Job enrichment
Rex Norman Cobb · 1977
Until eighteen months ago the Missouri Pacific Railroad had special groups to perform each major function of the system development effort for online, realtime systems. Under this organization there were 140 professional data processors (managers, analysts, and programmers) assigned among four groups consisting of Functional Design, Program Design, Applications Programming and Applications Testing. A project would be initiated in Functional Design where user requirements were identified and the general processing strategy was defined and documented in functional specifications. These specifications were then used by Program Design to develop and document detailed processing strategy through program flowcharts.As a project would progressively move through the groups toward completion, only a few people were involved in the project from its beginning to its completion. The most conspicuous continuity for any project was a “coordinator” assigned from an administrative Planning and Control group from outside the systems development area.In addition to the project coordinator, an administrative planner from the Project Planning and Control group would develop PERT charts and conduct schedule reviews for the project.The first true project that actually began under the new project concept was the Crew Management System. This project is virtually independent of all other development efforts and provided a basis for experimentation with project management concepts at the Railroad.