1. e-Monitoring of Outsourcing IS Project in Financial Institutions: A Case Study on Mandatory Provident Fund Projects in Hong Kong
Vincent C.T. Chan
Dept of CS & E,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Dickson K. W. CHIU
Senior Member, IEEE
Dickson Computer Systems Hong Kong
Stephanie Chow, Patrick C. K. Hung
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada

2. Introduction Increase project-based IS development outsourcing
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
Monitoring agents communicate through Web services
Alert Management System (AMS) mechanism
control rules
dependency and discrepancy handling
Achieve overall central administration and project management
Financial institutions: monitored by regulatory authorities
Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) (HK)
Mandatory Provident Fund Authority (MPFA) (HK)
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

3. Overall Monitoring Conceptual Model
Development
Outsource
reside
Monitoring
Process
Party
Agent
Artifact
develop / maintain
monitor
Task
Control Rule
monitor
sendto
generate
Person in Charge
regulate
Handler
Alert
Alert Task
execute
manage
raise
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

4. 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
Tasks ID involved
Entities ID involved
Response Action taken (e.g. send an alert message, change schedule, prompt warning message )
Effective Period
Administration Server
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

5. 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
Person in Charge
Milestones
Duration
Deadline
Status
Requirement specification
Technical specification
Module specification
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

6. How “control rule” works
Monitored Entities
2. An alert task is generated in the central AMS for follow-up.
Entity ID
Party involved
Person in Charge …
Control Rules
Conditions for Trigger
Action Response
Follow-up Alert
Attributes for task (Requirement specification)
Attributes for task (Requirement specification)
Task ID
Party involved
Person in Charge
Milestones
Duration
Deadline
Status
Task ID
Party involved
Person in Charge
Milestones
Duration
Deadline
Status
1. Control rule is triggered when tasks / entities violate the defined conditions.
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

7. An example alert process between two tasks
Task X (Design 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 Y (Coding Stage)
Task ID: T099
Task Name: Coding of Interface for outstanding contribution reports with MPFA
Entities involved: Vender, MPFA
Start Date
Duration
Completion Date
Deadline
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
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

8. Deployment Diagram Alerts Development Processes Remote Monitoring
Database Control Rule, Parties, Process, Task, Artifacts …
Central Administration Server
Alerts
Alert Management
System
Web Service Interface
Status and
Synchronization
Triggered Action
Alert Input
Person in Charge
Internet
Enterprise
An Outsource Party
Development Processes
Remote Monitoring
Agents
Software Artifacts
Monitor
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

9. Monitoring Agent 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

10. Alert Processing
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

11. Case: Mandatory Provident Fund Projects
External Business Partners
Information exchange
MPF Authorized Trustee
Monitoring
Participation
Give information needed
Provide Service
Regulatory authorities
Scheme Participants
Inquiry and Complaint
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

12. Example tasks and processes for overall monitoring
Trustee
Vendor
Administration Server
Requirement
Task ID: T001
Task Name: XXX
Template for SDLC
Requirement
Design
Coding
Integration
Implementation
Maintenance
Task ID: T002
Task Name: XXX
Process
Process ID : P077
Process Name: Check if coding can be started.
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
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

13. Communications among external parties
e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development

14. Conclusion Alert Monitoring mechanism handles
supervising of the development process of software modules
communications of parties / personnel involved
overall progress monitoring
Web service technology allows the monitoring on a global standardized platform
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

15. Future Work 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

16. Contact: dicksonchiu@ieee.org
Question and Answer
Thank you!
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e-Monitoring
of outsourced IS development