The IT department

The IT department at Riordan Manufacturing has received a service request to analyze the current HR system in place.

A recent memorandum sent by Hugh McCauley, COO of Riordan Manufacturing was sent to the IT Project Manager that the HR system integration project was approved. Hugh McCauley is requiring a single integrated application of the existing tools that are used today in the current HR system. The Human Resources at Riordan Manufacturing would like to take advantage of a more sophisticated, state-of-the art, information systems technology in their department. (Riordan, 2006).

BACKGROUNDDr. Riordan, a professor of chemistry, who had experience in processing polymers into high tensile strength plastic, founded Riordan Manufacturing. Realizing the opportunity through the commercial applications for his patients, Dr Riordan started Riordan Plastics in 1991. In 1992 Dr Riordan obtained Venture capital, which he used to purchase a fan manufacturer, Inc. in 1993. Riordan began to expanding into the production of plastic beverage containers when it acquired it facilities in Albany, George.

Riordan has recently expanded in 2000, opening its operations from Michigan to China and their Pontiac facilities were retooled for plastic parts; they have become a global plastics manufacturer, which manufacture various plastic products such as plastic beverage containers produced by their Albany facilities in George, custom plastic parts produced by its Pontiac facilities in Michigan, and plastic fan parts produced from their Hangzhou facilities in China.Riordan has many customers such as automotive part manufactures, aircraft manufactures, the department of defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliances. Rapid Application Development (RAD) techniques will be used in the process as well but are not limited to, future growth, cost and benefits analysis, interviews with key employees, document reviews, observations, and sampling. Data gather from these methods will allow IT to create a graphical model which will include diagrams and schematic to represent aspect of a system. This ensures that complex relationships are fully understood. (Satzinger, John W.

, Jackson, Robert B., Burd, Stephen D., Johnson, Richard, 2004)SCOPEThe scope of this project is to integrate the existing variety of tools in use today at Riordan into a single integrated application by purchasing a single application or integrate suite of applications. As the Corporate office in San Jose currently has a license for a fully integrated Windows based ERP manufacturing, distribution and financial management software application specifically designed for plastics processors and process and assembly manufacturers.

The license does not include application source code. Expansion of this system is to be looked at to asses if this should be used to implement the HR module of this system.FEASIBILITYThe Management team has set a deadline of 6 months to complete this project. The proposed system will reduce cost by having one central HR department instead of multiple departments conducing HR responsibilities.

The Return on Investment will out way the cost of implementing this system as the time it takes compile data from multiple systems. Testing phase will commence and be completed as the modules are finished.During unit testing, programmers will test the programs that will interact with DBMS before these programs are integrated into the new system. A comprehensive testing plan will be conducted in order to prepare for any possible data errors the program would encounter. After completion of the module testing, integration testing and load system testing will be performed. Integration testing involves testing for the two or more independent programs that will interact with each other and send information to the DBMS and accounting department's module.

To ensure the integration of the system, ASP vendor and internal system analyst will perform test data that will simulate actual conditions of the system and overall system integration.InstallationAfter completing system testing, the remaining system implementation will be preparing a separate operational and test environmental, system changeover, post-implementation evaluation of the system, user training, managers and IT staffs as well as final reports to the management. The HRIS will be using the current established Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity that is in place.The platform will rigorously test this network capability, specification and performance prior to installation processes.

The project team and external software team will conduct operational test in separate test areas to maintain system security, integrity and test the system security features of the operational environment. Operation environment testing is including hardware and software configuration and setting, system utilities, networking, telecommunication that may affect system performance. The IT staff will perform acceptance tests repeatedly several times after any modification to ensure no new issue arises.DocumentationDocumentation is critical to the success of the support and future maintenances.

All aspects of the project will needs to be documented for future reference. A high level flow diagram should be created and keep up today with any modification. This will allow programmer to understand the overview of the system. The source code should contain programming comments or header notes to help guide the next programmer understanding of each modules. This also ensures that future modification can be made with ease if comments or header notes exist.

Installation documentation as well a flow diagram is critical for the network administrators to be able to deploy the application again once accepted from the virtual working environment created.TrainingProper training is important to ensure the success of the new system deployment. Prior to training sessions, project team leader will distribute electronics copies and hardcopies of Microsoft Office Word document format to the users, managers and IT staffs. End User Involvement is a key rule to system implementation according to Lientz and Rae (2007). When there is a problem with the application it will be up to the help desk to troubleshoot the issue, and determine whether the problem needs to go back to the IT programming team.

Continued support of the application will need to be done until the application has become obsolete or replaced. According to ArtWeb.us (2006), End user support and training is an ongoing effort that is carried out through the implementation of help desks and training programs. Enhancements and upgrades to the system occur throughout the life of the system to maintain and extend its productive life.

By re-using the defined processes within the project, saving time, resources and money is possible. Using Modular design approach or framework programming, will allow developers and programmers the ability to reuse the previous code or module effectively. This will result in money saved and less time in the development process. Documentation will be the same way, creating templates for documentation will keep it standardize, which will allow them to be created in a fashionable timely matter.ReferencesApollo Group, Inc.

(2004). Riordan Manufacturing. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/CIST/VOP/Business/Riordan/Internet/IndexPort.

htmArtWeb.us. (2006). The Phases of the SDLC Implementation. Retrieved from http://www.artweb.

us/modules.php?name=Content;pa=showpage;pid=1HUT, P. (2009 ). Key Processes during the Project Initiation Phase.

Retrieved from http://www.pmhut.com