A Detailed Design for TimeTracker

Submitted by:

Axiom Enterprises
Software Engineering Division

Executive Summary

This document is a description of the detailed design for the Employee Scheduler, prepared by Axiom Enterprises for TimeManage Inc.

After collaboration with representatives from your company, we have designed a system that we believe will satisfy your requirements. Though this document is a blueprint for the complete system, a detailed and complete system that will be considered to be the contracted system, the final agreement between our two corporations; we are willing to discuss any aspect of it with you and, within reason, modify the system implementation in response to your concerns.

The TimeTracker has two main functions:

  1. A personal daytimer for the employees of your company
  2. A system to schedule employees for a meeting that checks their timetables automatically.
All other aspects of the system facilitate easier use of these two main functions. The employee is responsible to make himself/herself unavailable during the times he/she wishes to not be scheduled. This makes the scheduling aspect of the system as effective as possible.

For an overview of the system from the user's perspective, read the System Synopsis and the System Look. For an overview from a technical perspective, review System Design. To see specific measures we are taking to ensure this program is of the highest quality and meets your specifications see the section of this document entitled Test Plan.

We have addressed your concerns regarding our Functional Specifications and Overall Design documents in the "Your Amendments" section.

We look forward to demonstrating this software to you and are sure that it will meet your need for an integrated meeting and time management system. As stated above we would be happy to address any concerns you may still have, these may be emailed to me.


Table of Contents

The following is the table of contents for this document.

System Synopsis

System Look

System Design

Team Organization

Your Amendments

Test Plan

Data Dictionary


System Synopsis

Recent dialogue with members of the customer group has clarified and led to some refinements in the the Time Tracker time management software project. The system has changed in terms of interface, functionality and, most significantly, of overall system focus. In this section we will describe the most significant system refinements and present a general description of the current system.

The main focus of the system is now clearly the personal daytimer. This is evident in our new interface. The screen is now dominated by the user's schedule with a daily view. A monthly view will not be provided primarily because the month view would not provide useful information due to screen resolution. The small monthly calendar on the top left corner of the screen will serve primarily as a device for selecting weeks to view. If there is time, we may also have the days of the month coloured the color of the highest priority appointment for that day but this is an enhancement. The user can view and edit their personal daytimer by selecting areas on the daytimer window. There will also be three buttons on the screen the user can press to access the system's other four main functions; namely, Meeting Scheduler, Availability, Employees and Messages.

To view messages the "Message" button would be pressed. An editable window containing the text of all messages sent by the system will appear. Messages can be removed from this window once the user is through with them. The system will inform the user if a new message has been received since the last time messages were viewed. The messages the system will generate have been specified by the customer group as:

These messages will alll be in the form of a simple sentence for example: "You have been scheduled to attend a meeting convened by George Smith on May 12 from 10am to 11am."

Pressing the "Employees" buttons allows you to work with the employees database. The function most users will associate with this is creating a group alias.

To set your availability press the "Availability" button. A window will open where you can set your regular hours of availability. That is, when you normally work in terms of start and end times for each day of a typical week. This will be considered to be your permanent availability; if you change your schedule this must be changed as well. Availability will be set using checkboxes (or some other appropriate mouse driven graphical data entry device) but in simple english an availability statement might say to the system "Until further notice, I will be working Mondays through Friday at 9-5". This was agreed upon by representatives of the customer and supplier groups.

By pressing "Schedule" the meeting scheduler function is summoned, a window appears and meetings can be scheduled. The meeting scheduler function is now more clearly defined and delimited. It is simply another function, not an equal subsystem.

In concrete terms the meeting scheduler is meant to take the place of a secretary. If a meeting needs to be scheduled, the secretary will be given a list of names and a range of appropriate meeting times (days and times) to choose from. He/She will check if all the people on the list can attend the meeting within the range specified. If they can, a meeting will be scheduled, participants will be informed, and the convenor will be notified. If all cannot attend, he will go back to the convenor with a list of the best times, (i.e., those where the most invitees can attend), and the convenor can then choose one of those times or reject them all. The option remains to schedule the meeting for an entirely different time. If the convenor chooses to schedule the meeting anyway, those who are able to attend will be informed they have been scheduled to attend while those who have a time conflict will be informed that the secretary attempted to schedule them into a meeting.

The meeting scheduler will perform a similar funtion for users by finding appropriate times for single weekly or monthly meetings. If the automatic scheduling feature is being used. The meeting scheduler will also generate messages to inform invitees that they have been scheduled or an attempt has been made to schedule them to attend a meeting. The meeting scheduler function will carry out all of these functions and no others.

General Description of Time Tracker

Login

Users are required to login to Time Tracker with login name and password. Facilities will be provided for setting up and changing passwords. Details of the implementation of this system are discussed later in this document.

Daytimer Basic functions

Time Tracker will list the user's schedule for that week. User will be able to see the details of the meeting if he/she clicks on it. This will include the following information.

    TITLE: 
    DATES (DD/MM/YY):		-------changed from (MM/DD/YY)
                                      (Month name spelled out)  
    TIME (HH:MM):               -------in AM PM 
    LENGTH (30 MINUTES TIME SLOTS):
    ATTENDEES:
    COMMENTS:			-------changed from AGENDA
    PRIORITY:                   -------color coded  
    CONVENOR:			-------as requested
    VENUE:			-------as requested

Meeting Scheduler Basic Functions

User click on this button to schedule a meeting.

Method of scheduling a meeting is as before except for the following changes:

    TITLE: 
    DATES (DD/MM/YY):		-------changed from (MM/DD/YY)
    TIME (HH:MM):                   
    LENGTH (30 MINUTES TIME SLOTS):
    ATTENDEES:
    COMMENTS:			-------changed from AGENDA
    PRIORITY:
    CONVENOR:			-------as requested
    VENUE: 			-------as requested

Text format entry is kept to minimum, since the user can select the days, weeks, months by clicking on some radiobuttons with this list of options. As mentioned before, the extent to which we can implement this method of input may be limited due to time and budget constraints.

AGENDA is changed to COMMENTS, and there is a limit to the number of characters input (256).

Limits functions (eg, limits search to Jan 15 - Jan 21) to allow user to plan a meeting. This "function" will be implemented by entering a range of days in DATES field.

Places to hold meeting is simply a text field, selected by convenor.

Messages

In this window you can view messages from the system, there are 5 types as described above. Messages are flagged as read or unread. You can also delete messages from this file. The system keeps track of any messages that have come in since the last time messages were checked so that it can inform you when new messages have arrived.

Availability

Check boxes or some other mouse driven data entry device will be used in this window to set your normal availability in terms of days of the week and times of the days you are available.

We have not responded to all of your notes on the our Functional Specification document here. For a complete list of all of your annotations and our responses see the Your Amendments section of this document. The next section will describe the interface in more detail.


System Look

Login Screen

This screen queries the user for a username and a password, and then checks the database to verify the match. If login is successful, the user is logged in and the main screen comes up. If the password is incorrect, an error message is displayed.

Main Screen

This is the main form that appears after the user has successfully logged in. Initially, the current month is shown and the schedule for the current week is loaded into the schedule on the left. Mouse clicks on the calendar load the week that is clicked into the scheduler, and the month displayed can be advanced to later months or decremented to previous months by clicking the arrow buttons above the calendar. Clicking on a blank space in the schedule will bring up a dialog box allowing the user to specify an appointment. Clicking on a meeting listed in the scheduler displays the meeting's details in the information box to the lower left of the screen (under the calendar).

Four large buttons on the lower left of the screen bring up the other major subscreens in the interface:

  1. Scheduler
  2. Messages
  3. Availability
  4. Aliases

Scheduler Screen

This screen is reached by clicking the Scheduler button from the Main Screen. All meetings that the user has scheduled are displayed on the left. Clicking on one of these meetings will fill the data fields on the right with the meeting's information, and clicking Modify Meeting will enable the user to modify the displayed meeting. Of course, clicking Cancel Meeting will cancel the said meeting. New Meetings can also be created by clicking New Meeting and filling in the necessary data fields. The Topic and Agenda fields are entered by the user. Employees attending can by modified by clicking Edit Attendee List and in that dialog, groups are selected by mouse from two lists, and those currently selected to attend are displayed on the lower far right. Further below is how this dialog window appears, dubbed "Add Employee."

If the user chooses User Scheduled the user will be presented with a dialog screen further below, dubbed "Manual". If the user clicks Computer Scheduled the user will be presented with a dialog screen further below, dubbed "Automatic".

Here, the user determines the type of meeting, the date, time, and duration, and the system will schedule that meeting. Very simple. Confirmation of a meeting about to be scheduled will be displayed in the window dubbed "Confirmation" further below.

The Automatic Scheduler finds the next time that all employees and groups selected can make it, or the best possible time if all employees do not have an appropriate free time slot. Of course, here, the user determines an acceptable time range that this meeting must be scheduled, and as well a duration for that meeting. Clicking OK will send the computer off to find the maximum number that can attend. Confirmation of a meeting about to be scheduled will be displayed in the window dubbed "Confirmation" further below.

Availability Screen

This screen displays the employees set working hours, and those hours may also be changed from this screen. The users start and end times for each day are entered, and days of the week that the user works are selected from the check boxes on the right. Note: this window will as described not exactly as shown. After finishing here, the user is returned to the main screen.

Alias Screen

and new user defined groups (Aliases) can be created for scheduling purposes. All employees in the database are listed on the left, all groups that the user has created are listed in the Name of Group box (provided they click the down arrow). The members of the highlighted group are displayed on the right.

The arrow buttons between the two lists are used move items into and out of the "Employees in Group List". If the arrow(s) point toward the list it adds items. If it points away it removes items. The single arrow button moves the currently selected items. The double arrow buttons move all items.

Buttons below the employee and group lists will either delete the selected group, add the selected group to the database, cancel the operation altogether, or bring up a help window.

Messages Screen

This screen displays the user's messages, loading the first unread message into the display and allowing the user to browse his messages with the previous and next buttons.

Note: A delete button will be added to the final design. The message shown is not in the actual format we will use.

From this screen employees may be added to the Employee Database (only permitted by those who know the supervisor password). The top four buttons handle inserting, deleting, editing, and cancel the editing of the selected employee.


System Design

The following is a description of our system design. It consists of two parts: the detailed listing of the modules, and the data tables that they access.

Modules

We have structured this project to be modular, and thus all functions have been broken up into modules and sub modules.

To access the detailed description of any module, simply click the appropriate module.


Level I DFD

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Level II DFD

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Level III DFD

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Table Definitions

The following is a comprehensive listing of the table structure for this system.

NOTE: the phrase "Relationship: --> " denotes how the table being described relates to the table specified in the "Relates to:" heading.

Employee Table


Group Table

Booking Table

Messages Table

Meeting Table


Team Organization

Executive Summary & Final Edit

  • Hal Henningsmoen (For detailed design document)
  • Danny Yerex (For overall design document)

    System Synopsis

  • LinSze Chung
  • Roger Hiu
  • Paul Sung
  • Hal Henningsmoen

    System Look

  • Tom Schulz
  • Danny Yerex

    System Design

  • Michael Cullingham
  • Chris Mohr
  • LinSze Chung
  • Roger Hiu
  • Hal Henningsmoen
  • Paul Sung
  • Paul Tomochko
  • Tom Schulz
  • Danny Yerex

    Pseudocode Ammendments

  • Paul Sung
  • Rosina Ye

    Team Organization

  • Mabel Khoo

    Your Amendments(For Functional Specifiction Document)

  • Hal Henningsmoen
  • Roger Hiu
  • LinSze Chung
  • Mabel Khoo
  • Paul Sung

    Your Amendments(For Overall Design Document)

  • Hal Henningsmoen
  • Roger Hiu
  • Mabel Khoo
  • LinSze Chung
  • Chris Mohr

    Test Plan

  • Paul Tomochko
  • Paul Sung
  • Roger Hiu
  • Russell Magee
  • Chris Mohr
  • Danny Yerex
  • Mabel Khoo


    Your Amendments

    List of Annotations and Responses extracted from the Functional Specification and Management Plan Document

    General Notes

    The interface has changed considerably since the Functional Specification Document. In any cases where the customer has used a term from the previous interface description (e.g., Meeting Manager Tab) we will not explicitly address, instead we will we will answer the question in terms of the current interface. This document presents a list of your concerns and our responses listed in the order as they appeared in the original document.

    Your Comments

    1. The term meeting can be used interchangeably with the term appointment.
    2. We would like keyboard shortcuts for all major functions.
    3. The calendar is the focus of the system. We would like the user to be able to click on a specific day within the month view and have the system display all appointments for that day; that is, bring up an enlarged view of the entire day. Within the day view, if the user clicks on a specific appointment, all the information about that appointment will be displayed (to the right of the day view or perhaps in a new window).
    4. Some functions are too complicated or require passing through too many levels to get to; such as adding a new meeting. Simplify wherever possible using menus and/or buttons.
    5. Poor grammar and techno-talk made parts of the document confusing and unclear.
    Our Response

    1. We have used this to distinguish between an event you arrange and an event you attend but if you don't need that distinction you are free to ignore it.
    2. Short cut keys were not requested in your original request but we will, of course, do everything feasible to accommodate this request.
    3. We believe our new interface deals with this concern.
    4. We believe our new interface deals with this concern but please feel free to indicate specific problems.

    Our Document

    The Meeting Scheduler Sub-System will have the following capabilities:

  • Schedule meetings: Employees will be able to schedule a meeting or appointment on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. As well, an employee may schedule single, "one-time-only" meetings.

    Your Comment: On a daily, weekly, monthly or "one-time-only" meeting.

    Our Response: Satisfied in our new interface.


    Our Document

    When a meeting is scheduled, the system searches for the first time slot when all employees invited to the meeting are available. If the system cannot create an acceptable meeting time then it will find a time with the least conflicts between schedules. All employees who are invited to the meeting are then informed of the meeting and given a chance to respond.

    Your Comments

    1. Respond only if person has conflict and can not attend.
    2. Everyone is informed of a scheduled meeting.
    3. If someone decides to attend a meeting then cannot attend there must be part of the system that allows that person to cancel themselves from a meeting and inform the convenor of this.
    Our Responses

    1. Time Tracker will search for the time slot where more than half of the attendees can attend. If the convenor is satisfied with this time slot, Time Tracker will schedule the meeting and then inform everyone who can attend the meeting, as well as people who can't attend. Attendees can decline to attend the meeting if they wish, by canceling the meeting on their schedule. Time Tracker will inform convenor that this attendee has declined to attend the meeting.
    2. Yes they are.
    3. The user may select the meeting and press on the CANCEL button to perform such a task. In fact, this is how a user will decline an invitation because the "message" system doesn't support replies.

    Our Document

    2. Cancel existing meetings: The employee who scheduled a meeting will be able to cancel it. Employees may also cancel their own attendance at a meeting from their personal Daytimer.

    Your Comments

    1. No function in the personal Daytimer has been described that allows for a user to cancel themselves from a meeting.
    2. Consider putting this function as a clicking on the day on calendar and then clicking on cancel.
    Our Responses

    1. The user may select the specific the meeting and press the CANCEL button.
    2. OK. (as mentioned above)

    Our Document

    3. Change existing meetings: The employee who originally scheduled the meeting may alter any information corresponding to a meeting after it has been scheduled.

    Your Comments

    1. Meeting times are not changed; a meeting is canceled and then re-scheduled. However incidental info about meeting can be changed.
    2. Also there must be a flag (i.e.: message) that will inform users that incidental info (e.g.: meeting place) has been changed.
    Our Responses

    1. OK.
    2. There will be a message generated by the system and sent to all participants.

    Our Document

    4. Create a group alias: The program will be able to address groups of employees as well as single employees. Aliases will be defined from a list of employees and enable employees to schedule meetings with working groups or departments very easily.

    Your Comments

    1. Only individuals can create aliases -> i.e.: no public aliases.
    2. Please consider re-naming RSVP to "Messages".
    Our Responses

    1. OK.
    2. OK, It has been changed to "Messages".


    User Interface

    Our Document

    MONTH VIEW: A window showing a calendar-style display of all days in the current month

    WEEK VIEW: The month view will satisfy this need.

    Your Comment

    Our Response


    Our Document

    The `RSVP` tab will have a list of meetings the user has been invited to. By clicking on an invitation they can get more information about the meeting, and accept or decline the invitation.

    Your Comment

    1. NO RSVP (or message) unless conflict.
    2. We would prefer a system where a user clicks on a square on calendar Daytimer and info about meeting appears.
    Our Response

    1. OK. No RSVP instead "Message" window The Message window displays an editable text file containing five types of messages generated by the system.
    2. OK to clicking on a square on the daytimer

    Our Document

    The `Employees' tab will display a list of employees and their contact information such as phone number and email address. It will also show all currently defined aliases.

    Your Comment

  • Only want personally owned aliases, not public aliases.

    Our Response

  • The employee tab is obsolete now


    Our Document

    The 'Meeting Manager` tab allows the user to access information about meetings they are attending or have scheduled for a selected time period. For example, if you had the day March 5, 1996 selected on the calendar the Meeting Manager.

    Your Comment

  • We would prefer to click directly on the Daytimer i.e.: a square of time on the Daytimer.

    Our Response

  • See the new interface design it addresses this and many other such concerns by making the daytimer the focus of the system.


    Our Document

    ...would display your schedule for that day. If the user clicks on a specific meeting all information about that meeting would be displayed as a meeting information form . If it was a meeting they had convened, they could edit this form including canceling or rescheduling the meeting. They could also get a blank version of this form to use for scheduling a meeting.

    To simplify data entry by reducing typing and memory load, some input fields will be dynamically linked to the database in two ways. To begin with, double clicking an icon at the end of a field will pull up either an icon so input can be entered by mouse clicking (e.g., to select days of the week 7 boxes labeled Sunday - Saturday would be displayed clicking a box would select it), or a pull down menu from which input could be selected (e.g., names of people or group aliases currently scheduled by the system). In addition for some fields on the meeting information form the user can instruct the system to search for a match and if a unique one is found, fill in the rest of the information form (For example if a user wants to cancel a meeting but cannot remember the date and time they can enter the title to call it up and cancel it).

    Your Comment

  • Simplify Please - hard to understand

    Our Response

  • This section describes two ways in which we may, if time allows, reduce typing for the user. The meeting manager window is a form with little boxes where all of the information about a meeting is entered or, if the meeting already is scheduled, where it is held. In other words it is a lot like a pencil and paper form. Like a pencil and paper form the process of manually entering information is tedious and prone to error. At the end of some of the text boxes there will be a button that when pressed opens a small window from which the user can select input with a mouse click. For example, this feature might be available when filling in the "attendees" box. Clicking on the button at the right end of the box would display a list of all possible attendees and all of the aliases created thus far (By that specific user of course). Clicking a name would add it into the "attendees box". The other method we described would allow the user to partially complete a form then press "search" to try to complete the form. This would be a way to search for an existing meeting and is probably not necessary with our new interface design.



    Functional Specifications

    Our Document

    The Daytimer Display

    Located on the left side of the screen, a month, week or individual day is displayed in this window. The calendar will have clickable 'day' boxes and tabs on the left to select each week. The week display will have clickable days and the day display will show the employees day broken into half hour increments.

    Your Comment: Unclear

    Our Response: This has changed anyway given the new interface.


    Our Document

    Above the month/week/day display will be one or two large buttons. If a Month View is displayed, 'Next Month` and 'Previous Month` buttons will be displayed. From weekly view, the 'Month View'

    Your Comment

  • We want a week view display button.

    Our Response

  • There will be a week view though not a button labeled with "week view". Week view can be selected by highlighting the week on the calendar, the week view will be displayed in 24 hour format by 30 mins time slots.


    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Login To System

    Your Comments

    1. Do not want welcome message.
    2. Specify Warning Messages.
    3. How do we "set" or "add" a password?
    4. How do we change passwords?
    5. How many tries before we are kicked out?
    Our Responses

    1. OK. It will be deleted.
    2. Warning message1 - "Invalid login name!" Warning message2 - "Invalid password!" Perhaps "error messages" would be a better term.
    3. This will be addressed in the "Overall Design" or "Detailed Design" document. We did not think it was a major user function.
    4. Do you really want to get kicked out? If so, you tell us how many tries.
    5. See (4).

    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Select DAY VIEW from MONTH VIEW

    INPUTS:

    User left double-clicks on a day in monthly calendar.

    Your Comment

  • Just to be clear: Which day is displayed when clicked on?

    Our Response

  • The user moves the mouse pointer on the desired day and left double-clicks on that day, then the info of that day will be shown on the screen.

    v


    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Select WEEK VIEW from WEEK VIEW

    Your Comments

  • Just a typo of course but should say "month" view.

  • Also, there is a disparity here, previously you said there would be no "week view" but now you say there will be a week view -> Please be consistent!

    Our Response

  • As discussed with Customer group, there is a week view


    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Change to previous month

    Your Comment

  • We also want a "previous" and "next" button for day and week.

    Our Response

  • Can change to any day or week in the month calendar that is currently displayed.


    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Change to next month

    Your Comment

  • We also want a "previous" and "next" button for day and week.

    Our Response: See previous.


    Our Document

    RSVP Tab

    This screen shows a list of all meetings that the employee has been requested to attend that they have yet to decline or accept. Clicking on a meeting brings up a two-button dialog box with the buttons ACCEPT and DECLINE, as well as all the meeting information.

    Your Comment

  • Include all system messages here.

    Our Response

  • We are no longer using function tabs. There will be a "Messages" window where messages about meetings will be sent. When you say system messages we assume you do not mean error messages. We will display error messages where the user is working.


    Our Document

    Availability Tab

    This tab will present users with a number of buttons like those shown below to provide a wide variety of scheduling options. Items shown with lines beneath them will be pop-up menus Mon will present a pulldown list of days of the week. Times can be specified as available or unavailable. For example, an employee may enter his weekly hours as available and then enter a specific time on a specific day when they are unavailable.

    Your Comment

  • We want to point and click; don't want text format (or we could have both, i.e. the option to point and click).

    Our Response

  • The availability tab has been changed so that check boxes or some other mouse driven data entry device will be used in this window. You will be able to set your normal availability in terms of days of the week as well as times of each day you are available. See Section 1 of the Overall design document.


    Our Document

    The Meeting Scheduler Subsystem:

    This important subsystem is dealt with through the 'Meeting Manager' page on the right side of the screen. Users first select 'Attending Meetings` (all meetings the user is scheduled to attend) or 'My Meetings' (all meetings the user has scheduled). The Meeting Manager page then shows a chronological list of all applicable meetings within the time period selected on the left.

    All functions in this subsection use the meeting information form accessed by clicking the Meeting Manager tab then clicking on a meeting listed on the tab or clicking the Schedule Meeting button to get a blank meeting information form. The Meeting information form has the following fields that can be edited as described..

    Your Comment

  • We don't like this. We want to be able to click on a day and stuff pops up somewhere (e.g. to the right). We don't need a listing feature.

    Our Response

  • We have changed the format so that the information will be displayed when a day or week has been selected. The user will be able to use mouse to click on radio buttons with minimal text entry.
    Our Document

    1. Meeting Series: A dialogue box for user to input the title of a series of meetings. It can be any length or left blank if the meeting is not part of a series. User can click the field to display a pull-down menu listing all meeting series they have scheduled. They can select the meeting series from the pull-down menu.
    2. Meeting Series Frequency>: Radio buttons for selecting daily, weekly or monthly
    3. Meeting Series Time: Time or range of times. (Attached to Meeting Series Days)
    4. Meeting Series Days: Day or days when meeting can be scheduled
    Your Comment

  • We want #1,2,3 and 4 of this to be in "availability tab" format.

    Our Response

  • If you mean that you want to be able to enter this information using checkboxes or some other mouse driven graphical input device, we will try to oblige given the current budgetary and time constraints. We will also provide you with screen snaps of these forms ASAP so the discussion can be a bit more concrete.

    Note also:

    Under Availability tab the user will now be able to select the times he/she is available using the mouse button by highlighting the times and days for a normal work week.


    Our Document

    5. Regular Attendees: List of people who will normally attend meetings

    Your Comment

  • We want either Regular Attendees or Attendees, not both (no need for repeating information).

    Our Response

  • We will make one item called Attendees.


    Our Document

    12. Priority (of the meeting being scheduled): by clicking on the color codes to indicate importance of meeting.

    Your Comment

  • User will set personal priority. There should be a default low priority when a meeting is set up.

    Our Response

  • The user will be able to set there own priority codes and the default is low priority for new messages.


    Our Document

    13. Room Number

    Your Comment

  • (not connected to database - just a text field)

    Our Response

  • We will add room number as requested.
    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Display Meeting Information

    OUTPUTS:

    1) TOPIC - the topic of the meeting in a dialogue box

    2) DATE - in the form of month/day/year

    Your Comment

  • Day/month/year

    Our Response

  • Changed as requested


    Our Document

    6) AGENDA - an outline of what will be discussed in the meeting

    Your Comments

    1. Don't need this -- have a comments section instead.
    2. Who scheduled the meeting
    3. Room number of meeting
    Our Response

    1. AGENDA will be changed to COMMENTS as requested.

    2. We will add the following descriptions to the function: Display Meeting Information.

    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Schedule meeting

    Your Comment

    This is what we want:

    1. Propose meeting
    2. System gives best time and list of people who can't attend, and asks: "Do you want this meeting?"
    3. Confirm or cancel.
    4. If Cancel, keep re-proposing (or view alternate times)
    Our Response

  • The schedule meeting function will now be a function and not another subsystem. If a meeting needs to be scheduled, the scheduler function will be like a secretary given a list of names and a range of times to choose from. If all can attend at one of the specified times the meeting will be scheduled. If not, the system will propose alternate times, meeting the convenor's time requirements, where the most invitees can attend the meeting. The convenor can confirm one of these t times or try to schedule the meeting for another time.


    Our Document

    Function Description:

    To schedule a meeting, user has to click on the Meeting Manager tab. User will see a list of "My Meetings", by selecting any of the listed meetings there, users can view the particulars of that meeting. To schedule a new meeting, user has to select "New" at the end of the...

    Your Comment

  • We would prefer this to be at the top of the list or, better still, a separate button list.

    Our Response

  • We will be implementing the meeting scheduler as a function accessible from the main window by clicking the "schedule" button. The meeting scheduler window will display a list all of the meetings the user has scheduled. On that window will be a "New meeting button".


    Our Document

    A "Meeting Series Title" will display the following information:

            TITLE: 
            DATES (MM/DD/YY): dd/mm/yy
            TIME (HH:MM): optional
            LENGTH (30 MINUTES TIME SLOTS):
            ATTENDEES:
            AGENDA:
            PRIORITY:
    
    Your Comment

  • We don't want text format. We would prefer something like a radio button containing the options of day, week and month.

    Our Response

  • Check boxes will be used (You might want to specify several possible days so a radio button wouldn't work for this) with mouse device. Note: as mentioned earlier, this sort of mouse driven graphic based input can be quite time consuming to implement so we cannot guarantee that we will use this device for all fields.


    Our Document

    An AGENDA with no limits on the number of lines can then be typed in...

    Your Comment

  • Don't need an agenda - we would prefer a "comments" section.

    Our Response

  • Answered previously, COMMENTS to be substituted for AGENDA.


    Our Document

    ...by the user. The PRIORITY follows after this. User can specify the priority of the meeting by clicking on the color code provided.

    Your Comment

  • and received messages default to lowest priority

    Our Response

  • As answered previously, all previous messages will be defaulted to lowest priority.


    Our Document

    After the information is entered, the system will search for a time slot that will fit the requirements of this schedule. When the system finds an...

    Your Comment

  • We would also like a "limits" function (e.g. limit to search to Jan 5- Jan 16). This is to your benefit, because it will shorten the search.

    Our Response

  • If by limit function you mean that you want to be able to schedule the meeting within a certain time period, we will, of course, be providing that.


    Our Document

    Note: Places to hold meeting are always available to hold any number of people. Places are selected by the system.

    Your Comment

  • Places should not be selected by the system; it should be a text field. You can think of this feature as a "future employment" (i.e. you don't have to implement it now).

    Our Response

  • Places will not be selected by system and is regard as a text field only.


    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Cancel Meeting

  • cancel a meeting scheduled by the user

    Your Comment

    We would like:

  • Convener to be able to cancel a meeting. Thus, the meeting is canceled for everyone.
  • User to be able to cancel themselves, with a message somehow sent to the convener.

    Our Response

  • The convenor will be able to cancel meeting and as a result the meeting will be canceled for all attending and a message will be sent to all invitees.

    The attendee cannot cancel the meeting but can decline invitation at any time by selecting the meeting in their daytimer and clicking the "cancel" button. There a message sent to the convenor.


    Our Document

    INPUT:

  • enough information into form that system can locate it or click on me$ to pull it up.
  • reason for cancellation (When prompted)

    Your Comment

  • We don't need this.

    Our Response

  • We will take reason for cancellation out.


    Our Document

    FUNCTION: Change a Meeting

    INPUT

  • get meeting information form for the meeting(s)

    OUTPUT

  • edited form
  • changes meeting in database and informs invitees

    FUNCTION DESCRIPTION

    To edit a scheduled meeting, type over existing field text.

    To save the changes, click on SAVE button

    To cancel / abort changes, click on the CANCEL button

    To add new aliases, click on the ALIAS button (see Add Aliases)

    Sample Interaction Dialogue

    The Accounts Manager decides to change the Topic of the meeting, postpone his m$ 10am) to 11am, to include (in that meeting) the Production Manager and the Sale$ a new item on the agenda. He clicks the 'Meeting Manager' tab, selects 'My Meet$ the meeting information form for that meeting, edits the meeting data and then $ informed of the changed plans.

    Your Comment

  • There is no need for this. If a meeting is going to be changed, just cancel the$ everyone to attend, and then the user schedule another meeting.

    Our Response

  • We will delete this function from the system and change it to cancel meeting function.


    Our Document

    GLOSSARY OF INPUTS AND OUTPUTS
    
    TERMS       FORMAT          VALUE
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    
    AGENDA      Characters      Agenda of the meeting - unrestricted
                                format
    

    Your Comment

  • We don't need this as part of the system.

    Our Response

  • We will change AGENDA to a COMMENTS section instead.



    Our Documents

    ATTENDEES   Characters      Names of individual(s) invited to
                                attend the meeting.
    

    Your Comments

  • There is no need to have attendees as well as regular attendees as defined further below; simply have ATTENDEES.

    Our Response

  • We will have just ATTENDEES as requested previously.


    Our Documents

    DATE      MM/DD/YY        date of meeting to be scheduled.
                                     date may be entered by
                                       * clicking on the date on the
                                         calendar
                                       * typing in the value
                                    - Possible typos
                                       * invalid format
                                       * illogical date
    

    Your Comment

  • Change the date format to dd/mm/yy, perhaps even something like 16 Jan 96

    Our Response

  • We will changed the format to include month as a word instead of a number.


    Our Documents

    TIME         HH:MM           Numeric
                                 HH - hours, range 00-23
                                 MM - minutes, range 00-59
                                 system assigned value, if not entered
    
    Your Comment

  • We don't the user to see and use a 24-clock. We would prefer AM and PM as it is easier for the user to work with.

    Our Response

  • We will change the clock to indicate AM or PM as requested.

    End of Document