Background |
Since the mid-1980s, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) has utilized the CCSLIB software application to manage its mission-critical data and business processes. The particular application modules used by the BHA include:
- Accounts Payable
- Bank Reconciliation
- Fixed Assets
- General Ledger
- Rental Housing Eligibility
- Leased Housing Eligibility
- Inventory Control
- Purchase Orders
- Leased Housing Management
- Tenant Accounting
- Payroll
- Work Orders
The BHA uses these application modules to manage financial, human resources, public housing, and leased housing operations. These operations are at the core of the BHA’s mission.
CCSLIB is written in the Pick programming language, and runs on the UniData relational database management system (“RDBMS”), and the UNIX operating system. While UNIX continues to be a widely utilized, state-of-the-art operating system, the UniData RDBMS and the Pick programming language are not mainstream technologies. Beyond these technical issues, the BHA recognizes that CCSLIB does not support all of the organization’s major business functions. CCSLIB does not include support for capital construction or contract management, to name just two important business functions. CCSLIB is not flexible enough to be adapted to more effective or efficient business processes, or to more effective staffing configurations.
|
The Needs Assessment Project |
The BHA has decided to explore the possibility of replacing CCSLIB. As a first step, the BHA conducted a comprehensive analysis of its functional, operational, and organizational requirements. The goal of the first step, the Needs Assessment, was to develop the following:
- Functional specifications for the system to replace CCSLIB;
- Operational specifications for the BHA’s major business processes;
- Organizational specifications for BHA departments; and
- Consensus and buy-in within the BHA on the changes that will result from the implementation of the new system.
The resulting specifications are neither overly specific nor overly general. Each particular specification required more or less precision. For example, one specification requires a General Ledger account code of at least eight segments, allowing at least eight alphanumeric characters per segment. On the other hand, a specification for Procurement has the general statement that the BHA requires the ability to electronically route a purchase order through a number of approval steps.
The Needs Assessment extended beyond the hardware, software, and functional specifications for the new system to address the broader operational and organizational environment in which the technology will operate. A Needs Assessment that had focused only on technology would have jeopardized the success of the new system.
|
Functional Specifications |
The final products of the Needs Assessment, as stated above, include a set of functional, operational, and organizational specifications. The organizational specifications and many of the operational specifications are for internal BHA use, and will not be shared publicly.
The functional specifications, describing the desired features of the software applications that the BHA wishes to implement, are being made available to any and all interested parties.
These specifications are organized by operational area. For each operational area, the BHA has produced a document that includes a brief overview of the operational area, and a flowchart (or flowcharts) outlining the BHA’s desired workflow for the associated work processes. Included in the flowchart are statements describing the functional requirements that the BHA expects the software will need to meet in order to support the desired workflow.
These requirements are also listed in tabular form, immediately following the flowchart(s).
- The first column of each chart provides a reference number for the particular requirement.
- The second column describes the particular business process to which the requirement relates.
- The third column provides the detailed description of the particular requirement.
- The fourth column notes the priority assigned by the BHA to each requirement. There are three levels:
- Mandatory are those requirements that must be available.
- Important are those requirements that the BHA is very interested in acquiring in its next system. These requirements will help the BHA meet many of its project goals, including simplifying and speeding data entry, queries, and reports; eliminating redundant data entry by integrating related systems; processing data faster; and shifting staff effort away from data entry and processing, and towards data analysis.
- Nice to Have are those requirements that constitute less essential system features.
- The fifth column provides a space for comments to provide further information about the associated requirement.
|
Specification Documents |
The specification documents are one of the final products of the BHA’s Needs Assessment. Specifications included in these documents may be used in the future to support the procurement and selection of software applications. However, these documents are not procurement documents and should not be construed as such.
|
