Proposal For Chief Product Officer – System Requirements Specification And IS Solution Design | Melbourne Metro Tunnelling Process

Literature review

Management Information System (MIS) has emerged as one of the most prominent techniques that offers its assistance in the completion of a project as well as the general operations of the organisations (Erich, Amrit & Daneva, 2014). Hence, it is of great importance to assess the current knowledge that is available over the subject. The discussed section is aimed at identifying the status of knowledge that is available on th subject that can be utilised in development of a MIS for Melbourne metro. The following sections offer an insight into the available knowledge about the subject through literature review, followed by the business process that has been selected for which the proposed system will assist its services. This part of the report has been concluded by discussing the proposed system along with the justification for the selection.

Management Information system

Management Information system of an organisation or a project is aimed at serving the processes to offer effective and efficient results. According to Wildavsky (2018), MIS of one firm or project is useless or less effective for other which could be considered to state that the system is a dedicated system and is aimed at offering its services to a particular firm or project entirely. The most vital component of a MIS is the information and the information that is collected by the system are methods, activities, technology, people and others. The system holds capability to convert the data collected from the users and organisational equipment into information that will assist the decision-makers in making efficient decisions (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). The information is further utilised to manage the operations that are being undertaken as part of the general processes. Another notable aspect of the system in discussion is that it serves both the internal and external users who are associated with the project.

The discussed review has enabled the author of the proposed paper to earn an insight into the system that is proposed to be developed. It will act as a source of inspiration for the proposing the system for Melbourne Metro.

Development of a MIS cites need for well-defined requirement for the system and different scholars have assessed on the requirement for a MIS development. The requirements that are core need for the development includes hardware, software, resources and legal framework (Peltier, 2016). Hardware is one of the unavoidable need for the development of the MIS however, the role of former is limited when the IS is web-based. Though, the hardware that will be used for collection of data and development of the system such as computers and others are still needed and needs to be accounted for (Laudon & Laudon, 2015).  Software is equally crucial for the development of the system and should be given proper attention. Furthermore, the legal framework of the region in which the system is being developed should also be provided with adequate attention (Sehgal, 2018). The resources for which the system will be developed also needs to be taken in consideration.

Requirement for MIS development

The review of the literature above has assisted the in understanding the needs for the development of the system and will be very crucial in proposing the system. The findings will be considered when proposing the system along with the requirements of the business case for which the system will be developed.

The business process that had been selected and will serve as the potential work area for the proposed system is the tunnelling process. The Melbourne metro project involves development of tunnels that for the establishment of rail network and underground stations at CBD north, CBD south, Parkville, Arden and other locations that will accommodate longer HCMT’s (high Capacity Metro Trains). Hence, the proposed system will offer its services to one of the most prominent part of the discussed project. Furthermore, tunnelling process is one of the most complex construction processes because of the high risk involved in it. The risks that the workforce is exposed to are the risk of tunnel collapsing, exposure to harmful gases, noise and vibration along with several others. Hence, the discussed project process needs a feasible solution that can offer its assistance in monitoring and mitigating the discussed threat.

The discussion above of the business process that will act as the work area for the proposed system is very complex, risky and volatile. Hence, the IS (Information System) should be able to identify the threat that is posed by the operations and notify the construction supervisor to take necessary action. It will deem the need for real-time data and should hold the capacity to visualise, analyse and manage the operations of the tunnelling process. Hence, a web-based IS is proposed that will collect the construction data and analyse it to offer proper results. Hence, the proposed system will account for Data Analytic tools and Internet of Things (IoT) for its operation.

The business process that had been selected as the main process for which the system will be developed is tunnelling process because it is very risky to work on a tunnelling process. Sudden accidents and un-intimated change can develop a chaos and result in catastrophic situations. Hence, it needs a system that is capable of collecting real-time data which is reason for the selection of IoT as an ICT tool for the development of the system (Wortmann & Flüchter, 2015). Furthermore, Melbourne Metro is a state owned major construction project that employees a large number of people and technology. Additionally, the people and activities are in a constants state of flux which will deem need for analysis of real-time data and other project information for notifying the right person or team to mitigate the threat that may arise as part of the tunnelling process (Fernández, 2018). Hence, the selection of data analytics tool for the proposed system. Thus the proposed system needs the support of IoT and Data analytics to support the tunnelling process with accuracy.  

Business process

Project Overview

The report is aimed at offering a Management Information System (MIS) that will assist the project team in the successful delivery of the project. The proposed system is a web-based MIS with the capability of Data analytics and supported by the IoT (Internet of Things). The system is named as IoT Data Analytics MIS (IDAMIS). The report has presented the requirements for the IDAMIS.

Melbourne metro Tunnel is one of the biggest project of Australia and is owned by the Victorian State Government’s RPV (Rail Projects Victoria) and is aimed at offering Metro services to meet up with the demands of the Metro users. The project is in its development phase and the paper is aimed at proposing a MIS. The MIS will assist the development team to meet up with the challenges of the construction in an effective and efficient manner and in the process will enhance the productivity.

The section is aimed at offering the service description of the IDAMIS that includes context, user characteristics, assumptions, constraints and dependencies (if any).

IDAMIS will collect real-time data and will also analysis the data. The IoT will be used for the collection of real-time data and for automation. While, the data analytics tools will support the decision making process along with forecasting the situations which will assist in the devising strategies for the operations. The tools will also support the basic operations of the case study.

Project Manager, Project team, External stakeholders and the administrator are the primary users of the system. External stakeholders will be the users who will have least use of the system while the project team and the administrator will use the system on a regular basis. The administrator will be responsible for the maintaining the system, authorising the users, notifications development and delivery along with several other crucial features of the system. The project owners will be monitoring the progress of the project and will also use the system for citing new requirements or changing the old ones. The project team will utilise the system for more than one purposes that will include operation assistance, viewing of the internal operations to gain knowledge of the inventory, employee status and others. Finally, the external stakeholders will use the system for bidding for the tenders and receiving orders.

1. The system is web-based and is operational on browser.
2. The system is provided with adequate resources to ensure proper functionality.
3. The system components (IoT and Data Analytics along with others) are up to the mark to support the needs of the operations. 
4. The system component’s capability will be enhanced with increase in the number of users.

1. The system will only support English.
2. If the data analysis software is not up to the mark, it may consume time for the delivering the analysis report.
3. As the system is web-based, it is vulnerable to cyber threats.
4. If the system is not provided with appropriate resources for its need the functionality of the system may get affected.
5. Some of the data needs to be entered into the system manually.

The system’s functionality will be dependent upon the size and type of the resources that had been provided to the system. Some of the data needs to be entered into the system manually and hence, it will be dependent upon the project team leader.

Proposed System

Functional Requirements

Requirement number	Requirement Name	Description
R1	Accessibility	The interface of the system should be accessible.
R2	Remote accessing	The system should offer remote accessibility of the system.
R3	Information sharing and Communication	The stakeholders should avail the opportunity to share or collect information and the system should also avail VoIP features for communicational purposes.
R4	Progress monitoring	The system should be able to monitor the progress.
R5	Employee management	The system should offer employee management features such as work shifts, punch in/out, work hours and others
R6	Authentication	Ensure the user of the system are authenticated and authorised.
R7	Data protection	Data must be protected.
R8	Data Analysis	The system should support the data analysis feature.
R9	Operation Management	The system should support operations management to support the project team.
R10	Reporting	The system should develop reports
R11	Scheduling	Based on the inputs into the system the system should recommend task schedules and budget.
R12	Internal operations management	The system should hold the capacity to manage the internal operations such as the inventory management and others.
R13	Inventory Management	Capable of managing inventory.
R14	Web services	The system should be web-based.
R15	Budgeting	The system should be able to manage and recommend budget utilisation.
R16	Monitoring	The system should offer monitoring services.
R17	Auditing	The system should periodically audit the operations to identify accurate operations.
R18	Bidding	The system should offer the bidding capability to the external stakeholders.

User interface of the system is very crucial because the system will be used by different stakeholders that holds different technological skills and hence, it should offer a very simple but effective user interface.

1. System shall have a uniform look with necessary toolbars and icons.
2. Should reflect scheduled task and the progress of the task at a real-time basis.
3. Should show the environmental condition at the construction zone.
4. Should show notifications.
5. Should show that the requested action is being processed.
6. Should show the performance of the users.
7. Changing the status of the task based on the input from the IoT or manually from the project team.

The system should be supportive for both the technologically skilled and non-skilled users. It should also reflect the process for using the system that must include FAQ (frequently asked questions) and tutorials showing the use of the system.

The system should offer web capabilities that would include supportive for different web browsers that includes Chrome, Firefox and others. Furthermore, the web-based system should be responsive to support different kind of devices. Initial loading time and the connectivity of the media along with the internet should be correlated. The performance of the system also needs to correlate with the hardware of the system components such as the IoT sensors, biometric scanners and others. Furthermore, the system should be operation at all times along with offering scalability features. The data analysis of the system should consider minimum time to ensure that the needful reports are presented to the users within the time.

IDAMIS is a IoT and data analytic based system and hence, it needs to account for the monitoring of the work environment that includes land stability, air quality, noise and vibration along with other crucial aspects of the project. Furthermore, it should also consider the analysis of the data collected from the IoT to predict the issues that may arise and is in need for mitigation. The performance of the security and monitoring tools should also be audited along with the biometric devices used at the construction site. Finally, the system should offer a detailed response for the internal and project needs.

The system should be compatible with all types of operating platforms and different browsers such as the Safari, Chrome, Firefox and others to support the IoT. The system should also offer support for the receiving, processing and reporting of the data to support data analytics.

The system should support data security measures such as protection of data and privacy. To attain the discussed measure, the system should restrain any trespassing and also ensure that the users of the system are also not able to utilise the system along with the information to fulfil their personal agendas. After an inactivity period the system should log out the user to avoid any unethical use of the system. No cookie should be left by the system at the user’s end.

Justification

The administrator should be the only user to have access to the back-end servers of the system. It should also be noted that the back end data should be encrypted. The data analysis tool should have access to the data management and the control of the analytic tools should only lay with the administrator.

The system should abide by the compliances and hence should only support the licensed tools. Furthermore, accessibility of inappropriate tools and links should be blocked by the system.

The system should be accessible from any location and should not be restricted by geographical domain. However, the accessing of the information by project team should be limited to the project site to ensure security.

Figure: Use Case of IDAMIS

(Source: Created by Author using M S Visio)

MEETING DATE	ATTENDEES	COMMENTS
07-09-2018	John Holland and CPB Contractors,  Project Manger Rail Projects Victoria, Technical analyst Labour Relations Manager Environment Manager

Purpose

The purpose of the test plan is to detail the approach and methods that will be used for the testing of the IDAMIS. The development team will test the system to ensure the feasibility of the system.

Following objectives are being pursued by the test plan:

1. Detailing of the test approach and method
2. Project specification in context with the test scope.
3. Resource identification and their functionality.
4. Detailing of the acceptance criteria and deliverables.

It is recommended that the system should adopt the cloud server of Hadoop or IBM Watson because they support that the automation very efficiently. Hence, the system will use the Language Java, Prolog and C++. The test team will measure the compatibility of system with Melbourne Metro.

1. Functionality testing
2. Bug fix
3. Additional Feature need

1. Accessibility
2. Control/centralisation
3. Scalability
4. Security
5. Load

Testing Strategy

Functional testing, Regression testing, Adhoc testing and System testing will be done to complete the test plan and attain its objectives.

Following are the system testing entrance criteria:

1. Approved and well defined.
2. Test data and cases.
3. Test tool and plan.
4. Testable code with appropriate test environment.

1. Functionality testingwill need to be done. It will be done in following steps:
   1. Unit testing is done in the development phase and is aimed at verifying the correctness of the module and takes consideration of individual parts.
   2. Integration testing is done to test the integrity of different modules into a system and hence, it is crucial for the proposed system. It will ensure the compatibility between IoT, Data analytics and other components of the system.
   3. System testing will be done post completion of the system and will be end-to-end test.
   4. Acceptance testing will be done by the project team and owner to ensure that the needs of the project are met.
2. Usability testingis an enhanced form of acceptance testing but it considers of the project team rather than just project owner and manager. The system will be used by the end-users and their feedback will be recorded to make necessary changes (if any) and pass the system.

Execution Plan

Test Case ID	TC001
Test Case Summary	To verify the accessibility feature of the system.
Related Requirement	R1
Prerequisites	i. The user is authorised. ii. System is functional. iii. The project owner is attempting to access the progress report from his/her computer.
Test Procedure	i. The project owner has logged in to the system. ii. He/she is attempting to download the progress report and coming week schedule.
Test Data	Files are accessible.
Expected Result	Files downloaded
Actual Result	Files cannot be downloaded
Status	Failed
Remarks	A sample test to verify the accessibility of the system by downloading the progress update and next week schedule.
Date of Testing	07/09/2018
Executed By	Project Owner
Test Environment	OS: Windows 10 Pro Browser: Internet Explorer

Test Case ID	TC001
Test Case Summary	To verify the users are able to exchange information
Related Requirement	R3
Prerequisites	i. The user is authorised. ii. System is functional. iii. The project manager is attempting to share some information with the project owner.
Test Procedure	i. The project manager is logged into the system. ii. He/she will try to send a message because they believe that it will improve the outcome of the project.
Test Data	Message sent
Expected Result	The project manager was able to send the owner a message through email (part of VoIP).
Actual Result	The message was sent to the owner through VoIP.
Status	Success
Remarks	It is a test to verify that the transmission of information is successful and secure.
Date of Testing	07/09/2018
Executed By	[Project Manager]
Test Environment	OS: Windows 10 Pro Browser: Internet Explorer

Regression testing and Adhoc testing will also be done as part of the test plan. Regression testing will be done, to ensure the changes (if any) are successful. While Adhoc will be done randomly and as it follows no test plan and hence, it has not been detailed.

The testing of the system will be done in the testing environment. The functionality testing will be the first testing that will be done to check the functionality of the system in accordance to the business requirement. The test will aim at features of the system and how they are operational. The requirement of the system includes an operating system such as the Windows, IOS, Linux or any other along with a browser such as safari, chrome, firefox, internet explorer or others. Additionally, a data will be entered into the system to check the data analytic time and response. Furthermore, the system will also be checked for the collection of real-time data by making certain users use the biometric printers.

Requirement Specification Report

Regression testing will also be done and it will be done post development to check for bugs and fix them.

The table below reflects the test schedule and it includes the subject of the testing, data of testing along with the start and end date of the testing which is succeeded by the remarks of the testing.  The testing subject is termed according to the requirement of the project and will be completed within a time frame of 7 weeks.

Testing subject	Test Data	Start Date	End Date	Remarks
R1	Accessibility	08/09/ 2018	08/09/2018
R2	Remote accessibility	10/09/2018	11/09/2018
R3	Information sharing & Communication	12/09/2018	14/09/2018
R4	Progress monitoring	15/09/2018	15/09/2018
R5	Employee management	17/09/2018	18/09/2018
R6	Authentication	19/09/2018	19/09/2018
R7	Data protection	20/09/2018	22/09/2018
R8	Data analysis	24/09/2018	27/09/2018
R9	Operation Management	28/09/2018	29/09/2018
R10	Reporting	01/10/2018	02/10/2018
R11	Scheduling	03/10/2018	04/10/2018
R12	Internal operations management	04/10/2018	06/10/2018
R13	Inventory Management	08/10/2018	09/10/2018
R14	Web services	10/09/2018	13/10/2018
R15	Budgeting	15/10/2018	16/10/2018
R16	Monitoring	17/10/2018	20/10/2018
R17	Auditing	22/10/2018	24/10/2018
R18	Bidding	25/10/2018	27/10/2018

The table attached above reflects the testing plan. The testing plan will initiate from 08/09/2018 and will commence at 2/10/2018. It should be noted that the gaps in the plan reflects the Sundays.

The development of the test plan has considered certain assumptions that are suitable for the testing of the system. The assumptions were made to ensure that the system is ready for testing and will cite the desired results. However, it was ensured that the assumptions that are made are feasible in nature and will response according to the need and will not exaggerate the needs of the system. Hence, the assumptions that were made to ensure that the discussed test plan was feasible includes:

1. The system is under running condition.
2. System is web-based is connected to a data centre (either physical or cloud based).
3. A secure channel has been provided to the team for establishing connection with the data centre.
4. Licensed and accurate tools has been used for the development of the system.
5. No fault has been identified.
6. The system is completed within time.

Conclusion

The discussed report has considered the case study of the Melbourne Metro and for the same has proposed a Management Information System that has considered ICT tools as its core components. The proposed system is called as IDAMIS and is abbreviation for IoT (internet of Things) based Data Analytics Management Information System. The name suggests that the ICT tools used for the proposed system are IoT and the Data analytics. The selection of the IoT is based on the fact that the considerer project will be a tunnelling process and it is very risky work which needs to be monitored due to the threats involved. The threats of land stability, air quality, noise, vibration and others are the most prominent and they need to be monitored at real-time to avoid any catastrophic incident. While the selection of the Data Analytic tool could be justified by the huge number of operations of the project along with large number of employees and the threats that needs to be mitigated. Hence, to forecast the environmental condition of the project process, the data needs to be analysed at a regular interval which justifies the selection of the analytics tool.

The paper has also offered an insight into the requirements of the project with the help of a requirement specification report which is succeeded by a test plan for the testing of the proposed system. Hence, to conclude the paper, it can be emphasised to state that the proposed system is capable of mitigating the threats faced by the project under consideration and capable of enhancing the productivity of the project processes which will prove to be of great prominence in successful delivery of the project.

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