Computer Science - Assignment Example

Running head: DECKER REPAIRS CASE STUDY AND ANALYSIS. Decker Repairs Case Study Project Planning and Analysis Partha kar 25th April 2007 Abstract This dissertation is about planning and analysis of Decker Repairs. The system analysis is performed and all changes are proposed. It starts with the case analysis, company analysis, current situation, current system employed and associated problems. It explores in to identifying opportunities to improve the present situation and suggests a suitable computer Information system required to envelope all the deficiencies with the present system. Thirdly, all the functional and non-functional requirements are identified. A Data Flow Diagram is provided which illustrates the penetrations of the system and associated information flow from all the entities involved. Further the entities are modeled in an Entity Relationship Diagram to show their mutual association and relationship. Finally, a structured English of the controller is provided. Case Analysis: Under this head, the following are analyzed: 1. Company Organization and Services 2. Current System and associated problems Company Organization, Services Decker Repairs, a service company, employs 50 service trucks and crews of 4 members. Each crew is composed of the following: Truck Driver (Crew Leader) 3 Technicians Each technician is a specialist in either of the domain (plumbing, heating and cooling) whereas a technician may carry knowledge in more than one domain of which he is not a specialist. Current System and Associated Problems: The following is the hierarchy of services provided by the current system: Figure 1: Hierarchy of Services provided. Contents and Description of the Current System: Only single computer with all the above services namely payroll, accounts and Inland Revenue. The problems with the current system: 1. All the jobs (accounting, payroll and Inland Revenue) are getting handled within a single computerized system which is a big problem relating to system failures and information storage. 2. Request for service by customer is not recorded properly; its all telephone based which may hinder to late processing of requests. 3. The Service Bill, after the service is rendered, is issued to the customer after 2 to 3 days of the service, which is very late and should be made prompt. 4. The feedback form is sent out to the customer along with the bill and asked to send them by post, which not many customers are willing. 5. There is a problem with scheduling and routing of jobs to the crew which results in wasting time. 6. The maintenance service of the trucks are not carried out in an orderly fashion, sometimes it's too early and sometimes late. It has a negative impact on the maintenance costs, the reliability of the trucks and safety of the service team. 7. The training courses for technicians are not likeable by them with regard to training organisation, payments during the period and many more. Answer to Q2a: The various opportunities to improve the business for Decker Repairs are as follows: 1. Addressing the problem of single computerized system for all purposes must be broken into different individual systems and a good relationship among then must be established so as to reduce redundancy and prevent the anomalies of insertion, updation and deletion of information. Solution: An enterprise wide system (ERP) can be developed so as to capture the different modalities of the business and integrate into one big system. A proper relational database must be also established to take care of the information which needs to be dealt with. 2. The problem of recording the customer service info is telephonic based which can be problematic with respect to phone line busy due to traffic, phone line damages which hinder loss of customers and requirement of many front desk personnel to handle it. Solution: A web based system (Client-Server Model)can be developed for the customers to browse the service required and request can be placed accordingly. It cuts down all phone barriers and traffic at the service provider's end to record the requests. 3. The issuance of service bill needs to be delivered within a short period of time and feedback needs to be a mandatory posting. Solution: The service bill can be delivered online after the customer confirms the service request to be closed. After that the payment is made online and feedback is sent out. The online payment system can be implemented for customer ease. The following diagram shows a possible system to handle the above: Figure 2 : A web related service to record the cycle of communications with customer. 4. The routing and scheduling of jobs to the crew must be improved. Solution: It can be done with the help of scheduling system which can be termed as a Knowledge Work System and an Artificial Intelligence system. It will be capable to analyze the following occurrences and address them effectively: Ability to figure out which crew is free and at which location and whether to allocate them emergency service calls. Keeps a record and dynamically update its information table to allocate jobs to various crews. 5. The maintenance of the trucks needs to be scheduled well and maintained in an application system which will show the status and actions will be accordingly done. Solution: Knowledge Work System. It will act as an internal agent to keep the records and work accordingly. 6. The appropriate training feedback needs to be captured from technicians to improve the quality and variety of training materials for better productivity. Solution: Decision Support System. According to the feedback received the system must be capable to take further decisions as to the selection of appropriate training course. 7. The accounts department must organize itself individually to carry out the operations effectively. Solution: Transaction Processing System. 8. The management may desire to check the number of services provided and generate the annual income. Solution: Management Information System. From the above proposed systems, I suggest a Decision support System to model the interactions of various entities and keep the organization up to date with information. System Request: In order to track and manage all the information which flows throughout the organization, Decision Support System (DSS) is the best option. The DSS will capture all the processes currently occurring in an organization and make decisions on the basis of that. From the time of creating a service request and to the final obtaining of the feedback of the customer, it will cater to all. The internal processes also need a good management. The training of the technicians and the job of scheduling and routing can be managed and tracked well using the system. The schedule for the maintenance of the trucks is well managed from this system. The DSS employed here will be acting as a system as a whole which will further modularize itself into sub parts to handle the internal and external entities effectively. The interaction among the various processes needs to be closely monitored and taken care well and DSS is fit to handle it. Answer to Q2b: The system selected is DSS. The functional requirements of proposed DSS are as follows: Data collection and management Data verification Knowledge based modules to capture all the business functions Monitoring and indicators of decision consequences, to handle situations when an event takes place User interface, to give all the information and act as agents The non-functional requirements of the DSS are as follows: Interoperability: The DSS needs to envelope within itself this feature as various business functionalities and modules such as payroll, accounts and Inland Revenue needs to share information among them for the proper execution of the system. Scalability: As the number of users and operations increases the system must be able to handle them with ease. Security: The system must be fully secure as online payments are involved. In addition to it the company data and information must not be available to outsiders through any means. Usability: The system needs to be user friendly so that functions must be easily understood when working with user interfaces. Cost and Speed: It is one of the major factors in selecting a system. I would have proposed an ERP system but due to the cost factors involved the DSS is a suitable one. Speed of the system also does matter with regard to the service provided to the customer. If the customer or the company personnel finds the system slow it would take virtually a lot of time to execute a service. Answer to Q2c: The questionnaire is an important tool to collect information about the micro level details of the system so as to get the software correct to its full functionalities after implemented. For that purpose the questionnaire is prepared and distributed to the following personnel: Controller: 1. How are the service requests, ordered by the customer, stored 2. How does the phone method work with the customer Is it convenient or it needs a replacement 3. How is the emergency service requests handled 4. What are the criteria for scheduling the service requests 5. How a crew is allotted a service request when it is serving someone else 6. How does the information for service requests handled from very inception to finish 7. How the communication is shared relating to the customer service between the accounts department and Inland Revenue 8. How the scheduling job occurs 9. What is the order of scheduling jobs to another crew Is there a criterion 10. What are the problems faced during scheduling and routing 11. Is there a way to maintain a complete service request cycle in an orderly fashion 12. Why is the system slow in processing service bills to be sent to the customer 13. Does the tracking of maintenance schedules needs a change 14. What could be a precise answer to the reason that every customer does not provide feedback Technicians: 1. What kind of problem is usually faced while working over service requests 2. Is the allocation of service requests in order or there is a lot of tension involved in the process 3. What happens if a service request is termed emergency 4. Are the training provided according to the current problems faced or hey stand outdated 5. What are the usual comments of the customers relating to the service provided 6. Do you think the seminar form of communicating problems, as thought by the management is useful Management: 1. Is there a way to track the number of requests handled monthly 2. How is the productivity measured for the employees 3. Is there a need to extend the fleet of crew by a certain amount to capture the overwhelming requests, if any 4. Does the training needs of the technicians taken care well 5. Is the feedback provided by the customer taken care well and noted for rewarding employees with client appreciation 6. What is the reward system for a crew who does the best job The above questionnaire is suitable to get the clear picture of the system to be built and the various aspects which needs to be taken care of. Answer to Q2d: Figure 3 : Context Level DFD Description: The context level DFD shows the basic parts of the system in general and shows in what way the various entities are involved together with the system. Figure 4: 0-Level DFD Assumptions made: The rectangles depict the entities involved The Oval size depict the processes The rectangle with one open ended represents the data store. Description of the 0-level DFD: It integrates into the various processes in the system and the way the entities are involved with it. Answer to Q2e: Figure 5 : Use Case Diagram The User Story of the proposed system is as follows: 1. The scheduling and routing of jobs creates a lot of idle time. As a controller I want to allocate service requests in such a way that no crew and truck will be idle. 2. The customers are not issued bills promptly. As an accountant I want to generate bills faster so that customer can be given prompt service. 3. The trucks are not sent to maintenance service in time. As a manager I need to get the job done accordingly so that maintenance costs, reliability and safety of the service team is guaranteed. 4. The training needs are not identified well. The exact need of training has to be identified over the feedbacks received for the technicians. Answer to Q2f: The following is the proposed data model: Figure 6 : ERD The various assumptions are as follows: There are four entities namely customer, controller, crew and accounts department. There are three relationships namely requests_service, allocates and provides_bill. The customer is related with controllers as it needs to generate a service request. The controller is related with crew as it needs to allocate the service request to the crew for carrying out the task. The accounts department is linked with the customer as it issues the bill and the feedback. Answer to Q2g: The process descriptions in structured English of the controller are as follows: Process: Controller Operation READ Service-Request-Generated DO BEGIN IF IF Service-order is present THEN allocate orders to crew ELSE stay idle and look for fresh orders END IF BEGIN IF IF Service-order is present and request status is emergency THEN allocate orders to crew to execute Faster and promptly ELSE stay idle and look for fresh orders END IF UNTIL All Service-Requests are closed Description: As the job of the controller is to collect orders from the customer store it in a queue and allocate it to Crew members for its execution. If orders are not present then controller waits for the fresh jobs to come in and repeats the same job. If an order is termed as emergency then it needs to be taken care soon and prompt reaction must be made for its execution. Bibliography Hoffer A. Jeffery. 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