1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Situation Analysis According to Rooney (2010), all payrolls used to be calculated manually, without any help from a computer. Professional accountants invested a lot of time and energy into keeping track of all employee data, files and information, calculating monthly salaries, hourly remunerations, bonuses, sick leaves, benefits, taxes, deductions and so on. And they did this all by keeping numerous files filled with track records for each and every person employed. Nowadays, however, things are far simpler than they used to be. Technology is always dedicated to making things easier and better, quite a wide variety of computerized payroll systems is available to save from tedious task. Now, instead of keeping dozens of files and spending endless hours calculating, all you have to do is get a payroll software system and let it do all the nasty work. He described that the manual payroll system means doing everything by hand, while a computerized one will enable its users to store unlimited 1
Transcript
1
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Situation Analysis
According to Rooney (2010), all payrolls used to be calculated
manually, without any help from a computer. Professional accountants
invested a lot of time and energy into keeping track of all employee data,
files and information, calculating monthly salaries, hourly remunerations,
bonuses, sick leaves, benefits, taxes, deductions and so on. And they did this
all by keeping numerous files filled with track records for each and every
person employed. Nowadays, however, things are far simpler than they used
to be. Technology is always dedicated to making things easier and better,
quite a wide variety of computerized payroll systems is available to save
from tedious task. Now, instead of keeping dozens of files and spending
endless hours calculating, all you have to do is get a payroll software system
and let it do all the nasty work. He described that the manual payroll system
means doing everything by hand, while a computerized one will enable its
users to store unlimited data, keeping track of everything. He added that a
manual payroll system, you'd have to keep track of all employees' time by
hand, He stated that the computerized payroll system is payroll software you
can automatically transfer all punches or swipes directly into the system,
which will store them instantly. It can even separate regular work hours from
overtime, and calculate the different remunerations according to set
parameters. And if human error sneaks in even with the most organized
1
2
manual payroll system, computerized payroll software will provide accurate
calculations regardless of the amount of data stored. He compared to
computerized software systems, the manual payroll system takes up
valuable time, resources and money. Instead of wasting valuable time with
the tedious accounting tasks, the software calculate the paychecks, while
you work on developing your business, increasing production and revenue.
Katz(2004) stated the burden of payroll and tax preparation can be
eased by hiring an in-house accountant, purchasing the state of the art
payroll software or by outsourcing your load to a local accountant, payroll
service or to an internet payroll service. Different types of payroll software
just by doing a quick research on the web. Several of these payroll programs
are exactly the same software just branded under different names. It is
almost impossible to find a payroll software program that meets all the
needs of your business without having a program designed. Payroll
encompasses every employee of a company who receives a regular wage or
other compensation. Some employees may be paid a steady salary while
others are paid for hours worked or the number of items produced. All of
these different payment methods are calculated by a payroll specialist and
the appropriate paychecks are issued. Companies often use objective
measuring tools such as timecards or timesheets completed by supervisors
to determine the total amount of payroll due each pay period.
Iamregigijubilo (2010), in a company, payroll is the sum of all financial
records of salaries, wages, bonuses and deductions. The current Federal
payroll service environment evolved over many years of incremental
changes that have been implemented in different ways across the
Government. The influence of Agency-unique interpretation of legislation,
regulation, and HR policies have all contributed to a complex set of
requirements that, when taken together, create an obstacle to the
modernization of payroll systems and processes. Twenty-two Government
providers currently deliver Federal civilian payroll services using 14 separate
systems. The four largest – Department of Agriculture, Department of
Defense, Department of Interior, and General Services Administration –
service over 80 percent of the total civilian payroll, accommodating over 190
different pay plans. Because of age and capacity limitations of payroll
processing environments, many service providers have either considered or
completed capital investments in payroll systems infrastructure. Over the
years, Federal agencies have attained cost savings through consolidation of
their payroll operations with Federal payroll providers by Achieving cost
avoidance in both capital investment and daily business operations.
Department of Health (2001) cited Computerized Payroll system as
program especially designed to facilitate and simplify the monthly
preparation of general payroll and reports. They are used in all DOH offices
in the Philippines. Based from their performance, they have faster and more
accurate computation of monthly gross income, deductions and net salary.
3
4
The general payroll and reports generates faster and less resources
consuming and; it has security and integrity of payroll data information.
The Philippine Central College of Arts, Science and Technology is an
educational institutions that was established as single proprietorship. The
school is still implementing simple payroll system, which is task mostly
manned by hand and not by an electronic device or computer. They have
been established the department to empower the contributions to the
facilities and equipments to adapt information system and technology. Last
year, they patronize the “Time and Attendance Finger Print Biometrics
System”. The use of the technology is to lessen the time cost to compute the
time sheet and to emphasis the security of the payroll procedures.
Concurrently, the flaw is, after gathering the data, the accountant needs to
print and input the data gathered from the technology to another computer.
The accountant uses spreadsheet to finalize in computing for the pay slip.
Therefore, based on the situations cited are fragments in order to meet
the needs of the research.
Conceptual Framework
Yusefweiss (2011) stressed in any company, it is very important to
monitor the employee’s attendance or time for accurate payroll and
discipline. Some companies and schools are using manual punch card to
record the employee’s attendance while others are still using logbook.
4
5
Traditionally, such information would be gathered on a site by site basis and
transmitted by either manual or electronic means, to a central point where
payroll would then be processed and other reports prepared. Oftentimes, the
information was outdated by the time it arrived, delaying payroll preparation
and requiring numerous employees to complete just that one task.
Universidad de Manila is currently using the punch card machine and log
book for time and attendance data tracking. But these systems are
inaccurate and are less secured.
According to Learn-Source(2011), As the job market changes, more
and more companies are finding that payroll is becoming an extremely
challenging task to perform. The mounds of paperwork and huge amounts of
data that have to be processed and analyzed often make payroll a complex
and thankless task to perform. However, thanks to new payroll software
programs, the job of payroll is becoming much easier and more efficient. So,
if your company’s payroll is getting out of hand, think about purchasing
some payroll software. Payroll software encompasses a wide variety of
computer applications that can help you organize and process your
employees’ salary information. Any kind of computer application that you
use to help you with your company’s payroll is defined as payroll software.
Payroll software can consist of a simple spreadsheet or it can encompass an
entire system of software applications. Software payroll has become
extremely popular over the past five years and is now used by a large
number of companies, both small and large. With an increased number of
5
6
companies using temporary, contract, or short-term workers, payroll has
become a much more complicated task. Payroll software eliminates paper
work by allowing you to automate most of the payroll process. Payroll
software also decreases the amount of time you need to spend performing
payroll tasks and increases accuracy and efficiency.
Bulwarks(2002) stated that Payroll management system developed by
Bulwark Systems targets specifically Enterprises’. It has all the features of
Payroll processes that a typical HR/Accounts dept. of a small/medium/large
sized company follows. The software covers all the forms which the
Government of Indi has made compulsory for the Indian firms to adopt with
respect to their employees. It is much simpler for the person who operates
the software of Payroll process. He doesn’t have to deal with those bulky
registers during the payroll generation. Here all the processes are
categorized, giving a very simple interface to the end user. The software
starts off from formation of a Company. After filling up the entire Employee
related information and the group or department he is recruited, assign the
employee a salary structure. Now we can start generating and managing
payroll processes for that particular employee. Also the end user has the
option of creating his own salary structures and salary
formulae.Theformulae. The pay slip is generated after the attendance is
marked for that month. The software also managemanages the company
and the bank holidays.
6
7
According to Harty(2000). ALGAR Information Systems developed
information systems and manages the company’s employees and payroll
processing. It is designed primarily for use by companies operating in the
Philippines, It can be used with Employee Smart Card IDs, RFIDs or Barcode
IDs with biometrics fingerprint or iris scanning authentication to facilitate
employee time entries and eliminate fraud. Simply put, PayCheck is a fast,
secure, accurate and easy-to-use payroll software solution that simplifies the
burden of managing your company’s payroll and HR functions, and lets you
concentrate on the other aspects of running your business.
From the concepts gathered, thegathered, these are the guide to the
researcher plan to develop an Automated Payroll System of Philippine
Central College of Arts, Science and Technology. It covers, the current status
of payroll system of PCCAST with the following terms: a. used time for
computing the payroll; b. on time for releasing the pay slip, the
disadvantages of existing manual system of PCCAST, payment process of the
employees, advantages of automated payroll system. The design and
development of this system were based on the software, hardware and
people ware requirement.
Survey questionnaire was used to help identify the status of the
current system of the six areas of Payroll System along with the following
terms: a. Performance, b. Information, c. Economics, d. Contr
7
8
ol and Security, e. Efficiency, and f. Service. Payroll Procedures, policies and
forms will also be included as a basis in the development of the developed
system. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) by James Martin will be
the model to be used in the development of the system and to assess the
level of usability of the Payroll system, the researcher used the Standard
Usability Measurement Inventory(SUMI) questionnaire. The input box
contains the Payroll procedures and policies in which it will be answered by a
survey questionnaire and the Capabilities and Constraints of Philippine
Central College of Arts Science and Technology Payroll System along with
the Wetherbe’s PIECES will be answered by using the RAD as guide in
System Development and the researcher will use SUMI survey questionnaire
to evaluate the developed system.
The research paradigm is shown in Figure 1.
8
9
Input Process Output
9
1. Payroll Procedures and Policies
2. The current statusCapabilities and Constraints of Payroll System of Philippine Central College of Arts Science and Technology Payroll System along with:
a. Performance,b. Information, c. Economics,d. Control,e. Efficiency, andf. Service
1. Conduct Survey Questionnaire
2. System Development using RAD model
3. Determining
the level of usability of Automated Payroll System in terms of:a. Affectb. Efficiencyc. Controld. Helpfulnesse. Learnability
AUTOMATED PAYROLL SYSTEM
OF PHILIPPINE CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(APSP)
10
Statement of the Objectives
The main objective of this study is to develop an Automated Payroll
System (OPSAPSP) of Philippine Central College of Arts, Science and
Technology
Specifically, it attempts to achieve the following objectives:
1. To Identify the Payrolls Procedures and Policies
2. To determine the Capabilities and Constraintscurrent status of Payroll
System of PCCAST along with:
a. Performance,
b. Information,
10
Feedback
Figure 1 Research Paradigm
11
c. Economics,
d. Control,
e. Efficiency, and
f. Service.
3. To develop an Automated Payroll System of Philippine Central College
of Arts Science and Technology using Rapid Application Development
a. Planning requirements,
b. User design,
c. Construction, and
d. Cutover phase.
4. To evaluate the level of usability of Automated Payroll System of
Philippine Central College of Arts Science and Technology (APSP) along
with the following dimension:
a. Affect
b. Efficiency
c. Control
d. Helpfulness
e. Learnability
Importance of the Study
The development of the Automated Payroll System of PCCAST will
contribute a lot of information about making the payroll system more
11
12
productive and efficient. The result of the study will serve as a basis for the
needed improvement of services for employees of Philippine Central College
of Arts Science and Technology, and will be beneficial to the following:
To the Higher Education Institutions, it will become more
productive and efficient in Human Resources and accounting processes such
payment of payroll taxes and other beneficiaries. It is mandatory to pay
taxes of there will be penalties and fine that will have to pay. Accuracy is
needed in order to produce the correct payroll taxes for the institution and
for the employees as well.
To the school administrators, this may lessen the computation of
deductions such as insurance like: benefits, incentives, loans, SSS, PAGIBIG,
Phil health and others.
To the Accountant, this will help them for ease computation for net
pay in each corresponding employee depending what contract they belong.
It may also lessen their time in computing for deductions and salaries.
To the Employees of PCCAST, for them to have their payroll be
updated and time cost for waiting the net pay against the manual
computation of payroll. Calculations for the co-employees’ taxes is
specialized job and with the knowledge regarding payroll will help them
provide the right payroll taxes to their employees.
To the Researcher, who is the primary benefit, and boost his
programming skills and innovative learning from his research
12
13
To the Future Researcher, this will serve as basis or guidelines for
their research study and also a reference regarding the Payroll System
Definition of Terms
Current statusCapabilities and Constraints Payrollof Payroll
System of PCCAST. This refers the condition of Payroll System of Philippine
Central College of Arts, Science and Technology (PCCAST). The status of
PCCAST is evaluated through: (1) Performance. It indicates the
current transaction in terms of ease of process and produce output
efficiently. (2) Information. It indicates
whether the end users get timely, accurate, and useful information.
(3) Economy. It
indicates whether services provided by the current system of PCCAST are
cost-effective/worth to invest. (4) Control. It
indicates whether there are effective controls to produce accurate and
secure information. (5)
Efficiency. It indicates whether the current system of PCCAST makes good
use of resources and had human resource management.
(6) Services. It indicates whether the current services of PCCAST are
reliable, flexible, and expandable.
Level of Usability of the Developed System. It refers to the
methods of measuring the degree of usability of the developed system. This
was obtained through the following dimensions: (a) Affect which refers
measurement of the user's general emotional reaction to the software (b)
13
14
Efficiency which refers to the measurement of degree to which users feel
that the software assists them in their work and is related to the concept of
transparency. (c) Control which refers the dimension which measures the
level to which the users authentication; whether the website allows them to
navigate through it with ease, and whether the website communicates with
them about what it is doing. (d) Helpfulness which refers the measurement
of degree to which the software is self-explanatory, as well as more specific
things like the adequacy of help facilities and documentation and
(e)Learnability which refers the measurement of speed and facility with
which the user feels that they have been able to master the system, or to
learn how to use new features when necessary.
Payroll Procedures and Policies. This refers the forms of payment
or proofs of business transactions.
Rapid Application Development (RAD). This refers the conceptual
model used in software development methodology. This generally allows
software to be written much faster, and makes it easier to change
requirements. There are four phases of RAD. (1) Planning requirements is
much like traditional problem definition and systems analysis. (2) User
design. Design and refine phase. Programmers can build and show visual
representations of the designs and workflow to users. (3) Construction. As
each transaction is built it may be demonstrated to the end-users for
revision. End-users are closely involved in the construction phase. Testing
occurs throughout the process. (4) Cutover phase. As the systems are built
14
15
and refined, the new systems or partial systems are tested and introduced to
the organization.
Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Payroll Procedures and Policies
According to Natalie (2000), The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforce the federal employment laws and
the federal payroll tax laws. These are the payroll procedures being done in
by every state featuring: Timekeeping, Payroll Processing, Payroll Taxes and
Reporting. From the time keeping procedure, Employers implement a
timekeeping system to monitor employee time. The employer does not have
15
16
to use a specific timekeeping system, but it must be correct and complete,
according to the DOL. A timekeeping system is particularly important if the
employer has hourly workers; the latter are paid based on hours worked
during the pay period. The employer requires the employee to use a time
clock or to complete weekly time sheets. Payroll includes computing the time
card/time sheet data and making sure that employees are paid accordingly.
Payroll processing procedures vary by system and employer. Payroll
processing procedures/tasks may include paying hourly, salaried and piece-
rate workers; processing bonuses, commissions and retroactive, overtime
and severance pay; printing live checks and pay stubs; benefit days
processing, such as vacation and sick time; direct deposit processing; and
processing statutory and voluntary deductions. Payroll tax duties include
withholding federal income tax, and Social Security and Medicare taxes, from
employees’ wages. The employer must also pay its own share of federal
taxes—specifically, Social Security and Medicare taxes and federal
unemployment tax. If the state has an income tax or there are city or local
taxes, the employer must withhold them from employees’ paychecks.
Notably, a few states, such as Alaska, Tennessee, Washington and Wyoming,
do not have a state income tax. In such cases, the employer should not
withhold it from employees’ paychecks. The employer is responsible for
paying state unemployment tax.
Werner (2010) discusses their policies and procedures. UCAR policy
requires that time worked and any leave taken be accurately reflected on an
16
17
employee's time card. UCAR employees are paid bi-weekly upon receipt of
approved time cards, where appropriate. The Time Card application allows
employees to accurately reflect actual hours worked as well as all non-
worked time used. UCAR calculates and pays overtime, travel, field-
assignment, shipboard-assignment, and call-back pay. UCAR pays employees
through automatic deposits to financial institutions upon employee
authorization or by check if necessary. Deductions from gross earnings are
made for items authorized by employees or as required by UCAR policy or
government regulation.
Odina (2010) define Payroll Policy as the responsibilities and
accountabilities of payroll staff and managers. She states that, since payroll
involves confidential information, the policy must specify access and security
levels. It also identifies the training required by different employee groups.
The payroll procedures detail the process from when the employee is hired.
They include payroll activities and forms required for processing new hires,
employment changes, information updates, special payments, deductions,
time reporting and termination.
The features that are stated above are will benefit
the researcher and will adapted some concepts to complete
his research.
Capabilities and Constraints
17
18
According to Wetherbe (2009), PIECES focuses on the actual work of
doing requirements determination. This model is used to classify identified
requirements into one of six subject areas—Performance, Information,
Economy, Control, Efficiency, and Services. The goal of the model is to
assure the systems analyst and the user that questions will be included
during analysis about each of these six essential subjects as it relates to the
problem domain. The responses to the questions for each of these subject
areas significantly contribute to the definition of the system's requirements.
What follows is a brief summary of each of the six subject areas.
Performance questions address how the system needs to perform for
the user. Issues of throughput (the amount of work performed over some
period of time) and response time (the average delay between a transaction
or user request and the response to that transaction or user request) are
considered. For example, the systems analyst may ask questions about the
needed response time or throughput required on the network, the quality of
print needed, or the need to have a graphical user interface or a menu or
text type of interface. In other words, the question the systems analyst asks
is, "How does the system need to perform in this environment?" Its answer
can be multifaceted depending on the needs of the user.
The information category provides the basis for the information or data
model that the system needs to maintain. Issues dealing with input data,
output data, and stored data are considered. The systems analyst may ask
the following questions: "What information is required by the users of the
18
19
system?" or "What outputs are required?" and "What do these outputs need
to look like?" These questions need to be addressed and answered while the
systems analyst is interacting with the user to define output or report
definitions. Similarly, questions related to input data required in order to
produce the outputs are also included in this category, for example, "What
input screens are needed?" or "What is the source for the input (where does
it come from)?" and "Can the input enter the system with source data
acquisition equipment such as bar code scanners, laser guns, mouse, and so
on?" Ultimately, the data need to be defined with a high degree of detail,
which is discussed further in a later chapter of this book.
The third category in this framework is economy. This subject area
addresses project development and operational cost information along with
any objectives that may relate to economy or savings associated with the
system. For example, the systems analyst may ask, "What is the budget for
this project?" or "What is a workable solution to the problem worth to the
user of this system?" Other questions can include: "What are some
anticipated cost savings associated with this system?" and "Are there current
manual activities that an automated solution to the problem may affect?" If
so, "How will the automated system transform the role of these workers?"
The control category is closely associated with system security issues as
well as the editing required on the incoming data. For example, questions
may be asked related to needed accounting controls for some processes, or
at what levels (workstation, user, screen, file, data element, and so on)
19
20
security is needed. Any issue related to controlling the use of the system, its
outputs and inputs, or required controls over the data can be included in this
category.
Somewhat related to economy, the other "E" in the PIECES framework
refers to efficiency. Efficiency is a measure of method correctness. In other
words, "Are things being done right?" Efficiency's impact is usually measured
at least at one of three levels—corporate-wide, department, or individual.
Questions related to efficiency are primarily directed toward the impact that
any solution must have on the environment. For example, "How can the
operations in the office be improved by this system?" and "What values can
be added to the environment by using an automated solution to the
problem?" are two questions that the analyst can ask in this subject area.
The final category in Wetherbe's PIECES framework is essentially the
functional requirements of the system that he associates with services.
"What does the system need to do in order to solve the problem?" and "What
processes need to be performed?" or "How are the objects expected to
perform?" and "What do the objects need to be able to do?" are typical
questions the analyst asks for this subject area. In addition to functional
requirements, services may also include implementation concerns, such as
ease of use and needed support for ongoing use of the system, maintenance
of the system, and training and documentation requirements.
Ledda(2010) stressed the integrity of Wetherbe’s PIECES in developing
his thesis which is the Integrated Online Student Affairs and Services
20
21
System(IOSASS). Based from the findings upon his respondents, it must be
emphasis on performance sector having the highest average mean to
develop its constraints.
According to Barayuga (2010) in his thesis Automated Enrollment
System for Ilocos Sur Polytechnice State College-College of Agriculture, all of
the aspects of PIECES were constraints. It needs to strengthen every side of
the field in manual system.
Both Barayuga and Ledda benefited on the PIECES framework
effectively, thus, this will serve as input to strengthen the development of
the Automated Payroll System of PCCAST.
Rapid Application Development
According to Shelly (2005), IT departments sometimes developed
systems without insufficient input from users. Not surprisingly, users often
were unhappy with the finished product. Over time, many companies
discovered that systems development teams composed of IT staff, users, and
managers could complete their work more rapidly and produced better
results. Two methodologies became popular: joint application development
(JAD) and RAD.
team-oriented development is the norm, some companies see the role
of the IT department as a gatekeeper, responsible for screening and
evaluating system requests. Should the IT department perform the initial
evaluation, or should a cross-functional team do it? The answer depends on
21
22
the company’s size and organization, and whether IT is tightly integrated
into business operations. In smaller companies or firms where only one
person has IT skills, that person acts as a coordinator and consults closely
with users and managers to evaluate systems requests. Larger firms are
more likely to use an evaluation team or systems review committee
Top managers expect the IT department to deliver the best possible
information system, at the lowest possible cost, in the shortest possible time.
To fulfill these expectations, many IT managers have tried to increase user
participation in the development process. Greater user involvement usually
results in better communication, faster development times, and more
satisfied users.
The traditional model for systems development was an IT department
that used structured analysis and consulted users only when their input or
approval was needed. Although the IT staff still has a central role, and
structured analysis remains a popular method of systems development
tasks. A common technique is called joint application development (JAD),
which is a team-oriented technique for fact-finding and requirements
modeling. Because it is not linked to a specific development methodology,
systems developers use JAD whenever group input and interaction are
desired.
22
23
Anotherusers. RAD provides a fast-track approach to a full spectrum of
system development tasks, including planning, design, construction, and
implementation.
Companies use RAD to reduce cost and development time, and
increase the probability of success. To simplify the system development
process, IT vendors offer software that can provide an application
development environment. Because it is a dynamic, user-driven process,
RAD is especially valuable when a company needs an information system to
support a new business function. The primary advantage of using RAD is that
systems can be developed more quickly with significant cost savings.
According to O’Brien (2008), system testing may involve testing and
debugging software, testing website performance and testing new hardware.
An important part of testing is the review of prototypes of displays, reports
and other output. Prototypes should be reviewed by end users of the
proposed systems for possible errors. Of course, testing should not occur
only during the system’s implementation stage, but throughout the system’s
development process. For example, you might examine and critique
prototypes of input documents, screen displays, and process procedures
during the systems design stage. Immediate end user testing is one of the
benefits of a prototyping process.
Martin (2010) cited that RAD advocates believed that the development
of rapid prototypes was a good way to flush out customer requirements by
23
24
gaining immediate feedback from the client. One of the problems that had
been identified with other software development practices was that clients
often didn’t really know what they wanted or didn’t want until they saw a
practical implementation. It was through the process of customers
commenting on an evolving application that new requirements were teased
out. Usually, this would be seen as an unwelcome development which could
play havoc with agreed schedules. With the RAD methodology, however, it
became a standard and accepted part of the development process. In its
embrace of the object-oriented paradigm, and the use of software
engineering tools to enhance programmer productivity, it was certainly
ahead of its time.
Martin(2010) denotes, As well as denoting a formal software
development methodology, RAD became something of a marketing
buzzword and was casually applied to a variety of software development
products. Although hardly hardcore implementations of the methodology’s
ideas, these products did incorporate some of its key concepts. For example,
to facilitate RAD, strong emphasis was placed on the idea of software re-use.
The notion of software components began to be nurtured. Supporters
believed that complex software systems could be constructed largely by
stitching pre-built software components together. The ActiveX control and
JavaBeans software component standards did acquire some degree of
traction, and a market for third-party code components written to these
24
25
standards did emerge, even if it was never all that vigorous. Another key
element of the RAD-lite approach was visual programming. According to this
concept, it should be possible to construct software with little or no
knowledge of programming. The ideal was that programs could be built by
non-programmers hooking components together in some kind of workshop-
like development application. This ideal was never quite fulfilled, but visual
development practices did become a standard part of the typical
programmer’s toolkit and are now routinely used to develop some parts of
software applications, while more traditional coding accounts for the rest.
Graphical interfaces, for example, are now constructed visually more often
than not, with programmers or user interface designers modifying the
desired look of the user interface from within a visual editor and the RAD tool
then generating the appropriate code to create that look automatically. The
automatically-generated code then forms a skeleton framework for the
application as a whole which the software developers then build upon and
edit by hand.
In common use today, the phrase Rapid Application IT professionals
would be unaware that it once referred to a formal software development
methodology. Almost any software tool which is used in the creation of other
software will be described in its marketing literature as something that
facilitates RAD. RAD usually indicates that the tool in question takes some of
the burden from the programmer’s back by automatically generating part of
25
26
the program code. The software tools today is used by the majority of
programmers to develop new software are called Integrated Development
Environments (IDEs). Almost all of them include some RAD features. When
creating a new program, for example, the software engineer can indicate
what kind of application it should be, such as a console application, a
program with a graphical user interface or one that is database-driven. The
IDE will then generate a base template of code which the programmer takes
as a starting point for his or her own work.
According to SmartDataSmart Data(2010),their years of experience
has evolved a method of "incremental Delivery" which uses cycles, where
each cycle part of design and implementation is done. This ensures that at
the fatal end day of a project we should rather have 80% of the (most
important) features 100% done, than 100% of all features 80% done. In the
first case, customer has a choice to either put the product on the market or
to add some more bells and whistles. In the latter case, the customer has no
choice but to wait and grumble. Requirements change is a known risk. Better
than ignoring the requirements paradox, use a website development process
that is designed to cope with it: Evolutionary delivery, uses rapid and
frequent feedback by stakeholder response to verify and adjust the
requirements to what stakeholders really need the most. Between cycles
there is a short time slot where stakeholders input is allowed and requested
to reprioritize the list. To know more about customized application
development
26
27
The literatures and concepts are tools that helped the researcher to
support his research.
Software Usability Measurement Inventory
Yeap (2009) stated, The Software Usability Measurement Inventory is a
rigorously tested and proven method of measuring software quality from the
end user's point of view. SUMI is a consistent method for assessing the
quality of use of a software product or prototype, and can assist with the
detection of usability flaws before a product is shipped. It is backed by an
extensive reference database embedded in an effective analysis and report
generation tool.
SUMI is recommended to any organization which wishes to measure
the perceived quality of use of software, either as a developer, a consumer
of software, or as a purchaser/consultant. SUMI is increasingly being used to
set quality of use requirements by software procurers. SUMI also assists the
manager in identifying the most appropriate software for their organization.
It has been well documented that if staff have quality tools to work with, this
contributes to overall efficiency of staff and the quality of their work output.
SUMI is the de facto industry standard questionnaire for analyzing users'
responses to desktop software or software applications provided through the
internet.
27
28
SUMI is the only commercially available questionnaire for the
assessment of the usability of software which has been developed, validated,
and standardized on an international basis. There is a large range of
languages in which SUMI is available. Each language version is carefully
translated and validated by native speakers of the language. SUMI enables
measurement of some of the user-orientated requirements as a recognized
method of testing user satisfaction.
SUMI started with an initial item pool of over 150 items, assembled
from previously reported studies, from discussions with actual end users
about their experiences with information technology, and from suggestions
given by experts in Human Computer Interaction(HCI) and software
engineers working in the Measuring the Usability of Systems in Context
(MUSiC) project. The items were examined for consistency of perceived
meaning by getting 10 subject matter experts to allocate each item to
content areas. Items were then rewritten or eliminated if they produced
inconsistent allocations.
According to Kirakowski and Corbett (19902006), The questionnaire
developers opted for a Likert scaling approach, both for historical reasons
(Likert-scaled) and because this is considered to be a natural way of eliciting
opinions about a software product. Different types of scales in use in
questionnaire design within HCI. The implication is that each item is
28
29
considered to have roughly similar importance, and that the strength of a
user's opinion can be estimated by summing or averaging the individual
ratings of strength of opinion for each item. Many items are used in order to
overcome variability due to extraneous or irrelevant factors. This procedure
produced the first questionnaire form, which consisted of 75 satisfactory
items. The respondents had to decide whether they agreed strongly, agreed,
didn't know, disagreed, or disagreed strongly with each of the 75 items in
relation to the software they were evaluating. Questionnaires were
administered to 139 end users from a range of organizations. The
respondents completed the inventory at their work place with the software
they were evaluating near at hand. All these respondents were genuine end
users who were using the software to accomplish task goals within their
organizations for their daily work. The resulting matrix of inter-correlations
between items was factor analyzed and the items were observed to relate to
a number of different meaningful areas of user perception of usability. Five
to six groupings emerged which gave acceptable measures of internal
consistency and score distributions. Revisions were made to some items to
centralize means and improve item variances, and then the ten best items
with highest factor loadings were retained for each grouping. The number of
groups of items was set to five. Items were revised in the light of critique
from the industrial partners of MUSiC in order to reflect the growing trend
towards Graphical User Interfaces. A number of users had remarked that it
was difficult to make a judgement over five categories of response for some
29
30
items. After some discussion, it was decided to change the response
categories to three: Agree, Don't Know, and Disagree. Analysis showed
that item response rates, scale reliabilities, and item-scale correlations were
similar to or better than those in the first form's sample. Analyses of variance
showed that the questionnaire differentiated between different software
systems in the sample. The subscales were given descriptive labels by the
questionnaire developers. These were: Efficiency, Affect, Helpfulness,
Control and Learnability.
According to Veenendaal (2002), Usability is an important aspect of
software products. However, in practice not much attention is given to this
issue during testing. Testers often do not have the knowledge, instruments
and/or time available to test for usability. This article identifies the Heuristic
Evaluation and the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) testing
techniques as possible solutions to this problem. The focus of this article will
be on SUMI. In a heuristic evaluation a small number of evaluators examine
the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles
("the heuristics"). SUMI is a rigorously tested and validated questionnaire-
based method to measure software quality from a user's perspective. Using
SUMI the usability of a software product or prototype can be evaluated in a
consistent and objective manner1. The technique is supported by an
extensive reference database and embedded in an effective analysis and
reporting tool. SUMI has been applied to a great number of projects.
