ICT310 :School Supplies Pty Ltd. Background:
ICT310 :School Supplies Pty Ltd. Background:
Case Study: School Supplies Pty Ltd.
Background:
School Supplies Pty Ltd is a Brisbane based business which supplies stationery (paper, pens, labels, etc.) to business clients but mainly specialises in educational supplies (text and exercise books, classroom aids, etc.) to schools and parents with school age children. School Supplies’ busiest time of year starts towards the end of the school year supplying back-to- school book and stationery packs to parents and schools.
School Supplies was bought by businessman and ex school principal Gerry Lane in 2012 and has become well respected for its quality range of educational supplies and the good advice Gerry is able to give teachers and parents. School Supplies is especially well known among the Home Schooling community who value Gerry’s advice and the range of text books that are always in stock and exclusively available at School Supplies. Management and Retail sales processes are managed through the accounting software Quickbooks. Gerry has a small but good team of staff with Rebecca as general manager, Janice is great managing the retail shop floor, Joe manages the warehouse and Bev in accounts keeps the business accounts organised.
A big business earner for School Supplies is the annual back-to-school (BTS) process where over 4500 school pack orders are received, packed and delivered to the parents of school children. This starts early November, runs through Christmas and winds up a few weeks after school goes back in early February. The BTS is one of Rebecca’s special areas of expertise where she has many years’ experience in 4 different businesses and knows all the products well (Joe in the warehouse is sure she can read barcodes!). During this BTS time of year Rebecca manages 5 extra people to pack boxes and help with the BTS process. There is a particular skill required in making sure packers are packing the right items for the right people in the right school. There are thousands of different items and each school is very particular about which products they want! However, Rebecca is continually frustrated by the online ordering system which Gerry inherited from the previous owners. It is basically functional but Rebecca has to be very gentle with it and is constantly contacting the support people when things don’t go quite right and something else is broken as a result of a previous ‘repair’. One of its good features is the online systems ability to interface with Quickbooks where it automatically enters an order, adjusts stock levels and generates an invoice. Rebecca knows exactly how the process should work and has worked with a number of very effective (but proprietary) BTS systems, she has been talking with Gerry for a while now about allowing her to work with a good information system designer to redesign the BTS system.
The typical (ideal) workflow process for BTS stationery packs starts with parents placing orders. This can be done (and paid for) in-person, over-the-phone or online. Because it is easier to have everything online, School Supplies staff will enter online the in-person and over-the-phone orders. When a person logs on to the School Supplies online site they will select their school along with a ‘passcode’ for that school (Gerry and Rebecca will have negotiated with each school to supply book pack items at the individual school’s particular price and the school will have specified exactly what items it requires and how many of each). The next screen will invite the parent to create a School Supplies online account where they will enter delivery and contact details, and a username (email address) and password. The next screen will present them with a login screen where they will log in and specify book packs for each of their children. Having logged in, parents are presented with a list of the children for whom they are purchasing book packs. They can press on an ‘Add student order’ button and start a new book pack order. After entering the student name they will select the year group (Prep to year 12) and then be presented with an auto filled list of all the items and the quantities for their particular book list for their school and year group. The numbers of each item can be adjusted by the parent and then that book pack can be submitted and added to the of student book packs for that parent. When the parent has entered all the book packs they want to order they can press the ‘Order’ button at which point the totals and details of the order are confirmed with the parent. The parent specifies if they would like the orders delivered or picked up (sibling book pack orders are kept together so parents only pay one shipment fee for up to 3 student book packs). Once delivery details are confirmed, parents are then transferred to the online payment system. When the payment has gone through each of the student orders are emailed through to the parent. Also at this time there is an order and invoice generated in Quickbooks. At the start of each day a report on the previous day’s online orders are automatically printed out and matched with the bank statement (to make sure the payment has gone through) and with the QuickBooks invoice. These orders have a barcode and are scanned at different stages in the process so parents are able to log onto their account and track how their order is progressing. When the order is ready for pickup the BTS System will finalise the order by either creating a courier consignment note or notify the parent for pickup. When the order is despatched to the parent or courier the online BTS order will send an order finalisation email to the parent.
School Supplies are wining more and more BTS contracts because of their excellent reputation, and ability to deliver the right items on time. Parents of uncontracted schools are asking if their school’s book packs can be put up online for ordering as well. However, the increasing work highlights the inadequacies of their current online BTS processing system which is increasing staff stress levels in the office. Rebecca is the only person who can manage the current online system because it so brittle and has many fatal errors which only Rebecca knows how to correct. Gerry is making enquiries about his options with a new system. He knows he needs a system which is intuitive for both BTS parents and his staff to use. Gerry likes to be able to provide work for less able people especially in the packing area so the system must also cater for their user needs as well. Gerry knows that his business viability and reputation depends on having effective information systems in order to keep parents happy and coming back. If parents are happy then the school will be easier to negotiate with and Gerry won’t have to compete so much on BTS pack price.
Part A – Essay And Memo
Question 1: Essay
Your manager has done some reading and is sure that an adaptive systems development approach is necessary for the new information systems project to develop Online Back-to- school ordering system.
- Your manager has asked you to write short essay on adaptive systems development discussing the various methodologies of adaptive development. State under what circumstances each methodology would be used and how they may be applied to your case study
- You manager has asked you to choose and justify the use of a methodology for the case study
Your target audience is executive business people, who have extensive business experience but limited computing knowledge.Question 2: Memo
Review the School Supplies case study and answer the following question with reference to the information in the case study.
Your manager has requested that you write a brief memorandum for the owner Gerry Lane and his management team commenting on the different ways you might handle the design of the Human Computer Interface of this new Online Back-to-school ordering system.
There is limited information available to you at this time but you are required to make reasonable assumptions based on the information that you have. Assumptions should be noted and specifically mentioned within your memo.
Part B – Modelling And Diagramming
Review the School Supplies case study and answer the following questions with reference to the information in the case study.
Do NOT extend the scope for any of the following solutions beyond that specifically described in the case study above
You are permitted to make reasonable assumptions where necessary but these should be noted.
It is recommended that you review all documentation for this case study before finalising any single solution. Ensure that the required consistency has been included within and between each question solution. Consult Rubric in Appendix A for more details on how these questions will be marked.
Question 3: Use Case Modelling
a) Event Table
Review the School Supplies case study and prepare an event table for the information system to support the business processes as described. Use at least the following headings for the Event Table:
| Event | Event Type | Trigger | Source | Activity/Use Case | System Response/Output | Destination |
B) Use Case Diagram
Review the School Supplies case study and your event table solution from question 3a above to prepare a Use Case diagram for the supporting information system.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al (2016) textbook. Solutions are expected to align with the components as shown in figures 3-12 and 3-15.
C) Use Case Description
Prepare a dully developed Use Case description for the ‘Create Online Account’ use case, as documented in the event table solution and the use case diagram solution.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al (2016) textbook. Solutions are expected to align with the components as shown in figure 5-2.
Question 4: Domain Modelling
Domain Model Class Diagram
Review the School Supplies case study to prepare a domain model class diagram for the supporting information system.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al (2016) textbook. Solutions are expected to show:
- The class name and attributes list for each class and sub class asrequired
- All requiredassociations
- All attributes as specifically mentioned in the case study must bereflected
- Other attributes as needed to support the described
It is not necessary to show methods, however you may include them if you wish. Solutions are expected to align with the components as shown in figures 4-16 and 4-21. Consult Rubric in Appendix A for more details on how this question will be marked.
B) Design Class Diagram 5 Marks
Prepare a Design class diagram for the Client and School classes ONLY. These two classes should be part of the Domain model class diagram solution for the previous question.
Each of these design class diagrams are expected to have a complete attributes list and a comprehensive methods list which supports the specified functionality as described in the case study.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al (2016) textbook. Solutions are expected to align with the components for the ‘Design class diagram Student’ as shown on the right hand of figure 12.4. Consult Rubric in Appendix A for more details on how this question will be marked.
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