HR System

This paper will describe each of the key stakeholders or stakeholder groups in Riordan Manufacturing who provide requirements for the service request, explain two separate information gathering techniques used during proposed projects, identify two factors that are necessary to ensure that the information required for the project is gathered successfully, define the scope of the project by specifying business functions that will be included in the project, describe the project’s operational, technical, and economic feasibility areas that are examined in the SDLC analysis phase summary.

Key Stakeholders

Riordan Manufacturing has many stakeholders and most of its stakeholders that would remain influential to the change process would gain the focus and those who can directly use the new system are also given importance. The stakeholders of the firm include CEO Michael Riordan, Executive Assistant Jan McCall, SVP-RD Kenneth Collins, COO Hugh McCauley, VP international operations Charles Williamson and the IT service managers. Further, before the input and revisions as per the information gathering steps are finalized, the individual users of the final app will be consulted for advice.

Information-Gathering

The completion of the system requires collection of information and it is categorized into ten parts that makes sure that system and processes are workable and is answerable to the demand set by SR-rm-004 (Mochal, 2008). The process is mentioned below and each step can be repeated any number of times or can be eliminated as per the requirement. These steps are not procedural, can occur in any form.

1. Single panel interview: This is a method in which information is derived by sitting down with the stakeholders on a one-on-one basis and input for the solutions are receives and the ways to achieve them are received from the stakeholders.

2. Group interviews: This is a group activity where the entire department is consulted and key advice is taken from the entire group.

3. Facilitated sessions: These sessions become useful only when no solutions can be found for any given problem from the stages mentioned above.

4. Joint Application Development (JAD ): This is a higher stage where all the previous stages have failed and in this there is an entire group interview which carries on till a solution is formed.

5. Questionnaires: When the stakeholders are in faraway locations, their views can be considered with the help of questionnaires, which can be filled in by them and sent to the required person (Mochal, 2008).

6. Prototyping: This means developing the working model of the solution provided in order to check its efficiency through repeated tests.

7. Uses cases: This is responsible for creating a story about the working or failing of the solution provided and how the issue can be sorted out to make it work.

8. Following people around: It means that none of the interviews worked and all the routine processes failed. The key people must be followed around for information that may have been missed during the interviews.

9. Request for proposals (RFPs): It is a stage where the entire requirement list is compiled for all possible links between the companies.

10. Brainstorming: It gathers all the key stakeholders in conference so as to discover the best solution, which according to them will meet their requirements (Mochal, 2008).

In every situation, each stage and step has its own importance and in many situations, multiple steps are sued to gather information from different set of stakeholders and clients.

Key Factors

After gathering information, different milestones have been set to track the progress towards the agreed solutions. There will be two milestones, short term and long term milestones. The short-term milestone will track the weekly reporting and the long-term milestone will report monthly meetings conducted at the end of the month. In weekly meetings, the primary focus will be on the meeting agendas met and key developmental stages being met. On the other hand, in monthly meetings, primary motive is to see whether every weekly milestone is met or if not met, what are the problems that need to be resolved and can be addressed. The performance of measurement system and target setting system contains Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These indicators act as a heart of these systems. They become powerful management tools when they are used effectively and also help the business to grow further. These management tools help in making the entire process more efficient because when the work flow is high and the volume of working coming in large, such steps has to be taken to ensure that no information is missed and that there are no discrepancies when it comes to dealing with problems.

All key executives and key stakeholders are interviewed and consulted when it comes to taking decisions and these consultation interviews leads to different perspectives to the persisting problem which allows the firm to come up with the best solution to the problem. The targets must be reached in time and smart decisions have to be taken all the time, and hence the time crunch calls for the repeated interviews with the key personnel for the best advice, which will lead to the accumulation of various solutions. After the group meetings, all the solutions can be discussed and the best one can be chosen by the group, once the decision is made this will lead to a better and more efficient solution to the burning issue. Thus it is a great tool to be used by the management while running the organization smoothly and efficiently and such consultation interviews for gaining key executives and key stakeholders’ are important as well (Info Entrepreneurs, 2009).

The tracking of progress can be done on the basis of two factors: First, is target date setting, it means scheduling a date that can be met. Second is establishing achievable goals and then demonstrating above in terms of short-term and long-term goals. The project will be completed by keeping in mind these two factors, as they will help in finding the viable and correct solution. The performance management faces is one of the challenges as selection of what to measure. This challenge can be overcome by getting familiar with the solution on which you are working and also knowing the requirements that need to be met (Info Entrepreneurs, 2009).

Project Scope

The scope of the project is to do the necessary work that will help in delivering the product. The project scope is defined by the requirements and deliverables. It is also important because stakeholders agree with the information discussed in the proposed plan. Scope planning requires many planning sessions and is not the result of only one planning session (Project Scope, 2012). The scope baseline carries the project scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary. For scope planning, the most effective method is collaborative approach. And it is also important that all stakeholders must understand baseline and this can avoid creeping of scope during execution of the project.