The Robin Speaks about ICT

Problem Statement (Case #1)

2008-03-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

One of my students submitted a problem statement document.
(See the images below for the actual problem statement document)

Below are my comments to their problem statement document:

It is highly impossible that there doesn't exist a process to monitor the current status of the customer order. It may not be formal and written, but they do have a process.
The problems that you stated concentrates in the lack of process and disorganized forms. These are not problems directly solvable by an IS.
Your first problem (Inaccurate order status information) is a result of a problem that leads to some business problem, and therefore should not be the highlight of the problem statement.
Your second problem of "delay in delivery" is a business problem and therefore is correct but the information problem which causes it are not present.
Your problem of "insufficient monitoring procedures on supplies at hand" is a valid problem but I am not comfortable using the phrase insufficient monitoring. Reading through your discussion suggests that the necessary data needed in order to track and monitor supplies and usage of supplies are not captured. The business problem with regards to this may be the increase in raw materials inventory cost affecting income of the business.
The problems that you need to state must be in this form:

Business Problem: What are the frequently happening situation in the business that they see as "problematic". e.g. Orders with a more urgent deadline are incorrectly scheduled, therefore not meeting its deadline.
Information Problem: What among the five (5) Basic Information Problem do you see as the reason why the Business Problem is happening. e.g. With the number of orders and jobs (estimated at 100 per day) being scheduled, the storage in which these information doesn't allow the immediate access to the necessary information needed to determine the priority in which orders and jobs should be executed. There were also evidence that the necessary data needed to the proper scheduling of the order/jobs (as well as the determination of the status of the order) were not completely recorded.

Online Team Apps from Google

2008-02-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

I happen to see this video (see below) introducing Google Apps Team Edition. Have use Google Apps before and have written and created ideas together with Kiran Budhrani using the collaborative features of Google Apps. Any group of students who are working on a project will find this Team Edition very useful.

To try Google Apps Team Edition, click this link

In De La Salle University-Manila, most of the students are using their personal Yahoo and Google email accounts, this may pose some apprehension on the use of this online apps (the team edition requires the use of a university email address). With De La Salle Philippines hoping to get all DLS Schools migrate to a single email platform (in which case is Google), I'm speculating that Google Apps Team Edition will become a preferred platform for team collaboration.

Disclaimer: This is not an advertisement. I may be a Google fan and user, but the intention of this post is to introduce to students and faculty members alike online applications that I happen to find and use, and find very useful for academic purposes.

Information Problems: What and IS really solves

2008-02-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

In my session with EM-TECH students this trimester (3-SY 2007-2008), one of my advisees asked me to comment on their statement of the problem for their capstone project. I was surprised to see the problems they wanted their proposed Information System (IS) to solve (Retention, Quick Turnover, etc.).

Knowing what information systems are, these problems are definitely NOT what an IS can solve. I remember my lecture Down-To-Earth IS I delivered in the University of the Cordilleras, where I highlighted that IS professionals without contention should have an
understanding of these business problems but should also be able to see the deeper reason and motivations (based on information) how these problems are happening and could be prevented.

In my opinion, any business pain, situation, concern or problem needs to be further analyzed by any IT professional in order to determine solutions that either allows people working on these concerns to REGULATE (if not to PREVENT) and SOLVE (if not to MINIMIZE) these to occur or happen. As such, any IT professional has to see that these situations may be cases of any or all of the following:

Data Capture problem (data needed to solve or prevent the problem from happening has not been collected, completely collected, nor correctly collected)
Data Storage problem (should data were collected, they are not stored and eventually completely forgotten)
Processing problem (there is a need for consistently enforcing business rules and policies, standards and consistent processing, and control mechanisms to avoid abuse and errors)
Access and Distribution problem (the people who are to address these concerns are not given access, or having difficulty in accessing important information that will enable them to make decisions and actions to prevent problems from occurring, or to work on their task more effectively and efficiently)
Presentation problem (should information be available, are they presented in a fashion that the people concerned can easily use them in order to respond quickly and effectively to solve the problems)

To put it simply, IS does not solve business problems. Instead they address the information required of people who addresses these problems in order to PREVENT it to happen, or should it already happened, make immediate decisions in order to correct the problem.

Research Paper involving Community Portals

2008-02-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

I happen to stumble upon this paper (Intranets and Social Capital) about Community portals. Have not actually read it entirely, browsing it though seems to be informative to those students intending to work on community portals.

My group and I were discussing the different motivations of neighborhoods going for a community portal. Your ideas are very much welcome. It is very important for any group working on community portals to identify the different criteria that will serve as basis for the selection of “communities”, “groups”, etc. for a portal project.

Subido’s group shared several criteria

Share Files
There is not place to meet as a community (that means members of the community are geographically dispersed)
The community is huge enough such that interaction between members of the community is becoming limited
Interaction is beyond mailbox and bulletin boards

Thinking about Dropping

2008-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

Towards the end of the journey in doing ICT Projects (including thesis), the question of continuing or dropping the course always comes into the picture. In my opinion, the moment this question pops just simply shows that a group is unable to complete requirements and expectations for the project or thesis. It is a question about being ready to defend your project and thesis, and the question itself already gives the answer.

Some students have asked my advice about this, and the answer only lies within the group doing the project or thesis. Knowing the requirements and deadline for the submission of the project/thesis for defense, and the areas which still needs to be addressed, solved, developed and tested, the answer to the question boils to the area of CAPABILITY - is the group capable of completing everything required of two weeks before the deadline.

Why two weeks?

In my experience, two weeks is needed in order to prepare documentary and software requirements (and its required form and package) for defense. Stretching this period too thin only brings requirements haphazardly done to be submitted for defense. This two-week period is also a buffer period should problems arise in finalizing the requirements.

Doing Community Portals

2008-02-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

One of my advisees asked me this question:

“Sir, would it be alright if i still do a generic system (Community Portal for Real Estate Brokers)? I’ve just talked with the chairperson of our chapter and they are willing to back me on the project (do/hire people for the maintenance and stuff) but they want it to target the real estate industry as a whole.”

In my opinion, doing a generic system is like doing a software package for a target domain (e.g. generic accounting, purchasing, etc.). I welcome the development of such since this also brings opportunities for the developers to have a starting product should they already plan to go for having their own IT firm.

Having a Community Portal for Real Estate Brokers (in the Philippines) I would presume, is not a development of a generic system. And if I will base it with my discussion with Yayo Arabit, there is a specific set of requirements and demand on technology that the community of Real Estate Brokers are having. In the case of the Real Estate Brokers in the Philippines, if it will be a development of a system catering to the “National Association of Real Estate Brokers of the Philippines” or whatever name there is (should it exist), it will not be a generic system development. But should the case be a development of system that will cater to ANY association of Real Estate Brokers in the Philippines, then that will end up development of a generic system (with consideration of the common processes and requirements among several associations).

Why Blogging for ICT Projects Advising and Consultation

2008-01-30T23:55:00.000-08:00

Everyday, discussions and exchanges about doing projects in ICT are happening in the University. Many have the same concerns, of course some have specific concerns since everyone applies ICT to different domains and organizations.

I’ve always wanted to create a repository of knowledge created during these discussions and exchanges and offer access to this repository to other students and future students doing projects in ICT.

Hope that this blog is the start of it.

To those who will be posting inquiries, questions, comments, please observe the following so that we can maintain this repository organized.

Do not forget to tag your post. Tagging allows the knowledge created in this blog organized and can provide easy access to content when the repository becomes big.
Posts are for a single discourse or topic. Do not overload a post. Should there be parts of the post that needs to refer to a previously posted post, please do not forget to link them together
When posting, use a third person tone. We don’t want to convert this blog into a repository of chat messages right?

Let’s enjoy sharing what we think and what our questions are to everyone.

Doing a capstone project in HRIS

2008-01-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

It is my opinion that there have been so many projects developed about HRIS. Students who plans to propose to develop HRIS should look at current innovations in the conduct and processes concerning human resources. In one of the discussions I had with Mr. Allan Chu together with other faculty members, I learned that there have been some changes in how benefits are managed in some companies. This may be a very interesting innovation to look at and implement technological solutions to manage it.

In the same manner, including some innovations like self-service concepts in HRIS (deregulation of some processes to the employees themselves) may be also something to look into and implement in the project

(Responses to this post have been lifted from the original blog in Wordpress)

Jeffrey Lopez replied: ( February 1, 2008 at 8:46 am)
Hi, first of all, the initial data that we have collected is it is a call center of about 150 regular employees(call center agents), also the company is in the plans of expanding their business, thus it will increase the number of employees needed. Based on these initial data, is our company feasible enough?

Can you also give us some criteria on what are the things that a company might need to have in order for them to need a HRIS? tnx
btw, we have a wiki site: http://methodshris.wikispaces.com

Oliver Malabanan replied: (February 2, 2008 at 5:40 am)
When proposing for an information system in general, it is important of course to look at the volume of data needed to be processed in order to give users the information they needed. In this light, we have to look at the volume of sources of data.

In the case of HRIS, we are definitely looking at the number of employees, since it is one of the factors contributing to the need for an automated processing.

There may be other factors that you need to consider, one of them is having to look at the required service the HR is expected to have but unfortunately with the volume of data they process and tasks they perform, this could not be achieved.

Jeffrey Lopez replied: (February 6, 2008 at 12:12 pm)
Based on the comments given by doc lloyd and even my own analysis of the company’s situation, it seems like that a HRIS is not the solution to the company’s problems.

I am thinking of an Online Recruitment Management System, since call center agents usually stay at the company for only 6 months with a turnover rate of 20-25% monthly, and based on the interviews, on a average, the company’s daily recruitment is 3 persons per day. Meaning, there are a lot of job applicants that the company manage everyday.

My question is, is an Online Recruitment Management System enough to be proposed for METHODS or it is too small and is only a module for a HRIS?

Oliver Malabanan replied: (February 7, 2008 at 5:16 am)
If ever this will be a FULL IMPLEMENTATION, my opinion is that it can be an ICTPROJ project. Should you intend to only make it a prototype, this may not pass as project.

You may want to get a second opinion from Dr. Jose Lloyd Espiritu so we can finally decide on a proposal by next week.