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:

A personal daytimer for the employees of your company
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.

The following is the table of contents for this document.

System Synopsis

System Look

System Design

Level I Data Flow Diagram
Level II Data Flow Diagrams
Level III Data Flow Diagrams
Table Definitions

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:

Notification you have been scheduled to attend a meeting;
Notification that the system has attempted to schedule you in a meeting;
Notification that a meeting invitee, for a meeting you have scheduled, has declined your invitation (This is done automatically when a meeting you have scheduled is removed from someone's daytimer);
Notification that a meeting you were scheduled to attend has been canceled and;
Notification that there has been a change in a meeting you are scheduled to attend (e.g., the room has changed).

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:

Scheduler
Messages
Availability
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

Level II DFD

Level III DFD

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

Employee Table

emp_id int not null
password char(10) not null
f_name char(20) not null
l_name char(20) not null
start_hour datetime not null
end_hour datetime not null
days_worked char(7) not null

The employee table contains the information of each emplyee. Each row in this table will have the necessary information about a single employee:

EMP_ID: the unique identification number for emplyee. This is the primary key of the table.

PASSWORD: the password for emplyee.

F_NAME: the first name of the emplyee.

L_NAME: the last name of the emplyee.

Fields directly related to availability are:

START_HOUR: the time that emplyee start of work during a day

END_HOUR: the time that emplyee end of work during a day

DAYS_WORKED: one flag for each day of week. The Y/N characters in DAYS_WORKED are essentially booleans for Monday-Sunday.

For instance, say Jimmy Hoffa works from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. His availability would then be encoded:

START_HOUR = 9:00

END_HOUR = 17:00

DAYS_WORKED = "YYYYYNN"

Now this encodes his general available hours. Storing this general information right in the EMPLOYEE table will allow our program to quickly rule out a meeting time where Jimmy would not even be at work (like 8:00 at night). If someone tries to schedule Jimmy for a meeting during his work hours, then the program can do further checks on his availability by consulting the BOOKING table.

Group Table

Group (Alias) Table
- group_id int not null
- group_owner char(20) not null
- emp_id int not null
- group_name char(40) null
Relates to: Employee Table
Relationship: Many --> One
The group table holds information describing the membership of all employees in any aliases that may be in the system. Each entry in the Group table contains enough information to link an employee to a particular alias.
Each employee can define his/her own set of group aliases. Because of this, an employee may be a member of more than one group; therefore, an employee may be represented many times within the Group table.

Booking Table

Booking Table
- emp_id int not null
- meeting_id int not null
- priority char(1) notnull
Relates to: Employee Table
Relationship: Many --> One
Relates to: Meeting Table
Relationship: Many --> Many
Each entry in the Booking Table describes a single booked time for an employee. The program can relate a person's booked time to a particular meeting by referring to this record.
The priority of a booked time (set by the employee) is also stored in this table. By storing the priority in this table instead of the meeting table, users may assign their own unique priorities to each meeting (which may differ from the priority other employees set for that meeting).

Messages Table

Messages Table
- emp_id int not null
- message char(80) not null
- read_yet int not null
Relates to: Employee Table
Relationship: Many --> One
This table contains pending invitation notices for all employees in the system. Each record specifies who the message is intended for, the message itself, and a flag signifying whether the message has been read yet.

Meeting Table

Meeting Table
- meeting_id int not null
- date datetime not null
- length int not null
- title char(40) not null
- comments char(256) null
- group_id int not null
- place char(40) null
- type int not null
Relates to: Group Table
Relationship: One --> One
Relates to: Employee Table
Relationship: One --> One
This table contains the detailed information for a single meeting or automatic meeting. It points to the group alias record describing the people who will attend.
Fields in this table describe the meeting's topic, title, date and length. The place where the meeting will be held is also stored here.
Meeting types are:
- 1 - one time only
- 2 - once a week
- 3 - once a month
For once a week, the meeting may fall on the weekend.

Team Organization

Executive Summary & Final Edit

Hal Henningsmoen (For detailed design document)

Danny Yerex (For overall design document)

System Synopsis

System Look

System Design

Pseudocode Ammendments

Paul Sung

Rosina Ye

Team Organization

Mabel Khoo

Your Amendments(For Functional Specifiction Document)

Your Amendments(For Overall Design Document)

Test Plan

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

The term meeting can be used interchangeably with the term appointment.
We would like keyboard shortcuts for all major functions.
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).
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.
Poor grammar and techno-talk made parts of the document confusing and unclear.

Our Response

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.
Short cut keys were not requested in your original request but we will, of course, do everything feasible to accommodate this request.
We believe our new interface deals with this concern.
We believe our new interface deals with this concern but please feel free to indicate specific problems.

A Detailed Design for TimeTracker

Submitted by:

Executive Summary

Table of Contents

System Synopsis

General Description of Time Tracker

System Look

Login Screen

Main Screen

Scheduler Screen

Availability Screen

Alias Screen

Messages Screen

System Design

Level I DFD

Level II DFD

Level III DFD

Team Organization

Your Amendments

End of Document