e-Monitoring of Outsourcing IS Project in
Financial Institutions:
A Case Study on Mandatory Provident
Fund Projects in Hong Kong
Vincent C.T. Chan
Dickson K. W. CHIU
Dept of CS & E,
Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology
Senior Member, IEEE
[email protected]
Dickson Computer Systems
Hong Kong
[email protected]
Stephanie Chow, Patrick C. K. Hung
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
[email protected], [email protected]
Introduction
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Increase project-based IS development outsourcing
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Outsourcing provides a wide range of specialized skills /
complexity
Packages tailored to the particular business
Alleviate staffing difficulties and skill shortages
E-monitoring of (outsourced) development tasks
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Monitoring agents communicate through Web services
Alert Management System (AMS) mechanism
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control rules
dependency and discrepancy handling
Achieve overall central administration and project management
Financial institutions: monitored by regulatory authorities
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Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) (HK)
Mandatory Provident Fund Authority (MPFA) (HK)
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-2
Overall Monitoring Conceptual Model
Development
Process
Outsource
Party
develop / maintain
Task
Artifact
reside
Monitoring
Agent
monitor
Control Rule
monitor
sendto
generate
Person in Charge
regulate
Handler
Alert
execute
Alert Task
manage
raise
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-3
Information in central administration
server
Outsource Party
-Party ID: E001
-Party Name: Vendor 01
Development Team
-Contact Person Information
-Link Details (e.g. URL)
Processes
-Process ID: P001
-Process Type: Control Rules
/ Dependencies and
Discrepancy / Alert
-Contact Person Information
Administration
Server
-Tasks ID involved
Task
-Task ID: T001
-Task Name: Get Detailed Requirement
for Development Platform
-Contact Person Information
-Entities ID involved
-Duration
-Starting Date
-Deadline
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
-Entities ID involved
-Response Action taken (e.g.
send an alert message,
change schedule, prompt
warning message )
-Effective Period
ICEBE 2007-4
Example relationship of process, task, and
attributes
Template for generic process
in system development
Attributes for each task
(Requirement specification)
-System feasibility
-Software plans and requirement
-Design
-Code
-Integration
-Implementation
-Operations and maintenance
Task for each process
(Software plans and requirement)
-Task ID
-Party involved
-Requirement specification
-Person in Charge
-Technical specification
-Milestones
-Module specification
-Duration
-Deadline
-Status
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-5
How “control rule” works
2. An alert task is generated
in the central AMS for
follow-up.
Control Rules
Attributes for task
(Requirement specification)
-Task ID
-Party involved
-Person in Charge
-Milestones
-Duration
-Deadline
-Status
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
-Conditions for Trigger
-Action Response
-Follow-up Alert
1. Control rule is
triggered when tasks /
entities violate the
defined conditions.
Monitored Entities
-Entity ID
-Party involved
-Person in Charge …
Attributes for task
(Requirement specification)
-Task ID
-Party involved
-Person in Charge
-Milestones
-Duration
-Deadline
-Status
ICEBE 2007-6
An example alert process between two
tasks
Task X (Design Stage)
Task Y (Coding Stage)
-Task ID: T088
-Task Name: Design of
Interface for outstanding
contribution reports with
MPFA
-Entities involved: Vender,
MPFA, User
-Start Date
-Duration
-Completion Date
-Deadline
-…
Task ID: T099
-Task Name: Coding of
Interface for outstanding
contribution reports with
MPFA
-Entities involved: Vender,
MPFA
-Start Date
-Duration
-Completion Date
-Deadline
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
Process Z (Alert)
-Process ID: P008
-Process Type: Alert
-Contact Person Information
-Tasks ID involved: T088, T099
-Entities ID involved: E001, V001
-Response Action taken:
[ IF CONDITION_1, THEN Send
an alert message to E001
ELSE IF CONDITION_2, THEN
Send an alert message to V001
ELSE DO Nothing )
-Effective Period
ICEBE 2007-7
Deployment Diagram
Remote
Monitoring
Agents
Monitor
Development
Processes
Software
Artifacts
Person in
Charge
Web Service Interface
An Outsource Party
Alerts
Internet
Alert
Management
System
Enterprise
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
Status and
Synchronization
Web Service Interface
Status and
Synchronization
Central
Alert Input
Administration
Triggered Action
Server
Database
Control Rule, Parties,
Process, Task, Artifacts …
ICEBE 2007-8
Monitoring Agent
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Thread pool implementation in JSDK 1.5
Issue HTTP/HTTPS GET and POST request
Send HTTP variable and value together with
HTTP/HTTPS POST request
Simulate user request by issuing a list of predefined
HTTP request together with HTTP variable and value
Memorize and handle HTTP session of various
language (e.g., with sites written in Java, session
information will be identified by a cookies named
JSESSIONID)
Web services invocations / SOAP messages sent over
HTTP protocol
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-9
Alert Processing
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Submit alerts by means of Web services requests to
the AMS.
Condition Definition module specifies when an alert is
triggered in a task.
Target Matching step is responsible for identifying the
parties to which the alert will be forwarded.
Follow-up Actions are the handlers to be executed
after an alert.
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-10
Case: Mandatory Provident Fund Projects
External
Business
Partners
Information
exchange
MPF
Authorized
Trustee
Participation
Give
information
needed
Provide
Service
Scheme
Participants
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
Inquiry and
Complaint
Monitoring
Regulatory
authorities
ICEBE 2007-11
Example tasks and processes for overall
monitoring
Administration
Server
Template for SDLC
-Requirement
-Design
-Coding
-Integration
-Implementation
-Maintenance
Trustee
Requirement
-Task ID: T001
-Task Name: XXX
-Task ID: T002
Process
-Task Name: XXX
-Process ID : P077
-Process Name: Check if coding can be started.
-Task ID: T088
-Task Name: Default
Contribution
Task
-Task ID : T088
-Task Name: Default Contribution
-Module: Requirement
-Person : Chan Tai Man
-Duration: 7 days
-Start Date: 28 Nov 2005
-Deadline: 6 Dec 2005
-Entity Involved: Trustee
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
Vendor
-Related Task ID : T088
-Process Type: Alert
-Alert Condition: {IF Task “T088” is not
completed after 4 Dec 2005, THEN Send Alert
message to remind PIC; Else If Task “T088” is
not completed after 6 Dec 2005, THEN Send
Alert message to remind PIC, Send Alert
message to Vendor for delay and adjust
schedule planning; ELSE Send confirmation to
Vendor for coding
- Effective Period: From 4 Dec 2005 To 6 Dec
2005
ICEBE 2007-12
Communications among external parties
Task
-Task ID : T088
-Task Name: Default Contribution
-…
-Completion Date: 6 Dec 2005
Administration
Server
Module: Requirement
-Task ID: T088
-Task Name: Default
Contribution
Module: Coding
-Task ID: T098
-Task Name: Coding of
Default Contribution
1
* Update Info
Process
-Process ID : P077
-Process Name: Check if coding can
be started.
2
Trustee
* Send message for updating Status
* Trigger to activate another task
3
Task
-Task ID : T098
-Task Name: Coding of Default
Contribution
-Module: Coding
-Person : Wong Tai Wai
* Its completion
-Duration: 24 days
trigger to another
-Start Date: 7 Dec 2005
process
-Deadline: 11 Jan 2006
4
-Entity Involved: Trustee, MPFA
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
Process
-Process ID : P123
-Process Name: Get samples to match
interface in MPFA
-Related Task ID : T098
-Process Type: Dependency
-Condition: {When Task “T098” is
completed, THEN Send a sample file
for MPFA, message to PIC for
confirmation If no reply from MPFA
after 3 days, THEN Send again
- Effective Period: Until Date of
Confirmation from MPFA
Vendor
MPFA
5
* Send a file
sample to related
entity
ICEBE 2007-13
Conclusion

Alert Monitoring mechanism handles
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Web service technology allows the monitoring on a
global standardized platform
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supervising of the development process of software modules
communications of parties / personnel involved
overall progress monitoring
Integration with other tools for monitoring project schedules,
such as, MS Project, Lotus Notes
Strengthens the monitoring ability in both coverage
and depth
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-14
Future Work
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Monitoring complex system development (e.g., spiral
model)
Inter-dependencies of alerts and cascaded exceptions
Both internal / outsourcing support
Software reliability monitoring
Use questionnaires to evaluate the satisfaction of
various stakeholders
Security and privacy issues
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-15
Question and Answer
Thank you!
Contact: [email protected]
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development
ICEBE 2007-16