Luận văn The research of using epad technology to support activities in administrative system - Nguyễn Hoài Nam

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY Nguyen Hoai Nam THE RESEARCH OF USING EPAD TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT ACTIVITIES IN ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM GRADUATION THESIS Major Field: Information Technology HA NOI - 2009 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY Nguyen Hoai Nam THE RESEARCH OF USING EPAD TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT ACTIVITIES IN ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM GRADUATION THESIS Major Field: Information Technology Supervisor: Dao Kien Quoc, MSc HA NOI – 2009 SUMMARY Administrative activities contain many problems that need to be solved in some aspect of time schedule, responsibility and productivity. The fact that building software to control all problems above is better, but some software could not be used when published. In this thesis, together we will approach the problems and find why some software are failed in real life. In this thesis, we found a new idea for the problem of administrative formality software. Based on this solution, we analyzed the administrative system, built design document. To prove the idea, from the design document, we built the solution software to illustrate how the idea worked and prove it could help increase the software’s effect and feasibility. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I wish to express my respect and my special thank to my adviser MSc. Dao Kien Quoc, College of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for the enthusiastic guidance, warm encouragement and useful research experiences. I would like to gratefully thank all the teachers of College of Technology, VNU for their invaluable knowledge which they gave to me during four academic years. Last, but not least, my family is really the biggest motivation behind me. My parents and my brother always encourage my when I have stress and difficulties. I would like to send them my gratefulness and love. Hanoi, May 2009 Nguyen Hoai Nam TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction to administrative formalities The purpose of administrative activities in an organization is to make decisions precisely to keep all parts of organization work in a harmony. Administrative activities could be able to divide into following types: Internal activities which involved in individual or sub-ordinates: Incoming document processing (register to incoming book, decide destination, give comments …) Document publishing (approve document, edit document …) Task processing ( task requested by the manager) Collect documents (collect a group of document to support manager to do administrative activities, but not create or wait for approve) Activities depends on external factors: Undetermined tasks occur when new incoming documents come or documents have to be sent out. As usual, activities depends on external factors contain a part of internal activities. All information and decisions are represent in document. In general, both two types of administrative activities involve in document processing, which divided into two types: Incoming document: from outside, via many methods: email, post office, fax … Outgoing document: published inside organization or sent out. Necessary of administrative activity and document processing software There are many reasons for a low-productive administration system: Lack of information or problem of finding information due to late coming document or a large number of documents so that people could not find. Members’ time schedules are not synchronized: it is hard to optimize the time process of all people or could not arrange to meet people to communicate. Lack of individual task control method: some officers who could not finish the task tell that they have not known the request. Maybe the document is lost during deliver process or they tell lies to conceal their mistakes. The only solution for this problem is having a way to control how officers do the task. The managers will find it is difficult to know the process of whole tasks unless they meet each individual to ask. If they could not have time to arrange a meeting between each individual, they have to wait for the responses from subordinates. The fact that waiting for subordinates is wasting time and not effective. Therefore, we need a software that solves all problems above, which: Use centralization model and online processing: all documents related could be store on server (only entity for each document), then users could access documents everywhere. Moreover, users could search for document without any difficulties. Tasks will be uploaded directly: saving time of all members. Users have to access the Internet to view tasks. Result will be sent to server and could be viewed every time and everywhere. That solution could increase the productivity. Distance will not be a problem anymore. User could view activities at any place. Individual’s responsibility will increase because all task and status of task (finished, not completed …) is public. Moreover, log files to mark all states of tasks will be the evidents to control subordinates. Task reminder is run automatically to remind so that users could not forget the task. All documents will be verified by electric signatures to ensure the reliability and individual’s responsibility. Determine why some software failed to be used when published Not only solving problems mentioned above, the software has to satisfy some factors to become successful: The technology used: it decides the effect of the software including powerful, fast, etc or the compatibility with other softwares or browsers. The cost of the software: the cheaper software is better. Graphic interface: the graphic interface decides the easy-to-use aspect of software. However, many software which satisfy all factors above have failed in real life. One reason that all softwares built for administrative activity purposes could not used in real life is “users find it difficult to use them”. Traditional method problem: Traditional method is a group of steps that officers have been using for several years such as deliver the paper documents, sign the document using pen … which almost involve in paper documents. At middle age, people tend to prefer to work the same as they have worked for years so trying a new method like using computer is hard for them. Moreover, at these age, people could not learn as fast as younger ones. Therefore, they think it is better if they use traditional method again instead of using computers. As usual, all software when published require a period of time to train users, but most users who use administrative formalities software are middle-age people who do not have much experience in using computer, especially in Vietnam. They get troubles in some issue: How to locate the document in computer when downloaded successfully. How to find a document in a folder full of downloaded documents. How to upload files to server. … The reason is the steps they have to do with the software are much different from steps they usually do in real life, which is considered as traditional method. That is the reason why some software is published but never used. Solution Idea of automatic steps: As mentioned in previous section, some steps that users may find difficulties in downloading, opening and uploading files. My idea is the software has to automatically do these steps for users: all steps that much different from traditional method should be automatically executed. The advantage of this idea is the users do not have to care about what is happening under these steps, they simply do the steps which familiar to them. Therefore, it bring two sequential advantages: Users may find using software is more convenient than using traditional method including saving time deliver the document or waiting for responses, being able to work at any place … Saving time and money to train users how to use the software: if it is nearly the same with traditional method, users do not have to learn much. The specific of this idea is mention in Chapter 4 Section 4.1. Idea of using ePad device to sign and write comments: ePad is a device which allow users to write directly to the document with its own signature verification method. After opening the document automatically by software, the manager does not has to write to a text area to sign or give comments, he simply sign as he usually do with paper document. The advantage of this idea is it is definitely the same as traditional method, which works with paper document: The manager does not have to learn how to use text area, how to send signature … he simply open the document and sign using pen attached with ePad device. The signature verification method of ePad helps users rely on the authentication of the person who signed. The more specific approach of ePad device is mention in Chapter 4 Section 4.2. Chapter 2: Requirement and Specification Problem analysis: Document processing in administrative system is divided into four categories: New incoming documents processing: New incoming documents processing is divided to following steps: After receiving new incoming documents, administration department registers this document into “incoming book”. New documents will be sent to the manager to check. New incoming documents will be stored by administration department. Publish of new incoming documents depends on the right level of staff member, which decided by the manager. The destination of the documents after reviewing depends on the manager (the manager will note on the document to which department the documents belong to). The employees could see the document based on their own right level. New outgoing document processing: New outgoing document processing is divided into following steps: The officer or manager who desires to create new document will have to create new document first. After being completed, the document will be transferred to collect comments from other departments. After receiving comments, the author could edit the document before forwarding to administration department. The administration department will check as if the document satisfied all requirements: if the document missed some requirements, it will be turned back to the author. if it pass all requirements, it will be sent to the manager. The manager who receives the document will approve the document . If the document is approved, it will be stored and registered into “outgoing book” by the administration department. The document will be set the right of reading before publishing or distributing by the manager. The destination written in the “outgoing book” will be the address of the company or organization if the document has to be sent out, but the destination could be noted as “internal publishing”. Task processing: Task processing includes following steps: When a chief or a manager need to assign tasks, he has to determine the requests, due date and has to attach related documents if necessary. The chief or the manager also has to divide the task into steps with conditions, order and due date for each step. Then he has to specify who is responsible for each step and who is responsible for the whole steps. The subordinates who read the task could comment or provide solutions for the task. An individual or group of people who is responsible for the task could attach produced documents. The individual or the group will be reminded when the due date comes. The individual has to confirm the state of the request or the task. The individual could also request to get responses from the person who requested or notice the following task of the request to another. He could attach produced documents if necessary with the request or task provided. Task schedule: Each individual has to be provided a schedule which contains the tasks of a period of time ( such as a week, a month, a quarter … ) with the due date and priority to work in a harmony with other people. Requirement and solution Requirement Document processing and administrative formalities involving occurs in every company, organization … with years of traditional method. The purpose of a document and administrative formalities system based on Internet is reduce all unnecessary steps including steps which take much time like sending documents from department to department or steps which are complicated like dividing tasks for a group of people. Each company or organization has its own unique aspect in processing document and administrative formalities, but all of them contain following issues: New incoming documents processing: new documents from other organization include many tasks from registering into books to performing content of documents. New outgoing documents processing: new outgoing documents in order to be released are required to follow many steps: from checking draft documents to sending to manager to publishing or sending out. Task processing: the requirement of tasks occurs based on documents is how the manager could keep all tasks worked in a harmonic and finished earlier than deadline. In addition, the manager has to find a way to control responsibilities of subordinates. Task schedule: the fact that hundreds of task given every day suggests each person have a schedule to remind next tasks and to arrange time logically. The purpose of the system is to change all four issues of processing documents and administrative formalities from traditional method to modern way based on Internet. Solution Using server – client model to work with documents and tasks Four main functions need to be built: New incoming document processing: The information “incoming book” will be stored in database. Documents will be stored in server so that everyone could view the documents (actually there is an only document for each incoming document stored in server and everyone explores it) The manager could decide the destination of the document directly instead of communicating with administration department. The employee could connect to the Internet to view and download the documents if possible. New outgoing document processing: Document created is stored in database and could be viewed directly by specific person without taking time to print and to transfer to specific department. The administration department could check it and send back through Internet to author. The manager could set who could see the document. Information of “outgoing book” is stored in database. The employee could view and download documents when connecting to the Internet. Other organizations will receive documents via email. Task processing: The manager could create a task then divide it into sub-tasks. Each task or sub-task could be inserted due date and who is responsible and status (finished, not started, being done), edited and deleted. People could view their given tasks, give comment and suggestion for the tasks. They could also send messages to others and get responses about document’s issue. If due date comes, people could be reminded by system. The manager could view all tasks status to control all processes and could remind subordinates if necessary. Task schedule: Each person has his own schedule to look up and could view due date of all tasks. Support all functions using Internet services When joining the company or organization, each person is provided an account to login to system. With this account, a person could execute all functions above, but function’s activities depends on type of user and right of user in each specific situation. The development based on human – like activities People’s feeling about the system in aspect of easy to use, productive or not depends on how the activities of system relate to real life especially how they relate to traditional method. With this idea, a successful system is the system requiring less time to learn, less steps of mouse click or less fields to type. Therefore, the system need to reduce steps of operation, moreover, some steps like viewing document, giving comments could be automatic: the document should be automatically downloaded and open, the comments should be attached directly to the document if necessary, etc. Chapter 3: Design 3.1. Purpose All document processing is completely automatic to support all stage of working with documents from read new documents to create tasks base on documents or requirement. 3.2. System functions R.1. Login package R.1.1. Login to system R.1.2. Authentication check R.2. Logout package R.2.1. Logout to system R.2.2. Authentication check R.3. User management package R.3.1. Create new user R.3.2. View user profile R.3.3. Edit user profile R.3.4. Delete user R.4. New incoming document processing package R.4.1. Register into “incoming book” R.4.2. Store into database R.4.3. View new incoming documents R.4.4. Decide destination R.4.4.1. Public R.4.4.2. Forward to subordinates R.5. New outgoing document processing package R.5.1. Attach documents R.5.2. Collect comments R.5.3. Edit document R.5.4. Send to administration department R.5.5. Give comments R.5.6. View document R.5.7. Send back to author R.5.8. Send to manager R.5.9. Set view right R.5.10. Publish R.5.10.1. Public R.5.10.2. Register to “outgoing book” R.5.10.3. Send out R.5.10.4. Hide from web R.5.10.5. Delete R.6. Task processing package R.6.1. Create request R.6.2. Set due date R.6.3. Attach documents R.6.4. Divide task R.6.4.1. Set condition R.6.4.2. Set priority R.6.4.3. Set due date R.6.4.4. Set responsibility for each sub-task R.6.4.5. Edit sub-task R.6.4.6. Delete sub-task R.6.5. Set responsibility for whole task R.6.6. Edit task R.6.7. Delete task R.6.8. View task status R.6.9. View task R.6.9.1. Give comments R.6.9.2. View due date R.6.9.3. View related documents R.6.10. Read reminded task R.6.11. Provide suggestion/solution R.6.12. Confirm state of tasks R.6.13. Attach produced documents R.7. View task schedule R.7.1. View task schedule R.7.2. View reminded tasks 3.3. Determine actors, use case in use case diagram 3.3.1. Actors involve in the system: Manager Employee Administration department ( consider as an employee) Administrator Actor Use case Results Administrator All use case Administration department Login Login to system Logout Logout of system Register to “incoming book” Store date, type of documents and number of documents Store Store document into database Hide from web Set the document link invisible on the web Check document Check as if the document satisfy all requirements Send back Send the draft document back to author View View the document Send to manager Send the document to manager Public Public document to all employees Register to “outgoing book” Register document profile to “outgoing book” Send out Send the document via email Delete document Delete document from database View task View task assigned Read reminded tasks Read the task reminded Provide suggestion/solution Provide idea of new solution or give suggestion Get response from others Get response from others Confirm state of task Show the task status ( finish, pending …) Attach produced documents Attach additional produced documents View schedule View schedule Manager Login Login to system Logout Logout of system View documents Open and read the documents Decide destination Decide the destination of the documents: public or forward to subordinates Approve documents Approve documents Send back Send back to author Set view right Set who can read the document on the web Create request Create new request or task Set due date ( for whole task) Set due date for the task Attach documents Attach related documents for the task Divide tasks Divide task into steps or stages Set condition Set condition for ea