Engineering case study
Payrun: making HR workflows understandable
An HR management project explored through employee records, leave workflows, and reliable application state.
The problem
HR work connects people, policies, and requests. Employee information and approval workflows need to remain understandable as different users perform different tasks. A clear interface must reflect the state of a request rather than merely show that a button was clicked.
Product scope
Payrun is an HR management platform covering employee administration and HR workflows. Its public website presents employee management, recruitment, attendance, leave, and payroll capabilities. The portfolio includes an existing product screenshot.
Technology and project context
Payrun is part of my portfolio of HR and business applications. The recorded stack includes Next.js, Node.js, Express, GraphQL, GraphQL subscriptions, and AWS services including SES, S3, ECS, and Amplify. The public technology list gives context, but does not disclose internal service boundaries.
Engineering considerations
A leave-request journey is a useful test of this kind of application: submitting a request, showing its status, presenting the appropriate next action, and reflecting the final decision. Loading, error, and empty states belong to that journey as much as the happy path.
When an approval appears inconsistent, I would first compare the stored state and server response with what each screen renders. Then I would check whether a delayed response, cached view, or missed refresh explains the difference. Reproducing the issue with the relevant user roles makes the investigation more precise.
Real-time updates can reduce manual refreshes, but they also add reconnection and ordering concerns. A subscription event should prompt a consistent view of authoritative state; it should not become a second independent definition of that state. This is a design consideration for applications using subscriptions, not a claim about Payrun’s private implementation.
Evidence and outcomes
The public product and portfolio entry document the HR application and its technology context. Specific personal feature ownership, reliability improvements, and time savings need separate evidence before they can be claimed as outcomes.