An Intelligent Agent Prototype for Optimizing Staff Allocation

Abstract

Organizational ICT services are becoming more critical and complex and this growing dependency on these services leads to growing requirement for quality ICT services support. Currently, the ICT staff allocation system at KRA does not serve the organization‟s demands adequately. To address this issue, Intelligent Agents may offer solutions to some major ICT services support at KRA or any organisation by playing the role of staff allocation optimisation assistants. The aim of the study was to investigate the process of ICT staff allocation at KRA and develop a prototype intelligent agent for optimizing staff allocation in ICT services. The objectives of the study were to: examine the ICT portfolio at KRA, establish the current ICT staff allocation system at KRA, find out the challenges of the current staff allocation system at KRA and develop a prototype intelligent agent for optimizing staff allocation. A combination of the Agent Theory and Belief Desire Intention Model were used to guide the study. The study adopted a qualitative case study approach for data collection and actualized through experimental prototyping. The sample population comprised 135 staff out of a population of 4,500 KRA staff. Purposive sampling was used to identify 23 participants from KRA headquarters. This constituted of 1 head of department, I division head, 6 section heads, 10 technical and support staff all drawn from the ICT department. The second cadre constituted of 1 senior manager and 2 end-users from the Support Services department and 2 senior managers drawn from the Domestic Taxes and Human Resources departments. Interviews, open-ended questionnaires and document review were the main instruments for data and requirements gathering. The study employed Prototyping methodology using a bottom-up approach implemented on Django web-based platform for the KRA Intelligent Agent development. The findings revealed that the ICT Department is experiencing problems attributed to uncoordinated, unmanaged and under-resourced ICT services. The study concluded that the changing demands from customers, the need to contain costs and to improve services in business processes requires the application of ICTs supported by optimum staff capacity. The study recommends: effective automation and creative use of ICTs, investing in human resource development and re-structuring the ICT functions that provide both intra and inter-departmental support services. The study further proposes a service delivery process map to guide all the ICT functions in the department. This formed the basis for the development of a prototype Intelligent Agent for optimizing staff allocation for ICT services support. It is further recommended that KRA should adopt the Intelligent Agent prototype with or without modifications in the integration with its existing systems