Modeling of Professional and Scientific

Staff Management

Table of Contents
1.

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3

2.

System architecture .............................................................................................................................. 3

2.1 Existing architecture ........................................................................................................................... 3

3.

2.2

Problems with the existing system ............................................................................................... 5

2.3

Proposed system architecture ...................................................................................................... 5

Proposed system and data modeling.................................................................................................... 6

3.1 Data Flow diagram .............................................................................................................................. 6
3.1.1 Context diagram........................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.2 Level 0 DFD................................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.3 Use Case Diagram ........................................................................................................................ 9
3.2

Domain Model Class diagram ..................................................................................................... 10

3.3

Activity Diagram .......................................................................................................................... 11

3.4

System Sequence Diagram.......................................................................................................... 12

References .................................................................................................................................................. 13

1. Introduction

Modeling of any engineering system plays a crucial role in evaluating the overall performance of
the corresponding system, as the final output of the system or products depends on the level of
design standards followed. In general modeling techniques are developed as a part of system
design over the entire product life cycle development process and rest of the implementation,
testing and deployment of the respective system purely depends on the modeling methodology
followed (Wandeler, 2006). To evaluate the modeling and design techniques, a case with
Professional and Scientific Staff Management (PSSM) is considered, where the core business
objective of the organization is to provide temporary staffing services.
PSSM provides the staffing services on contract basis to many companies from various sectors
like Oil and Gas and the uniqueness of the organization is that, it can provide staffing services to
any type of industry, which includes technical, non technical and scientific staff members. As
specified wide range of staff are always available with PSSM whom include from a daily labor to
computer operator, astrophysicists and geologists as well. Thus in this context, to manage all the
core business and organizational activities, PSSM is currently using a typical software or system
which can be accessed by the persons or roles like PSSM clients, employees, contract managers
and placement managers.

2. System architecture

2.1 Existing architecture

As mentioned, PSSM is currently using typical workflow management software to manage the
business activities across its departments and the primary architecture followed over the system
is as discussed below

Client Company is the main entity that plays a significant role over the PSSM workflow
management system, where the respective company determines its professional or
scientific staffing requirements with the organization.

A typical staffing request will be raised by the client against the existing negotiation
terms with PSSM, where the request is forwarded to the contract manager of the
organization

Each and every contract request is tracked with a unique contract ID and now the
respective contract manager enters the ID into contracting database.

Based on the information fetched from database against the unique contract ID, contract
manager will evaluate the required terms and conditions of the contract and tests the
validity of the request

If the staffing request is valid, respective professional or scientific staff are provided with
the negotiated fees as per the contract, else the contract is returned to the client seeking
more information from the client

Once the contract is marked as valid it is forwarded to staffing request database and
marked as outstanding request and then forwarded to the placement department of PSSM

Based on the staffing request, now the placement department will check the database
against the request, where the key attributes of the request like type of staff, experience
and qualification are matched with the existing staff database

When one or more records are fetched from the staff database against the staffing
constraint imposed, respective staff (he or she) are marked with the status reserved.

If there is no record found with the respective staffing request, a typical memo is created
regarding the unavailability of staff and forwarded to the contract manager. All the
pending staffing requests are forwarded to the arrangements department

Employees who are temporarily available are contacted towards the pending staffing
request. Once the agreement is successful with the corresponding employee or staff,
respective contract is marked with the status placed

Staffing request, unable to fill memo and placement fee bill are forwarded to the
contract manager against the status fetched from the placement database and filed over
the contract office

Once the staffing request is failed completely, the corresponding status is updated to the
client.

Accounting is another important entity over the existing system used across PSSM,
where the typical billing cycle completes within a month and the respective payments are
made via a credit card or cheque or customer account.

2.2 Problems with the existing system

Above are the key features of the existing PSSM workflow and few potential issues are
identified across the workflow and they are as listed

Existing database has few constraints like only one employee can access the records at a
single point of time, which raises bottleneck issues

There are duplication issues with electronic and paper records and it would become
difficult to manage

Placement success rates are not tracked effectively and even a proper reporting structure
is missing with the current system (Tegarden, 2012)

2.3 Proposed system architecture

Main goal of the proposed system is remove the issues with the existing system like paper and
duplicate records and to maintain all the placement records by eliminating the redundancy. Thus
in this context a new automated information system is required to track all the business,
organizational and workflow management activities, where the required modeling and design
aspects are as discussed in the below section.

3. Proposed system and data modeling

Architecture of existing system and the corresponding issues with the system are discussed in the
above section. As per the proposal of PSSM it is clear that, they are in need of much redundant
system and the main aim is to automate the entire information system and streamline all the
features of the existing workflow management system. Thus to model the required system, data
modeling and object modeling techniques are followed and they are as discussed below

3.1 Data Flow diagram

Data flow diagram is used to evaluate the complete data flow of the system and the required
context diagram and Level 0 diagram are as discussed below
3.1.1 Context diagram

Fig 3.1.1.1: Context diagram of the proposed system

Context diagram of the proposed workflow management system of PSSM is shown in the above
figure. In general context diagram is used to evaluate the key functionalities and the relation
among the entities of the system. From the above figure it is clear that, there are many automated
processes over the proposed system and the initial process starts with client company
registration. A separate client database is maintained in this context and the corresponding clients
can search and raise the request for staffing services using their computer or mobile as shown in
the above figure. Respective staffing requests are tracked and accessed via the contracting
database, where the validity of the request is processed as shown.
Based on the validity of the request, corresponding process is initiated, where if the request is
valid it is forwarded to staff database, else unavailability of the request is communicated to the
client via an email as shown in the above context diagram. From the staff database corresponding
staff are inquired about their availability of the contract and the corresponding job is assigned by
the placement department and the respective details are maintained at the staff database and
reporting database. Accounts department holds the responsibility of generating the invoice for
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every staff request and forwards the same to the contract manager. Overall reports of the staff
requests and clients are maintained across the reporting database as shown in the above context
diagram.

3.1.2 Level 0 DFD

Fig 3.2.1.1: Level 0 DFD of the proposed system

High level and Level 0 DFD (Data Flow Diagram) is shown in the above figure and there are
four important databases like contract database, client database, staff database and accounts
database. Interactions among the respective database components are represented with the arrow
marks, where the entire flow of data across various entities like client, contract manager,
placement department and accounts department is also shown. Flow of the data among these
entities is similar to the flow as explained in the context diagram, where the key database

functionalities include share staff availability status, forward staff request, billing information,
check staff availability and register clients.

3.1.3 Use Case Diagram

Use case diagram derived from the level 0 DFD diagram of the proposed system is as shown
below

Fig 3.1.3.1: Use case diagram of proposed system (Shen, 2004)

3.2 Domain Model Class diagram

Domain model class diagram is used to evaluate the objects required over modeling the proposed
system and the corresponding functionalities, methods and communication patterns and the
respective diagram is as shown below

Fig 3.2.1: Domain Model Class diagram of the proposed system

Domain model class diagram of the proposed system is as shown above and it is clear that four
important domain classes are identified in this context. Client, Contract manager, Staff and
TestREQValidity are the important object designed over the domain class diagram modeling and
the subclasses include RequestStaff, TrackRequest and Class and the corresponding attributes
and methods are also shown in the above class diagram.

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3.3 Activity Diagram

Activity diagram is used to track and model all the possible activities of a system and the
corresponding activity diagram of the proposed workflow management system of PSSM is as
shown below

Fig 3.3.1: Activity diagram of proposed system

Activity diagram of the proposed system is as shown in the above figure and it is clear that the
key important activities against the entire workflow management are identified and given in the
above diagram. Client Company, contract manager/contract database, staff database or

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placement department and account departments are the core basis of the activities of the
proposed system.

3.4 System Sequence Diagram

System sequence diagram is used to model the sequence of action or functionalities of any
software system and the respective sequence diagram of the proposed system is as shown below

Fig 3.4.1: System sequence diagram of proposed system

System sequence diagram of the proposed workflow management system is shown in the above
figure and it is clear that the sequence of actions are initiated from client and the flow continues
across the entities like contract database, staff database, accounts database and reports database
(Bresciani, 2004).
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References

Dennis, A, Wixom, D, Tegarden, D (2012), Systems analysis design, UML version 2.0:
an object oriented approach, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.

Ernesto Wandeler, (2006). System architecture evaluation using modular performance

analysis: a case study. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer.
8 (6), pp.16-23

Hui Shen, (2004). Integration of business modelling methods for enterprise information
system analysis and user requirements gathering. Computers in Industry. 54 (3), pp.18-22

Paolo

Bresciani,

(2004).

Tropos:

An

Agent-Oriented

Software

Development

Methodology. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. 8 (3), pp.116-123

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