Building the organization: The Soft Side of Enterprise Information Systems
Charles R. Bristol, P.E.
Camp Dresser & McKee, One Woodward Ave. Suite 1500
Detroit, MI 48226
General Approach
To begin the development of any enterprise wide information management system
requires the involvement and "buy-in" of all the staff within the enterprise. This is
accomplished through many "soft" technical design sessions where staff are actively
involved in the definition of the functions for the information management system. Two
favorite workshop exercises were used: 1) Function / Needs Definition; and 2) the SIPOC
process.
Function / Needs Definition - in this workshop the basic needs of the end users
and the functions of the information management system are defined. The
workshop is conducted in three steps. First, the basic information management
functions are defined through facilitated discussion techniques. These desired
functions are condensed into the top five to seven topics based upon votes by the
workshop members. The second step is to ask members to document their top
three needs. And finally, the workshop members are asked to organize their needs
within the top functions defined earlier. The result of the workshop is a list of end
user needs organized around a set of functions required within the information
management system.
SIPOC Process - Another workshop process used in the "soft" design of an
enterprise information management system is called SIPOC - Supplier: Inputs:
Process: Output: Customer. This process is conducted in a facilitated workshop
and workshop members define the components in several "brainstorming"
sessions. The focus of the SIPOC process is to first identify the "customer" - that
is, who is the benefactor of the information. Once the "customer" is defined, the
"products" or outputs are then defined. The process continues by defining the
"process" required to produce the "outputs" and then the "inputs" required to feed
the "process". Eventually, the sources or "supplier" are defined for specific
"customer". This process is repeated for each "customer" until the entire
information management system is defined.
Once the basic functions of the information management system have been defined the
traditional database design process and application development process can be
conducted. The next section describes the process used to implement the applications
within the information management system. These applications drive the database design
- that is, develop data that is needed for applications and help in minimizing the
collection of non-essential data.
Step 1 - Application Definition: The first step in the Application
Implementation process is to define the application. The functions completed in
this step address the preliminary definition of the application functions and data
needs. These functions and data needs help in defining the final goals and
objectives of the application, the first milestone in the process. The results of this
step will feed the next step that addresses the data needs of the application.
Step 2 - Data Needs: The second step addresses the data needs of the
application. For any application, there is a defined set of data required for the
application. This step in the process will answer two basic questions: 1) Does the
data currently exist? and 2) Is the current database functional ?
If the data for the application does not currently exist, a data development
program will be required. The data development program must be defined and
implemented to begin the process of building the required data sets for the
application. If the data exists but the current database is not functional, then a list
of database action items needs to be developed and the existing database must be
made functional. This process can occur in conjunction with developing the
application criteria.
Milestone #1 - Application Criteria: Once steps one and two have been
completed, the process should have naturally produced the application criteria
which consists of the following:
- goals & objectives of the application addressing functions and needs,
- data needs and availability, and
- hardware and software requirements.
- With the application criteria now available in a written document, the process can
continue.
Before beginning Step 3 of the application implementation process, a major question
must first be answered - Will the internal organization build this application? If the
answer is yes, then both Steps 3 and 4 can be skipped and the process can move on to
Step 5. If no, then Step 3 must be completed.
Step 3. Vendor Identification: This step in the process will identify any third
party vendors who may provide a software product that will meet the application
criteria established at milestone #1. These criteria can be used to screen
application software vendors and the remaining functions in Step 3 will short list
the applicable vendors and conduct appropriate demonstrations.
A key function in Step 3 is to develop, ahead of time, a set of vendor
demonstration criteria. These criteria will be used during the vendor software
demonstrations and will make the selection process much easier.
The key question asked during Step 3 is - Are there any vendors who provide this type
of application software? . If the answer is no, then the process can skip to Step 5 and
begin the application construction process using internal development resources or
outside contractor resources.
Step 4.Application Procurement: Once the vendors have been identified and
the demonstrations have been completed under Step 3 of the process, the next step
will procure the selected vendor. Step 4 will take the results of the vendor
reviews and develop the paperwork required to procure and install the vendor's
software. This process may take several weeks, depending upon the cost of the
selected application software.
Step 5.Application Construction: This step is only executed when a vendor
based application software is not procured. If there are no software vendors that
can provide the application required, then the application must be designed and
built through the organization. The organization has two basic ways to build an
application :1) through internal development support, and 2) through contractor
support. In either case, the first function in this step is to develop an application
design plan. This application design can be used by either internal or a contractor
to build the application (Milestone #1)
