Riordan Manufacturing Persuasive

At Riordan Manufacturing the requestor is Hugh McCauley, COO. He wants to integrate existing variety of Human Resources (HR) tools into a single integrated application for all the plant locations. Riordan Manufacturing would like to take advantage of a more sophisticated, state-of-the art, information systems technology in the Human Resources department.

The Information Technology (IT) department needs to define the business requirements for the development of an HR system to support the objective of this request. Create a detailed system design and a project implementation plan required to complete the project. The project should be completed in approximately six months, so the new system can be utilized in the second quarter of next year. Key Stakeholders

The key stakeholders in Riordan Manufacturing the IT department will gather requirements from are the COO, the Head Director of HR, and the HR personnel. The IT department will even ask the CEO’s input as well. The team will consider everyone that has a good idea to add to the new system. The team will develop the new HR tools application according to the requirements stated by the key stakeholders. The IT developers will ask questions in an individual interview process to get the personal touch for those using the new HR application. The developers will also put on group meetings throughout the phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This process will let the HR department know what is plausible and what will not work. Those adjustments are necessary get the right application for the HR department to work fast and efficient. Information-Gathering Techniques

The information-gathering techniques and systems analysis tools the IT team will propose for the project are as listed: One-on-one interviews, Group interviews, Facilitated sessions, Joint application development (JAD), Questionnaires, Prototyping, Use cases, Following people around, Request for proposals (RFPs), and Brainstorming (Mochal, 2008). These 10 techniques will be used to decipher the gathered information to develop the single HR application. The top three that will be used are the one-on-one interview, group interviews, and Joint Application Development (JAD). The one-on-one interviews will help according to “Guideline: Requirements Gathering Techniques” (2012), ” Face-to-face contact with users through individual interviewing is the primary source of requirements and an important way you gather and validate their requirements” (Interview Users). This technique will let the HR department that we are listening to them individually/individual needs. Group interviews are another way to get the information needed for the new HR application.

According to Axia Consulting (2013), “More users/stakeholders are in the meeting room, but otherwise similar to 1 above. Group interviews can be more productive if interviewees are at a similar level or from the same section within a department. An advantage can obtain more information/requirements faster than with one-to-one interviews. A disadvantage will require more preparation before the interview. More difficult to keep the meeting focused” (Group Interview/meetings). According to Webopedia.com (2013), “Joint Application Development (JAD) is a development methodology system originally used for designing a computer-based system, but can be applied to any development process. It involves continuous interaction with the users and different designers of the system in development” (JAD). This will be used to make sure that everything runs the way the HR department wants it to. Key Factors in Successful Information Gathering

The key factors that help ensure the information required for the project is gathered successfully is the previous 10 techniques to gathering information. After doing all these steps and following the four phases of the SDLC will ensure a successful new HR application. Another key factor will be the people/employees that participate in the group interviews and the individual interviews. Even in his or her free time at home if he or she were to come up with a new idea over dinner to email it to the IT department or write it down to give to someone in the morning. This will help the process along in a timely manner. The communication between the IT department and the HR department is a key factor. This will keep everyone in the loop to what is going on. That allows the necessary changes to be made in the early stages instead of the later stages. This communication will help save the company time and money. People showing up to work that are important to the operation of the development of the new HR application. The attendance record is important to this system as well, because if the employees that know certain information do not show up it can halt everything. A company cannot forget about the attendance. Even someone not being there can cost the company money by extending the project. The attendance will not be perfect but a company has to except that because people get sick and take vacations.

Project Scope
According to SearchCIO (2013), “Project scope is the part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines” (para. 1). Project scope is important because it keeps everyone moving along in the process and phases of SDLC. It allows the COO to see the progress of the development of the new HR application. It allows everyone to know if the project is going to be on time, early, or late. It also shows the CFO that everything is on budget, under budget, or over budget. Areas of Project Feasibility

The areas of project feasibility that are examined in the analysis phase of the SDLC includes analysis of project requirements in terms of input data and desired output, processing required to transform input into output, cost-benefit analysis, and schedule of the project. The feasibility analysis also includes the technical feasibility of a project in terms of available software tools, hardware, and skilled software professionals. At the end of this phase, a feasibility report for the entire project is created (Tutor, 2011). Conclusion

Riordan Manufacturing’s COO Hugh McCauley has a request to integrate existing variety of Human Resources (HR) tools into a single integrated application for all the plant locations. Riordan Manufacturing would like to take advantage of a more sophisticated, state-of-the art, information systems technology in the Human Resources department. In part one the information gathering and who to ask those important system requirement questions was discussed. The keys to success were also discussed and the project feasibility as well.

Work Cited:
Mochal, T. (2008). 10 Techniques for Gathering Information. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-techniques-for-gathering-requirements/287 Guideline: Requirements Gathering Techniques. (2012). Retrieved from http://epf.eclipse.org/wikis/openup/core.tech.common.extend_supp/guidances/guidelines/req_gathering_techniques_8CB8E44C.html# Axia Consulting. (2013). Software System Requirements Gathering. Retrieved from http://www.axia-consulting.co.uk/html/requirements_gathering.html Webopedia.com. (2013). What is Joint Application Development? Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/J/Joint_Application_Development.html SearchCIO. (2013). What is Project Scope? Retrieved from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/project-scope Tutor. (2011). Software Development Life Cycle. Retrieved from http://www.sdlc.ws/software-development-life-cycle-sdlc-phases/