HR Portal — Build Roadmap & Effort Estimates

00 / HOW TO READ THIS

Approach & assumptions

~50–65

engineer-weeks total effort

~8–12

months calendar (small team of 2)

phases, each independently useful

build items (6 productionise + 15 new)

Estimates assumeA small team — 1–2 experienced full-stack engineers (Python/FastAPI + React) working AI-assisted, with you as product owner / compliance sign-off. A single engineer roughly doubles the calendar (~14–16 months). Estimates exclude HRIQ vendor lead-time, regulatory verification, and procurement — resolve those in parallel.

⚠ Two hard prerequisitesConfirm the HRIQ extraction approach (your Python-to-Excel sync) and have a compliance person verify the statutory rules before Phase 2. And nothing in Phase 2 touches live payroll until it has run in parallel with your current process and reconciled clean.

01 / TIMELINE

Phase timeline

PHASE

M1M2M3M4M5M6M7M8M9M10M11M12

Phase 0 · Foundation

Infra · auth · sync

Phase 1 · Value modules

Productionise the 6

Security review · gate

Review

Phase 2 · Core operations

Payroll · lifecycle · claims

Payroll parallel-run · gate

Parallel-run

Phase 3 · Cycles & governance

Performance · comp · admin

Foundation Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Gate / review

02 / PHASES

What each phase delivers

Phase 0 · Foundation

~6–10 wksNothing user-facing — the rails everything else runs on.

SG-region cloud, private networking, secrets vault, CI/CD, 3 environments, backups.
SSO (Entra ID) + MFA, RBAC for the six roles, immutable audit log.
PostgreSQL schema + HRIQ ingestion pipeline (productionise your Python-to-Excel scripts: schedule, validate, load).
AI gateway (de-identification, logging, model integration).

Exit gate: a user can log in, see role-scoped data synced from HRIQ, and every action is audit-logged.

Phase 1 · Value modules

~10–14 wksTurn the six prototype modules into the real thing. No money touched.

Role dashboards · Compliance Monitor (real rules engine + alerts) · Approvals/workflow engine.
Document Generator (real DOCX merge on uploaded letterhead templates, sandbox, history).
Knowledge Assistant (RAG over curated EA/EFMA/MOM/SOP knowledge base).
Recruitment (CV → object store → AI parse → fit-score → pipeline → emails → employment letter).

Exit gate: HR uses the portal daily for monitoring, drafting, knowledge & hiring. Independent security review + pen test here before anything handles more sensitive data.

Phase 2 · Core operations

~16–22 wksThe operational backbone — including the money-critical payroll engine.

Payroll & Cost Control · Levy & Waiver · FW Lifecycle & Dormitory · Staff Lifecycle.
Case Management (grievance/discipline) · Claims & Work Injury · Reporting & Analytics.

Exit gate: payroll runs in parallel with the current process and reconciles clean for 2–3 cycles before it becomes authoritative. Statutory submissions remain human-released.

Phase 3 · Cycles, enabling & governance

~12–16 wksComplete the picture.

Performance Management · Compensation & Benefits · Grants & Training · Licence & Tender Docs.
Admin & Onboarding Logistics (Assistant workspace) · Data Governance & Admin Console · Policy & Comms · Welfare.

Exit gate: full task coverage; HRIQ becomes a back-office system of record with the portal as the working surface.

03 / EFFORT BY ITEM

Estimate per build item

Rough effort in engineer-weeks (eng-wks), AI-assisted. NEW = new module from the gap analysis; others are prototype modules being productionised.

Build item	Phase	Eng-wks	Notes / dependency
Foundation — infra, SSO, RBAC, audit	P0	4–6	Blocks everything.
HRIQ ingestion pipeline	P0	2–3	Productionise your Python scripts.
AI gateway (de-identify + logging)	P0	1–2	Used by Docs, Knowledge, Recruitment.
Role dashboards + app shell	P1	2	Depends on RBAC.
Compliance Monitor	P1	3–4	Rules engine + alerts; needs synced data.
Approvals / workflow engine	P1	2	Reused by Case Mgmt, Claims.
Document Generator	P1	2–3	Real DOCX merge + letterhead templates.
Knowledge Assistant	P1	2–3	RAG + knowledge-base curation.
Recruitment	P1	3–4	CV parsing, object store, emails.
Payroll & Cost Control NEW	P2	6–8	Calc engine + heavy testing + parallel-run.
FW Lifecycle & Dormitory NEW	P2	4–5	Largest lifecycle module.
Staff Lifecycle NEW	P2	3–4	Onboarding/exit, org chart.
Levy & Waiver NEW	P2	2–3	Links FW ↔ Payroll.
Case Management NEW	P2	3	Reuses workflow engine.
Claims & Work Injury NEW	P2	3	WICA/FWMI; MOM notification timelines.
Reporting & Analytics NEW	P2	2–3	Consolidates existing data.
Performance Management NEW	P3	3	Review cycles + letters.
Compensation & Benefits NEW	P3	3	Review cycle + insurance records.
Grants & Training NEW	P3	2
BCA Licence & Tender Docs NEW	P3	2	Doc package compilation.
Admin & Onboarding Logistics NEW	P3	2–3	Assistant workspace + OCR scanning.
Data Governance & Admin Console NEW	P3	2–3	RBAC admin, retention, audit viewer.
Policy & Communications NEW	P3	2
Welfare & Engagement NEW	P3	1	Lightweight.
Total		~50–65	+ UAT, training, security review (cross-cutting).

04 / TEAM & CAVEATS

Team, ways of working & caveats

Team

1–2 full-stack engineers (Python/FastAPI + React), AI-assisted.
You as product owner + compliance sign-off.
A part-time security reviewer for the pre-Phase-2 gate.
An HR/payroll SME to validate calculations during parallel-run.

Ways of working

Ship a usable slice each phase — value lands early (Phase 1), not at the end.
Automated tests mandatory for all payroll/levy calculations.
Human-in-the-loop release gates stay throughout.
No real personal data in Dev; masked data in Staging.

What could move the numbers

HRIQ access — if batch export is awkward, ingestion grows.
Payroll complexity — many pay components/edge cases add weeks.
Regulatory verification — rules must be confirmed, not assumed.
Scope creep — each "small extra" per module compounds.

Recommended first moveDon't commit to the whole programme up front. Fund Phase 0 + Phase 1 first (~16–24 eng-wks / ~4–6 months for a small team). That delivers a genuinely useful HR-only portal — monitoring, drafting, knowledge, hiring — proves the architecture and the team, and lets you decide on Phase 2 with real evidence rather than a paper plan.