responses have to be stored in a database for further
processing. A list of results is generated from users’
responses on the basis of logic rules specified by the
system administrator. All users’ results are displayed
in the report web page including graphic items
(static or dynamic schemes, graphs etc.). A user is
allowed to create his own action list by processing
the business diagnostic results. An action list is used
for the planning of actions leading to the solution of
crucial issues or improving the specific part of
company. This list is automatically filled from other
sources on the portal as well. The action list should
be additionally edited by a company representative
including the addition of a time schedule,
responsible persons and priorities.
Figure 1: Business diagnostic process.
In order to suit all variables of business diagnostics
for different targeted SMEs, we need to have several
versions of the diagnostic process. It will be very
effective to compare companies’ results or create
average results for a group of companies according
to specific factors (the business area, region, size of
a company). All complex data have to be stored for
future comparison. For a faster approach we should
be able to transfer the results into newly created
versions. Particularly in the case we need to edit
only a few questions and we do not want to force
users to fill out the answers from a previous version
again. In case we need just a minor change, we
delete particular users’ responses and force a user to
answer them once again. The system does not
require the creation of a new version in the simplest
case when we change just text of a question, the
response or result without changing the meaning.
System users are divided into groups according
to their roles - administrator, facilitator, translator
and company representative. We can divide users
into these groups with different permitted accesses
and available functions:
Company Representative – is allowed to fill
out the questionnaire, view a report and fill the
action list from business diagnostic results.
This role is default for end users from SMEs.
Each company is allowed to have just one
representative for the whole diagnostic
process or more representatives from different
company divisions.
Facilitator – has all functions of company
representative. A facilitator fills out the
questionnaire on behalf on or with a end user,
helps him to explain all in detail. A facilitator
uses a complex approach across all facilitated
companies and has access to other tools on the
portal.
Translator – is allowed to add, edit or delete
language versions of texts across the whole
diagnostic process. Default language is
English.
Administrator – is allowed to add, edit or
delete questions, responses, logic, report, and
language translations.
2.1 Development Environment
and Tools
Since our goal is to develop a web application, we
need to choose an appropriate environment and tools
for development. On the server side there is
ASP.NET and PHP. VB script and Javascript are
technologies on the client’s side. Due to our rich
experience and the simple implementation into
Linux or Windows servers, we have chosen PHP
version 5.2.17, which generates the XHTML code.
On the client’s side a Java script and Java script
based library called jQuery is used. JQuery offers a
wide scale of tools for the creation of a user-friendly
interface. As the portal utilizes the Microsoft SQL
Express Edition v9 database it appears to be the best
choice for business diagnostics as well. For good
quality graphs a free version of a pChart library
based on PHP is used.
2.2 Diagnostics
For the diagnostic template a database table has been
created. There are basic data – who and when has
the template been created, its brief description etc.
This table is the root for other template tables such
as questions and responses. At first we have to
design a questionnaire part of the diagnostic process
then we will continue to data processing and
reporting.
2.3 Questionnaire
At the beginning we have to design database
structures for questions, variants of questions,
responses etc. The following tables have been
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