Introduction

1. e-Monitoring of Outsourcing IS Project in Financial Institutions: A Case Study on Mandatory Provident Fund Projects in Hong Kong

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)

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

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 AdministrationServer Task • Task ID: T001 • Task Name: Get Detailed Requirement for Development Platform • Contact Person Information • Entities ID involved • Duration • Starting Date • Deadline

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

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.

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

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

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

10. Alert Processing • Submit alerts by means of Web services requests to the AMS. • Condition Definition modulespecifies 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.

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

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

13. Communications among external parties

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

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

16. Question and Answer Thank you! Contact: dicksonchiu@ieee.org