The systems design and analysis task was something I found myself diving into as I worked towards gaining an understanding of where the areas of the Workplace SDL System were lacking, how I could analyze different ways to improve them, and how to evaluate the implementations and the system as a whole to determine the impact of the implementations.  I feel like putting my initial plans down on paper, I had doubts about some of my thoughts and ideas and the role and impact they play in the system. However, as I continued to refine my ideas and find supporting material, I began to feel better about my system. I feel like the evaluation area was a little more difficult as the Workplace SDL System doesn’t necessarily have a way to create an evaluation model that works for all organizations. So I had to identify areas that organizations could focus on to develop an evaluation plan that meets their needs. I still have some doubts about this approach, but I don’t see another way to develop an evaluation strategy that is applicable to most organizations any other way. I think in the end, I was able to develop a clear implementation plan and evaluation plan that were connected and would allow organizations to identify the impact of their efforts to implement the Workplace SDL System. As far as evaluating my teamwork for this course, I feel that I was able to work in a group when needed, but I tended to work independently for the task assignments as my area of interest doesn’t necessarily align with others’ interests. I enjoyed working as a group to examine the annual meeting, identify some areas for improvement, and start creating a plan for next year. I am looking forward to working with others on the potential journal submissions for this project in the spring.

I think that my work on the Workplace SDL System will lend itself well to my research agenda, and the skills I learned in systems analysis will be helpful in getting a better picture when looking into new problems. I think that both my implementation and evaluation pieces are areas that could create a lot of opportunities for research. Since the Workplace SDL System will look different in each organization, research on the different implementation areas can identify what worked, what didn’t work, and how others can prepare for success with proper planning. The differences in organizations also allow for research in the evaluation area, as organizations may use similar metrics to analyze the results of their efforts but will ultimately be trying to address different needs. Again, addressing the commonalities and differences can help develop a more proactive approach to identifying best practices. I am hoping to be able to try this kind of research in the future in looking more into the impact of the different implementation areas. Hopefully, I can find some organizations that are interested in improving the SDL capabilities and begin to work and build on the ideas started in this paper.