Information System Engineering Coursework

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4. Firstly, CEO which includes in top level management is a key actor of AgeCare because she has
the responsibility to make strategic decisions for finance and running projects. She is also the one who
wants to change to MIS. So, she becomes the key actor.
Another key actors are funders because a charity cannot survive without them. If they stop
funding, AgeCare can neither provide services to clients nor pay salary to full time staff.
Since AgeCare uses centralized finance system, Finance Director has to handle the finances of
all 15 branches and preparing financial reports to Executive Committee. So, he becomes central to
AgeCare.
From data point of view, Information Quality Officer will be the main focus since the
responsibilities of managing all data flows associated with projects’ key performance measurements and
solving inconsistency of data from 15 branches for producing performance charts sit on him. If AgeCare
lacks this post, funders and trustees will not know precisely how their funds are used and they may
discontinue funding.
Apart from these core actors, other facts make us identify centre manager as key to the system.
Centre manager who plays the managerial role for each centre must oversee the projects and the
administration of the centre including centre expenses, recruitment and supervision of staff or volunteers.
Without having this role, the organization will be in complete disorder while running the projects at
respective centers.
After starting a project, it forces project leader to be the most essential stakeholder. While a
project is in progress, it is crucially significant to monitor its effectiveness and efficiency. Only if there is
a project leader who scrutinizes minutely the project and then reports it to superiors for assuring project
goes well, it can enhance AgeCare’s profile.
We can also take account of volunteers or staff as the core actors. Unless there are people who
will do voluntary work, it will be difficult to supply social services to elderly people.
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5. We can find some key issues and areas of conflicts in AgeCare environment. The most
prominent one is associated with changing to MIS. As AgeCare has 15 branches, CEO becomes worried
about data security and whether they look professional and raise their profile or not. Consequently, she is
concerned about these and wants to change to MIS. Furthermore, staff and volunteers have difficulties
when elderly people are longing to know more about the projects run by AgeCare or about other elderly
people or about total people using charity’s services. Having such too much complaint leads to think
about MIS. Although some people welcome MIS, there are some who dispute with this idea because they
are afraid to record new data in new way for new system.
Additionally, there is another major issue and conflicts relating to finances. The more AgeCare
accepts funds, the more complicated finance information finance director must cope with. Therefore, he
starts to worry whether right fund is transferred to right centre or not and whether financial reports created
are accurate or not. Simultaneously, centre manager fears that he will have to wait in case of urgently
wanting money during project’s progress because everything must be reported to head office. Thus, he
wants to administer own finance system and conflicts between finance director and centre manager
gradually rise.
Finally, issue and conflicts on data inconsistency create difficulties between Information
Quality Officer(IQO) and centre manager. Each center stores its own projects’ data in their convenient
way such as using spreadsheet, database, manual file system, causing unsystematic way of collecting data.
So, whenever IQO asks for project’s data from centre manager, conflicts are occurred and he thinks
AgeCare should standardize data format to help him measure KPIs.
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6. Although many different conflicts between employees concerned with centralized finance system,
data inconsistency and transforming into MIS can be seen in our drawn AgeCare Charity rich picture, all
these things are taken into rich picture by mainly focus on one thing. This is having a desire to develop
Management Information System.
Only if there is such kind of system, it will be able to standardize data. As a result, information
quality officer can easily compare key performance indicators of a project with others and produce
accurate financial documents. Moreover, MIS will be able to provide managerial roles for each centre
such as centre managers, directors of respective departments located at head office, CEO, executive
committee, trustees and funders with reports on finance, project’s progress and project’s performance.
In some cases, MIS will be useful for sharing information within AgeCare organization by
granting online access. This information may contain charity’s present performance level, elderly
people’s data between projects and previous projects’ records showing their good and bad points.
Because of these reasons and advantages, we demonstrated some conflicts and key issues in our
rich picture for supporting to get the idea that AgeCare cannot live without MIS so that data can flow
consistently and charity can operate well. Therefore, we mainly focus on wanting to change to MIS for
ease of producing reports for top level management while AgeCare rich picture was being drawn.
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7. There are mainly five actors controlling data, systems and processing. The first one is project
leader who controls the project environment and deals with every single data of projects. As his/her task
is handling projects, processing like planning timetable for projects, monitoring project’s progress,
balancing project’s performance according to KPIs and reporting project details are under control of
him/her.
All data about staff and volunteers’ profiles, centre expenses, projects run by centre and clients’
information must be controlled by centre manager at each centre. All functions, for instance, keeping
above data, managing the centre, overseeing effort of staff and project leader on projects and reporting to
headquarters are covered in his/her control.
Finance Director controls flow of funds for entire AgeCare organization and handles financial
data of all centers, staff’s salary information and funds received from funders for particular projects.
Thus, controlling such processing as transferring money to branches, running payroll system, accepting
funds and reporting financial documents are performed by him.
Next controller of system is Information Quality Officer at headquarters who is responsible for
data concerned with KPIs and reports of projects by centre managers. So, procedures like measuring
quality of projects collected from centers based on KPIs and producing performance charts for executive
committee must be in control of him.
The most essential one is CEO who stands over all actors in AgeCare. All strategic decisions and
future plans are made under the control of her and she usually makes these decisions based on the
summarized data of projects reported by headquarters.
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9. Name: Record Received Funds
Actor: Centre Accountant
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when accountant selects enter new project’s funds
1. Accountant chooses shopping service in the service category for which the fund is received.
2. Accountant issues funds receiving data, project’s name and the amount of funds.
3. After entering total amount, accountant will submit above data and confirm receiving funds is
correct.
Secondary Scenario
Before submitting, accountant can cancel and this lets the use case end.
At step2, if the amount of funds entered is incorrect or increased or decreased by the funders, the
accountant must reenter the amount.
Name: Register Clients
Actor: Centre Administrative Staff
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when elderly people come to register or are registered through social services and local
agencies and then administrative staff clicks on new client registration form.
1. Administrative staff checks whether a person has already registered or not.
2. Personal details of elderly people including their NHS No, financial and legal information are
recorded.
3. Client’s information is added to the system.
Secondary Scenario
In activity 2, the registration will be canceled when some requested information of elderly people is
inadequate or NHS No is invalid.
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10. Name: Add Driver’s Info
Actor: Centre Administrative Staff
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when a person comes to work as a volunteer and then administrative staff selects new
driver registration form.
1. Administrative staff enters volunteer’s personal details including his or her available day and time.
2. Information of CRB, driving license, health checks and referees is inserted.
3. Administrative staff confirms that volunteer accepts rules and regulations of AgeCare.
4. Administrative staff submits volunteer’s data.
Secondary Scenario
For event 1, if a volunteer’s availability is not suitable with the time for shopping trip, this person will not
be considered.
In step two, registration will be declined if following cases are observed.
 no driving license or many endorsements at the back of license
 having criminal records or failing health checks (if a person is an ex-offender, he/she will be
examined whether committed conviction is related to roles of volunteer of green drive project)
 lack of referee
In event 3, a volunteer may disagree about the prescribed rules and this lets the use case finish.
Name: Record Drawn Monthly Shopping Trips Rota
Actor: Doris Smith
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when Doris records new monthly shopping trips rota.
1. ID of project and project name are picked up.
2. Total visited times for each supermarket is viewed and IDs of sponsored supermarkets are selected.
3. IDs of available vehicles are picked up.
4. Doris looks for availability of drivers.
5. Doris groups the elderly people who live in the same postcode and records the best suitable route.
6. Doris enters date and time for each shopping trip.
7. Time and place to pick up each client are defined.
8. When ID(s) of vehicle(s) and ID(s) of driver(s) are added for each particular trip, Doris confirms
rota.
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11. Secondary Scenario
For step 2, if supermarkets found that they do not get fair share of visits, they may discontinue funding.
In step 3, if all vehicles are in use for other activities, Doris may hire vehicles from Car Rental Company.
In activity 4, when there are no available drivers, Doris will contact with other volunteer groups or change
date and time of shopping trips.
In event 8, if a driver resigns or is fired or changes his/her availability after allocating, Doris will reassign
another one.
Name: Fill in Everyday Routines of Project
Actor: Doris Smith
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when Doris records new daily project’s routine.
1. ID of shopping trip, ID(s) of driver(s) in charge and assigned vehicle ID are chosen.
2. Doris inserts vehicle’s key picking up time, whether there is emergency call or not and key returning
time.
3. IDs of elderly people who came on the bus are selected and their attendances are saved. IDs of
elderly people who were absent are selected and the reasons why they were absent are inserted.
4. After adding the remark such as whether there is a problem or not, Doris submits everyday routines of
project.
Secondary Scenario
In step 2, if the driver is absent or take a leave, the system will display other available drivers. Similarly,
Doris will search for other available vehicles if the assigned bus breaks down and then the driver makes
an emergency call.
In step 3, if there were no elderly people coming on the bus, this would make the use case end.
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12. Name: Insert Fuel Purchase and Usage
Actor: Doris Smith
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when Doris selects new insert fuel purchase and usage form
1. ID of driver who purchases fuel and ID of bus which is filled up with diesel are selected.
2. Doris inserts date, total gallon of diesel purchased, its cost and total driven miles.
3. Doris adds payment info (payment ID, total Amount)
4. After issuing remark concerned with whether driver gives back a receipt or not, Doris confirms data
about fuel purchase and its usage.
Secondary Scenario
In step 1, if either driver ID or bus ID is wrong, Doris will check again and reenter data.
For activity 3, if Doris does not have enough money to pay or she is not at office, driver will request
money from centre accountant or cancel filling up fuel.
Name: Report Project’s Progress, Finance and Performance
Actor: Claire Graham
Series of Activities
Use Case begins when Claire chooses monthly report.
1. Claire enters month for which the report has to be produced.
2. Claire searches for project’s major data by entering project ID or project’s name.
3. System will show project’s progress like how many tasks have already been accomplished, the usage
of resources and also show how well this project met KPIs such as drivers’ performance in caring
clients, elderly people’s satisfaction and whether there are too many complaints.
4. After adding remark whether the project met its requirements last month or not, Claire will generate
monthly report and pass it to headquarters.
Secondary Scenario
At any time before generating report, Claire may cancel reporting.
In activity 1, if Claire enters wrong month, the system will search and display other project’s information.
In step 2, if Doris did not record daily record regularly, CG will estimate all the conditions of project’s
progress and reports to headquarters.
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13. In analyzing AgeCare’s method of running Green Drive project, six main tasks which can be
drawn as use cases can be found.
Whenever a project begins, finance department of head office sends fund to respective centre. As
we think that there must be an accountant at every centre to save received funds details, we regard centre
accountant as a primary actor for this task. There are also two secondary actors who maintain the system.
They are – supermarkets and social services which jointly supply funds for this project. Without them,
there would be no Green Drive project.
Data about elderly people and drivers is also vital for Green Drive. Since this function is
concerned with administration, centre administrative staff who records this data becomes a primary
actor. Although centre accountant and centre administrative staff directly interacts with the system, there
is a person behind who orders them to do so. This is centre manager who can be said as a secondary
actor.
In this project, we can see most of the key procedures and transactions, for example, planning and
recording monthly shopping trips rota, filling in every day routines of project and inserting fuel purchase
and its usages are done by Doris Smith. She also has to report to project leader by collecting all above
data. Therefore, we made her as a primary actor in our use case diagram.
Another key primary actor is brought about at the end of each month. Claire Graham, a project
leader of Green Drive, must arrange proper information for monthly project report on project’s progress,
performance and finance. Moreover, we also describe head office which oversees the reports presented
by this primary actor as a secondary actor.
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14. By examining the scenario of Green Drive Project, we illustrated six use cases in our use case
diagram. Moreover, we have already explained above about both primary and secondary scenarios for use
cases in details. But, just describing all these facts are insufficient to demonstrate how well we
comprehend the coursework and use case diagram we have created. Therefore, we want to clarify the way
we assumed some key activities included in our chosen primary scenario of Record Drawn Monthly
Shopping Trips Rota.
We chose four key activities which can make this scenario complete. They are recording the best
suitable bus route, entering date and time for each shopping trip, defining time and place to pick up each
client and adding ID(s) of vehicle(s) and ID(s) of driver(s) for each particular trip. Why we chose these
activities is that not only other activities in this scenario but also all other scenarios depend on them.
Without having systematic shopping trips rota, Green Drive project cannot go on. Even if only one of
these four activities is failed to carry out, it will have effects on the whole project and can cause project
fail. If we did not search for best suitable route, it will be time consuming for shopping trips. Likewise,
wrong date, time or place can make elderly people get in troubles. Although we could perform all above
activities without mistakes, we must cancel or postpone the trips if we miss to assign either vehicle or
driver for each trip. So, we identify these key activities by supposing expressed above.
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15. We cannot always expect that a system will complete without having errors. So, while
documenting the primary scenario of Record Drawn Monthly Shopping Trips Rota, we also mulled
over some alternative paths that can happen at any steps in case of error situations. Finally, we could point
out some questions which can disturb the primary scenario. They include –
 What if supermarkets discontinue funding?
 What if all vehicles are in use for other activities?
 What if when there are no available drivers?
 What if problems or changes occurred associated with assigned driver?
By trying to find out solutions for these questions, we could imagine secondary scenarios for
Record Drawn Monthly Shopping Trips Rota use case. They are as follows –
 Supermarkets realized that getting no fair share of visits.
 All vehicles are full of activity
 Drivers are not available or his/her availability does not suit with time for picking clients up and
returning them back to home.
 Driver resigns or is fired or changes his/her availability after allocating.
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16. While drawing use case diagram for Green Drive Project, some assumptions concerned with the
system were needed to be made. The reason why we made assumptions is that use case diagram must be
drawn based on pure coursework’s scenario and there are no responsible people of AgeCare to ask for
obtaining the required information. But, instead of making assumptions, we will surely ask some
questions to responsible peple for gathering information in real life.
Firstly, we want to ask the administrative staff whether they accept client registration or not if
some information of elderly people is inadequate. Another question should also be asked to the
admninistrative staff. This is what they usually do if a person who eagerly wants to be a volunteer is an
ex-offender but committed conviction is not related to roles of volunteer and if this person does not have
driving license.
Since many major processes are under the control of Doris Smith, we want to ask some questions
to her such as how she plans shopping trips rota to satisfy both supermarkets and social services and how
she arranges the bus route to reduce time consuming. Moreover, we should also ask her how she solves
the problems if all vehicles are not available for shopping trips and how she records the elderly people’s
attendance. As recording information of fuel used for transportation is also essential, we need to ask
whether she saves fuel payment details such as total purchased gallons and its cost together with its usage
like total driven miles.
Finally, it is required to know how this project information is presented to headquarters. So, we
need to ask project leader how he creates reports on project’s progress, performance and finance.
Moreover, we should ask him how he handles if the project does not meet KPIs well and how he will run
the project if funders discontinue or reduce funding. These are all questions we would like to ask if we get
a chance of asking the responsible staff in person.
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17. Whenever we start to develop a system, the first step we have do is analyzing this system so that
we can know how the users of this system operate their system, which type of data must be kept and
which processes are vital. So, we use a number of ways like ethnographic approaches, prototyping,
interviews, questionnaires and workshops for fact-finding purposes as well as for gathering the user
requirements. Then, we apply many various tools to document these requirements and also to be used as
the communication tools between system analyst and the users to assure that user requirements are
correct.
For that reason, two tools: rich picture and use case diagram are used to identify the different user
requirements while we were analyzing the system of AgeCare charity. Therefore, we would like to
compare these two tools and then discuss about the usefulness of them in assisting us for developing
system of AgeCare. To see them clearly, we want to describe by using the table below.
AgeCare Charity Rich Picture Use Case Diagram for Green Drive Project
Main Difference Soft System Approach which considers for Hard System Approach which is dedicated to
human factor technical factor
Main purpose or  As it is soft system methodology, its main  In contrast with rich picture, the main
usefulness purpose is to express non-functional purpose of Green Drive Project use case
requirements and social aspects such as diagram is to describe technical aspects such
AgeCare stakeholders’ emotions, their as sequentially state the interactions
thoughts, their perceptions, organizational between the key actors and the system of
factors, relationships between Green Drive Project and its system’s
stakeholders and conflicts between them. functionalities like functions and processes
 It is also a powerful tool for indicating the the system is needed to carry out.
primary tasks of AgeCare charity. So, it is  It is also useful to abstract the more key
useful for identifying uncontrollable and functional requirements for developing
unpredictable soft factors and we can Green Drive system and this makes the use
evaluate what people are thinking in their case diagram clearer than rich picture.
minds and what their wants are.
Focus on It puts its focus on the current situations of It concentrates on searching for solutions for
AgeCare environment. So, we can observe the expressed issues in AgeCare rich picture.
the data flows within AgeCare organization, And then, it looks for technical solutions to
present organization structure and current achieve the particular goals of each key actor
facing issues between stakeholders mostly which will be involved in the proposed Green
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18. concerned with data inconsistency, the Drive system. So, we can see the way of
different opinions on changing to MIS and inputting data of elderly people, drivers,
finance. shopping trips rota and fuel payment into the
system, processing and reporting them.
Point of View for AgeCare charity rich picture must be drawn Green Drive use case diagram is drawn from
drawing from the point of view of stakeholders. For the point of view of end-users. For example,
respective example,  From point of view of administrative staff,
diagram  From point of view of elderly people, they he/she will use the system to register clients
get services for shopping trips from and add driver’s info.
AgeCare.  From point of view of account, he/she
 From point of view of information quality records the received amount of funds
officer, he evaluates the project’s
performance by measuring KPIs and then
reports performance charts to AgeCare
Executive Committee.
Similar features Boundary – Drawing rich picture helped us Boundary – Unlike AgeCare rich picture,
involved in each in defining the boundary between Green Drive Use Case Diagram assisted us in
tool stakeholders of AgeCare within the system dividing the boundary between the uses cases
and external sources such as funders, local and the key actors who are dealing with these
authorities, etc. use cases.
Actors – As we have already clarified Actors – Since use case diagram is intended
above, all actors that are depicted in for technical solutions, almost all actors in our
AgeCare rich picture are stakeholders since diagram are the end-users who use the system
the nature of rich picture shows the by themselves. But, a little different from the
organization structure. So, CEO, senior actors in AgeCare rich picture is that there are
executive committee, finance director, two types of actors in our use case diagram.
information quality officer, central This is primary actors such as centre
administrative director, project leader, accountant, centre administrative staff, Doris
centre manager, assistant manager, staff, Smith, Claire Graham who are directly
volunteers, funders, elderly people, etc interrelating with the system and secondary
become included. actors, for instance, supermarkets, social
services, centre manager and head office which
exist only to let the primary actors accomplish
their tasks.
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19. Similar features Relationships – Arrow lines represents the Relationships – Arrow lines are used to
involved in each relationships between stakeholders or visualize the communications between use case
tool between branches and head office or and its respective actor. For example, an arrow
between people inside and outside the link between “add driver’s info use case” and
boundary of AgeCare environment. administrative staff to prove that they relate
with each other.
Indicating activities – Activities also plays Indicating activities – Each use case
the key roles for analyzing requirements and represents each activity that is activated by an
they are shown above or below their actor or actors. In our drawn diagram, we can
relevant arrow lines. For instance, “report notice that “register clients use case” begins
performance chart” points out the activity when centre administrative staff, primary actor,
between information quality officer and selects new client registration and centre
AgeCare Executive Committee. manager, secondary actor, commands him/her
to do so.
Different features Issues – Since issues are the essence of a Primary Scenario – We had to document
involved in each rich picture and they are also the things primary scenarios for Green Drive use case
tool which make rich picture different from use diagram. So, we can comprehend step by step
case diagram, we also searched for the activities performed by respective key actors.
issues while constructing AgeCare rich Secondary Scenario - Moreover, we also had
picture. Then, we discover that all to consider secondary scenarios of each use
stakeholders of AgeCare charity have their case, for example,
own concerns on the things their charity is  how will the project be run if the
carrying out. We can see each stakeholder supermarkets stop giving funds?
exposes his/her different opinions for the  whether the registration will be canceled or
task he/she has to deal with. For example, not when some requested information of
finance director may have concerns for elderly people is inadequate or NHS no is
handling finance for the whole AgeCare invalid,
organization. Likewise, information quality  whether the administrative staff accepts a
officer may have a great concern for data person to be a volunteer or not if this person
inconsistency issue and some staff may does not have driving license or referees or
worry about facing with too much if he/she is an ex-offender,
complaint of elderly people. By looking at  what will Doris do if all vehicles are in use
these issues, we will be able to find the best for other activities while arranging rotas?
solutions for these exposed problems in By finding solutions for these questions, we
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20. Different features building up Management Information can handle exceptional behaviors of the Green
involved in each System for AgeCare charity. Drive system.
tool Conflicts – At the places in our drawn rich
picture where two people have opposite
perspectives on the same case, we put the
cross-swords to signify that they are conflict
areas. In our AgeCare charity rich picture,
these symbols can be found between finance
director and centre manager or information
quality officer and centre manager or
between AgeCare and other charities or
between volunteers and staff. Based on the
conflicts expressed, we can consider which
things must be changed to be better for the
proposed MIS of AgeCare.
Monitoring - We take the eye symbol into
our AgeCare rich picture to represent
monitoring something for fulfilling the
expectations. In real life, the funders will
not give money easily just by hearing the
words of AgeCare Executive Committee.
They need to see some evidences of their
funded projects’ effectiveness. So, they
should monitor the reports presented by
committee. To be able to present these
reports, the committee has to check the
reports forwarded by finance director and
information quality officer. So, the eye
symbols are placed between them.
Similarly, projects are needed to be
monitored by information quality officer
and project leaders to make sure that they
meet the KPIs.
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21. Some good points  Rich picture is easy to use as there is no  It is helpful in abstracting the major
predefined constraint or rule. So, we used functional requirements of our proposed
the cartoon-like symbols while drawing MIS system for Green Drive.
AgeCare rich picture. As a result, it can  As it is created from the user point of view
be even understood by non-technical by capturing the tasks performed by users, it
people such as CEO and other assists us in producing the correct system.
stakeholders of AgeCare.  For each function carried out by the end-
 It is a valuable tool to describe the users, we document not only primary
problem situationa of AgeCare charity’s scenario but also secondary scenario.
at present time. Therefore, it can make the system more
 AgeCare stakeholders can more easily robust as alternative paths are considered for
discuss their roles in charity by seeing the exceptional conditions.
rich picture.  Since use case descriptions use simple
narrative text, the stakeholders of AgeCare
can easily interpret whether the system
presented by system analyst is right or
wrong.
 Other diagrams such as sequence diagram,
activity diagram, collaboration diagram, etc
can be drawn based on use case diagram.
Some bad points  It will not be as useful as use case  In real life, we have to ask end-users to
diagram for developing the system. know which parts of their functions are
 Some AgeCare stakeholders might think important for designing the use case
that we are joking them when we show diagram. But, end-user may never think of
them our drawn rich picture which is just technical solutions suitable for system
like a cartoon functions and they will think all their
 As all stakeholders of AgeCare must be performing functions are required.
involved in rich picture so that we can Therefore, it leads to identifying the wrong
know their organization structure, there functional requirements for the system.
is too much information which are
essential and which are not on our rich
picture.
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22. To conclude, we can say that both two tools are graphical tools for making the communication
more easy and useful between the stakeholders or end-users and the system analyst. As a picture can tell
us a thousand words, there is no doubt that both tools can highlight the user requirements just by taking a
glimpse at either our drawn AgeCare charity rich picture or our described use case diagram for Green
Drive project. Each tool assists us by its own way in analyzing the user requirements for AgeCare charity.
With the help of AgeCare rich picture, we came to know their organization structure, their primary tasks,
their current situations, the exposed issues and conflicts for these issues. On the other hand, we could
abstract the systematic functional requirements of proposed MIS for Green Drive project through our use
case diagram. In addition, use case diagram not only make obvious who is interacting with the system to
do which process but also make the system more robust with the help of secondary scenarios. Some
people may say that they can implement the system just by using use case and rich picture is useless.
Although it is possible to design a system just by using use case, what we believe is that a system which
is implemented without considering human factors and organization factors will surely fail sooner or
later. Therefore, in our opinion, only if we implement the systems by combining rich picture which is
designed for hard system approach and use case diagram which is dedicated to hard system approach, we
can be successful in gathering user requirements and implementing the systems.
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