South2Help Organizational Environment - Assignment Example

Draw a Rich Picture of the South2Help (S2H) environment from the perspective of Head Office. [15 marks]

Chief Executive office

Finance Department

Project Department

IT Department Contract Department

IT Department

The Head Office in Dover Brighton City

The Old S2H office in Canterbury Small Head office

The Old S2H office in Tonbridge

Key

KEY

Represent a department

Represent a City/Town

Represent Main Road connecting Cities

Represent a Connector Road

A2: Discuss your understanding of the S2H environment (based on your Rich Picture) [15 marks]

South2Help is a complex and non-profitable organization. For us to understand its structure and functions well, we have to use a rich picture to discloses various fields and processes in South2Help environment. The above rich picture has tried to display real South2Help environments.Members of a group can be in a picture in various ways. Bell, S. and S. Morse (2010), suggest that rich picture allows us to explore subconscious, occult views and disputed understanding about S2H environment. Rich picturescapture the real situation through a way of drawings to illustrate organizational layout, relationship, connections, influences cause and effect. The rich picture identifies all key players in the environment; the critical people, organization and the aspect of the landscape, the organization process and concerns

The major shareholders in South2Help environment

Chief executive.

The chief executive, Toby Watson, manages and controls all head office operations. Previously the organization had its offices located in Canterbury and Tonbridge town. With the help of admin staffs and other departments, the chief executives ensure all South2Help operation runs smoothly. He constantly makes changes and decisions on various departments.

IT Department

the department offers ICT and computer service to young disabled people aged eleven to eighteen years old. Currently IT department is located in Dover which is the new town. The IT department, previously was based in Brighton has now relocated to Dover Head office. In process of relocation, the IT department has lost IT Manager and three of senior developers who declined 20% pay rise to move to Dover. The ICT department has been expanded and has been allocated larger budget. The New IT manager and two juniors has been recruited. The organization is still looking for other fresh recruits to replace senior developed who quitted their jobs.

The Project Department

The department is responsible for collecting and writing reports required by senior management Team and the external funders. During the process of relocation, the project department lost two of its project administrators who declined to move to Dover

Senior Management Team (SMT)

The team is composed of chief executive and the Head of each Department. They meet on weekly basis to make decisions affecting the organization.

Finance departments

the department is responsible for money spending in South2Help organization. The department is led by department manager who is answerable to chief Executive. The finance department was also affected during relocation; it lost three finance assistants

Contracts Departments

the contract team, identifies the budgets, the duration a project will take, total number of employees to work on that project and sets deliverables for each project. The contract department was also affected during relocation since it lost four of its senior contract assistants.

Board of Trustee

This group consist of people from the business community. The board of trustee approves any decision made by senior management team to make sure organization operates as it should be.

During the relocation of head offices from, Brighton, Canterbury and Tonbridge created conflict in the environment. A number of staff from various departments declined to the organizations new office in Dover. Even after a pay rise proposal by chief executive they declined the offer. Employees didn’t want any change to organization. Most of staff lived in Brighton and they didn’t want to move house or travel a long way to work. This situation created a staff shortage in new head offices. The chief executive had to look for new recruits.

Similarly, there is culture and sub-culture within South2Help environment. Most of employees are used to old styles of organization operation as opposed to chief executive who want to change the organization settings.

Finally, the structure of IT department has been modified. Previously the department used to have a small working room. Chief executive, Toby, has expanded ICT department and set aside a larger budget to it. The chief manager of head office, has recruited new IT staffs; a new head of IT department and two junior developers. Although the chief executive has tried to expand ICT department and salary for each ICT worker is encouraging, the head office hasn’t replaced three senior developers who quitted the job. This has created more work load in IT department.

A3. Draw a Rich Picture of the South West Area environment from the perspective of the South West Area staff [10 marks]

South West Area Environment

Project Team working on a project

Project Team

Key

The Road

Project Team

Head office

School/training centers Department South west region

A4. Discuss your understanding of the overall South West environment (as represented by your Rich Picture). [10 marks]

According to Helen May and Luke Millard (2012), its useful to have a big drawing and the network of organization functioning and structure operative in the context gathered together in one format. The above rich picture South West environment, contains all key actors as illustrated below;

Area Controller

South2Help organization is divided into two regions; the South East and South West Areas. Each area has an Area office that is managed by Area Controller. Cho Yee manages South west area. The Area controller manages various organization functions including; manage existing projects, establishes new projects, sort out contracts based on funding bodies and set project milestones.

Administrative Team

this team is composed of 3-5 people that help Area Controller dispose his duties effectively. They provide required assistance to Area Controller.

Project Lead

This is the person who manages project team. He manages and masterminds all projects undertaken in their area religion. The Project Lead liaises with Project Department at Head Office to ensure all project executes as planned. Area Controller and Project lead always meet after every two weeks.

Project Team

Each project team is composed of 4-6 project workers who focuses on a particular project. They are under supervision of Project Lead who oversees their duties.

The Project Contractor

In partnership with contract department, the project contract is responsible for; setting timeframe in which project will operate, set project milestones, identifies the budget and estimate number of project staff each project will have.

The Funders

They include government organizations, money raised by the public and trust funds. The South2Help organization produces monitoring reports to their Funders which evaluate how money has been spent in the organization.

The rich picture also illustrates some key issues and areas of conflict affecting the South West environment;

Long travelling distance: since Area Controller and Project lead are supposed to meet on weekly basis, project Lead have complained about long traveling distance. Many project are located in remote corners of south west environment, project Lead, have to travel to Area Office to give a report on their progress, something they find to be disgusting.

Most of workers in South West environment, are used to old management styles. Sally observes that there was no standard way of different manager carrying out their duties. Some members are too mean when sharing knowledge to other people.

Finally, the rich picture indicates that, even though workers in South West use spreadsheet to send data and information to appropriate office, many project staff shows no interest in IT. Most of workers are people centered and they aren’t willing to use IT in their duties. The project team has been frequently told to resent their filed reports using current technology. The use of spreadsheet in South west Area has helped Area Controller to receive numerous complements for managing his area effectively.

B1: Draw a use case diagram for the current ‘KPI Projects’ system, clearly identifying the actors and processes involved. [15 marks]

Project Lead

Information Quality Officer

Area Controller

Project Administrator

The key Actors include; Area Controller, who uses the system to send project details to Information Quality Officer, Project Administrator, who uses the System to manage Spreadsheet.

The project Lead uses the system to record project progress and deliverables. Finally, the Information KPI Project system to retrieve data send by Area controller on various project progress in their religion.

In KPI Project System Use Cases will include; Recording project information, retrieving project data, managing spreadsheets and sending project data and progress.

B2: Document your use case diagram using primary scenarios [15 marks]

Developing a Scenario with a Funder: A Government Agency

Purpose: Scenario describes how a government funder can access report in Management Information system.

Scenario 1:

A funder Authenticates.

A funder using a browser types the URL of Report System

The Report system displays all available Reports.

The Funder selects desired Report

Funder reads the report; he can write some observation on the report

After reading the report log out system and evaluate if the organization is doing well.

He can then decide whether to fund the project or not based on the report provided.

Scenario 2: registering new trainees

The system allows new trainee to register in System.

Trainee, using a browser, types the URL of form registration system.

The registration form is displayed

Trainee, is allowed to fill the form with appropriate data

After submission of registration form, he/she is redirected to view all available projects and their locations.

Trainee, selects a location, system allows a trainee to select one project training session

The trainee is placed in any of available ongoing project.

B3: List secondary scenarios for two of your primary scenarios [5 marks]

First Secondary Scenario; Scenarios for error recovery. “if anything can go wrong, it will”

Second secondary Scenario; scenario for Data checking. A trainee checking his/her details in system

B4: Discuss how the use case modelling process helped you develop your understanding of the current environment. [15 marks]

Use Case is a technique used to capture all functional components of a system. The User Case Diagram keeps tracts of various function and various actors who interact with the system. Before drawing a user case diagram one is supposed to highlight all actors, use case and scenarios in the system. An actor, is an individual or object that interact with the proposed system. They may include an individual, an organization or another system. Below are some of actors in our use case model;

The Project lead

The will use management information system to record all project data, the total number of people they are working with. On same note, project lead will use the proposed system to capture project information to meet key performance indicators set by funders.

The Funders

The South2Help funders include; government agencies, money collected from public and Trust Funds. They will use the system to obtain project reports prepared by financial department indicating how all money has been spent and if various projects have meet set key performance indicators.

The Senior Management Team.

The SMT consist of chief executives and head of department in all departments. They will use information updated in the system from different departments to make weekly decision affecting the organization. The system provides updated information about current position of projects being undertaken by the organization.

Financial department

The financial department will use the proposed system, to show how it allocated and spent money on various project to Senior Management Team and to Funders. The system will help financial department to generate monitoring and detailed report required by different entities.

The Information Quality Officer

The information Quality Officer will use the system to generate and provide accurate and up to date information to all concerned entities to make right decision concerning the organization. They will use the system to ensure Area Project Administrator enter correct data to system. Similarly, the Information Quality Officer will use the proposed system to KPI information every month.

Area Project Administrator

The management information system proposed will assist the area project administrator enter correct data required for decision making.

Head of contract

The head of contract will use the system to structure procedures required by workers while performing their tasks. The system creates a connection between head of contract and two Area controllers where can find new sources of funding for their projects.

Before building a use case model, several assumptions are made;

• All actor accessing the system are authenticated
• Every process has a finite step
• System will be accessible from all departments

There is a series of question asked individual actors before developing Use Cases.

Which function does the actor need from the system? For instance, in our system the Funders will use the proposed system to have access to a conclusive report provided by financial department to show how their money was spent.

What does the actor need to do? For example, the project lead, will use the system to record all project details and the total number of people they are currently working with.

How can system simplify daily operation of an actor? The head of contract proposes some of procedures to be used to simplify the working of various workers.

What are the read/write privileges system offers to an Actor? The proposed system, will allow the project lead to record all data about different projects, Funders to have access to different reports and the Information Quality Officers to provide accurate and up to date information that will be used to make decisions.

What are communication channels between system and Actors? The Senior management team will be notified through emails when new reports has been generated. In case of any report all team members will be notified.