Build an Alarm App to report problems
Project description
How can we help organizations and technicians effectively manage IoT alarms without overwhelming them, while providing clear context, accountability, and a foundation for smarter alarm handling in the future?
Context
Many organizations use IoT platforms like OpenRemote to monitor devices, buildings, or systems. When something goes wrong, alarms are triggered. At the moment, these alarms are often hard to manage: there can be too many notifications, not enough context, and no clear overview of what has already been handled.
This can lead to frustration and “alarm fatigue,” where important alarms are missed because users are overloaded. Technicians and managers need a better way to see what is happening, understand where a problem comes from, and track who is working on it.
With this project, we aim to create a dedicated Alarm App for OpenRemote that makes alarm management clearer, easier to use, and more structured, while still fitting into the existing OpenRemote system and allowing future improvements.
Results
The main outcome of this project is the OpenRemote Alarm App MVP, a web and mobile application that works directly with the OpenRemote platform. The app is designed to make alarm management clearer and easier for technicians and managers who work with IoT systems on a daily basis.
The app provides a central overview of active alarms, showing important information such as severity, source, and current status. Users can open an alarm to see more details and follow it through its full lifecycle, from creation to closure. This makes it easier to understand what is happening and which alarms still need attention.
Users can update alarms as work progresses by acknowledging them, marking them as in progress, and resolving or closing them when the issue is fixed. It is also possible to create alarms manually when problems are noticed that were not triggered automatically. Notifications ensure that users are informed when a new alarm is relevant to them, so important issues are not missed.
The app also includes an alarm history, allowing users to look back at past alarms and see what actions were taken, by whom, and at what time. To give better context, alarms are linked to the devices or assets that caused them, helping users quickly locate and understand the source of a problem.
The solution is built from a single shared codebase and can be used both in a browser and on mobile devices. It supports basic client-specific branding, so multiple organizations can use the app without changing its core functionality. Throughout the project, attention was given to usability, performance, security, and code quality, resulting in an MVP that is ready for real-world testing and further development.
About the project group
The project is developed by a group of three students. Two team members are in semester 3, and one team member is in semester 6. Together, we combine different levels of experience in software development, research, and design.
By working closely with OpenRemote stakeholders and using an agile way of working, we turn real needs from practice into a working and useful MVP. This project allows us, as students, to create something that has real value while gaining hands-on experience with IoT platforms, building scalable applications, and developing software that works across multiple platforms.