Finally, I would also like to express my thanks and appreciation to all my colleagues who have spent their time testing and providing feedback to the program. Research scope is to compare the time taken to complete the assigned task between using the program and the manual process. Also, usability testing must be performed to assess the quality of the program with real-time user testing.
By developing the program and conducting a usability test with 60 employees in a consumer goods company to perform a Paired T-test based on the two assumptions. As a result, the automatic program allows employees to significantly reduce the time spent completing tasks, while simplifying the work process. Whether employees are programmers or non-programmers, they can spend the same amount of time completing the same task, just a few minutes.
INTRODUCTION 1
- Background and Problem Statements 1
- Research Objectives 3
- Research Scope 3
- Expected Results 3
- Expected Benefits 4
Vast amounts of data are becoming available in a wide range of application domains across industries. Generating meaningful insights from multi-dimensional data drives further innovation, launching new services and businesses, or making some kind of impact that can change the world. Unfortunately, it is insufficient to manually process multidimensional data because the amount of data sets is extremely large and exceeds the current processing capacity of an enterprise (Oracle and FSN, 2012).
The purpose of an automated usability test for a sales spreadsheet program is to run and test the usability of a program that helps employees in a consumer goods company to automatically convert multidimensional data into knowledge in a short period of time and thus gain opportunities or competitive advantages more quickly. . A sales spreadsheet automation program reduces the time spent analyzing sales data while simplifying the workflow of assigned tasks that need to be completed. End users can use the program to synthesize information and extract meaningful value from huge amounts of data in such a short time, so that they can make timely and effective decisions to run their business ahead of competitors in a highly competitive environment.
LITERATURE REVIEW 5
- Software/System Development Life Cycle 6
- Microsoft Excel (Excel Spreadsheet) 8
- Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) 9
- Usability Test 12
This basic concept is called the system development life cycle (SDLC), which covers the processes of establishing good software, including design, construction, deployment, updating and maintenance of the software (Satzinger, et.al, 2007). In other words, SDLC is viewed as a conceptual model that provides guidance to project management on information system development (Satzinger, et.al, 2010). Then have a discussion between end users and developers to agree on what they are (Satzinger, et.al, 2010).
The amount of support required is determined based on the size of the system (Satzinger, et.al, 2010). Furthermore, the two key factors that make Excel popular are convenience and cost (Susan, et.al, 2015). Usability testing emphasizes measuring the program's capabilities, how well users are able to learn and use it to achieve their intended purpose.
METHODOLOGY 14
- Population and sample size 14
- Experiment/Instrument 15
- Data Collection 18
- Data Analysis 23
During the usability testing of the automated sales charts program, testers will be created a session to communicate information about the program along with providing the test script. The satisfaction survey was distributed to 60 users at the consumer goods company in order to ascertain the level of satisfaction as well as feedback on the usability of the program. Then, hosting a usability test session and training them on how to use the program.
From the graph, the time spent in the manual process is significantly spread compared to using the program that anyone can complete the given tasks on time. Moreover, comments from the users (refer to appendix A) can also support that they had a good experience with the program. From the graph, there are only 3 people, about 5%, who are dissatisfied because they are not assured of the accuracy of the program.
Usability means that the program can perform the given task faster than manual processing by human and can be used efficiently without problems. However, analyzing the same data using the program takes only one minute and twenty-five seconds. This proves that the difference between doing it manually by a human and using the program is about one hour and twenty-three seconds.
On the other hand, the usability test of the program took the same time because the program provides steps to clearly perform the assigned tasks. Moreover, the satisfaction rate, together with the comments about the program, can ensure that the program meets the user's expectations. In conclusion, the result obtained from the usability test of the automating sales spreadsheet program, together with the feedback from users, can be assured that the program allows employees to significantly reduce the time spent analyzing data, along with a simplified work process of the given tasks to be performed. executed.
Adding accuracy as a parameter when measuring program quality helps increase program reliability.
RESEARCH FINDING 26
Automating sales spreadsheet program usability test 26
Usability testing was arranged for an hour within the company to demonstrate the program that could solve their problems along with the process in operation. The quality of the developed program should be assessed to see if it works or needs to be improved. The time each tester spends using the automation program will also be recorded at the end of the session.
Inferential statistics 29
Moreover, the distribution can be implied that whether people have more or less programming skills, they can use the program to analyze data at relatively the same average speed as people who are experts or experienced in programming. So it can be indicated that some people completed the given tasks very quickly and some too slowly. The difference between the two independent samples is considered in terms of one to one, which is called pair.
The pretest-posttest design implies pre- and post-training measurements to assess change in knowledge. The null hypothesis (𝐻0) refers to the time spent in the two processes is not different, while the alternative hypothesis (𝐻1) is the time spent in the two processes are different. This shows that at the 95% confidence interval, the difference in mean time spent using the automatic program is less than manual processing.
Discussion 31
This means that each person's time spent in manual process is much more different due to the difference in abilities, skills and experience in using MS Excel to analyze data. While people who lack the skills and experience around Excel cannot complete everything in a short time. The difference in time consumption between manual and program is the return that people can take in other activities or else at least 33 minutes or at most 1.5 hours.
In addition, based on comparing the absolute value of the difference between the time spent in both processes, the graph shows the time consumption when using the. This can be said that whether more or less skills in programming or Excel skills, the program allows everyone to spend the same amount of time completing the same assigned task. According to the usability test result, it can be said that this program works because it does not cause any significant differences.
The program can eliminate variables that cause differences due to the decrease in ability of individuals.
Satisfaction Feedback 33
The development of the program began with the investigation of the issue that regularly happens to employees in the customer service department in a consumer goods company. In terms of statistics, the 60 users are a sample population that can be assumed to be representative of the total population. Looking at standard deviation and variance of the two processes, the distribution of the manual process was found to be quite wide.
Examining the range between using software and manual processing, we find that using software has a much smaller minimum to maximum range of about 9 seconds. This clearly shows that the two processes have a significant difference in range. Therefore, the distribution was analyzed to measure the position of the information in the four statistics.
The research shows that manual processing makes employees perform the given task very slowly compared to using the program due to variables including skills and experience with Excel or programming, systematic thinking and computer specifications. Therefore, users need to develop the program or tool for support when solving the problems of time and steps in completing complicated repetitive tasks. However, usability testing should be done before implementing the program every time because it helps the developer to know about the quality and problems of the developed program.
Developer needs to know that the program is working or not working and it requires further improvements or not from users feedback after the usability test. According to users' feedback (refer to Appendix A), efficiency of the program can be improved by reducing the processing steps from eight to just one or two steps if users have time-consuming, additional function that can recheck the correctness of outputs, and reduce the opening many files at the same time to avoid getting confused and selecting a wrong file. In addition, the program can be further developed to generate output not only texts, but also graphs or can be used as a prototype to develop a program to operate specific tasks automatically.
Because it does not have the accurate measurements and cannot identify the percentage of accuracy between the two processes. Moreover, in usability testing, accuracy should be added as an important parameter to perform so that the program can help perform tasks more accurately than human because human thinking is imitated but performed automatically by the program. Nielsen, Jakob and Landauer, Thomas K.: "A Mathematical Model for Finding Usability Problems", Proceedings of ACM INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 24-29, 1993), pp.
