System Definition

Our team had the opportunity to interview 2 seniors and one caretaker/caregiver. Since these people asked to remain anonymous, their identities have been hidden. Their details are as follows:

• Senior 1: Senior 1 has Type 1 diabetes and is 68 years old. They must take Insulin and Metformin medications on a daily basis, and if they skip a dose, their blood sugar levels may vary, posing a serious health risk. 

• Caregiver 1: This caregiver is responsible for a 78-year-old man who suffers from high blood pressure and requires medication to treat it. They risk having a heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure if they don’t take this tablet. When questioned, the caregiver stated that the most important aspect of their work is ensuring that prescriptions are taken correctly and on time, as well as food planning. 

• Senior 2: Senior 2 is 74 years old and suffers from heart disease. They suffered a heart attack recently and were prescribed aspirin as well as other drugs to use on a daily basis. If they don’t take their aspirin daily, they are at a higher risk of another heart attack. 

Based on the interviews conducted, it was determined that because medications are critical for most diseases and missing them can increase the risk of complications and even death, there is a need for an automated system that not only notifies caregivers of medication time but also automatically orders medications as they finish.

Furthermore, because most diseases, particularly those mentioned by the people being interviewed, necessitate a significant change in lifestyle, this system will recommend food recipes for caregivers based on the seniors’ dietary and health restrictions, as well as the individual’s food preferences, and will also suggest exercises to be done with them every day with a check mark option for motivation to complete the exercises.

Goal: 

Help caretaker and senior by developing a software system for dosage tracking and diet management.

Scope:

Dosage Tracking Workflow: System will allow caretakers to keep track of daily dosage of medicines, current inventory of available medications and doses, and automatic order placement functionality for medications with low inventory.

Diet Management Workflow: Allow caretakers to monitor and manage the diet of seniors for improving their long term health.

Project Organization and Methodology:

Pseudo-agile development methodology combined with elements of traditional waterfall methods where convenient.

Cost:

Cannot be estimated due to varying licensing fees of the planned, different third party software integrations. However, cloud services will be used for the functionality of the system and introduce a pay-per-use cost to the system’s operational expenses.

Schedule:

Workflow #1 (Dosage Tracking): 6 weeks, divided across 3 sprints

Workflow #2 (Diet Management): 4 weeks, divided across 2 sprints

Team:

The team will consist of a:

i. Project Manager

ii. Software Development Lead

iii. Quality Assurance Lead

Each of these leads will have teams under them to manage individually to ensure efficiency in completing the work and meeting the objectives. 

System Requirements:

The system’s requirements are as follows: 

i. Eliminates the chances of missing a medication dosage.

ii. Provide suggestions to help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

 Functions and Features: 

The features and functions of the system are:

i. (Dosage Tracking Workflow) The system will conduct the following to eliminate the possibility of missing a drug dosage:

• When it is time to provide medicine, the system will send a reminder on the caregiver’s phone with the name of the drug and the dose. To further guarantee that the medicine is administered, the system will be programmed to include an accept button that must be clicked to confirm that the dose has been given. The data management system will record the time of acceptance.
• Automatically place an order for medicine 7 days (default) before it is due for renewal. The time period for placing the order can be set by the user. When setting up each senior’s accounts, the dose and amount of medication will be entered, and based on the caregiver’s acceptance as they give the dosage, the amount will be reduced and the system will be notified when 7 days’ dosage is left. The system will be linked to pharmacies, and orders will be placed and paid for using the card that has been entered into the system, with reminders sent to the caregiver at the time of collection. 

ii. (Diet Management Workflow) The system will help in the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. To do that, it will incorporate the following features:

• To assist the caregiver with meal planning, it will suggest dishes depending on health constraints and preferences. The system will be set up to prioritize healthy items so that the caregiver may make sure to include them in their meal even if they are unable to fully follow the recipe.
• Exercises should be suggested to the caregiver so that they may do them with the elderly they are caring for. A check mark option will be offered for motivation, and seniors can be encouraged to check them off as they do the exercises and receive a health percentage depending on their overall health. 

Goal

After review of feasibility in implementing the aforementioned functions, all requirements were approved to include the above functions and features except feature 2.2 based on the given time constraints and cost. 

Hardware Specifications:

The hardware needed by the end user will be a smartphone with a minimum of 2 gigabyte RAM, 16 gigabyte storage, 2 gigahertz processor, and ability to connect to and access the internet.

Software Specifications:

The end users will need to have the following software installed:

i. A mobile operating system (such as iOS, Android)

ii. An internet browser other than Internet Explorer (such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari) 

Design of Database:

The database will be a simple relational database. It will be hosted in the cloud using cloud computing services. Since the system will not be handling large user-uploaded files, there is no need for a file storage database system.

Design Procedures:

Normal Processing: 

Users will access the system via the internet browser. The system will have the functionality to log in and log out, which will start and end the user sessions. The operations personnel will access the system the same way but will have an administrative account on the system with special privileges. 

Backup:

Users will have automatic backup of their data offered through the cloud computing services. The operations personnel will need to maintain the backup files and archive the backups not needed.

Failure Recovery:

Users’ actions will be stored locally in their hardware in case of system failure, and their actions will be automatically submitted when the system is functioning again. Any data loss can be recovered through the backups. On the operations personnel side, failure points will be visible through the cloud service provider’s dashboard. All cloud providers offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees above 99% availability and support in case of failures. 

Build System Components:

The system components will be built primarily through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) framework. Databases, servers, monitoring logs, and more can be configured through AWS. For the database system, AWS’s DynamoDB will be used. For monitoring the system, AWS’s CloudWath will be used. For user profile creation, AWS’s Cognito will be used.

Unit Testing:

Unit testing functionality can be implemented using Jenkins software. This software will need a license and therefore adds to the cost. The unit testing will be done locally on software developers’ machines.

Integration of Components:

Components will be integrated using GitHub where the source code for the system will be hosted. AWS’s Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline will be setup to integrate all the units as they are developed, and deploy them to the relevant servers. 

Scope

Integration Testing:

The CI/CD pipeline has functionality to automatically conduct integration testing. That will be leveraged for the testing of the system. 

Deployment and Packaging:

Once the system is developed, it will be deployed to the QA server for quality assurance testing. Once satisfied and no failure points are known, the application will be deployed to the production server and then compiled to a single package. This will then be uploaded to the Apple AppStore, Google Playstore, and other mobile application stores.

The information system can be developed in house as a way of acquiring it. This will require building software with the internal experts in the organization. All work is done out by company’s workers, without outside support. If there are no developers or other professionals onboard yet, the organization must, of course, carry out necessary recruitment and form a dedicated staff. It is rather a hard process, and it takes proper study and understanding of specific needs. By executing it well, the company will gain a dedicated, committed crew. 

Typically, there will be a group of professionals working together to achieve a same aim. Once a team of professional have been assembled in-house, the caregivers can devote their time and energy to other elements of the organization. Every one of developers will be congregated in one location — just where there are needed, right inside your firm. All the developers will be working towards a shared objective, and all of their efforts and experience will be focused on making the project a success.

As a result, all of the developers will be working around the clock, hand in hand, to complete the project for which they are recruited. The other reason is that in house development enhances communication between the development team and the client. Direct contact with developers who are working directly with caregivers is far less burdensome and more accessible than contact with developers who are working with then through an outsourced company. Consequently, the caregivers may make modifications to the project faster and with greater accuracy, avoid errors caused by misunderstandings, and accelerate the project’s execution. As a full member of the company, in-house developers are more aware of their needs and values ??and are culturally relevant. They also have a strong working approach and act faster through better engagement with the project and communication between all project stakeholders.

(Siddiqui et al., 2018). 

Group Decision Support System (GDSS) is an alternative information system that satisfies the needs of this company, enhancing the collaboration between the caregivers and caregivers, and between the senior people and caregivers.

Project Organization and Methodology

Pros of GDSS

i. Because GDSS allows team members to operate in simultaneously, a large amount of data can be collected in a short period of time.

ii. Greater Participation: When members of a group work in a GDSS, the risks of conformity pressure and groupthink are considerably reduced because individuals are able to freely voice their opinions. This is due to GDSS’s added anonymity feature.

iii. More Structure: Discussions in a GDSS context are far more concentrated and focused. Degradations that aren’t relevant are considerably decreased.

iv. Automated Documentation: Comments are saved indefinitely, and the system returns the result immediately. The use of excellent graphics enhances the viewing experience.  

Cons of GDSS

i. Time consuming -The group consists of several people. Organizing them, planning and coordinating meetings, defining and explaining meeting objectives and goals, and finally finding solutions and making decisions can be very daunting. Therefore, group decisions can take some time. The time loss associated with group dynamics is not negligible.

ii. Individual domination – It is not uncommon for a small number of people to dominate group discussions. Group talks are meant to be collaborative debates, but due to their personality and participation style, some persons frequently succeed in snatching (dragging) informal leadership status. This stance could be based on a position inside the company or simply on confidence earned from prior experience. When only a few people dominate a group debate, others fade away, negating the goal of the discussion. (Yazdani et al., 2017).

The following are the three GDSS brands, and their pros and cons:

NetMeeting from Microsoft offers video conferencing, remote desktop sharing, and enhanced security. You can employ data encryption, user authentication, and password protection for security. Group members can see each other and share ideas and conversations thanks to audio and video upgrades. Participants can use the whiteboard tool to collaborate with others in real time utilizing graphical information (Šašinka et al., 2017). Users can utilize the Remote Desktop Sharing option to connect to shared desktops and applications from other machines.

Pros of Microsoft’s NetMeeting

i. Permitting participants to share files and make changes to files shares, particularly on the fly. 

ii. A nicefeature of NetMeeting is that you don’t have to install anapplication to create these shared documents on each participant’s computer.

iii. Users of NetMeeting can talk, transfer video, compose text, and share programs, simultaneously.

Requirements Analysis

iv. NetMeeting is constantly being enhanced, and its fundamental architecture is extensively used.

v. International standards are widely supported, allowing for easy interoperability across solutions from various providers.

Cons of Microsoft’s NetMeeting

i. Because NetMeeting’s audio and video capabilities are limited to two participants, a three-way call cannot be established.

ii. The video frame size and frame rate are both too small to make video conversation a truly engaging experience.

iii. Security flaws have been discovered in NetMeeting, posing a significant risk to users’ data and privacy. The so-called “Speed Dial” problem is an example of a recent and well-known difficulty in this area (Kwak & Morrison, 2015).

Google Groups is a Google tool that creates discussion groups for people with similar interests. The Groups service also provides a shared user interface for accessing Usenet newsgroups (Rambe, 2017). 

Pros

View a group’s conversation history, which contains all of the group’s messages. Even if you’re not a member, you can send messages to groups. You can manage your own group subscriptions, which means you can join or quit a group at any time.

Cons

The Google Groups have been repeatedly penalized for their usenet archives and contributions to the group by creating personal profiles for each user. This is possible because all published work is retained indefinitely. Other services like Yasni can process and read these profiles. As a result, searching Google for a person’s real name can reveal personal information or even information from decades ago (Protasov & Slobodianiuk, 2017).

For businesses, Interwise offers voice as well as video conferencing solutions. AT&T Connect is an IP software utilized for voice conferences, Web seminars, virtual training, Web meetings, and Webcasts, among other things (Filipova & Shelestova, 2019).

Pros

i. It includes a tool for compressing audio and graphic data so that huge files can be sent rapidly even to those without broadband.

ii. Anyone with a home computer can send and receive video clips that don’t take up a lot of space on the Internet.

iii. A company that wants to use InterWise’s system will pay for the service and avoid having to invest in its own broadband infrastructure (Tibi & Tibi, 2015).

Cons

Low bandwidth affects live streaming Video. 

The company should consider interwise due to privacy and convenience in sharing large files between the caregivers and seniors. However, this GDSS still needs some modification to meet the needs of the company fully; for instance, automation of updates. 

References

Filipova, L., & Shelestova, A. (2019). Distance learning international models and problems of their implementation in Ukrainian universities. In Colloquium-journal (No. 2-3 (26), pp. 33-39).

Kwak, H., & Morrison, M. M. (2015). Cultural Diffrences in Web-based Chatting: an Exploratory Study. In Proceedings of the 2000 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 312-315). Springer, Cham.

Protasov, I., & Slobodianiuk, S. (2017). On asymorphisms of groups. Journal of Group Theory, 20(2), 393-399.

Rambe, P. (2017). Spaces for interactive engagement or technology for differential academic participation? Google Groups for collaborative learning at a South African University. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 29(2), 353-387. 

Šašinka, ?., Morong, K., & Stacho?, Z. (2017). The Hypothesis platform: An online tool for experimental research into work with maps and behavior in electronic environments. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 6(12), 407.

Siddiqui, A. W., Raza, S. A., & Tariq, Z. M. (2018). A web-based group decision support system  for academic term preparation.

Decision Support Systems, 114, 1-17.

Tibi, M., & Tibi, L. (2015). Distance Learning: What are its Strengths and Pitfalls. Recuperado de: https, (9).

Yazdani, M., Zarate, P., Coulibaly, A., & Zavadskas, E. K. (2017). A group decision making support system in logistics and supply chain management. Expert systems with Applications, 88, 376-392.