Fei Yue Community Services is a not-for-profit Voluntary Welfare Organisation (VWO). Its main role is to run Family Service Centres (FSCs) to manage counselling services, provide family life education and develop children and youth programmes in the community. Over time, the responsibilities of the FSC grew and FYCS now also manages Student Care Centres, Neighbourhood Links, Senior Activity Centres and more. As such, there are numerous different divisions under Fei Yue Community Services.
Project Description
This project is a continuation from last year’s previous project which has two components: Fei Yue Volunteer Management System (FYVMS) and Fei Yue Case Management System (FYCMS).
About Fei Yue Volunteer Management System
FYVMS applies largely to the entire of Fei Yue Community Services. Volunteers play a very important role in Fei Yue’s operations as they help out with activities and programmes on a regular basis. The volunteers come from a diverse background with a significant number of volunteers being students.
The purpose of FYVMS is to help the Volunteer Coordinators and the Volunteer-In-Charges to track their volunteers more effectively. At present, Fei Yue uses an application written on Microsoft Access to handle their data. However, the system is over 10 years old and the data that Fei Yue needs cannot be handled by the current system. Hence, CVWO’s FYVMS system will replace the Access system with better functionality.
This summer’s goals for FYVMS are:
- Review and clean the code
- Implement incomplete features
- Improve the user interface for the system
Le Minh Tu was to be mainly responsible for the development of the system.
About Fei Yue Case Management System
FYCMS is core to the operations of Fei Yue Family Service Centre. The system built will replace a lot of the paperwork and files that Fei Yue is currently using and make information accessible easily from the internet given that the user has the required credentials.
As a Family Service Centre, people go to the centre largely to seek help and counselling for their problems. An intake will first occur when a person approaches the centre. A case worker then evaluates the client’s situation. Upon doing so, it is then decided if the intake should be promoted to a case. Once an intake becomes a case, then the case worker in charge of the case will carry out counselling sessions with the client. One case will usually last for at least a few years before becoming closed.
Similar to FYVMS, the FYCMS project had some incomplete features. The goal of the project is to tidy up the features and code so that the system will be suitable for deployment. The main important parts to the FYCMS are:
- Intake Module
- Casework Module
- Module Overviews
- Calendar Module
The team members involved with this project are Michael Yong, Tay Yang Shun and Yang Zhixing.
Project Accomplishments
For the Volunteer Management System (FYVMS), significant improvements were made to the user interface (UI). This is especially so for the Activity Module which has a rather complicated flow because of the way the information is structured.
For the Case Management System (FYCMS), there was a lot of fine tuning involved to make the system be more aligned to the needs of the Fei Yue Family Service Centre staff. Large improvements were made to the UI for FYCMS to simplify the process of which data input occurred. In addition, a calendar that was modelled after Google’s Calendar was built to facilitate easy addition of case and intake specific activities.
Project - Post Summer
Despite having gone through a productive summer, our work does not end here. Instead, we will continue to see through to the deployment of the systems and also be ready to make necessary adjustments to the systems after deployment.
Screenshots
The Team
- Jonathan Low (Project Lead, Year 4)
- Le Minh Tu (Developer, Year 1)
- Michael Yong (Developer, Year 1)
- Tay Yang Shun (Developer, Year 2)
- Yang Zhixing (Developer, Year 1)
Afterthoughts
CVWO has helped to sharpen my mind in terms of analysing problems and deciding upon the approach. Communication with clients has taught me a lot about understanding requirements as well as improved my ability in trying to figure out exactly what other people are thinking.
– Jonathan Low
It has been a fruitful journey as I have learnt that the crux of software engineering is not how well the code is written, but it is how well the software can solve the problem. In order to achieve that, I needed to understand the problem really well and learn to ask the right questions.
– Le Minh Tu
The feeling of working on something meaningful and worthwhile cannot be understated. Unlike the projects that we do in school, the thought that the system we were building would actually be put into the real world gave everything significance.
– Michael Yong
Interacting with the Fei Yue staff has also offered me alternative insights into the lives of a social worker. This stint has been very meaningful to me as I am glad to know that my efforts will actually benefit social workers by improving the efficiency of their daily work. I hope that there will be more opportunities in future for me to participate in projects with a meaningful cause.
– Tay Yang Shun
I had really gained a lot through this summer. First of all, I learned a lot of programming knowledge and technical skills. Secondly, after I had gone through so many pains and headaches that seemed unsolvable, I became much more confident in myself. I am no longer afraid of tough problems. Thirdly, my teamwork and communication skills improved a lot. Last but not least, I experienced working as a volunteer. I felt the pleasure of giving, and it inspired me to do more voluntary work in the future.
– Yang Zhixing
We would also like to thank the following people:
- Dr Ben Leong (NUS) for his guidance, teachings and advice
- Fei Yue staff who have played a co-operative and supportive role
- Previous 2011 Fei Yue team for handing over of the project