Christopher M. Johnson
2004

An Intramural Sport Management System

In today’s world, software development can be complex and highly competitive. Several factors add to the complexity, particularly if the software has a web-based user-interface and is a distributed application. In addition to the complexities involved during development, additional complexities arise during maintenance. For example, the software product may need to be modified to match with changing technology such as newer versions of operating system and hardware. Software developers are thus forced to choose the right development approach while designing and implementing the software. This document describes the development of a web-based intramural sport management system. The product will be used by the Recreational Sports Department at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and hence has some features specific to the Recreational Sports Department. However, the product is easily extendible and modifiable in order to suit other sports management activities. This thesis describes the various activities in the life cycle of this software. In also includes the challenges faced during the development, the current status, and future work on the software.

Michael A. Taylor
2004

Web-based Human Resources Enterprise System

This project established a software engineering process based on the Rational Unified Process in the Information Technology (IT) Department and showed the viability of this process by writing a set of applications. Applications written for the Office of Human Resources at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse were chosen to provide a programmatic base for all future developments that deal with university employees. The Office of Human Resources (HR) currently provides 25 services. These services were outlined in a Vision document. Analyses of the Vision document through use-case development showed that most of these services are dependent on the involvement of personnel outside the control of HR for successful delivery of those services. Analyses of the use-cases resulted in the scope of this project limited to the recruitment process. This process is found to be the use-case that all other use-cases are dependent upon. Further analysis through activity, sequence, and state chart diagrams provided the basis for development of HR’s recruitment process. The project is an enterprise application designed to meet the interactions of personnel as indicated in the Vision document and implemented utilizing a three-tier software architecture and open-source technology such as Apache, Java Struts, Junit, and Log4j. A separate Oracle database instance was created specifically for this project. Data extraction from legacy tables using PL/SQL functions and procedures were used to populate the normalized tables of the project instance. Integration of this project and the legacy enterprise system are detailed in a complete Data Dictionary.

Jeffrey L. Woody
2005

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A Classroom Information Management System

Software re-reengineering is an accepted solution for upgrading legacy software. Many factors such as changing technology, increased user expectations, competing products, and limitations to expanding a product’s feature set may influence the need for re- engineering a software product. The three main phases of a software re-engineering process are: (1) reverse engineering the original product into an abstraction; (2) modifying the abstraction to match the vision for the re-engineered product; and (3) implementing the modified abstraction. This thesis addresses all the three phases of a re- engineering project. An existing commercial software for managing classroom information is re-engineered from a single-user, rich-client application into a multi-user web-based application with many additional requirements such as security, extensibility, administration, ease-of-use, and new user classifications. This thesis describes the activities performed in each re-engineering phase, the challenges encountered, the issues
that arose, the current status of the project, and its limitations and continuing work.

Linda K. Ingalls
2005

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Feature Rules in TOPPS

This document describes the development of a new data maintenance tool and the enhancement of a product selection tool at Trane, a subsidiary of American Standard Companies, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The product selection tool uses several business rule types that assist a salesman to configure a product. The enhancement adds two new rule types to the existing rule base. The data maintenance tool allows input and maintenance of the two new rule types along with supporting data elements which may be used independent of or in conjunction with the two new rule types. These data items are cached and used as input to the product selection tool.

Guy Speier
2005

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An Application to provide UNIX Performance Analysis, Bottleneck Determination and Resolution

Performance analysis is a critical, yet often overlooked part of System Administration. Not only is there a substantial amount of data to interpret, but the guidelines for determining a performance problem are often complex and can vary between different UNIX operating systems. This manuscript describes the development of FIREpower, an application that is able to analyze UNIX performance statistics. The tool provides a graphical representation of the data, reports potential bottlenecks on the machine, as well as dynamically creates scripts that will alter the machine configuration in an attempt to increase system performance. This tool is designed to run on any UNIX server and addresses operating system dependencies by way of an expert system.

Thomas J. Teegan
2006

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OnRequest Net – CAFM 1.0

This manuscript describes the methodology used to create a network-based application that has the annotative features found in Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) software. The project was sponsored by Advanced Planning Technologies Inc. to replace OnRequest, their current facilities management software. The OnRequest software is installed on a single client machine. All data used by OnRequest is also stored on the client machine. In OnRequest, sharing data amongst people is cumbersome. To access another user’s files they must first be transmitted through third party software such as email, ftp or removable disk. OnRequest Net – CAFM 1.0 stores all data in a database server environment where multiple users can have access to the same data simultaneously. In version 1.0 of this software, not all of the features currently found in OnRequest are present, just those dealing with managing database data and the annotation of drawings.

Hozumi Nakano
2006

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A Methodology for Software Reuse

Software reuse has been practiced in industries with or without clear identification of reuse. In most cases, software reuse process uses design and code components, particularly the latter. From the literature survey, it was observed that there is no software reuse methodology that can be applied throughout the software life cycle. It was therefore decided to develop a reuse methodology that can be applied to the entire software life cycle. This research started by observing two pairs of industry software products one reusing the other. The reusability score was computed in each case and was confirmed to be satisfactory by the development team. Based on the results, a reuse methodology that can be applied to the entire software life cycle was proposed. The methodology gives a set of guidelines for a formal reuse process. This process assumes that the requirements for the new product to be developed are written first, and then the reusable software components can be searched in a reuse repository. This repository is assumed to include all components of existing products such as requirements, design, code, test cases and so on. The proposed methodology guides developers to identify reusable software artifacts and tailor them toward the new product.

Thomas Harron
2006

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Requirements Compiler

The process of developing an object-oriented software design from a functional requirements specification is a fundamental issue in software engineering. Important issues such as discovering data elements present in the requirements, deriving design objects, specifying object relationships, and others can be obscured as significant low- level clerical effort is expended to produce consistent, traceable, standards-compliant requirements and design documentation. This manuscript describes a software tool, Requirements Compiler (RC), which assists in the generation of quality functional requirements and guides the user through a well defined process to derive an object-based design. The tool explicitly exposes the user to central processes governing a formal software design methodology, alleviates much of the associated low level clerical effort and ensures consistency between the requirements and the corresponding design. RC provides an editor for composing and editing IEEE-compliant functional requirement documents, ensuring the requirements specified are structured correctly (i.e. syntax). RC also provides an interactive GUI environment which guides the user through a derivation process to obtain an object-based design for a selected requirements document. In addition to the generated design, the tool provides a detailed statistical report on the derivation process and source code stubs for each class specified in the design. The generated source code (Java, C# or C++) contains declarations for the attributes and signatures and pseudo-code for the methods, all based upon information parsed from the requirements document.

Ben Garbers
2006

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A Project Manager's Assistant

Software project management is a difficult endeavor due to the complexities of maintaining the cooperation and coordination of project team members in order to insure the ordered completion of numerous tasks with multifaceted inter-relationships. In addition to sharing software artifacts such as requirements documents, design documents, source code, and test cases, timely communication among team members is critical for the success of the project. Additional complexities arise when an individual team member assumes multiple roles (e.g., a project manager also acts as the requirements specialist) or when a single role is shared among multiple team members (more than one designer or programmer). Software project management tools vary from simple spreadsheets to complex software packages that allow the project manager to track project tasks, time sheets and billing. Most of these packages require the project manager and other users to input data at the right time. Moreover, the software artifacts such as the requirements document, design document and source code are not accessed via these tools. This paper describes a project management software tool supporting a wide array of project management activities. The tool was developed at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in coordination with IBM, Rochester, MN as an Eclipse plug-in built on top of the Agent Building and Learning Environment (ABLE) framework. The tool provides a wide array of automatic and semi-automatic support for managing team communication; interactive development and dissemination of software artifacts (requirements and design documents); managed review of documents; time tracking; tracking skill-set profiles of project team members; the intelligent selection of project team members using personal profiles, and cost estimation.

Raj Vijayakumar
2006

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Automating Curriculum Management Tasks

This manuscript describes a web based tool that assists in automating curriculum proposal and change procedures, curricular data maintenance and course catalog publication at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Curriculum proposals are initiated by departments, approved by curriculum committees and finally maintained by Records and Registrations department. The current manual system is paper intensive, inconsistent, confusing and follows a manual workflow. The tool provides the following features: 1.) Using this tool, a faculty member will be able to create new course and program proposals through a web based application. 2.) The current database (namely catalog master) consists of un-normalized tables and consists of neither constraints nor relationships; so a new database has been developed to tackle the problem of redundancy and inconsistency 3.) The tool allows the creation of several reports. This manuscript describes the development of the curriculum management tool; in particular, it describes the activities performed in each phase, the challenges encountered, the issues that arose, the current status of the project, and its limitations and continuing work.

Nhan Than
2006

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A Web-based Application to support the La Crosse Wellness Project

The purpose of the La Crosse Wellness Project is to promote optimal wellness by focusing on health promotion as a process that is learned and ongoing. The La Crosse Wellness Project is comprised of two components: The La Crosse Wellness Inventory (LWI) for individual assessment purposes, and the Wellness Development Process (WDP) for the development of individualized plans of action. In this project, the LWI and WDP are developed as web-based applications which provide participants mobility, flexibility, convenience and data security. Moreover, security of personal information and extended database design are required to be investigated and implemented to provide a more secure transaction and meet the major requirements of this project.

Jami B. Hundt
2007

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Tool Support for the Prevention of Family Violence System

Family violence is very prevalent in the State of Wisconsin. Family violence is classified into two types of violence: domestic violence or sexual assault. The Prevention of Family Violence System (PFV) was first developed in 2000 by the PKSoftware Company. The system is currently used by ten different agencies throughout the State of Wisconsin to record family violence cases. After long-term use of this application, it was determined that the application needed a renovation. The purpose of this project is to re-engineer the PFV system. The new system contains all current functionality as well as new enhancements as specified by the sponsor. In addition, the data for the system was converted from Microsoft Access databases to Microsoft SQL databases and normalized.

Aditi A. Ghode
2007

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Web Application Tool

Web site development is a difficult endeavor due to the complexities of programming languages and maintenance cost, especially for those who do not have sufficient computer background. This project was to develop a tool that makes web site management more convenient for non-sophisticated users. With the help of this tool anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. The specific purpose of the work was to make the web more accessible to the people who work for non-profit organization, to allow them to publish websites without knowledge of HTML tools and to broaden the base of their work on the web. The project started with the aim to develop an "Easy to Use -- WYSIWYG" tool. This manuscript describes the development process for the tool including the activities performed in each phase of the development process, the challenges encountered, the issues that arose, the current status of the project, and its features with continuing work. An important part in the design of the GUI for this tool is that it be easily used by those familiar with Microsoft Word.

Metin Tuzmen
2007

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Project Manager 2007

Every software employs certain level of project management system. Irrespective of the size of the team that builds the software, good project management skills and tools will always make developing the software easier, maintainable and within the proposed budget. However, when project management fails to perform the right tasks, the software development process results increasing costs, and serious problems, and fails in its promised value. This could even lead to the project being abandoned and resources being demoralized. Many tools have been developed to streamline project management. Some of them help project managers control project schedule, others do budget controls, and yet others allow addition of other components such as requirements management and/or code management. Project Management 2007 is a project which realizes the importance of project management, not just as a place to control a certain project, but as a place where software engineering activities can be managed and learned for better performance and refining these activities to fit the real world. Project Manager 2007 manages projects at an organizational level, where each project is defined in qualitative details based on the organization's structure and software engineering techniques. Project managers as well as other mid-high level managers can learn about their organization, software development capacities and can give direction to new initiatives to improve quality of the software. Project Manager 2007 addresses project management, organization management, resource management, risk management, skill management, document management, metrics management and requirements management.

Phillip Molstad
2007

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TripLogic: A Demand Response Dispatching System

It is common in practice that many companies build complex and highly delicate business processes around their legacy (existing software) systems making it extremely difficult and costly to switch software systems or to change their business processes. Software re-engineering is an approach that takes legacy software that has become expensive to maintain or whose implementation is obsolete, and reconstructs it with current software technologies. The software re-engineering approach is important for recovering and reusing existing software assets, putting high software maintenance costs under control, and establishing a base for future software development. Top Hat, Inc. started developing its demand-response transportation software in 1994. Today, it is a vital part of their business. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly expensive to enhance its features and compete against their competitors. The design structure, code organization, and development platform of the legacy system make it difficult to debug, modify, and distribute to the end-user community. This report discusses the techniques and methodologies used to re-engineer Top Hat's demand-response transportation software. It also describes the benefits, challenges, and issues encountered while introducing good software development techniques, maintaining required functionality, and applying new technologies to the Top Hat's demand-response transportation software.

Looi Kim Thean
2008

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A Tool for the Automation of Membership Services and Equipment Management

The Recreational Sports Department at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse wanted a software tool to help manage membership services, track equipment, check in and check out equipment, monitor locker assignment, and finally analyze each equipment’s usage. Currently, the Recreational Sports Department is using a manual process and paper documents to keep track of all the above mentioned activities. This manuscript addresses the development of a software tool to assist the Recreational Sports Department. The tool consists of four major components: (1) Membership registration, (2) Equipment inventory management, (3) Equipment check in and check out processes, and (4) Receipt and report generation. The Membership Registration component consists of addition, modification and deletion of membership; in addition, it also includes locker assignment and cost calculation processes. Equipment inventory management consists of addition, modification and deletion of individual equipment. An added side component of equipment inventory management allows the users to group a list of desired equipment and create a team equipment group to be checked out later. Equipment check out and check in processes shall have an intuitive GUI to make the activities easy to use. A user will be able to print the membership receipt at any time. In addition, users will also be able to generate any report on usage of equipment with a variety of information.