CHAPTER 4
SYSTEM ANALYSIS
4.1
Introduction
This chapter describes about the analysis of the results from the questionnaires, which
covers the method used to overcome the constraints. It elaborates the sampling and
location of the organization, instrumentation, method and data analysis of the research.
This chapter also describes about functional and non-functional requirements of the
system development.
4.2
Data Analysis
The sample of this research is Telekom Research and Development Sdn Bhd. This
company is used as a research sample because this thesis focuses on the Human Resource
Planning for researchers in research organization. In this session, the researcher will look
into the results for each of the question based on the responses given by the respondents
of this survey. Two sets of questionnaires have been prepared (Appendix A). Each set is
for different group of respondents. As mentioned previously, one set of questionnaire for
Human resource staff and another set of questionnaire for researchers. The results also
will be divided into two parts:
i)
Human Resource questionnaire results
As mentioned in previous chapter, only 10 questionnaires were distributed
to the respondents in Human Resource Department. These people were
selected based on research target, which is known as purposive sampling.
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ii)
Researchers questionnaire results
For the main purpose of this research, 50 questionnaires were distributed
to the researchers in Telekom Research and Development Sdn Bhd. All
the 50 questionnaires for researchers were tabulated to study the behaviour
of the researchers and to see their expectations towards the company.
Questionnaires for Human Resource staff and Researchers were divided into three
sections. Basically, section II and section III questions for Human Resource staff and
researchers are the same. Only questions for the first section are different. The sections
are:
i)
Section I : Multiple-choice questions
ii)
Section II: Closed-ended questions
iii)
Section III: Likert-scale questions
Every section will be analyzed differently and the results will be used as part of the
development of the modeling.
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4.2.1
Result and Analysis from Questionnaires Return
Result and Analysis from Human Resource questionnaire
For Human Resource questionnaire, first section starts with questions to obtain the
information about project details. This kind of questions will be used as input variables in
the modeling. This section consists of five questions such as number of researchers in the
company, total grant for a year, number of projects proposed for a month, number of
projects completed for a year and average project duration. The results are shown in the
pie charts below.
Total Researchers
90
100
80
60
40
20
10
0
0
0
< 100
100 - 199
200 - 399
> 400
Figure 4.1
Total Researchers
The pie charts explain about the information of every project being developed in the
company. The answers from the questionnaires will be used as a default value in the
human resource model. From the survey, 90% of the respondents have chosen 301 to 400
for number of researchers. The average number of researchers is 350 and this value will
be the default value in the modeling. Only 10% of them said that more than 400
researchers in the company.
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Total Grant Per Year
100
100
80
60
%
40
20
0
0
0
0
< 10mil
11mil - 30mil
50mil - 99 mil
> 100 mil
Figure 4.2
Total Grant per Year
In order to start any project, they must have a grant for a year or budget for every single
project. 100% of the respondents show that the total grant per year is between 50 million
to 100 million. The average value of the grant is 75 million.
Number of Project Propose Per Year
80
80
70
60
50
% 40
30
20
20
10
0
0
0
<2
3-5
6 - 10
> 10
Figure 4.3
Number of Project Propose per Year
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The nature in research business, before any project start, the researchers must first get an
approval from the top management. Every month there are a number of projects being
proposed. The pie chart above shows that from 10 respondents 80% of them have chosen
2 to 4 projects proposed every month and only 20% project proposed more than 5 to 10
per month. There is no project proposed more than 10 or less than 2.
Number of Project Completed
80
80
70
60
50
% 40
20
30
20
0
10
0
0
<2
3-5
6 - 10
> 10
Figure 4.4
Number of Project Completed
From the survey it seems that 80% projects are completed between 21 to 30 projects
every year and only 20% projects completed more than 30 projects. In the nature of
research business, the business is split into two areas which are Basic Research and
Applied Research. Project duration depends on either the projects fall into Basic
Research or Applied Research.
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Project Duration
50
50
40
30
30
%
20
10
10
10
0
6 m onths
9 m onths
12 m onths
> 12 m onths
Figure 4.5
Project Duration
The finding shows that 50% of the projects, the average project duration are within 9
months. 10% from the result shows that the average project duration is within 6 months
and 12 months and the rest 30% are more than 12 months. Normally, project duration
more than 12 months are fall into Basic Research Division and very rare of Applied
Research projects with the average time duration more than 12 months.
Basic Research carried out project only for research purposes but Applied Research
carried out project for commercialization. All projects under Basic Research is carried
out for the sake of increasing knowledge, such as how and why a specific reaction occurs
and what the properties of a substance are. The research activities conducted under Basic
Research are mostly related to the development of nano and micro sized device for
electronic and photonic application. Researchers in this program focus more on design
simulation, fabrication technology development, testing to meet standard and quality
regiment as well as system integration. Products resulting from these activities are
incorporated into Applied Research activities. Applied research is generally carried out
activities to solve a problem and come out with solution which is a product. It is
specifically established to design and developed innovative products and application for
mobile telephony, mobile data and wireless services.
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Result and Analysis from Researchers questionnaire
For researchers’ questionnaire, first section starts with questions to obtain the information
about the researchers themselves. The questions are aimed mainly for getting the
behaviour and morale of the researchers. This section consists of seven questions such
gender, marital status, age group, academic qualification, area of expertise, working
experience before joining the Research and Development Company and years of service
in current company.
Ge nde r of Res pondents
40%
60%
Male
Female
Figure 4.6
Gender of respondents
The results shown in the figure 4.6 that 40% of the respondents are male whereas the rest
60% are female. Most of the respondents are married, which is 74%, single 26% and 0%
divorcee (figure 4.7).
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Marital Status of Repondents
0%
26%
74%
Single
Married
Divorced
Figure 4.7
Marital status of respondents
The age of respondents as shown in figure 4.8 below shows that respondents’ age vary
from 22 years old to more than 40 years old with mean age of 31 years. From 50
respondents, 4% of them fall into the age group of 22 to 24 years old.
Age of Re s ponde nts
10%
4%
32%
20 – 24 years
25 – 29 years
30 – 39 years
> 40 years
54%
Figure 4.8
Age of respondents
Finding shows that this group is fresh graduates staff and lack of working experience.
Researcher found that if the respondent is in this group they will choose answer ‘a’ for
question number six. 32% of them in the age group of 25 to 30 years old, 54% in the age
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group of 31 to 40 years old and only 10% in the age group of more than 40 years old.
Finding shows that most of the researchers are in the age of 31 to 40 years old and most
of them have been working with the company for more than five years. This question is
associated with question number seven. The culture in research company shows that in
the age of more than 40 years old, most of them are in the manager level and most
probably they are not doing any research work. That is why only 10% in the age group of
more than 40 years old. The highest qualification for researchers is PHD and the finding
shows 4% of them are PHD holders. Out of 50 respondents, 60% are degree holders and
the rest 36% are Master holders. There is none of the researchers holding a diploma. This
result has proved that, researchers must have at least a degree.
Qualification of Re s ponde nts
4%
0%
Diploma
36%
Degree
M ast ers
60%
PHD
Figure 4.9
Qualifications of respondents
Before finalized the questionnaires, researcher have made some surveys to determine the
area of expertise for the researchers. The survey shows that most of researchers were
studying Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering and other fields such
as Mathematics, Statistics, Physics and Ceramic Material. From 50 respondents, 34% of
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them are experts in engineering, 40% of the respondents are experts in Information
Technology and Computer Science and the rest 26% are in other fields.
Respondent's Field of Expertise
26%
24%
Informat ion Technology
Engineering & Telecomunicat ion
Comput er Science
Others
16%
34%
Figure 4.10
Respondent’s field of Expertise
Before joining the company, 56% of the respondents have working experience less than a
year. Most of them are fresh graduate students before joining the company. 24% of them
have working experience between 2 to 4 years, 20% have 5 to 10 years working
experience and none of the respondents has working experience more than 10 years
before joining the company.
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Re spondent's Year of Working Experience
0%
20%
< 1 year
2 - 4 years
5 - 9 years
56%
24%
<10 years
Figure 4.11
Respondent’s year of working experience
The last question in this section is about the years of service in the company, where only
4% of them have less than a year. This result is related with the age group question.
Finding shows that new researchers are fresh graduate students and that is why they have
selected less than a year of service in the company. Years of service between 2 to 4 years
is 56% out of 50 respondents and this become the biggest group. 20% of the respondents
have years of service between 5 to 10 years and the rest 10% have more than 10 years
service in the company.
Respondent's Year of Service
10%
4%
< 1 year
2 - 4 years
5 - 9 years
30%
>10 years
56%
Figure 4.12
Respondent’s year of service
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Result and Analysis of Human Resource Practices
The main objective in this section is designed to help companies evaluate their human
resource practices. Researcher checked off ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, then researcher will add
up the total. In this section respondents must select either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for all the 15
questions. The graph in figure 4.13 below represents the results for respondents in human
resource department as well as researchers. From the graph, out of 10 respondents 60%
have 13 to 14 ‘yes’ responses followed by 20% for 10 to 12 ‘yes’ responses. 10% out of
10 respondents having total of ‘yes’ responses less than 10 and the rest 10% have
selected all the ‘yes’ responses. For researchers, the finding shows that 60% out of 50
respondents were having 13 to 14 ‘yes’ responses. 28% of the respondents have chosen
the ‘yes’ responses from 10 to 12 and only 8% out of 50 respondents the ‘yes’ responses
are less than 10. The rest 4% have selected ‘yes’ responses for all the questions given.
The effectiveness of Human Resource Practices
30
30
20
14
10
0
1
< 10
4
6
2
1
10 - 12
Human Resource Staff
13 - 14
2
15
Researcher
Figure 4.13
The effectiveness of Human Resource Practices
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The result for this section depends on the score total for the numbers of ‘Yes’ responses.
It can be conclude that, if the total score for ‘yes’ responses is less than 10 it means that
the organization is in need of the introduction of basic human resource programs. At the
start, the organization must stay with the basic programs related to employee benefits,
retirement, compensation, supervisor training and safety. Total score from 10 to 12
means that the organization has the potential to benefit from human resource programs.
The organization must make sure the basic programs are covered (retirement,
compensation, supervisor training and safety). For the result of total score ‘yes’ responses
from 13 to 14 explains that the organization is doing many things right. If the
organization is within this group, do not forget about monitoring the success of existing
programs. If the total score is 15 ‘yes’ responses, it means that the organization is doing
an exceptional job at providing human resource programs.
Result and Analysis of Respondents Opinion about R&D Nature
In this section respondents are required to answer all six questions by selecting their
opinion on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The objective of this section
is to get researchers’ and other staff’s opinions regarding other matters for benefit of the
company as well as researchers itself. The following is a graphic representation of the
respondents’ feedbacks. Respondents were asked to rate the following statement as
indicated: Writing paper for either local or international conference is a good measure of
Basic and Applied Research output in R&D Company (1 strongly agree – 5 strongly
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disagree). Out of 10 respondents from human resource staff 80% agreed and the rest 20%
strongly agreed with the question. Out of 50 respondents 74% agreed and the rest 10%
strongly agreed with the statement. 16% from 50 respondents have been chosen to be
neutral.
Writing paper for either local or international conference is a
good measure of Basic and Applied Research output in R&D
Company
Numbers of
Respondent
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
37
Human Resource Staff
8
0 0
Strongly
Disagree
0 0
Researcher
8
0
Neutral
2
5
Strongly
Agree
Figure 4.14
Respondent’s feedback on the Applicability of Writing Paper
Figure 4.15 below represents the feedback for question number two. Respondents were
asked to rate the following statement as indicated: Patent counts are good measure of
Experimental Development output in R&D Company (1 strongly agree – 5 strongly
disagree). The result is similar with the question number one. Out of 10 respondents from
human resource staff, 80% agreed and the rest 20% strongly agreed with the question.
However, 84% out of 50 respondents from researchers agreed that patent counts are very
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applicable in R&D Company. Only 10% out of 50 respondents become neutral and none
of them disagree with this statement and the rest 6% strongly agreed.
Patent counts are a good measure of Experimental
Development output in R&D Company
50
42
40
Numbers of
Respondent
30
Human Resource Staff
20
10
0
5
8
0 0
0 0
0
Strongly
Neutral
Disagree
Researcher
2 3
Strongly
Agree
Figure 4.15
Respondent’s feedback on the Applicability of Patent Counts
Figure 4.16 below represents the feedback for question number three. Respondents were
asked to rate the following statement as indicated: High caliber and qualified,
experienced and knowledgeable are a must to be a researcher (1 strongly agree – 5
strongly disagree). The result from human resource staff shows that, out of 10
respondents, 100% agreed and strongly agreed that to be a researcher, they must be of
high caliber and qualified, experienced and knowledgeable. Most of the researchers also
agreed with this question. Out of 50 respondents, 70% agreed and 10% have chosen
strongly agreed and the rest 20% have chosen to become neutral with this statement.
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Requirement to be a Researcher
Numbers of
Respondent
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35
Human Resource Staff
10
6
0 0
0 0
0
Strongly
Neutral
Disagree
Researcher
4 5
Strongly
Agree
Figure 4.16
Respondent’s feedback on the Requirement to be a Researcher
Figure 4.17 below represents the feedback for question number four. Respondents were
asked to rate the following statement as indicated: Researchers also must have excellent
performance, creative and innovative ideas, accomplishment in research activities, sports
achievement and outstanding unitary contribution (1 strongly agree – 5 strongly
disagree). Out of 10 respondents, 100% agreed and strongly agreed that researchers must
be competence enough not only in research field but they also must be good in other
fields such as sports and other contributions in their company. 70% out of 50 researchers
agreed and strongly agreed that researchers must be competence enough and the rest 30%
have chosen to become neutral.
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Others Competency as a Researcher
Numbers of
Respondent
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
28
15
Human Resource Staff
8
0 0
0 0
0
Strongly
Neutral
Disagree
7
Researcher
2
Strongly
Agree
Figure 4.17
Respondent’s feedback on the Researcher’s Competency
Figure 4.18 below represents the feedback for question number five. Respondents were
asked to rate the following statement as indicated: R&D is not a place for research field
only, but it is also provide end-to-end consulting and IT services, engineering services,
testing services and also a training services (1 strongly agree – 5 strongly disagree). The
result shows that 100% out of 10 respondents agreed and strongly agreed that R&D also
provide other services beside research field. The result by researchers shows that 90% out
of 50 respondents agreed and strongly agreed that R&D also provide other services such
as consulting and IT, engineering, testing and also training services beside research field.
Only 10% of the total respondents have been chosen to become neutral and none of them
disagree with this statement.
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Research Company is not a place for research field only
40
38
30
Numbers of
Respondent
20
10
0
Human Resource Staff
5
7
0
0 0
0
Strongly
Neutral
Disagree
3
7
Researcher
Strongly
Agree
Figure 4.18
Respondent’s feedback on the other services provide by Research Company
Figure 4.19 below represents the feedback for question number six. Respondents were
asked to rate the following statement as indicated: R&D is ever-ready to nourish the
talents of its employees in order to be able to grow, become more competent, and be
resolute on career achievements (1 strongly agree – 5 strongly disagree). This last
question also shows that 100% out of 10 respondents from human resource staff agreed
and strongly agreed that R&D is a good company for developing good career
achievements. None of the respondents disagree with this statement. From the result by
researchers, it shows that there are 2% out of 50 respondents disagree that R&D is a place
to promote talents of its employees and good on making career achievements. 14% of the
respondents have chosen to become neutral and the rest 74% agreed and strongly agreed
with this question.
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Research Company is a good place for career achievements
Numbers of
Respondent
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35
Human Resource Staff
7
6
0 0
0 1
0
Strongly
Neutral
Disagree
4
7
Researcher
Strongly
Agree
Figure 4.19
Respondent’s feedback on the Lead of Research Company
4.3
Discussion on Finding
This following section provides a brief discussion on the feedback received from the
questionnaires. The initial questionnaires are developed with a combination of closedended, multiple-choice and likert-scale questions. The questionnaires are aimed mainly at
company information, researchers’ background, company’s human resource policies as
well as respondents’ opinion about R&D Company.
For section I questions for respondents from human resource department, it can be
summarized that the average number of researchers in the company is 300 people. R&D
Company will have 75million grants per year in average. With the 75 million grants, the
number of completed projects for Basic or Applied Research is 25 projects in average per
year. However, the average number for proposed projects is 3 projects per month and
lastly, the average project duration are 9 months for every project. Some of questions will
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be used as variables in the modeling and the value obtained from the survey will be used
as a default value in the model.
In section I questions for researchers, all the questions are aimed mainly for the
behaviour and morale of the researchers. Finding shows that the gender of researchers is
mostly equal. The number of male researchers or female researchers is not much
different. Most of researchers are married and their average age is 31 years old. From the
results, researcher has found that the minimum qualification as a researcher is a Degree
and 40% of them having the highest academic qualifications either Master or PHD. After
completing the survey, researcher found that most of the researchers are expert in
engineering and Computer Science or Information Technology. The result shows that
most of the researchers have joined R&D Company without any working experience and
now they are working with the company for more than two years.
From the analysis, it can be summarized that most of the respondents are satisfied with
human resource policies of the company. The finding for section II questions shows that
most of the respondents either respondents from human resource department or
researchers, the total score of ‘Yes’ responses is between 13 to 14 and this means that the
company is doing many things right. Both of respondents either researchers or human
resource staff are satisfied with programs covered by the company such as retirement,
compensation, medical, training and safety.
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For section III, it can be summarized that most of the respondents agreed with all the
questions asked in this section. In this section respondents were asked to rate the
statements as indicated from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree. Respondents
especially researchers had the opportunity to revise their opinions of the applicability of
using paper for either local or international conference as a measure of Basic and Applied
Research output in R&D. Therefore it can be concluded that most of them agreed with
this statement. Based on the feedback gained from respondents therefore it can be
concluded that majority of the respondents regards patent counts as a good measure of
Experimental Development output in R&D. In the next statement, respondents were
asked to rate requirements as a researcher on a scale from 1 to 5. Most of them agreed
that researchers must be of high caliber and qualified, experienced and knowledgeable.
Besides that, they also agreed that researchers must have excellent performance, creative
and innovative ideas, accomplishments in research activities, sports achievements and
outstanding unitary contributions. Researchers and other staff also agreed that R&D is
not a place for research field only, but it is also provide end-to-end consulting and IT
services, engineering services, testing services and also training services. It can be
concluded that most respondents agreed with this statement. The last statement said that
R&D can promote the talents of its employees in order to be able to grow, become more
competent, and be resolute on career achievements. The finding shows 90% of the
respondents agreed with it. For all the questions in section III, only a small number of
respondents, most of them are researchers have chosen to be neutral. It can be concluded
that this kind of respondents maybe agree or disagree with the statement or maybe they
just want to be neutral by not giving any answer.
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4.4
Proposed System – A Web-based Human Resource Planning Simulator
The information gathered from the data analysis is used to design human resource
planning simulator. The information gathered is very useful and will be used for creating
boundary in the modeling. This will help researcher identify the variables to include in
the model, and whether these variables will be endogenous or exogenous. The purpose of
the simulation model is to be used as a tool for human resource planning assuming that
the simulation result will expresses the reality.
The design of human resource planning simulator is based on the proposed framework in
chapter two. Based on the information gathered and problem definition of the study,
researcher has put together a design of the proposed system as shown in Figure 4.15
below.
There are five main components in Human Resource Planning Simulator which are
database, internet information server, Powersim Studio SDK, HR model and web
browser. The HR simulation model will be developed in Powersim Studio, which is one
of the software available in the market for simulation and modeling. At the same time,
development of this system also used Powersim Studio Software Development Kit (SDK)
which allows for custom web-based for Powersim models, and also connecting models to
any enterprise database. The SDK contains a run-time version of the simulation engine
that allows one to directly embed simulations within one’s application. Through these
interface, models can be open, set and retrieve values as well as run simulations. In the
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client-side, the interface to the HR simulation model will be implemented in Active
Server Pages (ASP) on a Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) with data store in a
Microsoft Access database. Programming code in Visual Basic scripts will be embedded
in ASP. The connection to the simulation model is providing by Powersim Engine
ActiveX Control, which will be used to write or read values of the parameters in the
simulation model or parameter controlling the simulation mode, and to start or stop a
simulation run.
Client-side
Web Browser
DHTML/
Web
Browser
HTML
Internet Information Server
Powersim
Studio SDK
ASP Programs
HR Model
Database
Server-Side
Figure 4.20
Proposed System of A Web-based Human Resource Planning Simulator
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4.5
System Requirements
A good set of requirements is needed for any project, especially computer system projects
to be successful. A requirement for a computer system specifies what researcher wants or
desires from a system. Requirements are features of a system that the system must have
in order to achieve the objectives of the system. Requirements of the system can be
divided into functional requirements and non-functional requirements that represent the
functionality or features of a system. Based on the results of the questionnaires survey
and problem definition of the study, researcher has come out with the basics features
required in the web-based simulator.
4.5.1
Functional Requirements
Functional requirements are what researcher wants a system to do. It defines a function of
a system or its component and specifies particular behaviors of a system. Functional
requirements may be calculations, technical details, data manipulation and processing and
other specifics functionality that show how a feature of the system is to be fulfilled. They
are supported by non-functional requirements which impose constraints on the design or
implementation such as performance requirements, security, reliability and so forth. The
human resource planning simulator will be developed to provide the following functional
services:
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Authentication
The system shall be able to handle the respondents’ authentications. The users need to
have a valid user account and password in order to logon to the system. However, this
system will not provide registration page. In order for new users to use the system, the
users need to enter their usernames and passwords in the database manually.
Simulation Time Setting
The system shall be able to allow user to set the simulation time. Based on the study on
the current simulation system available in the market, user only allow to run simulation
using available default time such as 1 year, 2 years and etc. The simulation that is going
to be developed will run with monthly basis, quarterly basis, half-yearly basis and yearly
basis up to 10 years to test the robustness and the efficiency of model.
Assumptions
The system shall change the default value in the assumption page. Users are allowed to
enter their own values based on the study made by the users or maybe users can play
around with their own assumption values with different scenarios and see the patterns
behavior of the result. Users can run the simulation based on ‘what-if’ scenario.
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Result
The system shall display the simulation results in graph or table format. By displaying
results using graph, users will see the pattern or behavior of the output value based on the
behavior that explained in the chapter two in detail. The system shall also give the exact
value by displaying the results in table format. Simulation results are given according to
parameters in the assumption page to test the model sensitivity.
4.5.2
Non-functional Requirements
The non-functional requirements are restrictions on the types of solutions that will meet
the functional requirements. It is for the system concerns with how well the system
performs. This includes the security, reliability and accuracy, usability, accessibility,
flexibility and user friendly. A non-functional requirement also covers the hardware and
software specifications of the system.
•
Usability – The system should be easy to use for any level of users since it is a
browse based system.
•
Security – The system includes login page where users need to enter login ID and
password in order to use the system
•
Accessibility – The system should be available and accessible at 24 x 7.
•
Flexibility – The system should be flexible for future integration and
enhancement.
Moreover, it uses English language to enable it to be used
worldwide.
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•
Reliability and accuracy – The system should be reliable in performing its task
and should perform accurately to compute the result accordingly.
•
User friendly – The system’s design and interface must be user friendly and be
able to use easily. The system will guide users smoothly and display error
messages to prompt users if they are making mistakes.
4.6
Conclusion
This chapter described about data analysis, which emphasized on results of the sampling.
Data analysis illustrated the finding of the questionnaires’ answers, in order to identify
the system requirements. The system requirements will be discussed in the next chapter
under system design. Requirement analysis is to analyze the needed requirements in order
to develop human resource planning system based on system dynamics approach.
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