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Frank: Goodmorning, Mr. Marx. Are you ready for our interview?
Julius: I sure am,Frank. Let’s see if we can get this system on the road.
Frank: I’m excited about it myself – but a little apprehensive.
Julius: Well,we’ll take it one step at a time. I’m sure you’ll do fine. You come highly recommended. The first step is to prepare a formal Request for System Services.That is a document used by anyone in the organization to request the investigation of a system development project.
Frank: Do we have to do that even when we are requesting our own services? I mean, this system is for our own use.
Julius: Yes, we do. We have to justify our allocation of human resources to this project. By doing this project we have to put off another project requested by someone else.
Frank: Is there that much demand for system development?
Julius: Why do you think you were hired?
Frank: Good point.Well, then I better ask you a few questions. First, of all what do you want this proposed system to do?
Julius: We want itto keep track of each piece of equipment (computers, printers, scanners, etc.)that we have in service throughout the college. We need to know how each computer is configured in terms of RAM, hard drive, video card, etc. And weneed each component tied back to the PO that purchased it so we can check warranty times.
Frank: PO?
Julius: A Purchase Order. It is an accounting document used to specify a purchase.
Frank: Sorry. I know we covered that in accounting. Go on.
Julius: Well,that’s one thing – knowing what is installed and when each component was purchased. But, of course, we do maintenance on the equipment, too.
Frank: What should the maintenance part of the system look like?
Julius: For onething, I’d like to know what components were previously installed on each machine. That way I can determine maintenance problems. Beyond that we need asystem that allows users to easily submit a service request, allows me toassign those service requests to techs, allows techs to quickly see a machine’s service history, and allows me to look at statistics and trends.
Frank: I take it the present system doesn’t do that?
Julius: The present system is a mess.
Frank: How does it work?
Julius: Well, on the equipment tracking side of the equation, we simply keep a spreadsheet witha row for each PC. It lists the current CPU, hard drive, RAM, etc.
Frank: What’s theproblem?
Julius: Theproblem is it is never up-to-date. Techs have to remember to update it afterthey come if from a service call. That rarely happens. Even when the list isup-to-date, it doesn’t show when each component was purchased.
Frank: You need that for the warranty?
Julius: Right. Currently, we have to get the serial number off the part that was removed and then manually scan through all the oldpurchase orders to find a match. This office probably spends $2000 per year inwork just doing that.
Frank: How does the service request part of the current system work?
Julius: Right now users call or e-mail in their requests. Whoever is here takes the information and records it on a servicere quest form. I get those forms and assign one tech or another depending on thenature of the problem. The tech goes out. It may take multiple trips. It mayrequire ordering a part and then going back. We may have to send a second person. When you change persons or just have the passing of time, information gets forgotten and lost. That whole process should be done electronically fromthe user’s request to recording each tech’s work.
Frank: What would that look like? What are ouroptions for setting it up?
Julius: We could put it all on an intranet. Or we could build a client-server app that was placed on each PC.
Frank: Which way do you prefer?
Julius: We don’t know enough at this stage to prefer anything. Don’t jump to implementation. However we do it, I want each user to be on the system and each tech to be able to get on the system from any PC oncampus. Plus I could use that information for better managing the departmentand the equipment.
Frank: How so?
Julius: I could track average number of days from request to resolution and track that for continuous improvement. I could track number of repeat trips for each tech. I could track maintenance history for each PC and calculate total cost of ownership.
Frank: That would be great to have all that information.
Julius: Yes, it would be great. But it isn’t going to happen unless we get a new system running.
Frank: Are there any time tables I should be aware of?
Julius: I would like to get the system analysis anddesign wrapped up this semester. Then we can get it programmed next semester.It might be somebody’s senior project. By the end of next semester, I want it operational.
Frank: Do youthink we’ll need any additional hardware or software to drive the system?
Julius: I doubt it. We have a good client-server back-end database. We have networkingthroughout campus. If we use a web front-end then every PC on campus is already powerful enough. By the way, that has to be a system requirement. I want this system to reduce our workload, not increase it by requiring updates.
Frank: If every user can get on and techs can get onfrom every workstation, what about security?
Julius: Good question. The system will have to have security to make sure that only the appropriate people can do various tasks.Some students would love to enter bogus computers and bogus problems. We also need to keep everyone but me out of the management reports. I don’t want all users requesting the specific tech with the best response time.
Frank: OK. I’ll review this information. I’ll put together the Request for System Services and do some initial problem analysis.I should have all that done in a few days.
Julius: Glad to hear it. Give me a call if you have any questions.
Frank: I will. Goodbye, Mr. Marx.