UML-based Design of Vendor and Employee Management System

Abstract

This student project developed a Vendor and Employee Management System (VEMS) that organizes employees and vendor information using UML model based on object-oriented software development methodology. A good employee and vendor database system is a critical piece of software for a business of any size. It is important that detailed information of a company's employees, vendors, and payment history are recorded in order for the business to operate efficiently and comply with the law. The requirements for this system include: (1) the ability to track employee information, such as salary, responsibilities, seniority and other relevant information, (2) the ability to track job applicants, including their contact information, resume, etc., (3) the ability to track vendors that the company purchases products or services from, as well as a history of any invoices that the company has received, and finally (4) the ability to track payments that have been paid to both employees and vendors. With the complexity of the above system requirement, considering software development life cycle (SDLC), we have three objectives for this student project: (1) master and apply the fundamental and key concepts of UML design; (2) analyze the nonfunctionalities as well as functionalities of the designed system in terms of reliability and security; (3) map the design into implementation and ensure the software quality. The VEMS application was selected for this project because it can incorporate many different classes and has multiple use cases. This student project serves as an additional perspective for educators to consider when using UML and Object-Oriented design with project-based learning. A variety of UML diagrams were designed for this project including class, state, and use case diagrams. Since these diagrams were designed as part of a class project, revisions were suggested by the instructor and the rational for these changes is discussed. The resulting implementation of the VEMS contains 11 user-defined classes, 10 visual C# forms, and approximately 2,000 lines of code. The final project was determined to satisfy all learning objectives.