Work-Flow Automation · We are grateful to “eb-Pearls” for the mentorship and Mr. Saroj Yadav...

TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING

PULCHOWK CAMPUS

“WORK-FLOW AUTOMATION”

By

DICCHYA SHAKYA (16211)

DIPIKA AGRAWAL(16213)

SABINA SHRESTHA (16229)

SANJANA SHRESTHA (16231)

A PROJECT IS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND

COMPUTER ENGINEERING IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENT FOR THE BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN ELECTRONICS &

COMPUTER ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

LALITPUR, NEPAL

AUGUST, 2013

Work-Flow Automation 2013

ii

TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING

PULCHOWK CAMPUS

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER

ENGINEERING

The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommended to the Institute of

Engineering for acceptance, a project report entitled "Workflow Automation" submitted By

Dicchya Shakya, Dipika Agrawal, Sabina Shrestha and Sanjana Shrestha in partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication /

Computer Engineering.

_________________________________________________

Supervisor, Prof. Dr. Subarna Shakya

_________________________________________________

External Examiner, Subhash Dhakal

Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment

DATE OF APPROVAL: 26 August, 2013


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COPYRIGHT

The author has agreed that the Library, Department of Electronics and Computer

Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering may make this report freely

available for inspection. Moreover, the author has agreed that permission for extensive

copying of this project report for scholarly purpose may be granted by the supervisors who

supervised the project work recorded herein or, in their absence, by the Head of the

Department wherein the project report was done. It is understood that the recognition will

be given to the author of this report and to the Department of Electronics and Computer

Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering in any use of the material of this

project report. Copying or publication or the other use of this report for financial gain without

approval of to the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Pulchowk Campus,

Institute of Engineering and author’s written permission is prohibited.

Request for permission to copy or to make any other use of the material in this report in

whole or in part should be addressed to:

Arun Timilsina, PhD

Head of Department

Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering

Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering

Lalitpur, Kathmandu

Nepal


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Subarna Shakya, Department of Electronics and

Computer Engineering, for providing us the opportunity explore our interest and ideas in the

field of Computer Engineering through this project.

We are grateful to “eb-Pearls” for the mentorship and Mr. Saroj Yadav for mentoring

throughout all our brief encounters with the research and project.

It is an honor for us to express our gratitude to the Department of Electronics and

Computer Engineering, Pulchowk Campus for providing us with the learning opportunity

by including major project in the semester.

We would like to thank Dr. Arun Timalsina, the HOD, for providing us the assistance on

this project.

Special Acknowledgment to Mr. Baburam Dawadi for his invaluable suggestions and his

deep interest in our project and giving time to evaluate our project

We would also like to thank. Dr. Aman Shakya for guidance and patience during the

project.

We sincerely acknowledge our thanks to Subin Dongol and Susan Karmacharya who

have directly or indirectly encouraged and assisted us in completing this project.

Dicchya Shakya (16211)

Dipika Agrawal (16213)

Sabina Shrestha (16229)

Sanjana Shrestha (16231)


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ABSTRACT

Work Flow Automation is a fast evolving technology which is increasingly being exploited

by businesses in a variety of industries. Its primary characteristic is the automation of

processes involving combinations of human and machine-based activities, particularly those

involving interaction with IT applications and tools. Although it’s most prevalent use is

within the office environment in staff intensive operations such as insurance, banking, legal

and general administration, etc. it is also applicable to some classes of industrial and

manufacturing applications.

This project has been developed to identify these functional areas and develop appropriate

specifications for implementation in workflow products. It is intended that such

specifications will enable interoperability between heterogeneous workflow products and

improved integration of workflow applications with other IT services such as electronic mail

and document management, thereby improving the opportunities for the effective use of

workflow technology within the IT market, to the benefit of both vendors and users of such

technology.

Keywords:

Process Definition, Business Process Re-Engineering, Routing.


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TABLE OF CONTENT

Contents COPYRIGHT ......................................................................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................................ iv

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ v

TABLE OF CONTENT............................................................................................................................ vi

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION ...................................................................................................................... 1

1.INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 2

1.1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 2

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................... 3

Aim ............................................................................................................................. 3

Objectives ................................................................................................................... 3

1.3 SCOPE ................................................................................................................................. 3

Business Process Management .................................................................................. 3

Project Management ................................................................................................. 4

Workforce Management ............................................................................................ 4

2. LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................. 5

2.1 WORKFLOW ....................................................................................................................... 5

Types of Workflow ..................................................................................................... 5

2.2 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT .............................................................................................. 6

2.3 BPR AND STRUCTURED SYSTEM DESIGN TOOLS ................................................................ 6

2.4 ROUTING ............................................................................................................................ 6

Sequential routing: ..................................................................................................... 7

Selection routing/Manual routing: ............................................................................ 7

2.5 EXISTING WORKFLOW SYSTEMS ........................................................................................ 8

Microsoft Sharepoint ................................................................................................. 8

Process Maker ............................................................................................................ 8

3. SYSTEM ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................... 9

3.1 REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION .......................................................................................... 9

Functional Requirements ........................................................................................... 9

3.1.1.2 Participants Interface ................................................................................................ 11

3.2 Non Functional Requirements ......................................................................................... 12


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3.3 Interface Requirement ..................................................................................................... 12

4. FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT ......................................................................................................... 13

4.1 Operational Feasibility ..................................................................................................... 13

4.2 Economic Feasibility ......................................................................................................... 13

4.3 Technical Feasibility ......................................................................................................... 13

5. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE ........................................................................................................... 14

5.1 UML DIAGRAMS .......................................................................................................... 16

Use case diagram...................................................................................................... 16

Activity diagram ....................................................................................................... 17

5.1.3 ER-Diagram .......................................................................................................................... 19

6. METHOD OF STUDY .................................................................................................................. 20

6.1 TOOLS USED ..................................................................................................................... 21

6.2 RELATED THEORIES .......................................................................................................... 21

ASP.NET MVC ........................................................................................................... 21

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 ....................................................................................... 21

Stored Procedure ..................................................................................................... 22

Responsive Web Design ........................................................................................... 22

Relational Database ................................................................................................. 22

iTextSharp ................................................................................................................ 23

Features .................................................................................................................................... 23

7. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION ..................................................................................................... 24

7.1 PLANNING ........................................................................................................................ 24

7.2 SYSTEM TESTING .............................................................................................................. 24

Testing Objectives .................................................................................................... 24

Levels of Testing ....................................................................................................... 25

Testing Strategies ..................................................................................................... 25

8. APPLICATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 29

9. FUTURE ENHANCEMENT .......................................................................................................... 30

10. USER GUIDELINES ................................................................................................................. 31

10.1 Requirement: ................................................................................................................... 31

10.2 Screenshots: ..................................................................................................................... 32

11. VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION ......................................................................................... 43

12. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 44

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 45

APPENDIX A: Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations ........................................................................ 47


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1.1.1 Admin Layout 10

Figure 3.1.1.2 User Layout 11

Figure 4.1 Annotate-flow Sequence Diagram 15

Figure 4.1.1 Use Case Diagram 16

Figure 4.1.2a) Activity Diagram of Admin 17

Figure 4.1.2b) Activity Diagram of User 17

Figure 4.1.3a) ER Diagram 19

Figure 5.1 System Block Diagram 20

Figure 6.2.2 Testing Levels 25

Figure 7.1 Leave Approval Workflow 29


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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

ASP Active Server Page

BPE Business Process Execution

BPR Business Process Re-engineering

CASE Computer Aided Software Engineering

IDE Integrated Development Environment

KB Kilo Bytes

MVC Model View Controller

NTA Nepal Telecommunication Authority

PDF Portable Document Format

RAM Random Access Memory

SP Stored Procedure

SQL Structured Query Language

UML Unified Modelling Language


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1.INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND

Workflow is a depiction of a sequence of connected steps or processes through which

a part of work passes from initiation to completion. Workflow may be seen as any

abstraction of real work. Workflow concepts are closely related to other concepts used

to describe organizational structure, such as silos, functions, teams, projects, policies

and hierarchies. Workflows may be viewed as one primitive building block of

organizations. The manual workflow carrying out in the organization needs to be

automated.

Work-flow Automation is a web based project which deals with automation of

procedures where documents, information or task passes between participants

according to a defined set of rules to achieve, or contribute to, an overall business goal.

Whilst workflow may be manually organized, in practice most workflow is normally

organized within the context of an IT system to provide computerized support for the

procedural automation.

Workflow Automation manages common business processes within an organization by

collaborating documents and to manage tasks by implementing business processes on

documents. It helps organizations to adhere to consistent business processes, and they

also improve organizational efficiency and productivity by managing the tasks and

steps involved in business processes. This enables the people who perform these tasks

to concentrate on performing the work rather than managing the workflow. Workflow

technology is often an appropriate solution as it provides separation of the business

procedure logic and its IT operational support, enabling subsequent changes to be

incorporated into the procedural rules defining the business process exercise, for

example implementations to automate an existing business procedure. Workflow is a

complete BPM (Business Process Management) application enabling uniform,

manageable and process-oriented integration of IT systems, applications, and people.


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1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Aim

The aim of the system is to streamline the manual business processes to make them more

efficient.

Objectives

To automate the business process of the organization and manage the flow of work

through peer review.

To radically reduces paper work and sending work to the right people at the right

time.

To generate and record workflow documents which is to be used as communications

or benchmark tool for measuring future processes.

1.3 SCOPE

The scope of our application lies in the Business Areas.

It is mainly confined to following areas:

1.1.1 Business Process Management

1.1.2 Project Management

1.1.3 Workforce Management

Business Process Management

Business Process Management refers to the activities performed by businesses to

optimize and adapt their processes or workflows. The three key components of BPM

are design, execution and monitoring. Process design is the capture of existing

processes or the design of new processes. Our application supports the process activities

by providing a way to document the processes and storing the reports for the future use.

Process execution refers to the execution of the complete business process. Process

monitoring is the tracking of the individual processes. Our application helps in Business

Process Management to manage the flow of the documents and the processes in the

easy and efficient way.


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Project Management

Project management is the function that oversees execution of a project and is

responsible for project resources (time, money, people, materials), and ensures that task

and budget milestones are met. The project management process involves five

components: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing. Workflow

Automation helps to manage the flow and tracks the situation of the project by means

of file tracking.

Workforce Management

Workforce Management refers to Human Resources Management. It is the process of

balancing work needs with available resources. It is a planning and accountability

framework enabling organizations to ensure that strategic objectives are met in an

efficient, cost effective manner, while also balancing fairness in human resource

management practices. Workforce Management enables organizations to align their

strategic priorities and objectives with their human resources.

Thus, the application has a big huge in business areas if it is used properly.


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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 WORKFLOW

Workflow is a computerized facilitation or automation of a business process, in whole

or part. Workflow is often associated with Business Process Re-engineering, which is

concerned with the assessment, analysis, modelling, definition and subsequent

operational implementation of the core business processes of an organization (or other

business entity). Although not all BPR activities result in workflow implementations,

workflow technology is often an appropriate solution as it provides separation of the

business procedure logic and its IT operational support, enabling subsequent changes

to be incorporated into the procedural rules defining the business process. Conversely,

not all workflow implementations necessarily form part of a BPR exercise, for example

implementations to automate an existing business procedure.

Types of Workflow

2.1.1.1 Administrative workflow

Handles large number of users, simple process definitions (e.g.,

routing an expensive report, travel request)

low to medium throughput

2.1.1.2 Production workflow

Imposes a strict/inflexible process definition

The software is instrumental in managing the tasks and instructing

the operators, e.g., insurance claims

2.1.1.3 Ad-hoc workflow

Provides process support like normal workflow systems do

Supports modification of the process for specific cases


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2.2 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

Document management technology is concerned with managing the lifecycle of

electronic documents. Increasingly, this is including facilities for managing document

repositories distributed within an organization as a shared resource with facilities for

routing documents (or even separate parts of documents) to individuals for information

access or updating according to their specific roles relating to a specific document. The

document may form part of a particular business procedure which requires access to the

document by individual staff undertaking separate activities according to a particular

sequence according to some procedural rules - i.e. a document-centric form of

workflow.

2.3 BPR AND STRUCTURED SYSTEM DESIGN TOOLS

Business Process Re-engineering tools have provided IT based support for the activities

of analyzing, modelling and re-defining the core business processes of an organization

and the potential effects of change in such processes or organizational roles and

responsibilities associated with such processes. This may include analysis of the

process structure and information flows supporting it, the roles of individuals or

organizational units within the process and actions taken in response to different events,

etc. A natural extension of such tools is to facilitate the implementation of the process

with IT support infrastructure to control the flows of work and associated activities

within the business process.

2.4 ROUTING

Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network to control workflow between

tasks in a process. The routing decision specifies two or more possible routes for a

document which is based on conditions defined. To specify how work will progress

from one step to the next, you define routes between the steps in a workflow definition.

With the exception of the last step on the map, every step has one or more routes leading

from it.


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For example, a workflow routes a document to an employee for approval. After he

reviews it, he tags the document Accepted or Rejected. A Routing procedure uses this

metadata to determine what should happen to the document. If the document was

approved, the workflow sends an e-mail to another employee; if it was denied, the

workflow archives the document.

Sequential routing:

A sequence routing pattern represents linear execution of workflow steps: one action of

a workflow is activated unconditionally after finishing another execution. It allows to

move the workflow directly to subsequent task. Since the task is automatically

circulated, no configurations are required.

Selection routing/Manual routing:

A selection routing allows the task assigned to the users to manually select which user

will be the next one executing the task in the workflow. After completing a task, the

user will be presented with the subsequent users and asked to choose one.


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2.5 EXISTING WORKFLOW SYSTEMS

There are many workflow systems existing today.

Microsoft Sharepoint

Process Maker

Microsoft Sharepoint

Many unplanned and manual human workflows can be inefficient, time-consuming,

and difficult. Fortunately, with the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 workflow tools, a worker

can, without advanced development or other specialized skills, automate processes to

improve productivity at both the individual and enterprise levels.

Business workflow experts, developers, and IT professionals alike consistently receive

one important request from users: Provide technology solutions to help automate and

manage business processes.

Process Maker

Process Maker helps business analysts improve workflow performance by discovering

and analyzing process inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Automated notifications and an

intuitive drag-and-drop web interface allow users to easily interact with your form-

driven processes. Managers receive KPIs and metrics from reports and dashboards.

Process Maker is the leading Open Source Business Process Management (BPM) and

Workflow Suite. Design, Run, Report, and Improve your processes all in an easy-to-

use web interface.

http://www.processmaker.com/


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3. SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Systems analysis is the study of sets of interacting entities and is closely related

to requirements analysis or operations research. It is also "an explicit formal inquiry

carried out to help to identify a better course of action and make a better decision than

he might otherwise have made.

3.1 REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION

The Software Requirements Specifications gives functional and operational

requirements formal statement of an application. It assures the system stakeholders of

certain functionality. The purpose of this SRS is to provide a comprehensive description

of the intended purpose and environment for software development. This section

depicts what the software will do and how it will be expected to perform. The

requirement for this system was obtained due to the unmanaged bundles of files piled

in an organization.

Functional Requirements

The various functional requirements are given below:

3.1.1.1 Admin Interface/ Design Interface

This is the primary interface to the system that allows the designer to create new

processes, populate them with activities, define the activities and assign activities to the

people of different posts of different departments to carry out roles in the system. The

main functions are:

a) Creating Department

Creating different departments and assigning different posts to the personnel of the

corresponding departments.

b) Creating Processes

Creating a new process to have activities associated with it.


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Figure 3.1.1.1: Admin Layout

c) Deleting Process

Destroying a particular process.

d) Adding activities

Defining an activity and adding it to a particular process.

e) Deleting activities

Deleting an activity from a process.


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3.1.1.2 Participants Interface:

This is the interface that allows the participants of the system to carry out activities.

The main functions are:

Figure 3.1.1.2: User Layout

a) Initiating

The participant is permitted to initiate the task assigned to him. This involves the

participant to start a given activity by selecting the process.

b) Undertaking

This involves carrying out the required action instance, initiating activity instance and

submitting the completed activity instance for next upcoming activity.


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c) Report Generating

After all the activities of the process have been completed, the summarized form of the

whole process is generated.

3.2 Non Functional Requirements

a) Usability

The interface of the system shall be user friendly and simple as possible with a simple

login procedure to use the system.

b) Performance

Response time of the system will be very high. Throughput of the system will be

considerably high. Resource utilization of the system shall be high. There can be

multiple numbers of transactions simultaneously in the system.

c) Scalability

The scalability of the software shall be high.

d) Security

The access to the system shall be possible only through successful login. Thus the

access shall be protected by password.

3.3 Interface Requirement

a) User Interfaces: The user interface of the software will be implemented in a

browser. Since the program will be deployed on server and hence it would essentially

be a web application.

b) Hardware Interfaces: Hardware interfaces supported by the system are

peripheral devices.

c) Software Interfaces: The software utilized by the system will be web browser

and MS SQL database.


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4. FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT

A feasibility study assesses the operational, technical and economic merits of the

project. The feasibility study is intended to be a preliminary review of the facts to see

if it is worthy of proceeding to the analysis phase. From the systems analyst perspective,

the feasibility analysis is the primary tool for recommending whether to proceed to the

next phase or to discontinue the project.

4.1 Operational Feasibility

Operational feasibility concerns about whether the system will be put into use and will

work properly after the installment and development of the system. The system helps

in decision support in an organization. The system can be used easily without much

training and therefore can be accepted by the operating professionals. The response

time will be high and thus it won’t bore its users.

4.2 Economic Feasibility

This application is very useful and economically beneficial to an organization. The

result of this application can help to take proper decisions causing economic benefits.

Also the results of software are useful to formulate new strategy and policy. Thus the

software can cause economic benefit. The software can save the time required for an

analyst to take decision or to make new strategy.

4.3 Technical Feasibility

The project is technically feasible. The required technology and resources is available.


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5. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The process definition, in conjunction with any (run-time) workflow relevant data is

used to control the navigation through the various activity steps within the process,

providing information about the entry and exit criteria for individual activity steps,

parallel or sequential execution options for different activities, user tasks or IT

applications associated with each activity, etc. This may require access to organization

/ role model data, if the process definition includes constructs relating to these entity

types.

Although process status commands are defined within the interfaces already described,

there is a recognized requirement in some industries for a function to apply overall

status monitoring and extract metrics information. The proposed interface is intended

to allow a complete view of the status of work flowing through the organization,

regardless of which system it is in; it is also intended to present a comprehensive

function set for administration purposes, including specific considerations of security,

control and authorization.

The idea about the steps taken to deal with the proposal flow system came from the

case study done of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) and so was

considered to illustrate this process electronically in our project. The flow-diagram of

the Proposal document flow of NTA is:


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Figure 4.1: Annotate-flow Diagram


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5.1 UML DIAGRAMS

The use case diagrams and activity diagrams has been constructed as per our case study

on NTA which specifies one process that can be automated through this project while

other many processes and activities can be designed and result to automate the business

procedures efficiently.

Use case diagram

Figure 4.1.1: Use Case Diagram


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Activity diagram

Figure 4.1.2 a): Activity Diagram of Admin

Figure 4.1.2 b): Activity Diagram of User


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Actor and their Description

1.Admin One who controls the whole process

flow. Creates new processes, populate

them with activities, define the activities

and assign activities to the people of

different posts of different departments to

carry out their respective tasks.

2.User One who sees the activity assigned by the

admin, does his work and can proceed,

reject, save to draft as he wants and

creates the report on it.


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5.1.3 ER-Diagram


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6. METHOD OF STUDY

Workflow Automation is the effective application of information technologies to

internal business processes in order to accelerate the collaborative and creative

processes that drive an organization. The goal of our project is the creation of a single

environment for managing the complexities of automation environments. As software

has moved from individualized solutions with dedicated functionality to integrated

groupware solutions.

Figure 5.1: System Block Diagram


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6.1 TOOLS USED

Programming Language: ASP.NET MVC 3.0 (C#)

Database: Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Drawings: MS Visio, Argo UML, Adobe Photoshop

Documentation: MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint

Platform: Windows

IDE: Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

Library Used: ItextSharp

Bootstrap Framework for responsive design

6.2 RELATED THEORIES

ASP.NET MVC

The ASP.NET MVC Framework is an open source web application framework that

implements the model–view–controller (MVC) pattern. Based on ASP.NET, it allows

software developers to build a web application as a composition of three

roles: Model, View and Controller.

A model represents the state of a particular aspect of the application.

A controller handles interactions and updates the model to reflect a change in state of

the application, and then passes information to the view. A view accepts necessary

information from the controller and renders a user interface to display that information.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed

by Microsoft Inc. As a database, it is a software product whose primary function is to

store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the

same computer or those running on another computer across a network (including the

Internet). There are at least a dozen different editions of Microsoft SQL Server aimed

at different audiences and for different workloads (ranging from small applications that

store and retrieve data on the same computer, to millions of users and computers that


22

access huge amounts of data from the Internet at the same time). Its primary query

languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL.

Stored Procedure

A stored procedure is a subroutine available to applications that access

a relational database system. A stored procedure (sometimes called

a proc, sproc, StoPro, StoredProc, sp or SP) is actually stored in the database data

dictionary.

Typical use for stored procedures include data validation (integrated into the database)

or access control mechanisms. Furthermore, stored procedures can consolidate and

centralize logic that was originally implemented in applications. Extensive or complex

processing that requires execution of several SQL statements is moved into stored

procedures, and all applications call the procedures. One can use nested stored

procedures by executing one stored procedure from within another.

Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to

provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum

of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop

computer monitors to mobile phones). A site designed with RWD adapts the layout to

the viewing environment by using fluid, proportion-based grids, flexible images,

and CSS3 media queries, an extension of the@media rule.

Relational Database

A relational database is a database that has a collection of tables of data items, all of

which is formally described and organized according to the relational model. The term

is in contrast to only one table as the database, and in contrast to other models which

also have many tables in one database.


23

In the relational model, each table schema must identify a primary column, called

the primary key, used for identifying a row. Tables can relate by using a foreign key that

points to the primary key of another table. The relational model offers various levels of

refinement of the table relations called database normalization.

iTextSharp

iTextSharp is a C# port of iText, an open source Java library for PDF generation and

manipulation. It can be used to create PDF documents from scratch, to convert XML to

PDF (using the extra XML Worker DLL), to fill out interactive PDF forms, to stamp

new content on existing PDF documents, to split and merge existing PDF documents.

Features

PDF generation

PDF manipulation (stamping watermarks, merging/splitting PDFs)

PDF form filling

XML functionality

Digital signatures


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7. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

System implementation is the important stage of project when the theoretical design is

tuned into practical system. The main stages in the implementation are as follows:

7.1 PLANNING

Planning is the first task in the system implementation. It means deciding on the method

and the time scale to be adopted. At the time of implementation of any system people

from different departments and system analysis involve. They are confirmed to

practical problem of controlling various activities of people outside their own data

processing departments.

7.2 SYSTEM TESTING

Testing is the process of detecting errors. Testing performs a very critical role for

quality assurance and for ensuring the reliability of software. The results of testing are

used later on during maintenance also.

The aim of testing is often to demonstrate that a program works by showing that it has

no errors. The basic purpose of testing phase is to detect the errors that may be present

in the program. Hence one should not start testing with the intent of showing that a

program works, but the intent should be to show that a program doesn’t work. Testing

is the process of executing a program with the intent of finding errors.

Testing Objectives

The main objective of testing is to uncover a host of errors, systematically and with

minimum effort and time. Stating formally, we can say,

Testing is a process of executing a program with the intent of finding an error.

A good test case is one that has a high probability of finding error, if it exists.

The tests are inadequate to detect possibly present errors.


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Levels of Testing

In order to uncover the errors present in different phases we have the concept of levels

of testing. The basic levels of testing are as shown below:

Client Needs

Requirements

Design

Code

Figure 6.2.2: Testing Levels

Testing Strategies

7.2.3.1 Unit Testing

Unit testing involves the design of test cases that validate that the internal program logic

is functioning properly, and that program input produce valid outputs. All decision

branches and internal code flow should be validated. It is the testing of individual

software units of the application .it is done after the completion of an individual unit

before integration. This is a structural testing, that relies on knowledge of its

construction and is invasive.

Test Results: In context of our project, code seems to be working fine and gives the

validate output.All the functions made such as for uploading files, sending messages,

proceeding to other users, etc. are giving the validated output as required.

Acceptance

Testing

System Testing

Integration Testing

Unit Testing


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7.2.3.2 Integration Testing

Integration tests are designed to test integrated software components to determine if

they actually run as one program. Testing is event driven and is more concerned with

the basic outcome of screens or fields. Integration tests demonstrate that although the

components were individually satisfaction, as shown by successfully unit testing, the

combination of components is correct and consistent. Integration testing is specifically

aimed at exposing the problems that arise from the combination of components.

Test Results: In context of our project, every page is linked and integrated with the

previous pages and is event driven, so they actually run as a single program. If one page

seems to be inbuilt, it cannot be navigated from one to another. So, Integration testing

is done successfully.

7.2.3.3 Functional Testing

Functional tests provide a systematic demonstrations that functions tested are available

as specified by the business and technical requirements, system documentation and user

manuals.

Functional testing is centered on the following items:

Valid Input : identified classes of valid input must be accepted.

Invalid Input : identified classes of invalid input must be rejected.

Functions : identified functions must be exercised.

Output : identified classes of application outputs.

Systems/Procedures: interfacing systems or procedures must be invoked.

Test Results: In context of our project, every input and output are validated. The input

type is restricted by the admin which is being followed by the interface which is being

validated. Every output function works accordingly with the given input. Every

procedure and function is being invoked correctly. Every data seems to be retrieved

from the database correctly.


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7.2.3.4 System Testing

System testing ensures that the entire integrated software system meets requirements.

It tests a configuration to ensure known and predictable results. An example of system

testing is the configuration oriented system integration test. System testing is based on

process descriptions and flows, emphasizing pre-driven process links and integration

points.

Test Results: In context of our project, the entire software system meets requirement

and gives the known and predictable outcomes. The entire software follows the flow of

process as described at first. The whole system follows the process description and

flows, emphasizing pre-driven process links and integration points.

7.2.3.5 White Box Testing

White Box Testing (WBT) is also known as Code-Based Testing or Structural Testing.

White Box Testing is a testing in which in which the software tester has knowledge of

the inner workings, structure and language of the software, or at least its purpose. It is

purpose. It is used to test areas that cannot be reached from a black box level.

Test Results: In the context of our project, testing went beyond the user interface to find

the correctness of the system. White box testing went through the phase of learning the

part of the code & finding out the weakness in the software program. Basically we

verified:

Verify the broken or incomplete paths in the code.

Verify the flow of structure mention in the specification document

Verify the Expected outputs

Verify the all conditional loops in the code to check the complete

functionality of the application.

Verify the line by line or Section by Section in the code & cover the 100%

testing.


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7.2.3.6 Black Box Testing

Black Box Testing is testing the software without any knowledge of the inner workings,

structure or language of the module being tested. Black box tests, as most other kinds

of tests, must be written from a definitive source document, such as specification or

requirements document, such as specification or requirements document. It is a testing

in which the software under test is treated, as a black box .you cannot “see” into it. The

test provides inputs and responds to outputs without considering how the software

works.

7.2.3.7 Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing is a critical phase of any project and requires significant

participation by the end user. It also ensures that the system meets the functional

requirements.

Test Results: The acceptance test suite is run against the supplied input data or using an

acceptance test script to direct the testers. Then the results obtained are compared with

the expected results. There was a correct match in the output and the expected output

and the acceptance testing seems to be passed. No defects encountered.


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8. APPLICATIONS

This automation of the work-flow is concentrated to provide solutions that are built

from the ground up to provide comprehensive enterprise-wide process automation that

seamlessly integrates with core business applications and processes. The employees,

business partners and clients are empowered with instant access to documents, data and

knowledge in the workplace or from their mobile devices accelerating processes from

days to minutes. In this project, we are trying to implement these features in the

governmental as well as private organizations where an environment and culture that

goes beyond the workplace with a strong commitment to serve our community and

enhance our world. We strive to make products that help the environment by

minimizing paper manufacturing and waste and help users do more with less through

constant innovation. We believe that innovation drives prosperity and our progress is

progress for everyone. The right solution will make the workplace simpler and more

efficient – not more difficult.

Example:

Figure 7.1: Leave Approval Workflow


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9. FUTURE ENHANCEMENT

The Project covers almost all of the aspects required for the automation of the processes

required by any type of organization. But is still in lack of some of the important

aspects. The system’s functionality can be improved and extended in many ways and

also new functionality can be added to the system.

Many of the features that can be added to the system are listed below:

1. Digital Signature

The automation of processes must also include the method to scan and digitize the

signature so that it becomes authenticated as the workflow proceeds.

2. Conditional Routing

The existing project only covers the aspect of sequential routing. It can be further

enhanced to cover the conditional routing.

3. Use of more controls to create dynamic form

The form created in the existing project just includes some of the controls. It can be

further made by creating all of the controls.

4. File can be made to create itself

The existing project only allows the user to upload file from the computer. But he

should also be able to create his own file through the interface itself so that it does not

become necessary to just upload.


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10. USER GUIDELINES

10.1 Requirement:

Software Requirement:

IIS (Internet Information Server) 7.0

You need to have the latest version of Google Chrome and as the system is

online so the availability of net is highly recommendable.

JavaScript must be enabled in chrome.

Hardware Requirement:

PC or Laptop

32 or 64 bit processor at 2GHz or greater

RAM:4 GB or greater


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10.2 Screenshots:

The application begins with authorized login from the browser.

There are two types of participants:

1. Administrator

2. Users

You need to get username and password for authorized login else you cannot use the

system. The administrator is the main participant who handles all the setting of the

workflow.

The username and password are provided by the administrator i.e. the executive

member and gets the following interface at first to get logged in to the system.


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1. Logged in as

A. Administrator:

If logged in as an administrator, you can manage the departments, posts, create

processes, their associated activities and the processes assigned to concerned

participants. The following interfaces are inquired when the admin gets logged in.


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1.Admin can get details :

The admin can see all the available processes and create the new process if he wants.

The admin can get the details of departments, posts and users as required and create

new one.

1.


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2.

3.


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2. Admin can create the new process with the following interfaces.

3. He creates the activities of the above process as follows:


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4. Admin creates the fields for the activities.

5. Finally he gets the interface for routing of the activities i.e. defining which

activity should be headed after a activity and the associated users.


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B. Users:

If logged in as a user, you can view the processes and work with it. You can view

your inbox for the task to be done.

1. Completing the assigned task by the user

2. Report Generation

3. Processes Inquiry

1. Completing the assigned task by the user

a. Start the process


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b. Complete the activity and proceed

c. The latter sees the process in his inbox after the former proceeds.


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d. The other user completes his activity.The file shown is forwarded by the user.


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2. Report Generation:

After reaching end activity, the user is prompted to create the report.


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4. Process Inquiry

The user can inquiry for any process and get the result.


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11. VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION

Verification and Validation (V&V) is the process of checking that a software system

meets specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. It may also be referred to

as software quality control. Verification and validation are not the same thing, although

they are often confused. Validation means “Are we building the right product” and

Verification means “Are we building the product right”.

Requirement validation examines the specification to ensure that all software

requirements have been stated unambiguously that inconsistencies, omissions and

errors have been detected and corrected.

In context of our project, we have validated and verified the project successfully.

1. We review the stated goals and objectives of the system.

2. We compare the requirements with the goals and objectives to verify that all the

requirements are necessary.

3. We describe the environment in which the system is to operate.

We examined the interfaces between our system and all other systems. We verify that

they are correct and complete. Then the information flow and structure of the system

are reviewed again to ensure that the requirements accurately reflect the meaning and

intent of the customer. All requirements are checked again for omissions,

incompleteness and inconsistency.

At last, we verified that the system can in cooperate all types of process and can be

implied anywhere at any time giving full authority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_quality_control


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12. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The computer assisted management of business processes through the execution of

software whose order of execution is controlled by a computerized representation of

the business processes. In other words automated workflows hold the key to effective

business process management. And the better processes are managed, the more efficient

and productive organizations become. The answer is to have a robust and flexible BPM

workflow platform in place to define and optimize business processes continuously.

This would ensure the necessary interoperability between different human-human,

human-system and system-system processes. Many types of product in the IT market

have supported aspects of workflow functionality for a number of years, yet it is only

comparatively recently that its importance has been recognized in its own right. Despite

the variety in workflow products in the market, it has proved feasible to construct a

general implementation model of a workflow system which can be matched to most

products in the marketplace thereby providing a common basis for developing

interoperability scenarios. It is recognized that many different concrete implementation

variants of this abstract model will exist and therefore the interfaces specified may be

realized across a number of different platform and underlying distribution technologies.

Furthermore not all vendors may choose to expose every interface between the

functional components within the model; this will be dealt with by the specification of

a variety of conformance levels which will identify the particular interworking

functions where open interfaces are supported for multivendor integration.


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REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Industry Siemens Business Services. Digital Asset Management and Workflow

Management in the Broadcast Industry: Industry Survey and Analysis. March 2004

2. Workflow Management. Retrieved from: http://www.insight.com. Date Retrieved

: 04/06/2013

3. David Hollingsworth. Workflow Management Coalition The Workflow Reference

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4. Habilitations schrift. Workflow Management Systems: Formal Foundation,

Conceptual Design, Implementation Aspects. In Prof. Ruslan 777Mitkov, editor.

John Benjamins Publishing Company,2002

5. Robert Tolksdorf. Workspaces: A Web-Based Workflow Management System.

October 2002

6. Wendy W Chapman. Workflow Management: an introduction. Available from:

group.wpfm.com

7. Nurul Azrina Binti Mohd Noor. Easy File Tracking System. For Jabatan

Imigeresen Ipoh. Faculty of Information and Communications Technology. Kolej

University Technical Kebangsaan. Malaysia 2006

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10. W.M.P. van der Aalst. Flexible Workflow Management Systems: An Approach

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Chains. Information and Software Technology, 41(10):639–650, 1999.


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12. W.M.P. van der Aalst and P.J.S. Berens. Beyond Workflow Management: Product-

Driven Case Handling. In S. Ellis, T. Rodden, and I. Zigurs, editors, International

ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP 2001), pages

42–51. ACM Press, New York, 2001.

13. W.M.P. van der Aalst and K.M. van Hee. Workflow Management: Models,

Methods, and Systems. MIT press, Cambridge, MA, 2004.

14. W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, B. Kiepuszewski, and A.P. Barros.

Workflow Patterns. Distributed and Parallel Databases, 14(1):5–51, 2003.

15. M. Adams, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, D. Edmond, and W.M.P. van der Aalst.

Facilitating Flexibility and Dynamic Exception Handling in Workflows through

Worklets. In O. Belo,

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Corporation, 2003.


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APPENDIX A: Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Process

A coordinated (parallel and/or serial) set of process activity(s) that are connected in

order to achieve a common goal. Such activities may consist of manual activity(s)

and/or workflow activity(s).

Process Definition

The computerized representation of a process that includes the manual definition and

workflow definition.

Process Activity

A logical step or description of a piece of work that contributes toward the

achievement of a process. A process activity may include a manual activity and/or an

automated workflow activity.

Process Role

A mechanism that associates participants to a collection of workflow activity(s)

Workflow Definition

That part of the process definition that includes the automated aspects only versus the

manual.

Workflow Activity

The computer automation of a logical step that contributes toward the completion of a

workflow .

Workflow Application

A software program(s) that will either completely or partially support the processing

of a work item in order to accomplish the objective of a workflow activity instance.


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Work list Handler

Software component that manages and formulates a request to the workflow

enactment service in order to obtain a list of work items.

Manual Activity

The manual steps that contributes toward the completion of a process.

Application Data

Data that is application specific and not accessible by the workflow management

system.

Business Process

A kind of process in the domain of business organizational structure and policy for the

purpose of achieving business objectives.

BPR - Business Process Re-engineering

The process of (re-)assessment, analysis, modelling, definition and subsequent

operational implementation of the core business processes of an organization, or other

business entity.

Manual Definition

That part of the process definition that includes the manual aspects only versus the

automated (workflow).

Sequential Routing

A segment of a process instance where activities are executed in sequence.

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