Systems engineering design for operations directorate administrative information system

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1994-09-15

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Virginia Tech

Abstract

This project addresses an administrative information system for the Operations Directorate (0D) within federal government agency (which is referred to as the "Agency"). The OD was formed two years ago to combine similar tasks under one directorate. When the 00 was formed there was insufficient time to properly address the information system and many of the OD personnel did not have a clear understanding of their own functional requirements. Now two years later, the OD management would like to incorporate an information system that satisfies all of the users requirements.

This project addresses the analysis and design alternatives to the development of an information system that satisfies the OD requirements. The requirements encompass not only the users requirements but logistic, maintenance, environmental and security requirements. The OD information system integrates the concepts and techniques of System Engineering Design.

The research encompassed the class work from the System Engineering program, to include System Engineering, Applied System Engineering, Management Information Systems, Human Factors Engineering, Statistics. Software Engineering, and Productivity. These engineering and mathematical disciplines integrate to form the system engineering approach.

Three design alternatives were developed from the users requirements and current system configuration. Using the system engineering analysis, a design alternative was chosen based on the users requirements, system life cycle cost and OD yearly budget considerations.

The solution is a concise project detailing the analysis, and design of the 0D Information System. The intent of this project is to provide a methodology in developing an information system for this government agency. The functional, technical and operational aspects of the system integrate together to form the system.

The goal is to ensure the system provides a more productive, technically efficient, reliable, and user friendly system. The productivity of the system is the measure of the number and quality of reports, publications, and presentations. The system is considered technically efficient when the production of output has taken advantage of all available technology to minimize the inputs of production. A reliable system is one that fails infrequently and recovers quickly when it does fail. A user friendly system is a system where the user interface has been developed to point where an average person can perform the required tasks quickly and without software error.

The measuring of the the system in terms of Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), and Mean Down Time (MDT), user and management feedback determines whether the system has achieved it's defined goals.

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