Question

Suppose a call center has three levels of employees-respondent, manager, and director. An incoming telephone call must first be allocated to a respondent who is free. If the respondent cannot handle the call, the call must be escalated to a manager. If the manager is occupied, then the call should be escalated to a director. Design the classes and data structures for this problem. Implement a method dispatchCa11 () that assigns a call to the first available employee.

Short answer

Design a class hierarchy with a base `Employee` class and subclasses for each employee type. Use a `CallCenter` class to manage employee availability and implement the `dispatchCall()` to assign calls efficiently.

Step-by-step solution

Define the Employee Class

Create a base class `Employee` that has attributes such as id, name, and status (indicating availability). This class will serve as a superclass for specific employee roles like respondent, manager, and director.

Implement Specific Employee Roles

Create three subclasses, `Respondent`, `Manager`, and `Director`, each inheriting from the `Employee` class. These classes do not need additional properties but can have specific methods if needed in a larger context.

Set Up Company Structure

Create a class `CallCenter` that holds lists for each type of employee: respondents, managers, and directors. This structure will help organize and manage employee availability.

Define the Method for Call Dispatch

Implement a method `dispatchCall()` in the `CallCenter` class which goes through the list of respondents first to find an available employee. If all respondents are occupied, check the managers, and finally, check the directors.

Handle Employee Availability

Within the `dispatchCall()` method, check the `status` attribute of each employee. Assign the call to the first available employee and update their status to occupied.

Coding the Employee Assignment Logic

Write the actual code for the `dispatchCall()`, iterating through lists: `for employee in respondents`, `for employee in managers`, and `for employee in directors`. Change the status to occupied and break the loop once an available employee is found.

Key concepts

Class Design

In Object-Oriented Programming, class design is a fundamental concept that revolves around crafting blueprints for creating objects. A class encapsulates data and functionality. To understand how class design works, let's use the example of a call center. In this case, our class design involves creating a base class named `Employee`. The purpose of such a class is to lay the groundwork for defining shared attributes and behaviors across various employee types.
This base class might include attributes like:

• `id`: a unique identifier for each employee.
• `name`: the name of the employee.
• `status`: which indicates whether the employee is available or occupied.

Class design doesn't stop at defining a base class. It's also about thinking ahead to how this structure will fit into a broader system by extending it with subclasses for specific roles such as `Respondent`, `Manager`, and `Director`. Each of these roles could potentially have special methods or behaviors, although our current exercise doesn't require additional attributes. The design helps in maintaining organized and scalable code.

Inheritance

Inheritance is a mechanism in OOP that allows one class to inherit attributes and methods from another class. This is pivotal in reducing redundancy and promoting code reusability.
In our call center scenario, the base class is `Employee`, and it serves as the foundation for subclasses like `Respondent`, `Manager`, and `Director`. This setup utilizes inheritance as it allows each specific role to automatically have attributes and methods defined in the `Employee` class without rewriting code.
By having `Respondent`, `Manager`, and `Director` classes inherit from `Employee`, we ensure that these subclasses share the `id`, `name`, and `status` attributes. Inheritance also opens the door to adding role-specific behaviors if needed, like handling different types of calls in a more complex system. This approach streamlines the code and fosters a hierarchical organization that mirrors real-world job roles.

Data Structures

Data structures are ways of organizing and storing data so they can be accessed and modified efficiently. In the call center exercise, we utilize data structures to manage lists of employees.
The `CallCenter` class contains lists for respondents, managers, and directors. These lists are examples of data structures that help in managing employee availability. Using lists is wise here because they allow for ordered storage and easy iteration.

• **Lists of employees:** These hold the various employee roles, where each list corresponds to a type of employee role like respondents.
• **Search and access operations:** By iterating through these lists, we can efficiently find the first available employee at each level.

Choosing the right data structure reflects directly on the performance and efficiency of the approach. Lists in this case provide a simple yet effective way to manage employees based on their availability and role hierarchy.

Problem Solving

Problem solving in programming involves not only coding solutions but understanding the problem deeply and coming up with an efficient algorithm to tackle it. In the context of the call center exercise, the problem-solving aspect focuses on efficiently dispatching calls based on employee availability.
The `dispatchCall()` method embodies the core of our problem-solving strategy. Here's how:

• **Prioritize roles:** Start checking availability from respondents, to managers, then directors, respecting the organization's call handling hierarchy.
• **Status checking and updating:** As you iterate through employees, check the `status` to find a free employee and mark them as occupied once they are assigned a call.
• **Handling edge cases:** Make sure that the system can handle scenarios where no employees are available by possibly implementing wait systems or logging unhandled calls.

This approach not only meets immediate requirements but provides a scalable model for handling complexity in a real-world call center environment. Effective problem-solving requires both precise planning and adaptable code implementation.