Building the organization: The Soft Side of Enterprise Information Systems

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)

If the internal development group can provide the necessary services to build the application then the application project team will work with development staff, using the application design as a guide. If the internal development group cannot provide the necessary services, then the organization will procure those services from a contractor experienced in developing the specified application software. The contractor will also work with the application project team and will use the application design document.

Milestone #2 - Completed Application: The last milestone in the process is the completed application. The process will get to this milestone from three different functions: 1) a procured application from a selected third party vendor; 2) the application development work by the internal staff; or 3) the application development by a contractor.

Completed Application
As mentioned earlier, following are two case studies that involves the use of teambuilding exercises as well as overcoming organizational issues.

CASE STUDY - MCES, ST. PAUL, MN
The Metropolitan Council of Environmental Services created the new Environmental Planning and Evaluation (EPE) department by combining an environmental monitoring and analyses group with a watershed management and modeling group. The EPE was designed to take the MCES into the area of regional environmental information management.

Problem: Designing a system that will allow several divisions within the Department to work together in managing the wide variety of environmental information. Solution: There have been several steps taken in the MCES case study as described below:

Using the "soft" technical design tools described above, a conceptual environmental information management system (EIMS) was designed that will centralize the disparate volumes of data being collected and managed by the EPE.
Technical committees were established to deal with the details of such topics as computer hardware, LAN / WAN specifications, information management standards, and GIS technologies.
Once the conceptual EIMS was designed, application teams were created to define the needs of each division. These application teams are still in use today and keep the EIMS moving forward.
The EIMS construction has been started through the design of a data warehouse and numerous data source applications, as defined by the application teams.

Currently, the EPE is continuing with their data warehouse implementation taking full advantage of the latest technologies including browser based tools for data input and retrieval. The cooperative technical organization built at the beginning of the project has been the corner stone supporting the EIMS implementation.

Case Study - Austin, TX
The Watershed Protection Department (WPD) of the City of Austin was also created by combining the environmental planning groups and the storm water drainage group. These two primary groups now address environmental issues, flooding, storm drainage infrastructure management plus other functions. Obviously, the new Department was faced with integrating a disparate set of data into the organization's operations.

Problem: Designing a system that will allow several divisions within the new Department to work together in managing the wide variety of environmental and engineering information.

Solution: The WPD developed a set of application design teams from the very beginning. Starting with an initial approach towards a centralized database, the approach changed as the application teams began their workshops. The steps completed by the WPD, so far, include:

A needs assessment conducted through several facilitated workshops defined the data needs and the "customers" of the new Department. The resultant documentation defined numerous applications required by the divisions in their daily operations.
Using the applications list, a series of smaller projects were begun using both internal and external development teams. A Department steering committee was created to prioritize the application development (and associated data development) given a specific operating budget. Also, a Department data manager was also hired to facilitate the process.
Several applications, especially those utilizing GIS technologies, were completed within the first year, giving Department management the opportunity to obtain additional operating funds for the subsequent years.
The Steering Committee and the Department data manager are still in operation, providing guidance to the various application teams within the divisions. The needs assessment document is the guidebook for the Steering Committee.

The WPD has developed several applications for their operations including WEB based tools for data retrieval; for floodplain management; and for infrastructure management - the development of the storm drainage data sets required for maintenance applications.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the processes described in this paper have been successfully implemented in two projects where the diversity of the technical teams required a facilitated approach. These two organizations are continuing to use these techniques to maintain the enterprise information system implementation.