The challenge was to develop a project management and timekeeping system for the engineering department. The existing system had previously been devised using Microsoft's Excel and Access over a period of 5 years. It was proving slow and hard to maintain and the information was being further manipulated to provide reports and spreadsheets for other departments. The requirements were that the system should be easy and quick to use and easy to maintain. The system required features that would allow the project manager to monitor the time recorded on 3 levels. The project manager needed the facility to enter projects, assign tasks to individual engineers and handle contractors. For contractors it would need to raise purchase orders, record time and produce time sheets for their own companies use. It also had to record time and expenses for other divisions that worked under the engineering department. When the engineers entered time, it would need to display the estimated time, and actual time taken, the month to date and year to date for each task and the annual vacation details. In addition to this the new system had to provide reports to engineers, project manager and other departments.

The Solution

After getting all the requirements, we performed the systems analysis and design and using UML (Unified Modeling Language) an industries standard for software design. We designed the database, and developed the new system continuing to use Microsoft Access.

The new system eliminates

• Engineers having to enter their time in a complex excel spreadsheet
• Project Manager updating each individual spreadsheet and consolidating the spreadsheets to further manipulate to produce reports for other departments
• Separate systems for projects and contractors

Benefits Attained