System analysis and design

1. Apply appropriate problem solving processes based on logical and critical thinking and systems modelling to produce the system's scope, analyse system requirements and design potential information system solutions.

2. Prepare a business case for a proposed business problem solution and produce a suitable system specification report.

Case Study – Personnel Self-Service System (PSS)

Background

Sales Corporation (SC) has approximately 3000 personnel. SC has experienced a 10 percent increase in personnel over the past two years, and long-range projections show that trend continuing for the next three years.

Ron Taylor, the Human Resources (HR) director, is thinking of putting in place a Personnel Self-Service System (PSS) that will provide the capability for personnel to maintain some personal information so that it is accurate and up to date. The PSS should also allow personnel to only view but not change other information.

Current practices now have each of the changes to personal information being processed by an extensive manual effort in which personnel fill out forms and HR personnel then input the data into the HR system. This manual effort often results in a time lag of a few days between the time personnel submit the forms and the update of the information in the HR system. This delay has caused several problems, including mail being sent to the wrong address. Another problem of the present system is the intranet-based personnel directory, which is out-of-date with incorrect information on personnel who have changed addresses or been transferred to another department.

The plan for the new system is to provide the capability for personnel to update data themselves in real time reducing if not eliminating the problems mentioned above. The intranet-based personnel directory will be always up-to-date.

Tom Gayle, a systems analyst from your consulting firm, has done some preliminary investigation (through interviews) with Ron Taylor (HR Director) and Joan Whitford, (HR Manager), and this is the information he has gathered so far:

Information gathered from interview with Ron Taylor

It appears that there are a lot of inefficiencies in the current system and its operating costs are excessive. The current system itself is a combination of manual and automated processes. The automated processes reside in the legacy system. Ron thinks it is too costly and risky to get rid of the current legacy system. They are currently concentrating on reengineering the current HR System to meet their needs.

Ron said that personnel go through an orientation program on their first day of work. During that program they are required to complete some personnel forms that include information such as addresses, phone numbers and emergency contact information. HR personnel then input the data into the legacy system.

The personnel directory, sort of a telephone book, consists of the job title, work telephone number and location, and department of personnel. Because SC is such a dynamic and growing organisation, Alicia, a HR personnel, spends quite a bit of her time maintaining the information. However, as SC is a large and growing organisation, the directory is usually out of date as at least one person is hired or transferred, moves departments, or is terminated daily. These events all require a change to the directory.

Currently only HR personnel can directly use the HR system. Ron would like to see that changed so that personnel can be responsible for maintaining some of their own personal information e.g. maintaining their own address or contact details. The data would be more current and it would reduce the labor support in HR. Currently, to process each change in personnel information costs about $15 in labor and computing costs and 1,500 changes were processed last year alone, which is quite substantial. Everyone in the institution uses a PC and Ron feels that personnel should also be able to access and change their information from the office and home via the Web.

Ron envisions a PSS that is easy to use, intuitive, with a graphical user interface. It should be accessible from every desktop in SC and from home via the Web. The interface should have a folder metaphor. For example, if one were a staff member entering the system, one would be presented with a series of folders or tabs. Each folder would consist of a certain type of information, such as personal information, leave application and training.

Information gathered from interviews with Joan Whitford

The following information was gathered by Tom in his interviews with Joan.

Besides allowing personnel to maintain some of their own personal information, Joan is thinking of allowing personnel to manage their leave, check leave balances and view previous leave taken. Personnel should also be able to apply for internal personnel training courses offered by SC, and to view the courses they have attended.

Personnel should be able to view their qualifications, current and previous job appointment details within SC. However all changes to a personnel member’s job or qualification still require paperwork that has to go through HR.

Joan wants the directory to show the contact, work location, department, organisational unit, and job title of personnel. It should be driven by some sort of search screen e.g. search by first or last name or combinations of them. This is confidential information that cannot be open to the public.

The information that the system requires is as follows:

a) Personnel ID and name, work location, department, home and work phone, address, job title (including its start and end date), organisational area, qualification title, qualification major, completion date, institution and country where qualification was obtained, and title, name, relationship, address and contact number of emergency contacts.

b) The internal training courses attended and the date attended

c) The type of leave taken, start date and end date, whether a medical certificate has been provided, and the option to put in a comment. If the personnel has a medical certificate, there must be a facility to upload the certificate.

Information about the internal training courses offered and their duration, list of qualifications, organisational areas and jobs is maintained by Human Resource personnel.

Assignment Requirements

Unfortunately, Tom has left the organisation and you, as a trainee systems analyst in the IT department, have been asked by your manager to finish the job. By analysing the information gathered from the interviews and using appropriate fact-finding techniques, prepare a Functional Requirements Report

The format for the report is detailed below.

1. Description of data requirements of the new system. You must provide:

a. An ER Diagram

b. The name, description and an example of the data stored in each of the attributes for each entity of interest to the system and relationship (where applicable). You can make some reasonable assumptions when describing the attributes. You must indicate which attribute is the identifier for each entity.

Note: Each report should have control breaks where applicable and the data should be sorted.

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