Portfolio: Deployment

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On-line Job Application Submission and Processing System
Area of Technology: Application design and development of an on-line job application submission and processing system.
Company Name: Oregon Department of Agriculture
Website URL: http://oda.state.or.us
Overview of Business: The Oregon Department of Agriculture is a state department overseeing the regulation and enforcement of state policies on agriculture. Areas of operation include Marketing, Food Safety, and Natural Resources.
Description of Problem: The current process was highly labor and paper intensive. While those wishing to apply for a posted position could download a form from the web, submission was done in paper format. The processing of application forms then required the 'shuffling' of these paper forms. Information from submitted applications and any processing information must then be manually entered into an existing computer system. Legislation had been passed requiring the state begin the move to a more environmentally friendly environment by becoming less dependent upon paper.
GVC Role: Global Village Consulting Inc. was contracted to design develop, and deploy the resulting software application.
Project Description: The focus of the On-Line Job Application Project (OJAP) was to design a system enabling designated ODA personnel to create available job postings and to assign individuals various tasks regarding each posting. Available jobs could be tagged as public or internal ensuring they are displayed to everyone or only to existing state employees. Most job postings contained a number of job specific questions. The OJAP system established a workflow process enabling the designated ODA personnel to create the questions and the criteria against answers would be graded for each job posting. Assigned personnel were notified automatically via email if they were assigned a task. Upon logging into the OJAP system, personnel were presented with a To Do List indicating the tasks they have been assigned, but not yet completed. Once tagged as completed the job posting would automatically move along the process line to the next required task. Jobs could not be posted until the designated tasks were completed. With the OJAP system, Applicants are able to create a profile containing their personal information, education, and job histories. When an applicant wishes to submit an application for a job posting their profile information is used to create and fine-tune the application form. Applicants are able to save application forms they have started and return to complete and/or submit at a later date. The applicant may wish to print a completed application to submit manually or they may submit them on-line. Once submitted, the applicant can still view the application form, but can no longer edit it. A confirmation email is automatically sent to the applicant upon receipt of the application form. The OJAP system enabled various workflow tasks to be assigned ODA personnel for submitted applications. Again, these tasks would appear on the personnels To Do List. Applications submitted are viewable by designated ODA personnel in *.pdf format. The completion of tasks completed the For Office Use Only areas of individual application forms. Applications are graded from which the OJAP system produced a value based on the average grade marks and converted against a set algorithmic table.
Description of Solution: The resulting application code was developed using WebObjects 5.1 and a second phase say the conversion of the deployed application to use WebObjects 5.2. The application makes use of a FrontBase back end database that is deployed on the same server. The system uses a Mac X-Serve using an Apache webserver. The application forms submitted can be viewed in *.pdf format which makes use of ReportMill to generate the pdf display.
Project Deliverables: prototype User Manual Test Plan deployment documentation deployed application