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Team Skill 1 IOSS Problem Analysis
Updated Sep 26, 2010 by scottle...@gmail.com

Problem Analysis

Contents


Problem Statement

In order to better understand the problem statement proposed by the primary stakeholders, Anthony Mollise and Troy Silloway, an in-depth research needs to be conducted to (1) gain agreement on the problem definition, (2) understand the root causes, (3) identify the stakeholders and users, (4) define the solution system boundary, and (5) identify the constraints to be imposed on the solution to the system.

1.0 Gaining Agreement on the Problem Definition

The develop team obtained the Business Process Definition and Requirements from the primary stakeholders, Anthony Mollise and Troy Silloway, on 9/20/2010. Initial discussion on the the Business Process Definition and Requirements between the develop team and the stakeholders revealed that the project objectives did not match the process flows.

The original objectives for the Auto Batch Software Installation System were to create a web-based application that stream lines the installation of new software systems, lessens the amount of human interaction involved with the process, and maintains a history of the configurations used for each installation performed. However, according to the flow diagrams that the stakeholders generated, the main problem that the stakeholders wanted to solve was not “auto batch” installation of software, but the manual and time consuming process that a user uses to request a new software to be installed.

To clarify and define the problem, the develop team created two problem statement tables comparing the original problem definition as proposed by the stakeholders, and the revised problem definition agreed up between the stakeholders and the develop team.

2.0 Understanding the Root Causes

Once the problem definition is defined and agreed upon by the primary stakeholders, the Develop Team needs to investigate the root causes—the problems behind the problem that the stakeholders have proposed. Diagram below shows the unfolding process that the Develop Team took to obtain root causes of the problem.

2.1 Unfolding the Problem

Develop Team identified 5 root cause problems to solve from the root cause investigation. They are as follows:

2.2 Root Cause Identifying Techniques Applied

In order to identify 5 root cause problems, Develop Team utilized 4 techniques.

2.2.1 Average Requests Per Day Study

Develop Team requested the stakeholders to provide a historical trend of how many requests for new software installation were obtained each day. The number of requests received per day on average shows that there were too many requests sitting in QUEUE, while there were only few requests processed and completed.

2.2.2 Fishbone Diagram

Develop Team interviewed the stakeholders to determine why the number of requests completed each day is very low. The stakeholders provided many reasons, which pointed to lack of IT personnel resource to analyze the requests.

2.2.3 Time for Each Task Study

Once the Develop Team understood what was holding up the requests from being processed, the Team then investigated to understand which step took the most time to prevent a processed request from being completed. A study of time taken to complete each step in the current process flow indicated that most time was spent on waiting for a purchase (PO) to be issued out by the buyer.

2.2.4 Pareto Chart

Knowing that the wait time on a software license to be purchased is a root cause problem driving the overall software installation process to take too long, the Develop Team generated a Pareto chart to investigate root cause of this delay in getting a software license purchased.

3.0 Identifying the Stakeholders and the Users

The stakeholders and users of the IOSS project are presented in the table below.

4.0 Defining the Solution System Boundary

As part of the problem analysis process, it is necessary for the Develop Team to understand the interface between the IOSS and the environment or other systems.

From the meeting with the stakeholders, the Develop Team was able to construct a system perspective diagram describing the boundaries of the system, the users, and other interfaces.

4.1 System Perspective Diagram

4.2 Actor Roles

Having identified the actors in the new system, the Develop Team classified each actor’s role to understand how each actor impacts the system.

5.0 Identifying the Constraints to Be Imposed on the Solution

The following are constraints imposed on the solution to the software download process problem.

Comment by gcis...@gmail.com, Oct 9, 2010

Analysis is detailed and good. One problem is the stakeholders and users you identified are inconsistent with those you propose in the diagram of system perspective. 9.5/10

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