Title: Root cause analysis in quality problem solving of research information systems: a case study

Authors: Mohammad Javad Ershadi; Roozbeh Aiasi; Shirin Kazemi

Addresses: Information Technology Management Department, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IRANDOC), Tehran, Iran ' Industrial Engineering Department, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran ' Industrial Engineering Department, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: Nowadays the information systems have become a key part of any organisation. On the one hand these systems are considered as basis of management decisions and on the other hand they serve the within or outside of organisation's users and clients as well. Therefore good performances of these systems could become one of the main objectives of senior managers in any organisation. Research information systems (RIS) are not exceptional on these norms either and in order to continually improve these systems their quality aspects should be analysed and improved to achieve better performances. In this paper, application of root cause analysis in RIS using a case study for solving quality problems is considered. This approach is used in three main stages of RIS means data entry, indexing and dissemination of information. Results of this paper show that through application of root cause analysis identifying, categorising and defining appropriate corrective action for quality problems of RIS could be easily achieved. Furthermore, main results of application of this approach are presented.

Keywords: root cause analysis; RCA; research information systems; RIS; quality problem; case study.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2018.091797

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2018 Vol.24 No.2, pp.284 - 299

Received: 13 Oct 2016
Accepted: 25 Mar 2017
Published online: 16 May 2018 *

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