Saint James Hospital Systems Analysis Jeff Myers MIS 435

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Saint James Hospital


Analysis

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Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the systems analysis and development

of the Saint James Hospital Management Information Systems (MIS) and the choices made by

the Chief Information Officer (CIO) (Ron Harper), staff, and Information Technology (IT)

department. I will also discuss the possible pros, cons and ultimately the consequences of these

choices for the organization and end user.

MIS Steering Committee Functions

When an organization forms a group for the purpose of directing the use of the firms

computing resources it is known as a MIS Steering Committee. (Raymond Mcleod, and George

P. Schell (2007)). The MIS Steering Committee is comprised of permanent members and

temporary members. The permanent members are usually the top executives of the organization

and the temporary members are usually lower level management and consultants that participate

when their particular expertise is needed. Never the less many if not all the members of the

steering committee will be some type of stakeholder in the company.

The MIS Steering Committee consents to and owns the business process requirement and

cost rationalization, it also observes progress of the project against the plan, verifies that

satisfactory resource is made available and that disagreements of priority, especially between the

project and the demands of the business, are resolved, and approves the final version of detailed

process maps and is the approving authority for any succeeding changes.

Three of the main functions of a MIS Steering Committee are the establishment of policy to

ensure computer support for achieving the strategic objective of the organization, provide fiscal

control by serving as the approving authority of all information system monies, and resolving

conflicts that may come up regarding information system use.

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A successful steering committee can help ensure the senior management involvement that

is so critical to the success of a project. In my opinion, if the MIS steering committee is

excluded from any portion of the system development process it will adversely affect the overall

approach to the development of the project.

Consequences

Management plays such a crucial role in determining the success or failure of an MIS

execution and as previously mentioned the MIS steering committee is comprised of senior level

management and there fore plays a large role. There are several persons and groups with

different, but related, duties involved in the management of the implementation phase of

management information systems and the possible difficulties that can be come across by each

one. Take the Steering Committee for instance. It can be said that at least the majority of the

time that most Steering Committees are comprised of people (senior level management) who

know very little about implementing an MIS, for the most part this is probably an unavoidable

circumstance because in most cases the senior executives of a company were probably not hired

for their knowledge and ability to manage complex management information systems.

A non-technical committee with little implementation experience is not a bad thing, provided the

members of the committee recognize their boundaries, limitations and are clear about their role.

They should not involve themselves in developing, determining or searching for technical

solutions, but concentrate on monitoring progress against a defined plan and expenditure against

a defined budget. Without this oversight, the chances of an implementation failure becomes

more prominent throughout the process.

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Choices

Making the decision not to bring in the Management Information System Steering

Committee until much later in the implementation process and only use the Information System

(IS) manager would not be the best choice. Unquestionably the project will benefit from such

advice as the IS Manager or CIO can offer, but one must be careful about total reliance on this

one person because this person may be only technically oriented and therefore only be more

interested in implementing a technically excellent resolution with little regard for the more basic

needs of the organization or needs of the end user. Another drawback, often run into, relates to

continuity of service on the Committee. As our text alludes to, management, including

management through the MIS Steering Committee, is required throughout the entire

implementation cycle. It is important that at least a hub of members remains stable throughout

the life of the MIS project, as recurrent changes of committee membership can lead to confusion,

changes in direction and loss of total knowledge concerning the project and its conduct. The

committee should avoid becoming too large although permanent committee membership may be

a better answer with other members ready as their areas become directly affected by the

implementation process. Lastly, it is imperative that the committee is chaired by a person in the

organization with influence because it could become necessary to be very unyielding with a

supplier or a hesitant employee or middle management and therefore a committee which is not

chaired by someone at the Executive Officer or Registrar level will find that this task is easier

said than done.

Prototyping

As far as SDLC methodologies go prototyping is one of the most successful, there are

two types of prototyping; Evolutionary Prototyping is when you build a very strong prototype in

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a planned method and constantly refine it to ensure all of the functionality that the end users

require. This will form the basis for the new system, so improvements and further

refinements of the system can take place.

This method also allows the development team to add features, or make changes that were not

possible during the requirements and design phase of the project. Requirements Prototyping is a

way to develop and define the functional requirements of the new system when users are not able

to fully explain what they want the new system to do or accomplish for them. (Raymond Mcleod,

and George P. Schell (2007)).

Prototyping has several benefits for both users and developers such as communications

are improved, users needs are better achieved, the end user plays a more vital role in the

development, and implementation can be easier. Prototyping also has a few drawbacks such as

too many shortcuts, unrealistic expectations from the user regarding the new system, poor

efficiency and design techniques. (Raymond Mcleod, and George P. Schell (2007)).

The company CIO Ron Harper stated that he will use prototyping as a methodology for

the new system; I do not think this necessarily a bad idea, I agree that prototyping can be a high-

quality and quick method to systems development; however the developer and management must

be made aware of prototyping pros and cons.

Conclusion

I have attempted to indicate the choices of the organization CIO (Ron Harper) and list the

pros and cons of his decisions. The successes and pitfalls listed are by no means meant to be all

inclusive or suggest that one will always be successful or that pitfalls can always be avoided, but

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rather suggest that the risk of failure can be minimized by correct management involvement at

the proper levels and the conduct of the necessary planning and implementation activities.

Works Cited

Raymond Mcleod, and Geprge P. Schell (2007) Management Information Systems Tenth

Edition,

NJ: Pearson.

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Use prototyping to visualize project requirements. Tom Mochal, (2008) Retrieved 29 July 2008

from: http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/techmanagement/0,9044902,62040227,00.htm

Project management terms you should know Tom Mochal, (2006) Retrieved 29 July 2008 from:

http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/techmanagement/0,9044902,39403718,00.htm

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Saint James Hospital Systems Analysis Jeff Myers MIS 435

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