Running head: Lab Team Blue

Lab 1 STAT

Team Blue

Okechukwu Wyche

CS 411W

Janet Brunelle

10/11/13

Version # 3

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Table of Contents1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................4

2 STAT PRODUCT DESCRIPTION........................................................................................................10

2.1 Key STAT Features and Capabilities...............................................................................................10

2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software)........................................................................................11

3 IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY.................................................................................................13

4 STAT PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION................................................................................14

4.1 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software)..................................................................................15

4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities.................................................................................................16

4.3 Prototype Development Challenges.................................................................................................17

Glossary.....................................................................................................................................................17

References.................................................................................................................................................18

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Table of FiguresFigure 1: Sticky Notes Brainstorming.........................................................................................................5Figure 2 Power, Legitimacy, Urgency, and Venn diagram..........................................................................6Figure 3 Stakeholder Relationship diagram.................................................................................................7Figure 4: GUI example..............................................................................................................................11Figure 5: Attitude vs Classification Matrix................................................................................................13Figure 6: Prototype MCFD........................................................................................................................15Figure 7: STAT Classification Venn Diagram...........................................................................................16

Table of TableTable 1: Stakeholder Management Table........................................................................................8Table 2: Real Vs Prototype Table..................................................................................................14

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1 INTRODUCTION

In the current high stakes fast moving environment there are often times when the

stakeholder with less power is looked over. Though this can be seen a as a small oversight it can

have dire consequences. Halting of the project or cancelation of a project can be a couple of

these consequences. That is why in a relatively recent time the practice of stakeholder analysis

was into the forefront. First introduced in 1963 by Robert Freeman in his book Strategic

Management: A Stakeholder Approach [4], stakeholder analysis details the importance of paying

attention to every person of value in a project or organization. Due to the importance of

stakeholder analysis, there have been multiple techniques to implement the theory.

Unfortunately, these seem outdated in this technologically fueled society. STAT (Stakeholder

Analysis Tool) is here to bring a new more streamlined way to handle stakeholder analysis.

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The current method of stakeholder management consists of a round table like discussion

between one or multiple system of systems engineers and some of the potential stakeholders for

a particular project. In that discussion, there is a mass brainstorming session where stakeholders

are added and their wants and relationships are then added one after another. They are usually

done with sticky notes on a board or sometimes in an office document. This can become very

large and complicated to view, Figure 1:

Figure 1: Sticky Notes Brainstorming

Even looking past the cosmetic problems in this brainstorming technique there are other issues,

like the ability to change stakeholders data when a random event occurs. Also there are other

inefficiencies in showing more than the minimal amount of stakeholder data. After the brain

storming there is a phase where the list of stakeholders are placed into a Venn diagram based on

their power, legitimacy, and urgency (shown in Figure 2):

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Figure 2 Power, Legitimacy, Urgency, and Venn diagram

Inside this Venn diagram(Figure 2) the stakeholder names would be placed where they belong on

the board, using sticky notes. This is done after careful decision making of the system of systems

engineers. The classifications would then be obtained from the Classification diagram and then

used to decide where the stakeholders belong on the Stakeholder Relationship Diagram(Figure 3)

along with the stakeholder’s attitudes.

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Figure 3 Stakeholder Relationship diagram

All of these (Figures 1 & 2) are used to give the user a visual of which stakeholders should be

prioritized and which have the most connections to other stakeholders. Also there is a table

created, usually done in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, that has the stake holders sorted by most

influential in order, to give the stakeholders a strategy on which to go with for their project. This

is illustrated in Table 1

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Table 1: Stakeholder Management Table

The current method of stakeholder analysis is inefficient, it is very important. Poor

stakeholder management/selection can lead to the downfall of a project. The selection of a

stakeholder who has no power could waste valuable time and resources whereas no paying

attention to small stakeholder that has a lot of power could be risky.

When the systems engineer’s stakeholder analysis is not done well a project can be

canceled. In the journal presented to the STAT team by the group’s mentors, a real life example

was given detailing exactly that. A housing developer was trying to start construction in

downtown’s waterside area and they neglected to notice the power of a smaller stakeholder. That

stakeholder that did not agree with the project and ended it through connections it had with other

stakeholders, thus showing the importance even the smallest stakeholder or group of

stakeholders.

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STAT offers to help clean up some of the inefficiencies with the current stakeholder

analysis, with STAT’s simple more efficient wizard. STAT will also allow for easier navigation

between steps and room for continuous editing ability throughout the stakeholder analysis

procedure. Instead of sticky notes STAT will have the stakeholder’s data saved so they can

always looked up for future reference or future updates.

The application will also have the ability to dynamically change the (diagrams see

Figures). This can be done with any type of legal user input. There will be tools to adjust the

view of the diagrams so more attention can be given to certain stakeholders or just for common

convenience. There will also be an algorithm created so the relationship diagram will not get too

incomprehensible when there are a vast number of stakeholders.

Team Blue’s application is specifically made to be used to view and edit the stakeholder

analysis process. It is not meant to create or schedule meetings although it will save the contact

the information of the stakeholders. STAT is also not a customer relation tool, it analyzes the

stakeholders through algorithms based on the input the user gives or given through text file.

While it does not create meetings, the STAT management table was put in place to give the

stakeholders an idea on who to contact and prioritize.

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2 STAT PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

STAT will be a standalone Java application that will be able to be used on any operating

system for convenience and portability. It will have an interactive GUI that is easily accessible.

STAT will allow users to export their data in PDF or XML format.

2.1 Key STAT Features and Capabilities

STAT will allow the users to go through the different steps of the stakeholder analysis

(shown is section 1.1) editing and adding stakeholder information while the user progresses

through the program. Steps that are already done can be revisited and changed if the user wants

to change values. The information will be stored while going through the steps and will then be

inserted into a chart that will be constantly updated while the user inputs. While the user is

inputting the stakeholder information, the STAT algorithms will be working in the background

constantly updating the diagrams and tables.

With the dynamically changing stakeholder relationship diagram (see Figure 3), system

of systems engineers are also able to see how the tiniest of changes can change a stakeholder's

impact on a project. With this tool their research can help by bringing dynamic images instead of

having to constantly redraw the diagram when changes are made. The stakeholder management

plan (see Figure 4) will be the biggest help to the system of systems engineers mostly because it

stores all the contact information of stakeholders and it can be sorted by any field the user

chooses. This will also help the stakeholder create a strategic plan of action for their project by

showing the stakeholder relationships and amount off pull that they have.

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2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software)

The software will consist of a simple client java application that can be loaded onto the

current system’s operating system. The software will consist of an easy to use GUI that will

provide the various steps of stakeholder analysis in a simple tabular menu. The GUI will have all

the steps shown in tabs that the user can navigate in any way (shown in Figure 5)

Figure 4: GUI example

As shown in Figure 4 the GUI will always show the tabs of all the steps in stake holder analysis,

making for easy navigation. STAT will also have tools for viewing the various diagrams such as

zoom and pan (see Figure 3).This is just a mockup of the GUI so far there will be more elements

added to the prototype.

The algorithms that run in the background and that are the basis of how the diagrams will

look are all products of the research of Dr. Adams and Dr. Hester. The Relationship Diagram

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(see figure 3) itself is built off of collaboration of the classifications, attitudes and influences that

stakeholders have on other stakeholders. The size of the circles in that diagram directly correlates

with the user inputs in those steps. This is shown in this example shown here:

Instead of using a huge database Team Blue decided to use an easily exportable STAT

project file. The idea for using a huge database seemed to not be needed right now for the

prototype instead the project file will be able to be exported to office programs for easy viewing

at any time. The project file will still contain the contact information of stakeholders deemed not

important until the user decides to delete them, just in case they become of use later in the

project.

The application will need no other hardware than a computer, laptop, or tablet with basic

computing abilities. It also does not need a server because it has been decided to make STAT

entirely a desktop application. Because of the decision to use an XML(Extensible Markup

Language) document there is no need to have a database.

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3 IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY

The underlying logic behind STAT’s algorithms will be based on the research of Dr.

Hester and Dr. Adams. They are system of systems of engineers for NCSoSE(pronounced

nexus). As systems of systems engineers they have adapted Robert Freeman’s theories on

stakeholder analysis. In their research every stake holder has at least one of the following

classifications: power, legitimacy, and urgency. After deciding what the stakeholder’s

classification is the attitude that the stakeholder has toward the project is recorded. Depending on

values selected for the stakeholder’s power legitimacy, or urgency they are placed in certain

spots on the Classification Venn Diagram(see STAT Presentation[1]).The classifications and the

attitudes are then graphed against each other into a matrix that is shown in Figure 5:

Figure 5: Attitude vs Classification Matrix

The color code the user will see in the matrix is the same as user will see in the Stakeholder

Relationship Diagram (see Figure 3). Also the algorithm that decides the size of the circles in the

Stakeholder Relationship Diagram (see) is also taken from Figure 3. More information regarding

their research is located in the references.

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4 STAT PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTIONKnowing that the time period to finish STAT is short there have been certain features that

will not be included in the prototype due at the end of the semester. Although they have been

removed at the moment if time permits some might be implemented into the prototype. A table

illustrating what will and what will not included is displayed in Table2:

Table 2: Real Vs Prototype Table

As shown in Figure 6 certain features like the ability for multiple users to add input

simultaneously. The ability to have a script that will automatically insert stakeholder information

from a file has been removed. But as illustrated in Table 2 most of the functionality in the real

world product will be in the prototype.

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4.1 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software)

Figure 6: Prototype MCFD

Figure 6 shows what features our prototype will have by the end of next semester. The

STAT prototype, along with user input, will have test suites for bug checking. Also there is will

be a way to insert test data directly into the STAT project file to populate it. As shown in Figure

5 there will be a tab where the user can add the stakeholder wants, classification, attitudes, and

relationships. The majority of the editing of stakeholders will be done in the stakeholder tab,

while the rest of the tab will be mainly for views of the output and specific stages. Also the

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STAT prototype will also be able to delete stakeholders, encrypt data, and export the stakeholder

files.

4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities

The STAT prototype will be very close to the idealized software. So all the features

except for the ones explained in Table 2 will be in the prototype. A new Classification Venn

diagram will be created for the program which will have stakeholders in the correct

classifications in the diagram. Along with the stakeholders being shown in the Classification

Venn diagram there will also be a pop up of the stakeholder’s individual information when

clicked. Example of new Classification Venn Diagram Figure 7:

Figure 7: STAT Classification Venn Diagram

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4.3 Prototype Development Challenges

There are some development challenges STAT team can foresee during the coding the

process. One is having a method to notify the user get when changes are made to the

stakeholders. This needs to be implemented just in case that the user makes a mistake by deleting

or editing a stakeholder. Being that all the diagrams are dynamically updated this can drastically

change the software’s output. Another problem that could take a lot of time to code would be the

security portion of STAT’s program. Now that STAT’s software is no longer a client-server

application having administer profile to cover the security is no longer needed, but security is

important especially because a lot of the stakeholder information can be very sensitive. Lastly,

Team Blue realizes that making this portable in every operating system will be very difficult.

Glossary

legitimacy: A generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, definitions.[4]

power: A relationship among social actors in which one social actor, A, can get another social actor, B, to do something that B would not.[4]

project file: the file STAT will use to store the stakeholder data in i.e. contact, information, and want’s attitudes.

relationships: the connections between the various stakeholders.

stakeholder: A person, group, or organization that has interest or concern in an organization.[1]

stakeholder analysis: studying those in a project/organization and deciding who should be prioritized and handled certain ways.

system of systems engineer: the users of our software their main job is researching the stakeholder’s effect on projects/systems.

urgency: The degree to which stakeholder claims call for immediate attention.[4]

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XML: extensive markup language used to store data in fields.

References[1]

Blue, T. (2013). STAT Presentation. Retrieved from STAT: http://www.cs.odu.edu/~410blue/deliverables.html

[2]Blue, T. (n.d.). STAT webpage. Retrieved from 410Blue: http://www.cs.odu.edu/~410blue/deliverables.html

[3] Freeman, R. (1983). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston: Pittman.

[4] Mitchell, R. A. (1997). Academy of Management.