Goal
The IDPA done at the Computing Colleges in Switzerland is a requirement as part of the curriculum for the "Berufsmatur" (vocational baccalaureate) and the EFZ (Federal certificate of Competence).
It consists of a four-month research-oriented period where information on the chosen topic is gathered from credible sources and with the combination of personal contributions a conclusion for this part can be formed.
Once the internship has been launched, the second period, more oriented on practical research done in the work environment, is used to reinforce previously gathered data and to evaluate the predictions made in the first part.
Topic
The topic discussed in this project is the usage of IT tools and various software in company environments. As research, specific to company environments, can only reliably be done at the intern company, though, the first period focused on the usage for school and private workflows.
There were three key questions to be answered by the end of the examination:
- How can workflows be visualized with IT tools in company, private and school environments?
- How can workflows be automated with IT tools in company, private and school environments?
- How can users of IT tools and software be educated on their functionalities and capabilities?
Research
To create a baseline of software and tools to examine, a set of visualisation and automation programs were found and compared. Additionally, some quantitative research was done with the results of a survey that received over 120 responses from multiple demographics in IT- and non-IT related fields.
The chosen tools for the visualisation were: Visual Paradigm, Draw.io, Microsoft Visio and UMLet.
In the portion containing field research done by using the given tools and visualising, as well as automating, a set of workflows, a multitude of software were used based on the use-case including self-made Python scripts, and Microsoft Power Automate.
Summary
Besides evaluating the survey responses, which showed in particular what kind of tasks are common and can be automated as well as what kind of software users prefer, workflows were visualized and automated with the right set of tools to analyze their effectiveness and overall practically in comparison to traditional methods.
This graph from the survey responses shows which aspects of a software users find most important:
Conclusion
Among the tools examined to create visualizations of workflows, Microsoft Visio and UMLet seem the most suitable. Visual Paradigm and Draw.io are alternatives that offer a compelling set of features, but don't scale with the overall capabilities of Visio or UMLet's simplicity. Additionally, Visual Paradigm is financially less feasible for smaller businesses, already utilizing the Microsoft Office Suite, or those looking for an open source option. UMLet also comes ahead in terms of its widespread use, as it's been dominant in the field of software engineering and database design for quite some time now.
The conclusion for automation is much more complicated. While tools such as Zapier and Microsoft Power Automate are highly capable and work very reliable in the environment they were designed for, they don't scale well with the individual needs of a user and thus get edged out by self-made scripts and programs consistently. Additionally, any self-made script can be made open source and improved upon in rapid succession, whereas updates to larger platforms only come in bulk.