deployed lacked organizational hierarchy and structure. Another factor that impaired the effectiveness of the paper based system is due to data losses. Information that is stored in paper is prone unauthorized alterations by the various users and this presented the potential risk of data inaccuracies. This significantly affected the whole travel expenses claim process since the data integrity could be impaired. The noted constraints greatly impaired the achievement of the company’s business objectives and therefore the proposed system had to make sure that its design eliminated such constraints and ineffectiveness of the system. The proposed web based system will therefore ensure that those impediments that are associated with the paper based model are eliminated through avoidance of data inaccuracies during storage, eliminate the possibility of data losses during storage and the various information integrity issues that are associated with the present system. b) Operational lifecycle requirements Operational lifecycle requirements define the duration in which the system will be fully operational to the user. An analysis of the present paper based system with respect to operational lifecycle revealed constraints in terms of limited expandability. An increase in the company operations would greatly impair the operational life of the system since its design limited its scalability and expandability. The paper based model is limited in terms of the kind of input data and did not guarantee quality response from the employee of the company. The operational limitations that are associated with the present system that the company uses are in terms of how the present system failure greatly jeopardized the company’s operations. The information system plays an important role in determining the company’s performance and processes. The present paper based of system of application suffered many operational lifecycle constraints that if left unchecked would greatly jeopardize the whole travel expense application process by the employees of the company. The proposed web based system will therefore be designed such that it will attempt to solve and eliminate the operational lifecycle constraints that are being experienced in the present paper based system. This will be achieved through incorporating design elements that will enhance the scalability and expandability of the proposed web based information system. The software applications that will be used in the web based system will also ensure that the proposed web based information system will be operational as per the user requirements. c) System environment requirements This will be used to determine the environments under which the system will be implemented so that it performs optimally. The environment under which the present system operates was analyzed and its effectiveness under that system was also evaluated. The environment analysis of the present system revealed that the information system was basically busy during the end year when the reports for the company branches were being generated. The environmental analysis also revealed that the present paper based system depicted no relationship between the various departments that are involved during the travel expenses claim application. The file query methods involved a manual search of the records after which reports were compiled; this presented potential inaccuracies and omission of records during the final report generation and problems in case the employees wanted to query about the progress of their application process. The proposed system therefore had to consider such discrepancies that the system environment depicted so as to eliminate the impediments that are associated with the present paper based system( Scot, 2010). d) Performance requirements The performance of the present paper based system was limited and could match the ever increasing user requirements. The parameters that will be used to determine the effectiveness of the proposed web based information system will include the systems availability; its ability to be available for use when required, system’s efficiency; the ability of the system to present the required output given a set of user inputs from the interface and system’s reliability; the systems ability to be available at any given time the user wants to have access to it. A performance analysis on the present analysis revealed a limited availability, since the paper based model implied that the processing of the travel expenses claim could only be carried out during the working hours. The system was also noted as being unreliable since the response time was long and accuracy of the response was also impaired to some level. In terms of system efficiency, the present paper based system was inefficient since the records sometimes were found to be inconsistent with the annual financial reports and the various departments presented different data for a single employee (Marite & Janis,2002, pp.12-16). The requirement for the proposed system was such that it should eliminate all the factors that could impair the information system’s performance. The web based information system will therefore ensure system availability through offering a 24 hour access to the employee portal since access to the system will be via a web browser and not limited by the working hours of the company. 2. Functional requirements An analysis of the functional requirements of the proposed system was carried and was subsequently utilized at the top level functions during the process of functional analysis. Functional requirements helped in identification of the tasks/ activities that had to be accomplished during the system implementation ( Brian , Daniel & Juergen, 2009, 101-106). The functional requirements that were identified include: the user/company employee to access the web based system via a web browser( preferably the company’s employee portal), the system prompts the user to enter a username and password, the system verifies the user credentials, the system prompt the user to fill the details in the travel expenses claim form, the system prompts the user to submit the duly filled application form, the system prompts the user to log out if done, the system submits the filled forms to the relevant departments for processing, the system then reports feedback to the user in his/her next log in session. The user will also be notified of progresses during subsequent sessions (Wita, 1999,pp.56-58). Case diagram Information system User line manager Accounting dep Process and data requirements Data flow diagrams Context level diagrams: shows the basic interaction between the system and the system external entities. For this web based system, the context level diagram is represented below. Level 1 data flow diagram: this represents the relationship between the major and high level elements in the information system. Level 2 context diagram Entity relationship diagram and data schema for the system References Simple Visual basic private sub form_load(Log in portal) Enter username & password private sub form() msgbox "hey look at the instructions below" end sub Fill the travel expense claim form private sub form() msgbox “Submit filled form” “Enter”Private Sub Form. “Follow Instructions below” Log out of portal/ check for progress Process application forms Report feedback to employee Send money to designated bank dim password as string if password=inputbox('please enter your form") msgbox "the password is wrong" else msgbox "hey check the instructions given below" End References Andrew ,S.,and Jennifer G.,2005. Applied Software Project Management. Cambridge, MA: O'Reilly Media,pp.78-104 Avison, D. E. Guy F., 2003, Information systems development: methodologies, techniques, and tools. New York: Blackwell Scientific Publications,pp.45-59 Brian, B., Daniel, P., Juergen, K., Arnold, 2009 ,Software & Systems Requirements Engineering: In Practice. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional,pp.101-106 Frank, L. Dieter, R., 2000, Production workflow: concepts and techniques. New York: Prentice Hall, pp.45-74 Marite, K. Janis, G., 2002, Information systems development: advances in methodologies, components, and management. Moscow: Springer,pp.12-16 McConnell, S., 1996. Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press,pp.45-58 Michael J. Oxford Institute of Information Management, PA Consulting Group, 1996, Information management: the organizational dimension. London: Oxford University Press,pp.89-94 Richard, B. Rudy A. H., 1987, Critical issues in information systems research. New York: Wiley,pp.85-95 Robert, G., Doro, E. L., 2003, Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. New York:Butterworth-Heinemann,pp.156-170 Scot W. A., The Object Primer 3rd Edition Agile Model Driven Development with UML 2 [online] retrieved from http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/dataFlowDiagram.htm accessed on 23 November 2010. Walter, S., 2008, Sustainable Development Possible with Creative System Engineering. New Jersey: CassBeth,pp.89-100 Wita, W., 1999, Systems development methods for databases, enterprise modeling, and workflow management. Moscow: Springer,pp.56-58 Read More