After completing the pilot study chapter with some good material comparing the apparent development and deployment process with the various engineering change models (my supervisor writes I read through the pilot study section and I think you've done enough with that section now. I like the way you identified the different changes that emerged from the conclusions drawn from the study), I began contemplating which enhancements I would be covering in the major case studies. At the same time, I had written and extending a chapter about part of my company, showing major enhancements that had been enacted in the past two years. I wasn't too enthusiastic about researching these enhancements as some parts of them had taken place two years ago and so people's memories might not be too accurate. Also, these aren't 'classical' enhancements as I had defined them with one group of stakeholders entering information and another group utilising this information. If one takes a long view, then this is what's happening, but it's not initially apparent.
During a management meeting this week, part of which was devoted to plans for the coming year, I suddenly realised that I had a huge enhancement taking place underneath my nose. We intend to modernise and computerise the finished goods warehouse; as it is expected that the warehouse workers will be mobile within the warehouse (as opposed to workers on the factory floor who are in fixed positions), one of the requirements of the warehouse management system (WMS) is that it handle wireless communications via hand-held terminals. This is beyond my capabilities and so the enhancement will be delivered and developed by an outside vendor. There is a WMS module that exists within Priority although we don't have a license for it yet. Using a WMS that is an integral part of Priority is preferable than using an external program.
With this realisation, I quickly changed the order of presentation of enhancements and case studies, making the WMS the primary case study. The main advantage of researching an enhancement in real time is that I can maintain a research journal; I went over emails from the past four months and found a wealth of material for my journal. I also added some 'editorial comments' to this journal; these are also part of the research.
There are a few differences between this enhancement and others that I have discussed on a procedural level; as I wrote in the thesis, it will be beneficial for this research to see what changes in the development and deployment process arise through the choice of an external vendor (the choice itself is a step in the process that does not exist with an internal implementer). I am going to add some thoughts about that to the research journal.
We can also take advantage of some of the tentative conclusions from the pilot study, namely that the specification can include the definition of clear goals for the enhancement along with criteria for judging the success of the enhancement, thus improving the chances of the enhancement being successful. This is also an important part of the research: showing how steps that we might not have taken had it not been for my research do make a contribution. There are a few paragraphs devoted to the topic of validation in the version of the thesis that was presented last year; I'll have to dig them out.
In a sense, this blog too is part of my research journal!
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