Companies are unable to find software that really support their activities. Instead they use standard applications that are not designed for their specific company, nor capable of adapt to changes within the company. During my Thesis project I tried to find a way to simplify the development process, to be able to develop usable and adaptable business software. The company TE Johnston was used as a use-case to test if a solution could be developed to fit their specific company.

1. Usable and Adaptable
Business Software
How the customer What the customer
explained it really needed
Leon van der Ree 08-10-2008

2. General Problem
Companies are unable to find
software that really support their activities
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3. Cause
Software development is complex
Business Support Software is designed to
fit a generic company
Business Support Software is not designed
to adapt to a changing company
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4. Question
Is it possible to
simplify the development of
business software,
without being restricted in possibilities,
to be able to create
custom business software that is
usable and adaptable?
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5. How?
 User centered design
 Establish requirements
 Find development tools that:
 Reduce development time
 Improve maintainability of implementation
 Testing with real users
 Frequent iterations
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6. Establish Requirements
 Literature Survey
 Experience at several companies
 T.E. Johnston & Co (Holland) b.v.
General Requirements:
 Manage entities
 Support work process
 Manage overviews
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7. T.E. Johnston & Co
Holland b.v.
Supervising surveys of transshipments of
edible oils
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8. Clients
Survey
Survey Reports Invoice
Assignment
T.E. Johnston
Request
ETA
Receive
ETA
Results Results
Assignment
Agent
Assignment
Surveyor Laboratory
Attends on ship
Oil
Sample
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9. Problem
 Unique business
 No standard software available
 Custom software prohibitively expensive
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10. Task Analysis
 Held interviews
 Analysed documents:
 Assignments
 Reports
 Overviews
 Worked at T.E. Johnston
 Observed activities at the office
 Observed transshipment in the harbour
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11. Current Support
Currently different disconnected documents
are used to support tasks:
 Overviews:
 on paper
 several different electronic versions
 Assignments and Reports:
 again different electronic versions
This requires many repetitive tasks
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12. Main Entities
Client
Parcel
Survey
Assignment
Voyage
Parcel
Client
Survey
Assignment
Client
Survey
Assignment Parcel
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13. Workflow Analysis
Resulted in several detailed overviews
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14. New/Update
assignment
Agent Surveyor Courier
Client
search and
call clients call call
send
BL
incoming incoming phone
(Pura) list incoming
fax call
e-mail e-mail
(history)
Yes
Contains
hints about
assignment?
Contains
No
assignment?
Yes
No
Check
with “Viezeboek” Exists Got new
if it already information
exists
Yes update information
Update
Viezeboek
PC when
New canceled
Yes
Is assignment
cancelled
no
Update
Add to Krant
Add to
Viezeboek Create
Krant
hardcopy Physical Yes
Folder from Assignment
experience idle
Yes
from client
Is Agent known?
Print assignment No
Call Update
No Terminal Agent found? Krant
Yes
Terminal
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15. New/Update
assignment
Client Agent Surveyor Courier
search and
call clients call call send
BL
incoming incoming phone
(Pura) list incoming call
fax
e-mail e-mail
(history)
Yes
Contains
hints about
assignment?
Contains
No
assignment?
Assignments are not always
Yes
introduced by the client
themselves
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16. Requirements
 One System
 Manage all their data
 Usable
 Provide easy access to all their data
 Support their workflow
 Support their communication
 Adaptable
 Allow for iterative development
 Allow support of changing requirements
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20. file:///media/leon/Mijn%20Documenten/TU/Afstuderen/presentatie/assignment1-detail.png
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21. Leon van der Ree - Usable and Adaptable Business Software 08/10/2008 21/42
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22. Development Tools
 Improve maintainability of implementation
 Support iterative development
 Reduce development time
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23. Model-View-Controller
pattern
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24. Exploit Patterns
Define entities with their relations:
 In the database
 In the development environment
⁎ In the user interface
Techniques that support this:
 Object Relational Mapping
⁎ Administration Generation
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25. Object Relational Mapping
 Maps interface of database to
OO-environment
 No more need to maintain both database
and model-layer
 Supports basic CRUD procedures
 Generated Model-code is extendible
 Improves security
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26. Leon van der Ree - Usable and Adaptable Business Software 08/10/2008 26/42
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27. Data Model
One
⧫ City to M ⧫ Parcel
any
 Name  Subject
Man
y to ⧫ Country ⧫ Product
One
 Name  Weight
 Abbreviation  ...
 Report
⧫ Assignment
 Subject
⧫ Client
 ...
⧫ Voyage
⧫ Vessel
⧫ ETA
 ...
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28. Defining
# countries
country:
id:
name:
type: varchar
size: 150
required: true
abbreviation:
type: varchar(4)
required: false
# cities country_id:
city: type: integer
id: required: true
country_id: index: true
name: foreignTable: country
type: varchar(150) foreignReference: id
required: true onDelete: RESTRICT
onUpdate: CASCADE
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30. Administration Generation
 Create user interface based on
the data model and a configuration
 Generated code can be customised and
extended
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31. Modified
Available generator modified to:
 Improve configurability
 Allow to define foreign values
 Enhance interactivity
 Return dynamic JavaScript Objects instead of
static HTML
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32. Open Source
Released as an open source plugin
community did:
 testing
 provided feedback
 improved code
 extended functionality
 motivated
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33. Generated Result
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34. Defining
generator:
class: sfExtjsPropelAdminGenerator
param:
model_class: City
theme: extjs
fields:
country_id/name:
name: Country
list:
display: [=name, country_id/name]
edit:
newtitle: quot;New cityquot;
title: quot;Edit city <b>%%name%%</b>quot;
display: [name, country_id/name]
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35. Demo
How do these views for cities look?
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36. Reduced Complexity
Generator Generated Code
# files LOC WC # files LOC WC Ratio LOC Ratio WC
City Module 1 18 27 44 2757 6589 153,17 244,04
Voyage Module 4 151 310 49 3449 8267 22,84 26,67
Maintaining code with the generator is
easier
This has already proven itself during
development
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37. Demo
Lets see how this all supports
T.E. Johnston
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38. Testing
 Before implementation:
Mockups
 During implementation:
Live demoing alternatives
 “After” implementation:
In field scenario testing
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39. Results
 Concept of voyages got approved
 Replaced grouped grid by plain table-
overview
 Moved invoices from parcels to
assignments
 Opening assignments by double clicking
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40. Conclusions
 Simplifying the development process is
possible
 Adaptability has already proven itself
 Usability looks promising, but has to proof
itself after real use
 Plugin already used at several companies
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41. Conclusions
 Simplifying the development process is
possible
 Adaptability has already proven itself
 Usability looks promising, but has to proof
itself after real use
 Plugin already used at several companies
 TEJ has confidence in final application and
wants to continue development
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42. Questions?
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