Riordan Manufacturing Hrms Integration Project

Riordan Manufacturing HRMS Integration Project Narrative

Internationally renowned as the industry leader in the field of plastic injection molding, with innovative designs, attention to detail, extreme precision, and comprehensive quality control, Riordan Manufacturing's current human resource management system (HRMS) and methodologies are surprisingly antiquated and disparate with low-tech strands. Hugh McCauley, Riordan's Chief Operating Officer, has approved Service Request RM004 to analyze the current HRMS with the goal of integrating the disparate tools and centralizing all HR information into a single application.

Request for Project Plan

Before approving project funding, Hugh McCauley has requested a detailed project plan that lists all tasks, resources, schedule and budget required to complete the HRMS development and implementation project. The project must be completed in approximately six months to begin using the new system in the second quarter of next year.

Phase 1: Define Problem (Duration: 5 days, Cost: $2,800)

Hugh McCauley defined the following problems with Riordan's current HRMS at the project initiation meeting with the Project Manager:

* Riordan's current HRMS was installed in 1992.

* Changes to HR information are submitted in writing (on special forms) by the employee's manager and are entered into the system by the payroll clerk, making the process vulnerable to errors and lag time.

* Each recruiter maintains applicant information for open positions and an Excel spreadsheet is used to track the status of applicants.

* Training and development records are stored in an Excel file by the training and development specialist.

* Workers' compensation is managed by a third-party provider, which keeps its own records.

* Employee files are kept separately by individual managers who are also responsible for tracking Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) absences and any requests for accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

* The compensation manager keeps an Excel spreadsheet with the results of job analyses, salary surveys and individual compensation decisions.

* Employee relations specialists track information about complaints and grievances in locked files in their offices (Riordan Manufacturing, 2006).

High Level Project Plan

The high level project plan will be built around the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). WBS breaks the project down into a hierarchy of tasks which represent the work to be done, ultimately revealing the critical path. The critical path is the series of tasks that dictate the project's finish date and the resources allocated to help ensure the project finishes on time.

Formal approval of the high level project plan must be given by Project Sponsor to launch the project.

Phase 2: Analyze Situation (Duration: 27 days, Cost: $17,560)

Analyze Current Infrastructure

The first step in this analysis phase is to have the Network and Systems Analysts evaluate the current infrastructure of interconnecting hardware and software that supports the flow and processing of information. The evaluation yielded that Riordan's current infrastructure will support the new HRMS so no new hardware or operating systems will have to be purchased.

Needs Analysis

Now that the analysts know a solid foundation is in place, a needs analysis focusing on the requirements related to the goals, aspirations and needs of the users can be conducted through personnel interviews and reviewing current documents.

Draft Entity Relationship and Data Flow Diagrams

The Entity Relationship Diagram is a data modeling technique that organizes the data in the project into graphical entities and defines the relationships between the entities. The Data Flow Diagram traces how data will move throughout the new system.

Risk Analysis

Risk analysis will identify and assess factors that may jeopardize the success of the project and define preventive measures to reduce the probability of those factors from occurring. The potential risks are: running over budget; exceeding the project "go live" deadline; the integration between the new HRMS and financial applications may have compatibility issues; and the data may not convert properly during migration to the new system. Contingencies to deal with such project risks are alternate resources, outsourcing, task delay, additional hires, and priority shifting.

Draft Detailed Project Plan

Incorporate the needs analysis, ERD, DFD, and risk analysis with the high level project plan to produce the detailed project plan defining exactly what, who, when and how the project will be carried out.

Develop Budget and Delivery Timeline

The Project Manager will develop the preliminary budget and timeline based on the detailed project plan. Due to the uncertainties involved with estimating project requirements, management should build flexibility into the schedule. The Project Sponsor will evaluate the analysis results before formally approving the project plan, budget and timeline.

Secure Required Resources

The Project Manager can now list the appropriate resources to perform each phase of the project, the start dates for each resource, and the estimated amount of time each resource will be committed to the project.

Formal approval to move to the Design Solution phase must be given by the Project Manager.

Phase 3: Design Solution (Duration: 13 days, Cost: $6,760)

Functional Requirement Specification (FRS)

The FRS document will be designed to specify all behaviors of the system and demonstrates how every system requirement and use case is to be satisfied. In the heat of development, the FRS will be critical in preventing scope creep and unnecessary changes.

Design Data Migration Plan

Data migration is moving data from the legacy system to the new HRMS with the purpose of preserving core business knowledge and making it accessible from the new system.

Design Disaster