Design Issues in the System (Security) - Essay Example

?Design Issues in the System In a software system designing, the usability and security are two vital design objectives among many others include butnot limited to the functionality, performance, robustness, and reliability. The software designers implement access controls, firewalls, and / or encryption techniques to safeguard computer systems from intruders / hackers. On the other hand, the usability and accessibility guidelines have to be followed to develop easy to use software system. It is vital to balance the usability and security among the various design objectives. As per the given case study, the new system implemented in the restaurant has several issues related to the system security and user interface design. It is pertinent to highlight and review these issues include but are not limited to the locking up of the system after receiving four (4) incorrect either username or password, the system screen automatically gets locked after three (3) minutes of remaining idle, the locked screen can only be opened by the particular / logged in cashier and if the cashier is not available the system is required rebooting to log in any other cashier. These highlighted issues are due to the bad designing of the software application that can be removed or resolved by redesigning the software application. The implemented software application has software design issues include: the system has a design flaw of locking up the system either by inserting incorrect password or leaving the system idle for some time; the system rebooting is a major software design flaw which wastes time as well as irritates the users (Payne and Edwards, 2008). Design Issues Solution The design issues in the deployed software application can be determined by an analysis the design issues and planning the new software design or redesigning the existing software application. There are few guidelines need to be considered while redesigning the currently deployed software application to remove the above highlighted design issues. These guidelines include but are not limited to the locked system should have the capability to be logged in by just changing the username and password by any cashier, as currently the logged in cashier can only unlock the system. In this way, the manager would not be bothered every time the system is locked. Moreover, this design would remove the requirement of rebooting the system, as the system can be unlocked by any cashier after entering his / her correct login name and password. The software application’s security breach can be avoided by following another guideline for securing the software application by implementing security certificates for all the users (cashier / manager / administrator). Software Design Plan The tasks for redesigning the software implemented in the restaurant may include: the analysis of the existing software (highlighting key issues), redesigning of software application keeping in view the highlighted issues, building up a prototype, performing user testing, feedback from the user, prototype refinement and these tasks lead to the final product. The above mentioned tasks need to be performed by the team keeping in view that the existing software has to be modified to correct the design issues, the software should adopt new hardware, the interface of the software has to be upgraded, and overall improving the performance of the software application. The information observed / identified through the analysis of the existing software application should be properly utilized in the implement new software application or modifying the existing software application in such a way with increased security and highly usable software applied. The software testing and validation procedures need to be developed for testing of the software application with objectives to remove the existing design issues. Documentation is one of the key factors in the success of any software application development; therefore, it should be performed properly and document version should be maintained. After seeking approval of the prototype appropriate training should be provided to the users so that the developed / modified software application should be utilized in an efficient and effective manner (Berghammer and Fronk, 2004). As the project success or failure is directly dependent on the time required for software application development, therefore, the time estimation for each of the above listed tasks is one of the critical / crucial matters for a project management team. The duration of the each activity is directly dependent on the size of the software application. It is estimated that the duration of the initial activity (i-e analysis of the existing software application) would be ten (10) days. The re-designing of the software application is estimated to be completed in the next ten (10) days. The initial prototype is expected to be built in approximately fifteen (10) days. This prototype would not have the design issues highlighted in the initial analysis of the existing software application. The testing of the prototype and feedback from the users is dependent on the users of the software application, however, it is expected that the users would perform both the activities within seven (7) days. The comments / feedback provided by the users are required to be incorporated into the user interface and this activity / task would be completed in seven (7) days. Balancing Security and Usability in the System Incorporating security and usability in such a way that neither of the factors should be compromised is highly vital in software engineering. Usually, the security is unusable or difficult to use by its inheritance because the security is mostly dependant on human beings. Therefore, the usability design techniques (i-e user centred technique, system centred design) should carefully be chosen considering the system under development. In this regards, the following statement has been provided by the Alma Whiten while submitting his thesis for Doctorate in 2004: “Many crucial usability problems in computer security are fundamentally different from those in most other consumer software, and usability design techniques need to be carefully adapted and prioritized in order to solve them successfully.” (Whitten, 2004) The computer systems are dominating the human beings day by day and the human beings are going to be dependent on these systems having huge information. Therefore, the information stored on the computer systems need to be secured from the intruders; whereas, on the other hand the secured information should be utilisable even from the users do not have experience / knowledge of using computer systems. As in our case when the computer system has to be used by the customers directly to check-in during busy hours, it might be possible that from the customers some never used computer system before. Therefore, it is highly important that the computer system should be secured as well as usable by balancing both factors. Suggestions for Improving Security and Usability of the Existing System As we have discussed before that the security and usability of the existing system deployed in the restaurant can be improved by following some guidelines of security and usability. The locking up of the computer system’s screen (when the computer system is idle or when trying to login with incorrect password / username) has to be avoided by any means without compromising the security. In this case, it is suggested that the screen should be locked in the above given scenarios, however, the locked screen should be able to log in any cashier into the computer system by putting in the correct username with its password. This can avoid the system rebooting and the system can be used at every time as even with the locked screen the cashier can be logged into the system. References Berghammer, R. and Fronk, A. (2004). Considering Design Tasks in OO – Software Engineering Using Relations and Relations Based Tools. Journal on Relational Methods in Computer Science, Vol. 1, pp. 73 – 92 Whitten, A. (2004). Making Security Usable. School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Payne, B. D. and Edwards, W. K. (2008). A Brief Introduction to Usable Security. Retrieved from: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~keith/pubs/ieee-intro-usable-security.pdf Read More