Software Development Assignment: Designing An Automated Employee Management System

Question

Task:

Suppose you are requested, as an IT project manager, to develop software applications to provide solutions to certain issues at your workplace, place of study, or personal uses. In this software development assignment, you need to design a new software system that will solve these issues.

In order to design that system, you need to identify, business requirements (functional and non-functional), identify an appropriate process model, and conduct a feasibility study. You also need to discuss ethical and professional issues related to your system. Your software can be a desktop application, a web-based solution, or a mobile application.

1. Propose any five functional requirements and any five non-functional for the software solution.
2. Identify an appropriate process model as a development strategy for this system. Provide the reason for your selection by comparison with other process models.
3. Discuss the five types of feasibility study that you need to conduct for the system.
4. Identify and analyse any five potential risks that could negatively impact the success of the project.
5. Describe any two ethical issues or any two professional issues that you must take into consideration in the process of software development.

Answer

Introduction
The current software development assignment is undertaking a scenario of marketing firm that provides marketing solutions and products to the customers. The organization is a medium-scale firm that currently comprises of 45 employees. Currently, the resource management system that is followed in the organization is a manual system. It includes the manual allocation of the tasks/projects to the resources, manual attendance recording and management system, leave application and tracking, and likewise (Fang, 2015).

As a result, there are certain issues that the organization witnesses. There is information manipulation and gaps in the handling of the resource details that usually comes up. There are gaps in the resource tagging, de-tagging, etc. that is seen which also impacts the resource productivity in an adverse manner. The automated system is essential for the business organization for efficient and effective resource management.

Functional Requirements

• The system shall include the attendance records of the employees with the in and out times and automatically calculate the daily, weekly, and monthly hours.
• The employees shall be able to apply for leave(s) on the system and must be able to track the status of the same.
• The system display the list of the available employees along with the project details mapped with every employee engaged in the project (Adamu, 2020).
• The de-tagging of the resource(s) from a project shall be possible which shall automatically change the status of the employee from engaged to available.
• The employee information management – addition, removal, and modification shall be possible from the app.

Non-functional Requirements
The non-functional aspects of the app will be as important as the functional specifications and requirements.

Availability
The system shall remain available to the end-users 24x7. The resources engaged with the marketing firm are geographically dispersed and vary on the basis of the time zones. The system shall be available to all the resources without any impact of the employee location or the time zone (Hikmawan & Santoso, 2020).

Usability
There are certain functional specifications and requirements that are defined for the automated resource management apps. These functional aspects and specifications must be implemented in the app to make sure that the app is usable for the employees and the administration of the business firm.

Performance
The app shall have enhanced performance in terms of the response time and throughput time. These shall be low and must not vary as per the device used by the end-users to access the app (Motwani, 2015).

Security
The information present in the resource management app shall be secure and must be protected from all forms of security and privacy attacks. The app shall have in-built tools for ensuring that the information security and privacy is promoted at all times.

Maintainability
There are updates that will be essential to be installed on the automated employee management app. These updates shall be easy to install and there shall be minimal downtime involved in the maintenance and updates of the app (Sharma et al., 2016).

Process Model - Development Strategy
The process model is based on the TELOS model also known as Technical, Economic, Legal, Operational and Schedule. is the agile scrum methodology. The development methodology would include several key functional and non-functional requirements and software specifications that are associated with the automated employee resource management system. All of these requirements will be defined and these will be stored in the product backlog. The entire development and implementation activities will be executed in the form of the iterations. These are referred as sprints in the agile methodology (Bott & Mesmer, 2019).

Each sprint in this case will last for three weeks. In every sprint, a subset of the product backlog will be obtained and these will be executed to implement the same as per the functional and non-functional specifications defined. There will be a daily scrum meeting that will be conducted to review the progress and recommend the plans of action.

The automated employee management app will be developed using this methodology. At the end of the sprint, the end-users, that is, the employees and administration of the organization will review the working set of the product and will provide their feedback on the app (Kalyani & Mehta, 2019). There will be changes that will be made on the system so that the improvements are made and the expected product is developed. TELOS model helps ensure that the software is well understood, is economically feasible, is legal, and can operate well and is scheduled to be on track.

There are some other software development methodologies that are available and are defined to be adopted in the software development methodologies. Waterfall model, for example, is a popular method that uses the linear sequential approach to develop the software applications. However, there are drawbacks associated with the Waterfall model. The model is rigid and it becomes difficult to incorporate the changes associated with the software application. However, such problems will not occur in the agile scrum method. The agile scrum method uses the adaptive methodology while developing the software application. Also, the Waterfall model introduces testing at an advanced stage and the user involvement also emerges towards the end of the project. This usually leads to major gaps and the customer satisfaction rate is reduced. Such is not the case with the agile scrum method methodology (Townsend et al., 2018).

V-model, also known as the verification and validation model makes use of the extensive testing and maps the testing activities with each of the development process. However, there are issues with the model in terms of the inflexibility and the poor response to the changes. These issues are not present in the agile scrum methodology as explained earlier.

Feasibility Study
One of the most significant aspects of the project is the feasibility study. There are specific complexities that are associated with each system. Some of the systems/projects may have an extremely enhanced level of complexity and the chances of successful execution and completion of the project may be low. The feasibility study provides the assurance that the project can be effectively completed to achieve the determined goals.

The feasibility study for the project shall be conducted in different aspects to make sure that the successful execution of the project can be done (Kersting & Weltermann, 2019).

The first is the technical feasibility. The automated employee management app will be implemented for the first time in the business firm. There are other technical app and applications that are already in use. It would be essential to make sure that the app can be implemented successfully without any configuration errors or incompatibility issues.

The second is the operational feasibility. The system shall meet the goals and scope that is defined. The high-level scope shall be developed and the determination of the human and non-human resources to conduct the project shall be evaluated. This will make sure that the selected system is feasible from the practical and operational aspects.

The third is the economic feasibility. There will be costs that will be associated with the automated employee management app. The economic feasibility shall evaluate the costs and the benefits that will be attached to the system. The project benefits shall be higher than the project costs to make sure that the conduction of the project will provide monetary benefits as well. The feasibility study in the economic aspect will also enable the project team and management to effectively estimate the budget for the project.

The fourth is the social feasibility. The end-users that will be associated with the app will be employees of the marketing firm (Weltermann & Kersting, 2016). However, the impacts of the system will be directly and indirectly witnessed on the other organization stakeholders. These will include the customer groups, supplier groups, and the business partners.

The fifth aspect associated with the system will be the environmental feasibility. The impacts of the system shall be positive on the environment.

The determination of the feasibility on all of these five aspects shall be done. It will provide the ability to make sure that the project can be executed and it will provide the determined outcomes.

Potential Risks and Impacts
Every project is exposed to certain risks and uncertainties. It is essential that the project risks are properly managed and controlled. There will be a few risks that will be associated with the automated employee management app.

The determination of the risks and their impacts is done along with the analysis of the nature of impacts.

The impact assessment of the risks associated with the project is done along with the determination of the nature of the impacts. The probability and impact scores are assigned to the risks on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is the lowest possible value.

Ethical and Professional Issues
There can be ethical and professional issues that may also be associated with the project and it will be essential to control these issues.

The information security and privacy risks that are described will also be unethical and there are insider threats that may be given shape. These are the ethical issues wherein the internal employees of the marketing firm or the members of the project team will be involved in the execution of the attack. These resources will have access to the confidential project information and may intentionally hand over the information to the unauthorized entities. The impacts of these issues will be extremely adverse for the project as there may be legal obligations that may arise (Pilhal, 2018).

The resources engaged in the project team may not follow the professional code of conduct. There can be conflicts that may arise among the project team members due to the variation in the perspectives. However, instead of attempting to resolve the conflicts, there may be resources that may follow unprofessional approach. The use of the harsh tone or unwanted arguments may be intentionally conducted by the resources leading to the disagreements. The development of the employee resource management app will be negatively impacted as an outcome.

It would be essential that the use of the ethical and professional code of conduct is done in the project. This will enable the project management to avoid and control such issues.

Conclusion
The automated employee management system is a software development project that shall be developed using the agile scrum as the methodology. The incorporation of the functional and non-functional aspects of the system shall be done in the project and the determination of the feasibility shall be done in the project in the measures as technical, operational, social, environmental, and economic. There can be various issues that may arise in the project, such as information security & privacy risks, schedule/budget overrun, ethical issues, and professional issues.

References
Adamu, A. (2020). EMPLOYEE LEAVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. FUDMA JOURNAL OF SCIENCES, 4(2), 86–91. https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2020-0402-162

Bott, M., & Mesmer, B. (2019). An Analysis of Theories Supporting Agile Scrum and the Use of Scrum in Systems Engineering. Engineering Management Journal, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2019.1659701

Fang, W. (2015). The Development of Employee Information Management System. Advanced Materials Research, 1044–1045, 1401–1405. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.1044-1045.1401

Hikmawan, T., &Santoso, B. (2020). HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEM TO IMPROVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE. Dinasti International Journal of Management Science, 1(4), 578–584. https://doi.org/10.31933/dijms.v1i4.194

Kalyani, D., & Mehta, D. (2019). Study of Agile Scrum and Alikeness of Scrum Tools. International Journal of Computer Applications, 178(43), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.5120/ijca2019919318

Kersting, C., &Weltermann, B. (2019). Evaluating the Feasibility of a Software Prototype Supporting the Management of Multimorbid Seniors: Mixed Methods Study in General Practices. JMIR Human Factors, 6(3), e12695. https://doi.org/10.2196/12695

Motwani, B. (2015). Perception of Professionals towards Effectiveness of Human Resource Information System. Software development assignment Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.21863/jshrm/2015.4.3.017

Pilhal, Z. (2018). Special Ethical and Compliance Issues Regarding Property Valuation Reports: Applicability of Valuations in Responsible Property Investment. Theory, Methodology, Practice, 14(1), 49–57. https://doi.org/10.18096/tmp.2018.01.05

Sharma, N. P., Sharma, T., & Agarwal, M. N. (2016). Measuring employee perception of performance management system effectiveness. Employee Relations, 38(2), 224–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-01-2015-0006

Townsend, A., Mennecke, B., Ashmore, S., &DeMarie, S. (2018). An exploratory examination of modes of interaction and work in waterfall and agile teams. International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 11(1), 67. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijasm.2018.10012516

Wang, C., Hou, H. F., & Xu, C. M. (2015). Research on Risk Management Based on Software Project. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 380–384, 2363–2366. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.380-384.2363

Weltermann, B., &Kersting, C. (2016). Feasibility study of a clinical decision support system for the management of multimorbid seniors in primary care: study protocol. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-016-0057-z