Task Assignment Management System - Improving Employee Productivity Essay.

The importance of effective task management in an organization

Employees are perhaps the most useful resource in any given company (Lee, Rocco & Shuck 2020). Task have to be completed by employees to fulfil the objective of the company (Bailey 2016; Keating & Heslin 2015). Projects involves a number of unique tasks, such as description, definition of human capital, some strict budget and deadline. These tasks require accuracy and fairness in their distribution (Jyothi & Parkavi 2016). Manage performs a first-line role in figuring out different abilities and distribution of responsibilities in any establishment (Avison & Fitzgerald 2013). Tasks assignment to employees can sometimes be complicated occasioning the need for a software.  Task assignment management system makes it easy for the enterprise to manage and keep track of the activities and their progress (Shuck et al., 2017).

In the past couple of years, many companies have turned to technology to be able to manage and track work functions and performances. Tasks management applications provide a flexible and smooth environment for employees to work in without interference while maximum solutions are developed for small and complex companies. They have modules for employee’s where they can interact with their respective assigned tasks, thereby business managers are able to effectively manage the essential resource (HR and Employee system 2015). The modules are aggregated into one software to help assign and monitor duties assigned to their staff keep track of critical records about individuals or departmental performance.

Tasks assignment and management software allows the managers to create assignments, assign/unassign, make critical decisions based on observed trends. Task management systems are indeed powerful tools by which managers can accurately discharge their managerial duties with effectiveness. The scope of this assignment is to design and build a task assignment system for managers and regular employees. The system will be built on PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript while the database will be a MySQL database. 

It is obvious to apprehend and can be utilized by all of us who aren't always acquainted with simple employees’ machine. it is individual pleasant and without a doubt asks the character to comply with step-thru-step operations with the aid of giving easy to conform with alternatives (Juan, 2016). it is rapid and can perform many operations for a corporation on this international of developing generation the entirety has been automated. With huge wide type of works opportunities, the Human employees has improved. sooner or later, there may be a want of a device which could take care of the records of this sort for a huge number of employees. This challenge could positively impact on retaining facts because of its design.

The intention of this assignment is to offer provide a whole method in the direction of the manager of employee facts. this can be completed with the useful resource of designing and implementing a task assignment system control device as a way to bring up a top paradigm shift within the way that employee dealt with.

The departmental managers are capable of generating well timed tasks that allows employees to show personnel and this could be used for Performance Value Determinations. The reviews can have all the employee information, assignment attendance reports which maintain track of time spent on the assignment, and task status whether unassigned, complete or in progress. The manager will then upload an employee and assign them a temporary password and should they also wish to assign them tasks, they can do so. Traditional ways of assigning tasks have proven ineffective in a number of ways which include;

1. Managers lose track of the task lifecycle
2. At time employees may fail to complete assigned tasks
3. Poor performance is never recorded
4. Time management is not implemented
5. Productivity is never assured

Benefits of implementing a task assignment management system

All the above issues among others have had an impact on the overall performance of the company and on individuals. The only possible way to address these issues is through implementing a task management system whose primary role is to ensure prudent use of available human capital provided by the employees. Second, while this may be the case fairness is key to keep employee motivated and productivity on course. Through the use of a task assignment system, employees are assigned task based of their abilities, expertise and availability. Managers can also keep track of the performance on specific tasks and can implement rewarding approach because they are fact based.

The system seeks to resolve all task related issues. Inaccuracy in allocation, track performance and employee output, reporting and be able to obtain employee feedbacks in a timely manner. 

System designing process require a number of things to be put together. At the very beginning, users will require to login to the system so that the system can determine their assigned roles, what they should access and what they should not. The first point in the system description is the identification and authentication of users as they login to use the system. 

Users will be subjected to provide their credentials to access tasks and for managers to assign employees some tasks. The following details defines the authentication of users in the task assignment system. Login - the system provides users with a login page. There system accepts two types of users namely; the departmental managers and the regular users. The managers double in terms of role as the administrators and have user role number 1 assigned on them while the regular users have role number 2 assigned.

Logout- the system will also provide away to terminate a session by logging out of the system.

Login failure - should the system determine that incorrect inputs are keyed in, the system will generate login failure if login credentials are not validated.

The system will provide users to access only those functions they are authorized to handle. After the user signing into the system, the system checks user role from the database and the functionalities are served based on the role assigned to them. Users with role function number 1 are considered admins while those whose role assignment is role 2 are regular employees.

Information can be displayed based on the roles assigned. For example, managers have full access to employee data and reports. Regular employees can only view their own profiles. Managers cannot see regular employee data who aren’t under their supervision or department. The departmental manager can display their personal information and all the public information of their employees relating to the task assigned.

Edit - An employee with managerial responsibility and rights can edit task details of their junior colleagues. Departmental managers can appraise employees to administrators. Admin can edit all data related to tasks assigned to employees in their departments and can provide feedbacks on the same.  

One huge task can be assigned to multiple employees. Managers can customize assignments and provide with a task team. The admin will be capable of assigning parts of the main task to a task group.

Overview of our Task Assignment Management System

Trainings: The manager shall create trainings and assign personnel which can be required to attend the trainings as properly. Training on how to use the task assignment system will help both the managers and the employees to determine how the system can effectively address gaps identified in company as regards the tasks assignments, know how to assign and accept assignments, know the expected due date and time as well as all the other key points in the system which the users should know to be able to use the system effectively.

Responsibilities: manager shall assign responsibilities to employees in their department.

Reports generation using the system will be available. Managers can generate and print reports with regards to specific tasks assigned to employees. There will be different tabs for the reports which will display the defined data in each of the table. Reports can be generated daily, weekly, monthly or yearly as the user may wish. The reports can further be processed to provide clarity on many other issues including management decisions. 

The implementation of this project follows a use case defined below. A use case is a diagram representing different interaction points of the application or system. In the use case, employees interact with their respective tasks, departments and attendance. This relationship is the one that guides the project to determine which table relates with which table and so forth.

Employee include accountants, sales, IT technicians

Managers include IT manager, Sales manager, Accounts manager

Application development and progressive improvement follows a structured process determined and declared at the planning stage. In this project, due to factors of time and developers’ interest, the methodology adopted is agile development methodology. In agile development, planning is done, all the requirements are gathered ahead of implementation. Through Kanban technique, developer is able to split development tasks into three; to-do, in-progress, and done. Kanban helps developers visualize the process and ways of managing tasks and make it easier for others to follow along (Zhiming, 2015).

There are some of software program development method each of which can be followed primarily based totally on a number of things referring to the task e.g., time, incorporation of changes required to ultimately improve the way the system works, how users interact with each other and the duration of the development crew (Connolly and Begg 2015). those normal models are not definitive descriptions of software program strategies. as an alternative, they may be abstractions of the device that can be used to offer a cause in the back of one-of-a-kind strategies to software program application utility development (Zoho 2014).

Since the project was a case scenario, the project did not consider a questionnaire to employees to suggest what they would like to have to address the issues arising from task complaints. The management suggested to do a case scenario and then draw the conclusions from it. The design considered was descriptive design, where all the details are going to be captured about the task.

The system can be designed and implemented using an incremental development model. Using the incremental model, implement future changes and so forth. Using the incremental model. The system provides a superior way of advancing changes, testing and so forth. Different versions are implemented in bits as development advances.

Authentication and user roles in the system

Although changes will be implemented using incremental model, the code that has worked best in the previous version will always be reused in the next release. This technology is referred to as re-use-oriented model. The tool development method makes a specialty of integrating the ones additives right into a tool in vicinity of growing them from scratch.

PHP (Hypertext processor) is known for its power to deliver server-side scripting and great projects. This means that PHP is able to provide an artwork on all important going for walks structures used in designing backend systems. PHP integrates well with other programming languages to deliver exciting interfaces for fascinating projects. Personal home page is a remarkable choice for growing internet-primarily based structures because it’s an open-supply technology and has a big network of users and builders. The reality that PHP is platform impartial and offers the developer all the freedom to develop a utility without demanding about the going for walks system on a consumer’s machine. non-public private domestic web page has the capability to combine with most internet era for this reason it could be used as center-ware (Renae & Boudreau 2014).

MySQL is a strong tool for creating relational databases. Web applications can be designed and linked to databases using MySQL. The database is used to store system data such as login credentials, it’s on the complete used on windows servers and it isn't unfastened (Sommerville, 2011). MySQL databases can be integrated quite easily with other technologies to provide exceptional user experiences. The project the database has been created and designed to guide the programs. It is built on MySQL which is perhaps the most common used type of relational database and its functionalities help to establish an interaction between the application and database. Employees can interact with assignments as a result of the strong management control structures provided for by MySQL database system.

Hypertext Preprocessor (Hypertext proceThursday, August 18, 2022ssor is an independent open-source software program that’s implemented within the again-stop interfaces and services relative to the initial person of those interface and services. It normally refers to the patron factor of a software. A back-end script will allow users to interact with the server side, get access to the database and display content in the database. Deitel and Deitel (2015) defines the front stop due to the fact the part of an e-dealer’s portal, digital catalogs, a purchasing for cart, a are looking for engine and a fee gateway.

HyperText Markup Language commonly referred to as HTML is a powerful tool and language used for building interactive frontend tasks in a project or websites. It has many attributes and can be spiced up using CSS to make webpages more appealing. It is reasonably clean to take a look at, with the basics being on hand to non-public in a single sitting; and quite effective in delivering impressive webpages.

JavaScript is another scripting language which will be used to validate user inputs into the system.  JavaScript is a superior with its unmatched ability to deliver functionalities on the web browser. It is a useful resource which allows developers to feature interactivity and complements behavior of webpages (Avison & Fitzgerald 2014). Some characteristics could be generated with the resource of JavaScript is validating input data, appearance of specific actions e.g., when someone clicks on submit button, then the record inserted in the database is then displayed in triplicate. JavaScript helped deliver this unique functionality. Further, assignments are designed to respond to functions and systems requirements, although it isn’t always absolutely related to PHP.

Access control and authorization

CSS is a style sheet language used to beautify webpages, improve the look of the html pages and spice the interactive aspect of the system. CSS is a powerful tool for beautifying the system interfaces as served to the users. CSS will be used to spice the pages in this system.

The system obtained the following results;

Interactive interfaces easy to use and straight forward pages. Using HTML and CSS the developer was able to design an impressive and nice-looking system whose pages are easy to load and use. Input field are also easy to key in data. Tasks data, employee data, departmental data and attendance data are some of the results of this system. The result can be displayed using some interactive pages.

Based on employee, the system will be helping the management to acquire data that can be subjected to further analysis in order to determine other tasks related factors and how they relate to the performance and effectiveness. Data obtained from assignments can further be analyzed progressively using regression, correlation and t-test to determine their suitability and accuracy. Data from some departments can be subjected to an analysis tool and then result compared to determine the most accurate tool for the project.

Descriptive data analysis will be will be considered on data collected from the reports which are saved in the databases.  At the end of implementation of the system, all the information obtained about employees will form the data for further analysis. It will be collected from the managers portal on the system. The data will include that of specific tasks, users, departments and time.

Data analytical tools which are meant to provide a true position of their productivity index by employees. This will in the long run help the company determine the gaps that needs to be addressed in terms of task structures, timing, productivity by employees and the overall effectiveness of the system. In order to achieve this the system will consider implementing a reporting system where managers can have a visualized view of the system data with analytical tests clearly implemented. Through such visualization, managers can determine overall productivity of their teams, task completion rates, comparative indices internally and externally and be able to predict future performances based on the findings. 

Management functions depend on different abilities and commitments to the goals set by different companies (Endsley 2017). Work is one of the functions that drive an organization. Work and work processes in any company or organizations bring about a number of different engagements for it to be effective such as expertise and others. Human capital has different levels or degrees of qualifications therefore, performance may follow suite (Hoff & Bashir 2015). The result of any work process heavily depends on how the tasks was assigned, when and to which employee. It is imperative to note that work related performance of any given organization can be increased by assigning the tasks to the most qualified and available employees (Valentin 2014). Managers have to walk a tight rope to balance between most qualified and available employee in order for the tasks to be completed (Langer et al., 2020). The application greatly impacts on task accuracy in terms of equality and fairness when assigning such assignments to employees. With task assignment system, it is easier for management team to distribute tasks to employees with precision and accuracy and also make it easy to make follow ups. Decision making is also enhanced (Valentin 2014). When assignments are managed and assigned to right members of staff, time is correctly defined, and outcomes are predictable, it become easier for the management to make more sounding decisions. The decisions are data backed, therefore more accurate. For the IT management team, task assignment system helps in resolving assignment related conflicts as well as speedy processing of performance indicators.

Information display based on user roles

During implementation some instances seemed to not deliver the expected result (Schmitt et al., 2016). For example, where the manager may be limited to not supervise tasks, or be denied rights to assign or unassign a task. There was a huge challenge trying to figure how the system would look like. more employees were assigned the same task to work together and what measure would be applied. According to Wang et al., (2018) the recommended approach should consider all the inter-relationship interfaces when implementing the system.

Conclusion

Task assignment can be used to create fairness in distribution of work to employee. Task assignment mean a lot in terms of overall performance of the business. Productivity of employees can be measured and correct duties/tasks can be assigned based on employee ability and strengths. These can be tracked using task assigned system and can also serve as a tool for the management to make decisions. Data obtained from the system can be used for future projections and managers can know what action to take based on facts. Systems are meant to make work easier and therefore task assignment system is meant to make tasks distribution and follow-ups pretty easy. Using powerful tools such as PHP for backend, HTML and CSS for front end and MySQL for database management, a task assignment was designed and built. Designing can be agile or incremental in nature based on user suggestions or recommendations. The system is able to collect task related data, store that data in the database and generate reports on request regarding the assigned tasks. Task assignment system can greatly impact decisions for the management teams. Great performance can be achieved if tasks are assigned to correct employee who are competent and available.

The scope of the task assignment system in this project covers the managers and employee’s workflows inside the company. This scope can be expanded to include areas where the employee can place a request to do a specific task, then the manager can agree and give recommendation on the same. The system should also be flexible to allow employee to give comments and recommendations about the task they are assigned. Last but not least the system should provide employee an opportunity to reject/accept to undertake assigned tasks. 

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