IDENTIFY ALL MAJOR USE CASES CREATE A USE CASE DIAGRAM FOR THE ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Paul is the Director of IT Services for a consulting firm Avant. The firm has been growing fast since it was launched in 2010. With over 100 employees and hundreds of clients, Avant is facing a challenge of operating more efficient, particularly in its internal IT services.

Avant equips each consultant with multiple mobile devices. Typically, a consultant will receive a laptop and a cell phone on the first day of his/her job. Every two years Avant will replace the existing mobile devices with new ones. Each mobile device is tagged with a unique ID and registered under the employee ID of person to whom it is assigned.

If for some reason, a mobile device is not working, the consultant needs to contact the IT Services, and an IT Services staff will provide a loaner to the employee until the mobile device is fixed. If the device is not fixable, a replacement will be provided upon the return of the loaner. If a device is lost, the staff will investigate the issue, and then either write the device off or charge the employee for the devices residual market value.

Over time, as the number of employees goes up which results in corresponding increase in the number of equipment to manage, Paul and his department of ten staff have found it increasingly difficult to manage all the devices efficiently. Quite often, an employee is given a loaner without returning the original device, and sometimes a returned loaner is not recorded so the department runs out of loaners. Paul has received numerous complaints recently from other departments, which forces Paul to come up with a solution to deal with the issues. Maybe an asset management system (AMS) would help solve the headache, he says to himself. Then he starts to jot down some key functions of the asset management system.

Device Module

This module is important to Paul because he needs to have a full inventory count of all devices that are currently being used by employees, used by the IT Services as loaners, or need to be replaced. For each device, he wants the system to store at least following information including manufacturer, type (e.g., laptop, cell phone), model name, model number, serial number, color, screen size (laptop), device image, year purchased, purpose of use (e.g., for employees, as a loaner), and status (e.g., just arrived, assigned, being in use, to be replaced, returned, lost). Each device shall be tagged with a unique five-digit ID.

Device Assignment Module

Paul really wants a clear view of device assignment. In particular, he wants his staff to be able to use the system to record to whom a device is assigned. For example, on March 1, 2018, Jane Smith was provided a device with the tag ID 22335. He wants the system to record all the information. Specifically, the staff should be able to use the system to indicate that the device has been picked up by Jane at the pickup time (date and time).

If the employee David needs a loaner to temporarily replace his malfunctioning device, he would file a loaner request using the AMS. With the full inventory information in the system, David shall be able to see what is available in inventory and pick one he likes. A loaner can also be requested if an employee requires an additional device for his/her work.

After receiving the request, the staff would prepare the requested device, note in the system when the device is ready for pickup and send the notification to David. Upon receiving the notification, the employee needs to return in person the malfunctioning device, for which the staff will first update the request status (from submitted to closed) in the AMS, and also create a ticket for the malfunctioning device and indicate the time of receipt of the device and reasons for the return.

Once the device is fixed, the staff will close the ticket first in the AMS and then notify David to pick up the device. David will then return the loaner, and pick up the repaired device. The staff will update the loaner status in the system.

For the request for an additional device, the staff still needs to prepare the requested device and send a pickup notification to the employee. When the employee will come in and pick up the loaner, the staff will update the status of the request to closed, and change the status of the loaner to out, and ensure that the loaner is linked to the employee (e.g., employee ID, first name, and last name). Once the employee returns the loaner, the staff will change the loaner status to available, and note the date and time of the return.

After carefully reviewing the requirements of two modules, Paul seems to be convinced that the AMS is the solution for the inefficiency faced by his department.