CMGT/445: Signature Assignment: Case Study: Appliance Warehouse Services – Application Maintenance

Application Implementation

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliate

date

Introduction

Last week we developed a PowerPoint presentation that went into detail whether the software should be SaaS or in-house, their pros and cons, identified 7-10 requirements the software, and included a communication plan. This week we will continue to help with the development and implementation of the new service department. We will do this by developing a test plan, implementation plan, and a training plan. The testing plan will include a test plan for the following new services scheduling, invoicing, and reporting. For each of these new services, there will be actions that will be tested, along with the expected outcomes. The implementation plan will discuss the different changeover strategies like parallel, direct, phased, or pilot, their advantages, disadvantages, and which one will be used. Lastly, there will be a training plan developed, which will include a training plan for employees like appointment setters, technicians, management, and the parts department. There will be a plan for all employees (or specific departments) affected by the new system implementation. This week is all about planning from employee training to testing.

Testing Plan

The testing plan will include plans for the services of scheduling, invoicing, and reporting. Each of these services will undergo a test to simulate how they are supposed to work. The first thing that will be tested will be scheduling more specifically if appointments are accurately documented. This will be tested by having testers schedule appointments and having the operator see if the system accurately documented the appointment. The second to be tested will be invoicing more specifically the confirmation appointments with text and email. Whenever a customer makes an appointment, they should receive a confirmation of the appointment and its details like a receipt, date, time, service number, and service type. To test for this, we will have several testers make appointments over several weeks to see if they receive the proper text and email. We will also be conducting a stress test to see how much the system can handle before it begins to crash. The third service to be tested will be reporting more specifically which services are requested the most and which services are requested the least. This can be done by having several services be requested and see if the system can document services numerically. The system should be able to order the service by most to least and vice versa.

Implementation Plan

The implementation plan will include descriptions of changeover strategies like parallel, direct, phased, and pilot, and which of these strategies will be implemented for the new service department. The parallel changeover that will be created in this case is one of a kind since will come up with ways of bypassing the new system and overrunning the old system which were initially used by the company. It therefore means that the new system that will be created will be able to run smoothly and employees are familiar with it. The key thing is ensuring that it is working well with the company and creates an easier time for the company as well as the employees. The direct changeover strategy is an indication that anything new that is introduced in this case replaces the old system as soon as its up and running. The phased changeover strategy means the brand system is implemented and the outdated system is shut down in phases. The pilot changeover strategy is an indication that the brand systems that are introduced into the systems which are being implemented test-site before its implemented company-wide. In this case, I will come up with various suggestions including; implementing a better and parallel that will determining the changeover strategy for the following reasons: if there are any errors you’re able to fall back and determining the systems that have been therefore before and also coming up with better ways on how the brand system that is introduced in this case will function better using the activities that have been set in place. One is able to fix any problems in the new system before ending the old system, and its very low risk. But be informed that this is also more costly since the systems that will be introduced in this case will be running all at once without stopping. The key thing is to determine how they will function together without affecting anything.

Training Plan

The training plan will go into depth on the training that certain employees like appointment setters, technicians, management, and the parts department must undergo to properly complete their duties. The first training plan will involve appointment setters, which are the people responsible for setting appointments, answering some customer questions, and providing information about services and products. These employees will be given manuals on various ways that will determine how to operate the brand system, will operate the new system in a test environment, be given information about products and services and tested on this information, and spend some simulating customer service scenarios. Technicians will undergo training that involves being tested on the product and services, properly writing reports, being able to diagnose the problem, and simulate different service scenarios. Management training will involve being able to lead groups of people effectively, being able to properly communicate their ideas, coaching and mentoring others, and simulate a management environment. The parts department training involves being tested on the products and services, organizing parts properly, and being tested with simulations.

References

Qu, T., Yang, H. D., Huang, G. Q., Zhang, Y. F., Luo, H., & Qin, W. (2012). A case of implementing RFID-based real-time shop-floor material management for household electrical appliance manufacturers. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 23(6), 2343-2356.

Jun, S. W., Liu, M., Lee, S., Hicks, J., Ankcorn, J., King, M., & Xu, S. (2015, June). Bluedbm: An appliance for big data analytics. In 2015 ACM/IEEE 42nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) (pp. 1-13). IEEE.