The mayor of the City of Smallville, Clark Kent, has decided to adopt the principles of Open Government. An Open Government is one with high levels of transparency and mechanisms for public scrutiny and oversight in place, with an emphasis on government accountability. As part of his open government initiative he decided to make Smallville’s public documents, such as city council meeting agendas and minutes, rules and regulations, services and permits, etc. more readily searchable over the Web. These documents originate the City’s departments including: Police.
Fire, Garbage, Water, Sanitation, Elections management, Transportation, Electricity.
Roads, Housing, Welfare, Parks and Recreation, and Education. To achieve this objective, Smallville published a Request for Proposal for defining a process for publishing Smallville’s documents on the web. They hired the lowest bidder who recommended the following: A single group (ODG: Open Documents Group) would be created at the City whose job is to tag all City documents that are to be published on the World Wide Web with keywords. The keywords would be used by Google and Bing to classify each document, thereby enhancing the recall of the document. The group would perform the following tasks:
1. Departments will submit pdfs, word docs, and text files of reports/articles/bylaws etc. for publications to the group via email. No additional information would need to be provided by departments about the submitted document.
2. The group has a set of specialists who will perform a Relevance Review. The specialists will have a set of guidelines as to the types of documents that cannot be published on the web. If a document is rejected, it will be returned to the submitting department.
3. The group has a set of specialists who will perform a Privacy Review. The specialists will have a set of guidelines as to the types of content that cannot be published and would have to be removed from the document. If a document contains unpublishable content, it is rejected and simply returned to the submitting department without comment.
4. The group has a set of specialists who will translate the document into standard web format. Documents will have to be translated from doc, pdf, etc. into an HTML document.
5. The group has a set of specialists who will perform a Keyword Tagging.
Smallville has a set of subject keywords, created by these specialists, that they use to tag documents. The specialist selects a subset of keywords from the list to tag the document.
6. Each document is then reviewed by a supervisor to assure the quality of the tasks performed.
7. After the document has passed the review, it is published on the web.
8. The department that submitted the document is charged for the cost of processing, regardless of whether it is rejected or not.
The process above was implemented by Smallville. After a period of six months, Clark Kent met with his department heads to get feedback on the process. He heard the following:
* The process takes too long for documents to be processed. City Council Meeting Agendas are published months after the meetings. Same is true of other public notices, e.g., bylaw changes, permit requirements changes. All of these documents, due to their public nature, do not pose relevance nor privacy problems.
* The cost of processing a document is too high. Since the document processing cost is paid by the submitting department, they are receiving large monthly bills.
* The quality of the tagging is poor. Incorrect tags were being used, and the set of tags available do not encompass all of the keywords the departments think should be used. The keyword list was created by specialists, based on the city administrations’ internal perspective of what they do. The departments were not asked by the ODG to contribute to the list.
* The public cannot find the documents they are searching for. They have tried various combinations of keywords they thought would be relevant without success.
• The ODG does not communicate with the departments. They neither request input nor provide feedback. They simply accept or reject documents for publication without explanation. Departments do not know why documents are rejected other than they are not relevant or contain private information.
Questions: Draw the BPMN diagram for the
AS-IS (current) process and annotate with time information. State your assumptions when necessary. (20 marks)
2. Redesign the process and the underlying Information Technology. Describe each step and rationalize the design changes by referencing the Information Technology, Process redesign heuristics, Lean and Six Sigma methods that motivated them. (30 marks)
[Please note that BPMN diagrams are typically created using specialized software, but I’ll provide a simplified text-based representation.]
Start Event: Triggered when departments submit documents.
Task 1: Document Submission (Time: Variable): Departments send documents (pdfs, word docs, text files) to ODG via email.
Task 2: Relevance Review (Time: Variable): ODG specialists review documents to check relevance, based on guidelines.
Task 3: Privacy Review (Time: Variable): ODG specialists review documents for privacy concerns, based on guidelines.
Task 4: Document Translation (Time: Variable): Specialists convert documents to HTML format.
Task 5: Keyword Tagging (Time: Variable): Specialists tag documents using predefined keywords.
Task 6: Supervisor Review (Time: Variable): Supervisor ensures quality of tasks performed.
Task 7: Document Publication (Time: Variable): Approved documents are published on the web.
End Event: Process ends.
Assumptions
Variable times for tasks reflect the unpredictability and delays in the current process.
No direct communication between ODG and departments.
Departments pay for processing costs.
No feedback loop for process improvement.
Redesigned Process and IT System:
To address the issues raised and optimize the process, several changes are proposed:
Start Event
Triggered when departments submit documents.
Task 1: Document Submission (Time: Reduced):
Departments send documents to a redesigned IT system that supports multiple document formats.
Task 2: Automated Pre-screening (Time: Reduced):
The IT system performs an automated pre-screening to identify documents that are public in nature (e.g., city council agendas, public notices).
Task 3: Content Analysis (Time: Reduced):
For documents identified as public, the system analyzes content for relevance and privacy concerns. Relevance criteria are predefined, and privacy concerns are assessed using machine learning algorithms.
Task 4: Automated Conversion (Time: Reduced):
The system automatically translates public documents into HTML format, reducing manual effort.
Task 5: Collaborative Tagging (Time: Reduced):
Instead of predefined keywords, a collaborative tagging system is implemented. Departments and ODG specialists collaborate to create and maintain a dynamic keyword list.
Task 6: Continuous Feedback Loop (Time: Ongoing):
Departments and ODG have an open communication channel for document submission, feedback, and clarification of rejection reasons. An AI-powered chatbot assists in this process.
Task 7: Quality Assurance (Time: Reduced):
A combination of automated and manual quality checks are implemented within the IT system to ensure accurate tagging and content quality.
Task 8: Document Publication (Time: Reduced):
Approved documents are published on the web promptly after passing automated checks.
Task 9: Cost Optimization (Time: Ongoing):
The redesigned IT system tracks processing costs and suggests cost-saving measures to departments. Costs are reduced through automation and efficient processing.
End Event
Process ends.
Rationale for Redesign
Lean and Six Sigma Principles: The redesigned process minimizes delays (reduced cycle time), eliminates non-value-added steps, and ensures continuous improvement through feedback loops.
Improved IT System: Automation reduces manual effort and speeds up processing, enhancing efficiency.
Collaborative Tagging: Involving departments in keyword tagging ensures more accurate document classification, addressing the issue of poor tagging quality.
Feedback Loop: Open communication between departments and ODG allows for transparency and accountability. This aligns with the principles of Open Government.
Cost Optimization: The IT system helps departments optimize costs, making it more cost-effective for them.
AI and Machine Learning: These technologies improve content analysis and enhance the accuracy of document screening.
Dynamic Keywords: The dynamic keyword list reflects a wider range of perspectives, making documents more discoverable.
In conclusion, the redesigned process and IT system aim to streamline document processing, improve quality, reduce costs, and enhance transparency and collaboration between departments and ODG, aligning with the principles of Open Government. These changes will address the issues and feedback received during the initial six months of implementation.
As a renowned provider of the best writing services, we have selected unique features which we offer to our customers as their guarantees that will make your user experience stress-free.
Unlike other companies, our money-back guarantee ensures the safety of our customers' money. For whatever reason, the customer may request a refund; our support team assesses the ground on which the refund is requested and processes it instantly. However, our customers are lucky as they have the least chances to experience this as we are always prepared to serve you with the best.
Plagiarism is the worst academic offense that is highly punishable by all educational institutions. It's for this reason that Peachy Tutors does not condone any plagiarism. We use advanced plagiarism detection software that ensures there are no chances of similarity on your papers.
Sometimes your professor may be a little bit stubborn and needs some changes made on your paper, or you might need some customization done. All at your service, we will work on your revision till you are satisfied with the quality of work. All for Free!
We take our client's confidentiality as our highest priority; thus, we never share our client's information with third parties. Our company uses the standard encryption technology to store data and only uses trusted payment gateways.
Anytime you order your paper with us, be assured of the paper quality. Our tutors are highly skilled in researching and writing quality content that is relevant to the paper instructions and presented professionally. This makes us the best in the industry as our tutors can handle any type of paper despite its complexity.
Recent Comments