Quality & Risk Management

The Galactic Customer IT Services is IT Support Company with over 250,000 employees with companies in over 50 states with the main headquarters located in Gainesville, FL. The location chosen for the headquarters is based on a Telco Gateway Infrastructure that the main fiber-optic truck line runs along the I75 corridor, from Miami Lakes FL to the northern part of Michigan. This I75 corridor plays an important part of the Networking ability for the organization. The Galactic Customer IT Services is an IT support company, which provides IT support to various small to large companies both within the Unites States and support to various military bases overseas. This large customer service company has installed application software to its large Help Desk ticketing system. The next phase being implemented is the upgrading of its Networking Infrastructure, which also includes cloud-based networking. This Organization has several new updated Servers ready to install on the network. With the previous project being accepted the organization has decided to move forward to improving its networking infrastructure, however the organization has request the project team to draft a plan that requires the following in the plan: Requirements, Design, System Development Methodology, WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), Communications Plan, Quality Assurance Plan, Documentation Plan, and Quality Assurance and results of test-case execution be the project can be closed.

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The project requirements here are derived from the software requirements for the Galactic customer services. The project was to create new ticketing software that the customer wanted upgraded and to completely replace the previous product. The requirements are the following:

• Ticket system

• Ticketing automation forwarding system

• VoIP system for out of country calls

• Application that delivers automated workflow

• Application that handles auto-updates and simple to intermediate patches

The ticketing system that we have been tasked to create has to follow the design that the stakeholders and owners expect. A ticketing system that needs to be omni-channel supported, which is a type of support that gives the customer using the product the ability to utilize the application from any multiple sources. This includes phone, email, self-service ticket creation via application, and walk-in visits to the company itself. (Andrews, 2019)

This application is required to have a section that allows the system to process incoming tickets and to be able to route the ticket to the appropriate IT support personnel. This system is required to have the capability to allow the user to select in detail what their issue is, select the department the issue pertains too, and also select the level of importance the user the believes the issue is. However, the level of importance will not be created by the user, the automated system will determine the level of importance by keywords located in the ticket and which section the ticket is for. (Andrews, 2019)

The VoIP telecommunication is crucial to the company’s success of providing adequate care to its overseas and out of state clients. Companies that must call into the main HQ in Gainesville, FL, do not want to spend the extra money for long distance phone calls, when there is an alternative that could be created. Instead the stakeholders have insisted on requiring an easier more cost-efficient way of telecommunication for the long-distance entities. VoIP will utilize a private VPN that will allow the client and HQ to speak directly with each other over the internet rather than use a phone company that will hike up prices of telephone usage. (Unknown, 2019)

The application portion of the software will be able to create self-service tickets while also be used to create and recommend updated software while providing the adequate information to patch the current software if needed. This is a valuable part of the software because it allows the end users the ability to fix issues and low-level problems themselves or have the automated service patch the issue if possible. Having that service will provide the client and the service provider to spend more time on conducting business as usual instead of losing time and money waiting to speak to an operator or having their ticket cleared.

References

Andrews, M. (2019) "The Best 11 Ticketing System Software in 2019" Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/service/it-ticketing-system

Below is a design diagram that I did for the team project from the last course, as you see it was for an online ticketing application. As seen, you have customers that can communicate to the customer service group via the Internet which is connected by way of a secure VPN that is linked to the online ticketing application, which is connected to the ticket automation part of the system and sends tickets to customer service operators. As you can see the system is simple and yet can be complicated.

Now the team is working on the Networking portion for the organization. The organization will have to seed out service technicians to customers for issues that cannot be rectified by remote access for customers that the help deck could not resolve. Even though the main hub is in Gainesville, FL there is a remote site in every State located in one of the major cities. Below is a diagram depicting a replica of the network that will connect all areas where trouble tickets will be printed for the service technicians?

Drafted and Imported from my Smart Draw Software 16 November 2019

The ticketing application servers will be in Gainesville, Florida. The network will consist of Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP), IP routing, DS3 lines to the ISPs (Internet Service Provider) HTML protocols will be used and the HTTPS protocol. The Organization will be utilizing Secured Virtual Private Network services.

For the creation of our network that will work with the Galactic Customer Service unit we will implement the Waterfall methodology. This method is a slow starter but once it gets in the design and development stages it fairs great because of the long planning.

The waterfall approach begins with multiple meetings that allows the stakeholders, owners, dev team, and customer to brainstorm and come up with detailed plans to ensure that the entire project is covered from beginning to end. The reason for this choice is because the very detailed structured documentation of the project. (Rouse, 2019) This structure allows our group to follow step by step to ensure the success of the project and guarantee that nothing is missed or overlooked. The planning stages increase the efficiency of the project while allowing for all avenues to be viewed. This is to include all risks and threat factors. During the planning stage, the group will come together to discuss probable/possible risks that could come along during the development stage. Once all factors are discussed, then the plans are put in the works to create a risk mitigation process. (Rouse, 2019) This will allow the team to know how to mitigate/avoid certain risks that come along.

Another factor in choosing this method is the fact that the personnel on the development team can be interchangeable. This means that if six people start the project and one or two decide to leave or gets fired, the process can continue as planned. This works well also if other people come in to fill that vacant position. It allows the process to continue as planned without a lag in the development process because of the detail in the plans. With the way our remote communication is set-up, communication issues are sure to occur. With that being said, the waterfall method is the appropriate choice based on the fact that the approach is our way of risk mitigation.

Reference

Rouse, M. (2019, February). waterfall model . Retrieved from TechTarget: https://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/waterfall-model

Collection of data and analysis will be conducted at the same time in the planning phase which will help to establish the needs of stakeholders. The process is supposed to take one week where the project crew will collect all the information from vendors, customers, and stakeholders. This will help to decide the features expected from the program. The next process is coming up with integration tools and this step will be done approximately in 3 weeks due to the complex nature of the process.

Time and cost should be well managed and thus testing and development of the project features will be conducted simultaneously. Actual testing of the application on vendors and customers will provide real-time support that greatly aids in the development and implementation of security measures to reduce risk. Real-time support also helps greatly to reduce the effects of malfunctioning on the business and also try to establish the vital features that might be left out in the development phase. This phase is expected to be conducted for not more than 3 weeks. The development team will actively fix any malfunctioning of the application.

The last process is monitoring how the application is performing. The team will offer oversight for support for example database administration or cloud-based services. Cloud-based services always have various security features in place to ensure information communicated through the network resource is reliable and secured properly (Dennis, 2018).

Reference:

Dennis, J. (2018). Three unbeatable security advantages of cloud-based solutions for your business. Retrieved from https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2018/jun/25/three-unbeatable-security-advantages-cloud-based-solutions-your-business/

The system will utilize the use of automated response system which will always ensure that customers and vendors get real-time as well as proper company support using well-organized customer service. The application is designed in a way that whenever a customer logs into the system, there is an automatic query popping out prompting the customer to chat with the client about anything they may wish to enquire about the company.

Customer satisfaction is very essential; therefore, there is the need to properly track customer and client communication. To ensure there is monitoring, the application will have to always produce a copy of the communication between the companies; client and other users. This will easily provide an oversight authority for tracking the communications there; the business managers can check if the clients are useful to the business. This approach is very beneficial in determining if the application effectively provides customer satisfaction.

The alignment of stakeholders’ requirements and the application design will ensure the organization has attained operational effectiveness. The organization will attain improved productivity if the customer service application is working properly

Regarding the quality of communication, the application architecture is modeled in a way that response will give the preferred quality assurance to the customers by the utilization of automated systems. Using automated alert applications in the automation strategy will ensure that customers’ issues are properly and in time. Communication quality is also enhanced by ensuring every stakeholder’s requirements are considered since different people have different interests. Additionally, it also aids in ensuring the right design is implemented.

Online Ticketing

Customer Service

Tickets

Persistence

Security

UML Component Diagram: Online Ticketing

order

access

control

encryption

dataAccess

dataAccess

VPN

Internet

Customer

Remote Site 1

Remote Site 2Remote Site 3

Remote Site 4 Remote Site 5

Remote Site 6Remote Site 7Remote Site 8

Remote Site 9

Remote Site 10

Gainesville Florida

LosAngeles,Calafornia

ISP

Cloud

ISP

Cloud

T3

T2T2

T2

T2

T2

T2

T2

T2

T2

T2

DS3

DS3