by CloudEssays Staff Comment Closed

Ensure that you make the time to read Section 1 (page 2) of this document carefully.

 Assignment Support: For help with this assignment, contact TA.  Please see BA270 Canvas site (Announcements – Welcome! Or Modules – Start Here – Instructor/TA Info and Communication Policy) for TA contact information.

Note:

  • Don’t use Canvas email to contact the Teaching Assistan Use Gmail directly (outside of Canvas) instead. In the past, some Canvas generated emails and attachments have not reached intended recipients in a timely manner.
  • Read the whole document carefully. Not doing so is likely to result in a reduced assignment score.
  • This assignment is a continuation of Assignment 3. Hence, you will have to refer to and use:
    • The ‘car rental vehicle maintenance’ scenario described in Assignment 3
    • The COB Activity Diagram related help documents and video tutorial posted in the “Assignment Help Documents” module on BA270 Canvas website
    • The Visio diagram of your Assignment 3 submission
    • The MS Word document of your Assignment 3 submission

Assignment Objectives:

In this assignment, you will model the improved vehicle maintenance process as an Activity Diagram.

Assignment Deliverables:

On the BA270 Canvas course website page for Assignment 4, submit an e-copy of the MS Word document that includes a cover page, an introduction, a ‘Figure 1’ that depicts the current process (same as Assignment 3), and a ‘Figure 2’ that depicts an improved vehicle maintenance process.  See Section 3 for more details.  Be prepared to submit the Visio file (Visio drawing or .vsdx) for Figures 1 and 2 via email if grader requests you to do so.

 

Organization of this Document:

Section 1 of this document has important information on using outside help and Academic Honesty.  This is not the standard Academic Honesty statement, so read carefully.  Section 2 contains instructions and requirements for improving the current process.  Section 3 contains details on the assignment deliverables.  Section 4 has some comments about the format of the assignment.

 

 

 

Section 1: Academic Honesty and Acknowledging Help

Academic Honesty is one of the highest held values in the COB.  If you use help or past work, you need to acknowledge that.

 

  • If you use someone’s help (e.g., a peer, a student, TA, instructor, relative, friend etc.), acknowledge them in your assignment submission and specify what help you received from them. Failure to acknowledge help is a violation of the academic integrity policy and could result in an F grade in the assignment and/or course, and other academic disciplinary action.
  • Note that your answers must be your original work and not copied from some other individual or group. If a student is repeating the class, a replica of their work from a previous term is not allowed.  If you use previous work done by anyone (including self) as reference, you must attach a copy of that previous work along with this assignment submission. If you use a website as a reference it must be cited, and a URL that provides a legible copy of the image must be attached with your submission.
  • Every student must retain an e-copy of their assignment submission and Visio file (Visio drawing or .vsdx) of Figures 1 and 2 at least until one week after grades are posted following finals week.

 

Section 2: Redesign the Current Process

In a real-world situation where you are attempting to fix an inefficient process, you can either improve the process or design a whole new process as you see fit.  However, there are limitations that will determine the scope of the new process.  These restrictions could be set by management, the budget, the situation, regulations, industry best practices, etc.  Here too, your design will be limited through suggestions made by “management”.  Here, as in the real-world, management’s “suggestions” are requirements.

 

Management’s Suggestions and Some Advice

  1. Eliminate paper documen Management thinks that there is a lot of money being wasted printing and re- printing documents.  Can you eliminate some of this cost?

 

Advice.  While a paperless process may be idealistic, it may not be realistic.  In a real-world situation, eliminate paper documents only where you can and keep them where you can’t.  For example, an automotive maintenance bay may not be the best environment for a computer.  So, the mechanics should be the only actor to use paper documents here.

 

 

  1. Do not use Email attachments (use auto-alerts) to replace viewing complaints via paper documents. Instead use automatic alerts from an IS actor.  See the COB Activity Diagram Guidelines (Assignment Help Documents Module on BA270 Canvas site) about not placing an E-Document stencil outside an IS Actor’s Swimlane.  You   can depict that an actor viewed a complaint electronically by simply drawing an arrow from an E-Document stencil or shape to the process step in which the data was viewed by the actor.  Read the example below and see Figure 1.

 

Regarding Figure 1.  There are missing Start, Stop, and Decision stencils or shapes and other requirements for an Activity Diagram that are not shown here.  For brevity, we have intentionally left out these requirements.  This example is not meant to be a part of your assignment submission.  It is to help explain viewing digital information without printing.  It also depicts an example of an automatic alert from an IS actor.  Suppose you have an IS actor that has complaints stored digitally.  That IS actor notifies a human actor that there are complaints ready for review. The human actor goes to the IS system and views each complaint and then marks them as approved for further processing.  The first IS actor then transfers the digital data to a more specialized IS actor, assuming that the data is already in a format that is accepted by the next actor.

 

Figure 1 Viewing Data Electronically

 

Assumptions: For this assignment, it is okay to assume that the PMP also has the ability to send an alert to notify actors.  For example, PMP could send an alert about new pending jobs to the mechanics.  In addition, PMP could send an alert to a manager when a job status is changed from ‘pending’ to ‘complete’.

The transfer of data from one IS actor to another is not simple, but more about this next.

 

  1. Use middleware (a software that translates from one computing platform to another – e.g., from Windows to Mac) to transfer data electronically (no manual data entry) across incompatible information systems. Unfortunately, the two current IS actors (OCI and PMP) can’t “talk” to one another due to systems being incompatible with each other.  (This is similar to how a Microsoft Visio software is not compatible with a Macintosh computer by default).  Direct data transfer was not anticipated initially and hence not coded into their programs.  Amongst other problems, the data is saved in different formats on each system and neither system was designed to automatically reformat input data.
    1. Management also does not want to get rid of the OCI or the PMP. They have spent too much money on implementing them.
    2. Also management does not want to confuse customers by changing the “face” of the company by changing the OCI. Currently, the customers love the simple user interface and convenience of using OCI.
    3. The Mechanics are comfortable using PMP and management does not want to re- train the Mechanics and hence are not in favor of spending more money to change the PMP.

 

Advice.  There is enough budget to create middleware that can act as a go-between for the two current IS systems.  Middleware is software that bridges two or more incompatible software programs allowing them to effectively communicate with each other.  Remember from Systems Theory, this middleware can be considered an element or ‘actor’ only if it is capable of adding value beyond simple data storage.

  • This new IS actor (middleware) could be programmed to auto-reformat the complaints so that they are in an acceptable format for the PMP. This would eliminate the need for manual entry.
  • The middleware could also be programmed to automate the initial review of the complain The middleware can easily classify a complaint as a ‘maintenance complaint’ or as a ‘non-maintenance complaint’.  It is estimated that 90% of the complaints could be automatically classified in this manner.  The remaining 10% would then have to be reviewed by a human actor who would then communicate with the customer as needed.
  • The middleware could also be programmed to alert other actors (e.g., when there are new complaints ready for a human actor’s review).

 

  1. Eliminate unnecessary personnel (but keep maintenance manager in the process). One of the obvious problems with this process is that too many people are involved.  Some of these actors are currently not adding much value to the maintenance process in an efficient mann  For example, reviews of all (100%) complaints by a human actor are time consuming.  Currently, these actors need to read, comprehend the issue, make a decision, and discuss the matter with someone else for each and every complaint.  This time spent is partially repeated with the next person.  The process would be more efficient if the initial review of the complaints is performed automatically by an IS actor.

 

In addition, management sees the Data Entry Staff (DES) as unnecessary.  Their reasoning is that manual data entry continues to introduce errors in the PMP.  Also, the data in this process starts electronically with the OCI, changes to hard copy format, changes back to electronic format, and then ends electronically in the PMP.  Eliminating the DES and managers’ use of hard copy formats simplifies the process.

 

Advice.  Only one person is needed to determine if a complaint relates to a maintenance issue or not.  As this is a maintenance process, the maintenance manager should be the most involved actor in this process. This actor should be involved in the reviews and have more than one thing to do throughout this process. Do not eliminate the maintenance manager. As for the DES, we can eliminate them by eliminating most of the paper documents in this process.

 

  1. End process with customer interaction In the current process narrative, the process ends abruptly.  In the real-world, the process will end with a customer interaction, whether the complaint was a ‘maintenance complaint’ or ‘non- maintenance complaint’.  Your improved process should include these interactions.  In the case that a complaint is a non-maintenance complaint, a manager should give the customer further instructions or other options for their complaint.  This could be done via email.  Furthermore, you can add a more human element to the process such as the manager sending a thank you note, coupon, or an apology note to the customer after the vehicle has been fixed.

 

Section 3: The Deliverables

Ensure that your assignment submission does not violate academic integrity guidelines provided in the syllabus and the guidelines specified in Section 1 (Page 2) of his document. 

 

  • Make a copy of your Assignment 3 (MS Word document) submission and rename it as Assignment 4.

(If you are not sure how to do this, there is a ‘Using an Old Saved File’ document in the ‘Assignment Help Documents’ module in the course pages on the Canvas website.)

 

  • Update the Cover Page with the correct assignment number and revised submission d

 

  • Using MS Visio create a ‘Figure 2’ (model of improved process) based on Section 2 of this documen

Use the COB Activity Diagram guidelines documents and video tutorial for reference.  These documents are available in the ‘Assignment Help Documents’ module on BA270 course site.

 

  • Use the ‘Self-Assessment Rubric’ on the assignment 4 page on the Canvas website to assess your document and make edits as needed.

 

  • Remember to save the entire Figure 2 (‘Select All – File – Save As’) in both Visio and JPEG formats.

 

  • Insert the JPEG version of the Visio diagram (improved process) into your MS Word document as ‘Figure 2’. Use the caption “Figure 2 – Improved Vehicle Maintenance Process”.

 

Your document should now have a Cover Page, Introduction, Figure 1 and Figure 2.  Your document should now be three pages total.  The introduction and Figure 1 should be exactly the same as the previous assignment (Assignment 3).

 

  • You will then submit this assignment by uploading it to the course’s Assignment 4 page on the BA270 Canvas site.

 

 

Section 4: Comments on Assignment Format

All of the same requirements for the previous assignment apply to this assignment as well.  So, don’t forget the rules about:

 

  • Use Larger Fon Use 16 point font or larger so the diagram is legible after printing.
  • Figure Caption Use In-Visio captions or In-Word captions, but not both.
  • Import the JPEG version. Don’t forget to ‘Select All’ before saving into the JPEG form
  • Resize the Pictu Keep the same Aspect Ratio when resizing and reduce white space. Do not crop the picture using Word.
  • Picture sharpne Adjust the picture sharpness so that it is readable when printed.

Don’t forget to maintain all requirements set in Section 1 (page 2) of this document.  Ensure that your diagrams are generally consistent with COB Activity Diagram guidelines (see ‘Assignment Help Documents’ module on BA270 Canvas site).

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