Service Request Individual

Running head: RIORDAN SERVICE REPORT 1

Individual: Service Request SR-rm-022

Steven H Spates Jr

BSA/375

04/06/2015

University of Phoenix

2 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUEST

Riordan Service Request

According to the service request generated by the Human

Resource Department, they are looking for ways to interlink all

tools needed by the Human Resource Department. From this

assignment I will explain the steps needed to accomplish the task

which is in front of my team and me. From this assignment the

requester will be able to identify the steps needed to accomplish

the desired program needed to better meet the needs of their

organization. By the end of the assignment the requestor will

gain an understanding of what will be needed to make this

transition smooth as possible.

Scope

From the service request I have gained an understanding that

the business is looking for a way to link all Human Resource

Department tools together using a common method. In order to

accomplish this task the following must take place. 1) a meeting

with the requestor of the desired request and any other person

who will play a large role in the development of the new program,

2) clear time frame of when the project needs to be completed and

ready to launch, 3) availability of any personnel directly

3 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTinvolved with the program, 4) what kind of budget will be in

place for allowing the development of new software, and 5)

accessibility of information.

Once all of this has been accomplished I and my team will

be able to get a clearer view of what the company is looking for

from the new program. My goal is to have met with the requestor

by the end of the week. From the requestor I hope to be able to

gain a considerable understanding of what needs to be done to

make the program meet the needs of the company. I also plan to

speak with the line staff within a week to get their insight of

what they want from the system.

People of Interest

In order for me and my team members to gain an understanding

of what is desired, we will need to speak with some personnel

that will actually work with the product first hand. From looking

at the breakdown of the Human Resource Department chain of

command, we believe the first person to give input on the type of

program desired would be Hugh McCauley. Mr. McCauley is the

requestor of the desired request and he is also the Chief

4 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTOperation Officer of Riordan Manufacturing; we would also need to

speak with Mrs. Yvonne McMillan. Mrs. McMillan is the Director of

Human Resources and actually works side by side with her human

resource department. Once we have met with these two main

characters we would than begin speaking with the employees of the

human resource department.

Mr. McCauley plays the largest role in our process of

talking to individual about meeting the needs of the service

request. He is important because he is the generator of the

request, and he will also be able to give us the budget allowed

to work with. He will also be our main contact person. Mrs.

McMillan, will be our second contact person. She will play a

vital role in this process because we would need to speak with

her in regards to setting up appointment to conduct interviews

with her line staff, and if we are unable to reach Mr. McCauley

she would be our next person of contact.

Method Used to Gather Required Information

The first method that will be used to gather information

will be to conduct interviews. In order for the interviews to be

a success, according to Valacich, George, and Hoffer (2012), I

5 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTwill need to prep the interviewee by setting up an appointment,

and explaining to the interviewee what the interview is about

(Chapter Chapter 5, Determining System Requirements). I will also

be asking question, most of the questions asked will be open

ended. These types of questions will allow the interviewee to

expand more on what they are looking for from the new system. I

will also send out a questionnaire two to three days prior to the

interview. These questions will be more of a closed-ended

question. This questionnaire will allow me to have the

interviewee decided from a group of choices which is actually

more important to them.

Once completed with the interview process, I will proceed

with my team to conduct an on-site tour of the Human Resource

Department. With this method I hope to see if there are any

common trends being used by the employees using the system

already in place. From the on-site interview I may actually be

able to gather which tools are being used more than the other.

Also I will be able to gain a better understanding of how some of

the workers actually handle the already in place program. This is

important because, when designing the new system I do not want to

6 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTmake the new system more complex than the older one already in

place.

Once all information had be obtained and documented, my team

and I will go through all the notes and answers from the

interview and questionnaire to see if any answers or notes are

more common than the rest. Once that has been completed we will

proceed with the SDLC. From the information we will be able to

start the system planning and selection process, and determine

what would be feasible.

Feasible

At this phase in the SDLC we as a group will decide what is

actually feasible to meet the deadline that has been desired by

the requestor. There are six areas of feasibility, they’re as

follows: Economic, Operational, Technical, Schedule, Legal and

contractual, and Political (Valacich, George, & Hoffer, 2012,

Chapter Chapter 5, Determining System Requirements). There are

many factors which can play a role in a project’s feasibility.

One that must be considered in this request is the time

constraints of the project. According to the requestor this

project must be completed before the next quarter. According to

7 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTthe requestor the next quarter is in six months. As we know

Riordan Manufacturing has sister companies in various parts of

the country and world.

With that being said scheduling may be a problem with having

the project up and running by the next quarter. One of the

companies is located in Hangzhou, China; this may be an issue due

to different time zones, and even possibly language barriers.

This can also cause an issue with funding; depending on how we

must communicate can put a strain on finance; which may result in

delays of the program.

From our meeting last week my team and I have discussed many

items needed to take place before taking action on developing the

new program for the Human Resource Department. In our meeting we

discussed certain security measures that should be met in order

to ensure a success of the new system, and we also decided to

view how data could flow to interact with all other department

that will be using the new Human Resource tool program. With the

changes coming up in the next few weeks, it will allow for better

8 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTcommunication between different Human Resource departments and

possibly save on time.

Security Controls

No matter what type of system is in place, the only way a

system can actually be at its best is by the security being

offered. Security is everyone’s responsibility. What is

security? “Security is the ability to protect the information

system from disruption and data loss, whether caused by an

intentional act or just a random event”(Dennis, Roth, & Wixom,

2012). According to Dennis, Roth, and Wixom (2012), security is

the responsibility of the operations group (Chapter 8,

Architecture Design). This group consists of the personnel

responsible for installing and operating security controls. These

controls can be from firewalls to recovery operations, and

anything else that can be in between these. When deciding on the

different types of security requirements it is important that my

team and I know the security procedures that are imperative to

this company.

Data


What needs to be protected? Many will think that it is the

system which needs protection. However, when a hacker attacks the

system, it isn’t to damage the hardware. In fact, they’re looking

to attack or even gain access to what information is being

obtained on the equipment. This is important because Riordan is a

multibillion dollar company, and if it were hacked by an outside

source the cost to recover would be detrimental. Therefore, when

dealing with information or data it must be kept not only

confidential, but in a safe and secure manner. How can this be

accomplished? My team and I want to say “easy”, but in fact it

isn’t. The best way to keep data or information secured or out of

the wrong hands, depends not on the security, but the person(s)

handling the data.

The data being handled in the Human Resource Department is

very important. This data is not just that of the company’s, but

of its employees’ and soon to be employees. When dealing with

data or information no matter what kind, it must be kept to a

minimal use of involvement. Meaning only those certain people

should be involved with such information. Therefore, all data

must be kept secure and confidential. Any company or employee

10 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTdata should be kept allowed access only once certain procedures

are met. Therefore, we are proposing the use of data encryption

and a use a unique password system. This will help minimize

information getting into the wrong hands.

Data encryption is one of the best methods to use when

trying to prevent unauthorized access to important and critical

information. Data encryption is a means of disguising information

by the use of mathematical algorithms (Dennis, Roth, & Wixom,

2012, Chapter Chapter 8, Architecture Design). When using

encryption it can be used not only on data stored in databases,

but data being transferred over a huge network.

Another method that we would like to introduce to the system

is something called security testing. According to George,

Hoffer, and Valaclch (2012), security testing is used to see that

the protection mechanisms which are built into the system can

handle improper penetration (Chapter 5, System Implementation and

Operation). This testing is conducted on a random basis and done

during the time where the system is considered too be most

vulnerable.

Processes


Riordan Human Resource department will handle many types of

processes. These can stem from allowing employees to fill out

applications to updating personnel information. Most of these

processes will be handled in house; however, some may be handled

at home. A process is an activity that is performed for a

specific business reason; also these can either be manual or

computerized (Dennis, Roth, & Wixom, 2012).

When working with processes it might be beneficial to uses a

third party vendor or a COTS. This type of service already has

built-in security measures. With this already in place it will

cut down on the time it would take to implement the new system.

And when using a COTS it will be made possible to train on

already in place security procedures.

Interfaces

The interface structure design is the basic components of

the interface and how they work together to provide functionality

to the end-user (Dennis, Roth, & Wixom, 2012, Chapter 9, User

Interface Design). These interfaces are able to have the

capability of exchanging information with other systems and may

require some sort of higher level security. Security requirements

12 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTcan be met by putting in place passwords which would be required

to obtain information. The users with the correct password will

be able to have access to confidential and private data. This

type of data will include employees’ social security, birth

dates, and other types of data consider confidential. With this

type of measure it would help prevent inside threats as well as

outside threats.

Network

A recommendation that we would like to put in place is an

intranet. An intranet is a private network that is contained

within an enterprise (Rouse, 2006). This type of system will help

keep any unauthorized person from gaining access to private

information. We would also recommend once again the use of a

password system.

Data Flow Diagram

The data flow diagram shows how each component plays or

works together. This is typically done during the design phase.

The physical data flow shows execution of details. This is to

include “data stores that refer to files and database, programs,

human actions which perform processes, and the physical transfer

13 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTmedia for the data flows” (Dennis, Roth, & Wixom, 2012). Please

see attached document to see how the network will be connected to

allow all offices to use the Human Resource Tools.


The next phase of the project will be the implementation

stage. This is a very important part of the project. During this

phase the new program goes into a rigors testing mode before

being launched. According to Valachich, George, and Hoffer

(2012), this stage of the SDLC is the most expensive and yet

time-consuming phase of all the phases (Chapter 10, System

Implementation and Operation).

Implementation Phase

What is the implementation stage? This is the part of the

SDLC where all the information is actually put together to make a

working code for the new program. During this phase there are

many people involved to make this process go as quickly as

possible. When working in the implementation phase the new code

is tested by all members involved until there are little to no

errors in the new program. During this last phase of the SDLC

there are seven major areas that are of concern to the computer

analyst; these areas are: coding, testing, installation,

documentation, training, support, and finally maintenance of the

program (Valacich, George, & Hoffer, 2012, Chapter 10, System

15 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTImplementation and Operation). These areas will be explained

further in the next couple of minutes.

Coding

The main goal of this phase is to translate the design of

the system into a given programming language. Coding process is

the part of the phase where the physical designs are put into

work. In this process all ideas are being coded and are now being

placed into the program as software. Depending on the amount of

coding can determine how long the process will take before the

system is up and running for testing. During the coding state

each code is being done by a vast team of computer programmers.

While working with the coding it will also play a large part of

how testing and maintenance will be performed.

Testing of Software

With any other type of program or product testing must

occur, before launching of a product. The software application

test phase includes a detailed plan about what each group will be

testing during this period. Once testing has been completed a

detail report is made, this report is a collection of all the

16 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTtesting done to the software (Valacich, George, & Hoffer, 2012,

Chapter 10, System Implementation and Operation).

During the testing phase it is important to take a detailed

look at the new system software and hardware before the system is

actually installed. During this time all must be checked to

ensure no types of errors are going to occur, which might hinder

the system once installed. When testing according to Valachich,

George, and Hoffer (2012), there are seven different types of

test that should be performed when working with the software of

the program. These are as follows: an inspection test, desk

checking test, unit test, integration test, system test , stub

test, and lastly the harness testing (Chapter 10, System

Implementation and Operation); each test will be discussed next.

A. Inspection Test

This testing technique involves having each group

inspect the coding of the program and find any

potential error which may cause the program to

operate incorrectly. During this test phase the

programming team is looking for syntax, grammar, and


other issues which may keep the program from

functioning in the matter it is supposed to.

B. Desk checking Test

This testing is done manually by a programmer who

understands the logic of the program. During this

test the programmer is actually acting like the

computer and doing a mental check to ensure each

step is producing the correct output that is desired

(Valacich, George, & Hoffer, 2012, Chapter 10,

System Implementation and Operation).

C. Unit Testing

This type of testing deals with testing the coding

only one section at a time to ensure the desired

operation is taken place.

D. Integration Testing

This testing involves bringing together all

components of the software to see how they operate

together.

E. System Testing


This is the processes of bringing all programs

together that are within the system.

F. Stub Testing

This a testing technique used to test module. This

method is mostly used in a top-down fashion of

software testing. This test involves the use of a

temporary coding, which will step in for the

actually software coding.

G. Harness Testing

This is an automated testing environment, when used

it will review the code for errors, standards

violations, and other design flaws.

Acceptance Testing

When all the software testing has been completed, there is

yet another one that has to be done. This testing is that of the

users. During this testing phase the program is going to actually

be tested in the intended environment of use. During the

acceptance this is where a pass or failing grade will be given by

the end user. The main purpose of this particular test is for the

19 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTuser to determine the program is going to meet the needs of the

end-user (Valacich, George, & Hoffer, 2012, Chapter 10, System

Implementation and Operation). There are two types of test

conducted during this acceptance test; these tests are the alpha

test and the beta test.

A. Alpha test

This is a dry test run which will use only simulated

data. During this test there are additional test

conducted. The additional test are:

1. Recovery test- this type of testing will cause the

system software to fail, and then recover.

2. Security test- this test will verify that the

current security settings are being used on in the

system to protect itself from either inside or

outside penetration.

3. Stress test- During this test, the system is

tested to see what would have if incorrect or

incomplete data was processed. This test will try

and see how the system will react to a breakdown.


4. Performance test- Determines how the system

performs on the range of possible environments in

which it may be used (e.g., different hardware

configurations, networks, operating systems);

often the goal is to have the system perform with

similar response time and other performance

measures in each environment (Valacich, George, &

Hoffer, 2012, Chapter 10, System Implementation

and Operation).

Once the Alpha testing has been completed the testing will

than move to the Beta testing phase. During this test the

software is actually being tested against real data that will be

used in the environment of the new software. The main intent of

this test phase is to ensure that the software, documentation,

technical support, and training activities are going to work as

needed. At this point there should now be no more errors, and the

system is ready for launch or installation.

Installation, Training, and Support

There are four different types of installs that can occur

with the new system; these four installs are: direct, parallel,

21 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTsingle location, and phased installation. However, during this

phase there is less man power required, and the system already in

place will be transferring into the new system. When preparing to

do an install it is important that the correct one be used. Each

type of install has its pro and cons, but it will be up to the

team and the company to decide which would be better for the

cause.

The method of installation we would recommend is the

parallel installation. This type of installation will allow the

old system to run with the newer system. This method will allow

the end users the ability to see how the new system differs from

the current one in place. Also with this install the end user may

point out something that needs to be changed in the newer system.

Once that has been completed it will be up to the managing staff

to decide when to turn off the old system, and go strictly with

the new system.

Once the new system is in place training can start to take

place. During this phase of the project training will be our most

important tool to get all end users familiar and to feel

comfortable with the new system. Below you will be able to see

22 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESThow we plan to do the training with the new system. We are hoping

that training will consist of no more than three weeks. The

details of the training are discussed in detail on a weekly

phase.

Week1- This will consist of sending out schedules to

users who will be affected by the new system.

Week2- Classes will be held for two days to address

any concerns and to show how the new system is to be

used.

Week3- Follow up phone calls to the end user to see

if any questions or concerns have risen after use of

the new system.

When all answers and concerns have been answered, there will

be tech support setup for any other issues that may occur during

the time the new system is in place. We are planning to have on-

site tech support as well as over the phone support. Over the

phone support will be available 24/7. On-site tech support will

be available during normal business hours. If after hours a

message can be left on the voice mail system for the following

day.


System Documentation

How will the system be documented? “System documentation are

records which contain detailed information about the systems

design makeup or specifications. The documentation consists of

the systems internal works and how it functions”. When discussing

documentation of the system is can be broken down into three

separate areas:

1. Internal documentation

2. External documentation

3. User documentation

(Valachich, George, Hoffer, 2012, p. 333).

Internal Documentation

This type of documentation is part of the program source

code or is generated at compile time (Valachich, George, Hoffer,

2012. p. 333). A complier is a special program that processes

statements written in a particular programming language and turns

them into machine language. This language is then used by the

computer for processing. Once the files are created it than

contains what is known as the source statement.

24 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTExternal Documentation

This type of documentation contains all the structured

diagramming techniques. This documentation may consist of a data-

flow chart. This type of documentation can be very useful to the

main users of the program (Valachich, George, Hoffer, 2012, p.

333).

User Documentation

This type of documentation can either be written or in a

visual form, which contains information about how an application

works and how to properly use it. Most of the user documentation

will be issued online in a hypertext format (Valachich, George,

Hoffer, 2012, p. 335). One of the greatest factors that come with

user documentation is its ability to reduce the cost of training

and consultation cost (Valachich, George, Hoffer, 2012, p. 335).

Conclusion

Yes, the process may seem long and endless; however, the

better understanding of what is needed will help me and team get

the system which is being requested. From our weekly discussions

25 RIORDAN SERVICE REQUESTyou are able to see that this is a timely and very large process,

but it is worth it. There were many areas touched on, and there

may be question that will come up. However, with all the

information given you and your company can expect the best to

come out of the new program which is being requested at this

current time.

Riordan new human resource program will be a program that

will be useable in all local and sister companies. With the new

program in place it will allow easy access to everyone that is in

the human resource department. All important tool will be

centralized so that everyone person can locate the information.

The new system will now have enhanced security measures; this

will help to prevent any unauthorized usages from any staff that

is not granted access by the department. The new system will also

reflect on the input that was gathered from the key individuals

which helped come up with the new program.


References

Dennis, A., Roth, R. M., & Wixom, B. (2012). System Analysis and

Design. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix Collection

database.

George, J. F., Hoffer, J. A., & Valaclch, J. S. (2012). Essentials

of System Analysis and Design (5th ed.). Retrieved from The

University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Rouse, M. (2006). Intranet. Retrieved from

http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/definition/intran

et

Service Request Individual

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