Research Proposal for the degree:
Masters in Science
Department: Computer Science
By: Kwinana ZN
March 2004-03-19
Rhodes University
Grahamstown
Name: Kwinana Z. N
Student number: 04k5161
Degree: Masters in Science
Department: Computer Science
Provisional title: Email based Issue- tracking and workflow systems that are extensible across organizational boundaries.
Type of Thesis: Research only
Name of supervisor: Prof. Peter Wentworth
Estimated date of submission: 2005-12-31
Approved by Head of Department: Approved/ Not approved
Signature of Head of Department:
Date:
1. Field of Research
Issue tracking and workflow systems using tracked emails.
2. Provisional Title
Email based Issue- tracking and workflow systems that are extensible across organizational boundaries.
3. Research Context
In this day and age it is important for organisations to work efficiently. Efficiency means that there is proper communication and co-operation between the different departments in an organization, because departments do not work in isolation. They often need something from another department, or even from an outside agency, such as a car-hire agency. An example of this in this present organisation (that is Rhodes University) is a reservation of a particular venue. If you were to email someone asking them to reserve a venue you would like to know if that task has been done and, if not, what was the reason. This feedback will ensure proper communication and co-operation within the organisation and thus ensure proper running of it.
An application which ensures “ensure proper communication” would be of great help to an organisation. Ideally it would run in the background without explicit user intervention, keeping an eye on everything, and when an email is sent requesting a task to take place, the application would track and monitor the task status. An email tracking system will track emails as well as be a constant reminder of a task that needs to be done, informing the originator about the status of his request and thus make life a little bit easier.
The idea of a workflow management system and email tracker is not 100% new. There have been other versions of workflow management but they are different from what we intend to build. The main difference between this and the other tracking systems is that users do not have to log in to the application in order to make use of it. Also, most tracking systems are not for emails but for projects, sharing files in projects, knowing who is busy doing what [1]. Present applications offering this functionality are not in the background but want you to go and work from another unfamiliar “environment”- an application.
4. Goal of the research
By the end of my research, I will have developed a system which tracks emails to ensure that the tasks requested in the email occur. Because of the way that this system will be implemented, it does not need organisational decision or co-operation. Some departments may use it and others may not, dependency on a person’s preferences. This is very different from workflow and issue tracking systems available. If you do not use those systems, you are isolated from the day to day occurrences in your department and organisation. As well as accommodating those individuals that are not interested in using the system; the system also ensures that the users of the system are not inconvenienced by employing simple mechanisms for use e.g. just clicking on a link to show that a task has been completed. As well as the implementation issues, we will include design issues as well as performance issues of the system. We will also explore how much delay this Tracking System introduces to “usual” email delivery. This will all be presented as a written thesis.
A possible addition to the Tracker system is the tracking of documents that need to be viewed and/ or approved by different individuals. An example is the leave form which needs to be seen and approved by different staff members. In a situation like this it is common to not know where the delay is. With the tracking system in place, it is easy to know exactly where the request is in the system.
Another goal for this research is to submit a work- in progress paper for publication. This will ensure exposure and the more people that know about the research direction, the more sources of information become available. These sources will provide criticisms and suggestions or point out matters that have been overlooked, which could greatly assist my research.
A working prototype will be presented as well for public viewing and utilisation so as to see if it performs under the constraints of many people sending email that want to be tracked.
A website will be regularly updated during this period of research so as to keep those interested informed. It will contain bi-weekly progress reports from the beginning of the research, the proposal, the full thesis and much more information which will be very useful to anyone interested in this research.
A public presentation will be made of the work in the department for many to attend. This is where I will inform people of my intentions as well as how far I have progressed, any problems I encountered and more.
5. Research methodology
The tracking system will use and evaluate Extreme Programming (XP)’s methodology of software development. It will be decoupled in its design so as to closely follow the design ideas of XP. In addition, there will be an emphasis on trying to use existing high-level components and services, so that the key activity in the development will centre on assembling and tying together existing components, rather than building them from the ground.
The use of XP for software development begins with user stories [18]. User stories are how requirements are specified and prioritisation decisions made. A user story is a short description of the behaviour of the system from the point of view of the user of the system.
Three user stories will be presented: Sally emails Jack asking him to please reserve a venue for a particular meeting and includes all the necessary information. The e-mail’s subject is: “Track: reserve venue”. When this email is sent it will first go to a server whose job will be tracking emails and recording the tasks. The server will look at the subject and because it contains “Track:”, a record of this email will be made to a database on the server. Two links will be added to this email, one to be clicked when the task has been finished, and one when task is still outstanding. The email will then be forwarded to Jack. When Jack receives the email and reserves the venue, he will click the corresponding link. This will update the database on the server and also close the event. An email will be automatically sent to Sally telling her that the task has been accomplished.
User story number two has Jeff asking Jenny to please pick up a parcel from the department’s secretary for him. He will also send an email with “Track:” as part of its subject. This email will go first to the server that will add the links into the email as well as record the task into the database. This email will then reach Jenny. Jenny will go pick up the parcel, and find out from the secretary that the delivery company will be delayed for 24 hours. Jenny will now go to her email and click on the corresponding link. A window will be opened with a form that has spaces which need to be filled in with the necessary information. Jenny will fill in the form and then submit it. This form will update the database on the server with the reason for delay as well as set a reminder which should go off after 24 hours so that Jenny can go and try to get the parcel again. An email will be automatically sent to Jeff informing him of the delay and when the parcel is expected.
After 24 hours Jenny, will be reminded to go check up on the parcel and Jeff will be copied that email thus letting him know that Jenny was reminded. Jenny will pick up the parcel and return to her emails and click the corresponding link which will update the database and close the record.
The last user story has Stacy emailing Jean about the latest gossip. When she sends the email it will go to the setup server and in there, the subject will be looked at. As the subject will not be containing “Track:” the email will be forwarded to Jean without any modifications. Any emails that do not have “Track:” in their subject will be left alone and not modified or tracked.
The web service that will exist in the server will be created with the use of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET using the programming language C# [5]. The Tracking system will be built to be independent of any email application, for example Microsoft Outlook, and will also be designed to be platform independent [2]. The database that will be used to keep record of the email tasks will be the SQL Server database. To fully apply the XP principles we will be testing our code with the use of NUnit. NUnit is a framework that enables us to write tests for our code. It provides us with base classes and attributes that enable us to abstract away our unit tests and concentrate on the code that actually does the testing [7].
This email tracker is just the beginning and will be broadened by adding also forms that need to be seen by different staff members as well as other features.
6. Provisional table of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature survey
Chapter 3: Design of the system
Chapter 4: Implementation
Chapter 5: Experiments done, applications created, further expansions
Chapter 6: Conclusion
7. References
1. http://www.solutionadvisorsgroup.com/wm/advisors/qa-01.asp
2. http://www.devx.com/security/Article/15634/0/page/2
3. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/gardner/
4. http://www.15seconds.com/issue/010530.htm
5. http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/030203.htm
6. http://www.msdnaa.net/content/?ID=2365
7. http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/acsUsingNUnit.htm#N29
8. http://bdn.borland.com/csharp/webtechnologies/0,1418,10093,00.html
9. http://www.officezealot.com/Upload/Gunderloy_WebService_Article/Gunderloy_Webservice.aspx
10. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_ol2003_ta/html/odc_OLWhatsNew2k3.asp
11. http://www.dotnetfun.com/Articles/ASP.NET/CreatingEventsCSharp.aspx
12. http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/Tutorial/2E1EEEAF-C78A-4A38-A830-AC204B12DF83.dcik
13. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/07/31/extremeprogramming.html
14. http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/whatisxp.htm
15. http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/newMethodology.html
16. http://www.extremeprogramming.org/
17. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ExtremeProgrammingRoadmap
18. http://uzopia.editthispage.com/2000/08/31