Software Development Models for Computer Based Workplace Attendance Management System

This paper establishes that: a formally instituted and consistently applied attendance management system significantly reduces absence levels. It further establishes that: the effectiveness of an attendance management system depends largely on the monitoring, recording, measuring, and reporting of attendance statistics. The paper then affirms that: computer based technologies will be suitable for implementing such systems, since they possess the capacity for effectively performing the listed tasks, as well as producing information for making prompt, informed, and consistent decisions across organisational units. However, the paper discovers that generalizable standards for building these systems are lacking in the literature, due to the obscuring of the internal logic of the existing systems, which are also strategically organisation-centric. The paper therefore, emphasises the need to shift from organisation-centric to process-centric (inter-organisational) approaches. Consequently, it introduces a set of systematic drivers (algorithms, flowcharts, structure chart, and mathematical models), for building new systems, rather than discussing the features of a black-box oriented system that may not have complied adequately with the software engineering best practices. This paper is thus, providing opportunities for broader scientific evaluations, development of sound evidence-based guidelines, and rational framework for on-going modification and refinement in the future. It will therefore, lead to the implementation of systems that serve as benchmarks for producing data, which is valid, reliable, subject to scrutiny, modifiable, and generalizable to the needs of the global stakeholders.