Development Of Performance Management Systems - Case Study Example

Development Of Performance Management Systems Part A Exercise: Stakeholders The creation of performance management systems do not happen out of sudden (Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corporation, 2012). They are the result of carefully structured and planned program. As part of the program and structuring, it is important to define and discuss stakeholder base of the performance management system. Defining stakeholders involve the identification of stakeholders, whereas discussion of stakeholders involves the demarcation of responsibilities to the stakeholders and allocating questions that these stakeholders would have to address (McCarthy, 2001). Such definition and discussion are done below. Stakeholders Their Interest Questions to ask Staff (management and employee) Parents Students Software developers Quality Assurance Team Accounts and Finance Team Teachers are going to be the eventual users of the system and thus need to be familiar with the functions, importance and use of the system. Parents of students will serve as excellent sources of data (respondents) as to their expectation from the school and their wards, and by extension, the system to be developed. The interest of students is in the fact that there has been a previous system. Students are therefore in an excellent position to make known the impact that the first system had on their education and their expectations for this new system Software developers are going to serve as the contractors for the software development. They will therefore feed beneficiaries and contract givers with information on the timeline, planning, implementation and running of the system A quality assurance team is needed to access the quality and reliability of the system to be designed. Without such as team, the schools cannot be assured that the end result will be any better than what existed before. The accounts and finance team should be sampled from both the contractors and contract givers. They should be responsible for the budgeting for the program. How easy and accessible they would want the system to be for them. Input and output performance of the system Level of academic performance they expect from their wards Whether the children have lived that expectation yet. The impact that the coming system made on their academic performance. When the project will begin. What the system will entail. How the system will function. How users are going to be educated on use of system. How user problems are going to be tackled. Plans for advancement Monitoring systems to be developed Maintenance of the system Expenditure to be put into the system Qualitative income to be yielded from the project Fund sourcing Part B Exercise: Goals and Objectives The overall training goal is to get all employees to support the new system to be developed. This goal is broad and can only if a series of specific objectives are achieved. To this end, the following specific objectives are set for the training program 1. To sample views from end users as to what would constitute a user friendly system 2. To collate the ideas of beneficiaries including students and parents on how they expect the system to impact academic performance positively. 3. Create the platform for knowing the financial expenditure needed to be invested into the whole project. This would include both monetary and non-monetary expenditure 4. To solicit the views of all stakeholders on how the running of the system can be made a success 5. To educate stakeholders, particularly end-users of the system on how they can handle basic functional problems encountered with the use of the system. 6. As noted by Stockley (2012), “A good performance management system has an employee development focus.” This means that it is the objective of the training to brainstorm employees on how their output of work can be developed through the system. A questionnaire that focuses on the impact of the training program to all stakeholders shall be developed. Through the questionnaire, the facilitator will be in a position to sample views of stakeholders on the program. Through responses to be sampled, it will be possible to tell whether or not the objectives were achieved. Part C Exercise: Data Collection Plan To make data analysis easy for discussion, both qualitative and quantitative data analysis procedures shall be used for the data collection plan. To this end, two major data collection instruments shall be designed. These are questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire shall be directed towards quantitative data collection whiles the interview shall be directed towards the collection of qualitative data. Data to be collected include end-users expectation of the functionality of the system end-users challenges with the previous system challenges that end-users would want the system to address specific education that end-users require on the use of the data data on the monetary and non-monetary expenditure for the system whether or not the training program has addressed the concerns of participants flaws that participants identified from the training program how participants envisions flaws to be addressed in subsequent programs expectation from stakeholders on how they want the system to be advanced The questionnaires shall be distributed to the participants before the start of the program. This will ensure that participants will attend to parts of the questionnaire as and when the training goes on and they identify answers to those questions. With the interview, it will be administered after the whole training program. An interview guide will be developed to ensure that the questions are identical with all participants. This will indeed made data analysis very easy. The interview shall be conducted on a one-on-one basis to ensure that each participant has the freedom to express him or her self without any intimidation. Part D Exercise: Expenditure Budget Worksheet Costs Units Fixed Cost Variable Cost Total Instructor Costs (from above) 2 1000 400 =$ 700 Participant Costs (from above) 15 1500 500 =$ 2000 Program Materials 21 3000 =$ 3000 Facility Costs 500 200 =$ 700 Lost Production 300 =$ 300 Participant Replacement (if applicable)       =$ - Total Fixed Costs =$6000 Total Variable Costs =$ 1400 Actual Delivery Cost $ 7400 Source of Cost Fixed Cost Variable Cost Instructor Cost Instructors have agreed to take a fixed amount of $500 each. Each instructor is entitled to designated amount of $200 for undulating costs such as meal and instruction manuals Participant Cost Participants shall take an allowance of $1500. This shall not be distributed evenly but based on the rank and role of the participant in the training program. For instance students shall take less than parents and parents shall take less than staff. There shall be a snack pack, and other drinkables that will constitute the variable cost of $500 for this group. Program Materials Cost of program materials have been procured and so shall only be fixed. Program materials include design of personal software, printing cost, stationery, and so on Facility Cost The premise where the training program is going to take place has agreed to charge a fixed price of $500. This shall include the use of all facility including projectors and furniture. In addition to the fixed facility cost, there could be variable cost such as the need to hire additional facility like generators in case of power failure. Lost Production There is a miscellaneous cost of $200 set aside for the program. It is expected that the budget expenditure outlined above would be a useful indicator for determining the ROI for the whole program. As suggested by Phillips et al (2001), ROI = Program Benefits Program Cost This means that to determine the total ROI, there is no way we can do without the program cost. Part E Exercise: Report Outline I Executive Summary A. The aims and objectives of the training program B. The major data and findings made C. Report on outcome of the training program II Introduction A. What called for the need for the training program B. Stakeholder composition for the training program C. General aim and specific objectives designed for the study D. Importance of the study. III Past and Related Work A. An outline of the problems that were associated with the previous system that was designed B. How the current training program has been structured to cater for the lapses with the first system. C. Brief review of related literature on performance management system for other institutions and organizations IV Technical Section A. The technical composition of stakeholders including software developers, quality assurance consultants and accounts experts. B. Details on technical aspects of the system VI Results A. The major conclusions drawn by facilitators of the training program B. Major conclusions drawn from stakeholders and participations through the data collection mechanism designed. VI Future Development A. Future training programs that are likely to take place B. Suggested future improvements to the organization of the training program VII Conclusion A. Qualitative evaluation of the program B. Recommendations for future improvements REFERENCE LIST Phillips, J.J., Stone, R.D., and Phillips, P.P. (2001). The human resources scorecard: Measuring the return on investment. Woburn, MA: Butterworth Heinemann. McCarthy R. D (2001). Systems and Structure of Performance Management System. Fundamental Press Limited: New York Stockley D. (2012). Performance Management Systems Development. Accessed March 11, 2012 from http://derekstockley.com.au/performance/management-system-h.html Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corporation (2012). Setting Up a Performance Management System. Accessed March 11, 2012 from http://smallbusiness.dnb.com/human-resources/workforce-management/1384-1.html Read More