HR, laboratory staff, my own team, and department managers all saw different problems. The system had to combine their requirements around ease, accuracy, and privacy.
I had only just begun studying Japanese labor law when I found myself designing an attendance system. But the workplace was struggling, the AS/400 was there, and doing nothing when improvement was clearly possible felt wrong.
Requirements came from HR staff, laboratory operations, my own developers, and my perspective as a department manager. Each role saw a different part of the problem, so the task was to integrate their needs rather than choose one winner.
- Ease: complex entry creates errors before any rule can help.
- Accuracy: incorrect information is not useful information.
- Privacy: colleagues should not see one another’s attendance details.
- Authority: managers and HR still need the right view for their responsibility.
The resulting entry screen changed over time, but those principles let it remain useful for many years.
I also pushed every judgment that could be expressed as logic into the AS/400. That required understanding both labor law and the company’s employment rules—and designing for the day those rules would change.
The hardest part ahead was leave: requests, approval, modification, expiration, use, and remaining balances. Surprisingly, the first useful model appeared quickly.
CHAPTER 03 · PART 01 · EPISODE 6 / 6 STORIES · 35 STORIES TOTAL