Research Paper on "Help Desk Ticket System"

Research Paper 7 pages (1909 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Help Desk system is important since it acts as a troubleshoot platform that is used in the provision of assistance and information to its users. Motorola (2008) indicated that several helpdesk systems have applied call center technology (borrowed technology) in order to improve the help desk environment.

Purpose of the system

In this paper we paper, we outline the design and operation of a help desk ticketing system from the point-of-view of a system analysis and design consultant.

Scope of the system

The project involves the development of a simple help desk system with ticketing capability. The system will be able to receive queries from the users and then have them tracked and answers appropriately by an assistant. The system is also to be accessed and controlled by Administrator (the administrator can assign the tickets to various Assistant).The CEO also has high level access to the system. The system will also have feature that allows it to be integrated with other platforms.

1.3 Objectives and success criteria of the project

The objectives of the system are;

To provide clients (Users) with a way of presenting their complaints

To present the company through customer care (Assistants) with a way of receiving complaints from users

To present a platform for answering the complaints

To provide a way of monitoring the status of the tickets with complaints (Whether solved or not).

The high-level requirements for achieving the above mentioned features are:

<br />An internet connection with a sped of at least 256 Kbps

A Database to be used for storing all of the information regarding the system. This information may include the Tickets and the specific comments.

A web browser

A search function to be used by Users, Administrators and the CEO

A search function to be used for the Tickets

A list function for the Tickets

A list function for the Users

Help Desk system integration

The system will be capable of being integrated with:

iPhone App (serch feature)

Microsoft Active Directory

Absolute Manager

Email-to-Ticket Conversion

Windows Remote Desktop Connection

Help Desk Software Integration:

- iPhone App - search: Web Help Desk Mobile

- LDAP (Lightweight Directory)

- Apple Remote Desktop

- Windows Remote Desktop Connection

SMTP, IMAP, POP3

1.4 Definitions, acronyms and abbreviations

Microsoft Active Directory-This is a service which helps in the management of corporate identities, information protection, credentials, and system as well as application settings through a wide array of cutting edge technologies (Microsoft,2011)

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)-This is the protocol that is used in the sending and receiving of emails over the internet (Techterms,2011a)

IMAP (Internet Message Access protocol) - This is one of the protocols used in the retrieval of e-mails (Pegoraro,2004)

POP3 (Post Office Protocol) -- this is a simpl, e and yet standardized technique of delivering e-mails. A POP server first receives the emails and then filters them into the right user folders.The messages are then downloaded to the user's email (Techterms,2011b)

LDAP (Lightweight Directory)

1.5 References.Microsoft Server 2008 R2 Active Directory

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/active-directory.aspx

Pegoraro, R (2004). "Internet Providers Should Find Their Way to IMAP"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10089-2004Mar20.html

Techterms (2011a).SMPT

http://www.techterms.com/definition/smtp

Techterms (2011b).POP

http://www.techterms.com/definition/pop3

1.6 Overview of the system

The project will be made up of the following features'

Login, Logout, logout due to timeout as well as encrypted login feature

Ticketing feature with the tickets and comments being saved in a special database

For User categories: Company CEO (CEO), System Administrator (Administrator), Assistant as well as a standard user (User).

The tickets are only to be visible to the specific users who created them as well as the help desk staff

The ability of the administrator to assign Tickets to specific Assistants. The Assistant are not allowed to assign any tickets.

The assistant are only allowed to propose to the user (client), the FAQs. This may later be deemed to be acceptable or not by the Administrator

The ability to edit or terminates the accounts.

2. Current system

The current system relies only on a FAQ and e-mailing of questions or complaint to the Assistant. This is often ineffective since the system cannot help in tracking if a ticket has been closed or is still open. A follow-up on ticket status is also cumbersome

3. Proposed system

The proposed system will use a database to store ticket attributes and user details. The tickets will have dates assigned to them to record every instance of the actions that are taken.

It is important for certain actions to have dates appended to them.

1. Creation of a stakeholder

2. Creation of a Ticket

3. Assignment of a ticket

4. Adding of comments

It is worthy to note that all of the tickets must be associated with the specific assistants who created them. It is worth noting that the system must be created with a Chief Executive Officer and only the CEO can create an Administrator. The Administrator can also successfully create Assistants. The Tickets can also be assigned only by the Administrator; comments to tickets can be added by Users and Assistant.

3.1 Overview of system architecture

The deployment is to be carried out as indicated in the following diagram. The diagram also indicates the nature of communication that will take place between the components. The Users will be able to communicate with the application server via a secure HTTPS protocol while the application server will communicate with the SQL database in order to retrieve any information or to store new ones. The updating of information will also take place through this system.

3.2 Functional requirements.

Functional requirements capture the system's intended behavior (Bredemer Consulting,2001).This system shall upon request provide solutions to the user to various complaints/problems via a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and direct correspondence with customer care representatives (Assistants). The management will also be provided with a log of common complaints so that they can act on them for customer satisfaction. Any problem with the system will lead to improvements/patches and the creation of better versions to include more functionalities and modules.

3.3 Non-functional requirements

3.3.1 Usability

3.3.2 Reliability

The reliability of the system will be very high since its efficiency will be limited by the complexity of the query.

3.3.3 Performance

The performance of the system will mainly be dependent on the computer system on which it runs. It should perform optimally on an intel i7 processor with a system having at least 1GB HDD.

3.3.4 Supportability

The system will be supported by major operating systems e. g Windows and Linux-based system. It will be updatable via patches to take care of any changes to the operating system kernels.

3.3.5 Implementation

The system will be implemented on client-server side architecture as indicated in figure 1.

3.3.6 Interface

The interface of the Help Desk Software will web-based with very highly optimized images to reduce loading time

3.3.7 Packaging

The software will be packaged in a self extracting archive that will contain all of the software components.

3.3.8 Legal

The software will be protected by copyright laws and any unauthorized access to the system for malicious intentions will be prosecutable to the fullest extent by local, state and federal laws.

3.4 System models

3.4.1 Scenarios

Scenario

Scenario Name

assignTicketEvent

Participating Actors

User, Assistant, Administrator, CEO

Instances

Flow of Events

1.A User has a question or complaints and the he/she contacts the Help Desk online interface

2. The User registers into the online Help Desk Ticketing System

3. If already registered, the client logs into the system

4.The User types in the question / complaint into a form

5. A FAQ link is provided on the form so that they can seek the solution to their problem

6. If the solution is not on the FAQ page, then the customer is advised to proceed with his/her narration / description of their problems.

7. The assistant then gets the query on their assignment List

8.The assistant can then handle the requirements of the ticket

9. The assistant then assigns the Ticket as solved

3.4.2 Use case model

Use case diagrams

Figure 2: A Use case diagram to show the account management

Figure 3: Figure 2:A Use case diagram to show the FAQ management

Figure 4: UC diagram for the management of the Ticketing module

3.4.3 Object model

Class diagram for the Help Desk Ticketing system

The Classes

The Classes

Person

The person class is used for saving stakeholder bio data. These includes name, password, username, email as well as data of admission into the Help desk ticketing system

User

The user class is an extension of the person class. It is necessary for keeping the user's unique activation code as well as validation flag. The activation code is a special keyword which is generated automatically by the system whenever an individual submits their registration. The activation code is strictly associated with a given user and then sent to their e-mail. This action is then followed by setting of the validation flag to true and then they get validated into the Help Desk Ticketing system.

Assistant

The assistant class… READ MORE

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