Approach to Systems Development
Best Gifts ‘N’ Presents (BGNP) deals with providing online gift cards. Currently, they are aiming the development of online gift card ordering system as a web-based store. Thus, the aim of this project is to undertake the development of a web-based store for the BGNP, with the help of which they shall undertake the process of selling online gift cards.
The project objective is to provide different approaches toward the system development, system requirements, cost-benefit analysis and project schedule for the online gift card ordering system. Additionally, the objective of the project is to undertake the completion of the project within the allocated budget of $24,500.
The approach that shall be undertaken for the purpose of BGNP information systems development is the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The following steps will be undertaken during this approach,
- The online gift card ordering system will be first surveyed with respect to system identification, selection as well as system planning.
- Following this, the step that will be undertaken under the SDLC approach is the analysis of all the system requirements in order to fulfil the purpose of BGNP.
- The designing of the system development will be then undertaken by completing the blueprint of the online gift card delivery system for the purpose of making the web store for BGNP.
- The implementation process will be then undertaken on the basis of the developed blueprint of the system.
- The system will then undergo final testing of the developed system in order to ensure that all the components of the system are developed in a proper manner and according to the quality standards.
- Finally, changing and maintenance steps will be undertaken during which it is ensured that the developed online gift card ordering system ensures smoothness, continuity and, at the same time, improvement. The system will be further maintained, and any bug identified in the system shall be fixed.
The SDLC approach of systems development has been selected for BGNP because it will help in better management of the control of the complete project along with clarity of project requirements. The results that shall be gained from the project are further predictable with respect to the budget, time and deliverables.
The primary functional requirements associated with the development of an online gift cards sale ordering system for BGNP are as follows,
- Third-party integrations: In order to develop the online web store, it is essential to know the type of third party integration that shall be required for meeting the requirements of the system (Cooper and Sommer 2018). The primary focus provided by this functional requirement is upon the different business operations like the enterprise resource planning system, customer relationship management system and the payment gateways through the online store.
- Mobile Responsive: The web store that will be developed must be responsive to mobile devices because people are making use of mobile phones in their daily operations for every activity undertaken by them.
- Product Attributes: The characteristics of the products that are available for the customers must be outlined in the online web store of the BGNP and are one of the primary functional requirements.
- Order and Checkout Flow: Furthermore, the ways in which the orders of the customers will be processed through the web store of BGNP must be represented on the online site.
- Social Sharing: The online web store of BGNP must consist of the functionality to get shared upon the social media platforms and further gain knowledge about the target audience.
The non-functional requirements for the online web store of BGNP are as follows,
- Usability: The web store must be developed in such a manner that even a non-technical user can utilize the same.
- Performance: Primary focus must be provided on the performance of the web store that will be developed (Hoda, Salleh and Grundy 2018).
- Security: The financial and all sensitive data of customers and BGNP must be secured in a proper manner.
- Scalability: The future growth of the website, along with the impact of the website on the future, must be made scalable.
- Maintainability: The operation costs related to website maintenance are said to be an essential element, and the web store BGNP must be maintained in a proper manner.
All these non-functional requirements are essential because they will assist in analyzing the aspects with the help of which users will gain experience from the web store. Furthermore, all these requirements will ensure the availability, reliability, performance, and at the same time, the scalability of the developed BGNP system.
Cost-benefit analysis is considered one of the essential tools for the project manager in order to make decisions for the purpose of influencing the decision about the success of a company (Perkusich et al. 2021). The cost-benefit analysis of the BGNP online web store project will assist in the calculation of the net present value of the firm by the development of the online system for ordering gift cards. The benefit of the five years for the firm has been presented in the below cost-benefit analysis image. The total development cost that includes the staff cost, user training as well as hardware cost has been further presented in the below figure. The net benefit of all the five years for the firm has been stated along with the recurring cost. As a result of the same, the net present value has been evaluated from the costs every year for the benefit of the BGNP. According to the evaluation of the cost-benefit analysis, it can be clearly stated that the online gift cards sales ordering system will be of great benefit to BGNP.
Systems Requirements
Figure 1: Cost-benefit Analysis
(Source: Created by Author)
The image below depicts the work breakdown structure for the development of an online gift cards sale ordering system for the BGNP Company. All the activities that shall be carried out during the project have been mentioned in the figure below. Work breakdown structure is considered an effective tool for the graphical representation of project activities (Li 2021). All the major phases, along with the sub-activities of each phase, have been displayed below.
Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure
(Source: Created by Author)
The project schedule associated with any project can be created with the help of the Gantt chart, which is said to be one of the essential tools for scheduling projects and project management (Curcio et al. 2018). The Gantt chart for the BGNP online gift cards sale ordering system is depicted in the below figure. The image depicts all the activities that shall be undertaken during the project, along with the duration of each activity. Furthermore, the resource responsible for the undertaking of every activity of the project has also been depicted in the below image. The start, as well as the finish date of the activities, are also represented along with the dependencies of activities.
Figure 2: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by Author)
Both the Gantt chart and the work breakdown structure that has been presented in the above sections are related to one another in many aspects. Both play an essential role in planning the project (Yos and Chua 2018). The success of the project majorly depends upon the WBS as well as the Gantt chart. The activities that are presented in the Gantt chart are displayed in a hierarchical manner in the WBS. The scheduling of each activity present in the WBS is depicted with the help of horizontal charts in the form of a timeline in the Gantt chart (Vrchota et al. 2020). Both the images presented in the above section represent the activities of the BGNP project and are completely associated with one another with respect to time, cost as well as duration.
On the basis of the system requirements, goals as well as the scope of the BGNP web store project, the project schedule is completely reasonable because the primary focus of the schedule is provided upon meeting the deliverables of the project. In addition to this, the duration of the project schedule is set in such a manner so that the project gets completed within the estimated duration. Furthermore, the schedule ensures that the actual cost of the project does not exceed the total estimated cost for completion of the project. As a reason for the same, it is essential that all the project manager ensures to undertake the development of the project schedule (Hugo, Pretorius and Benade 2018). The management of the project is done in an effective as well as efficient manner with the help of the project schedule.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
The different stakeholders who are involved in this project are as follows,
- Project Manager: The project manager is responsible for undertaking all the major activities of the project, such as project planning, scheduling and management (Derakhshan, Turner and Mancini 2019).
- Consultant: The technical, strategic, as well as operational expertise of the consultant will be contributed to the project for assisting the project to achieve success.
- CEO: The process of implementing and, at the same time, devising the operational plans for the project will be undertaken by the CEO (Shidaganti and Gosar 2021).
- Marketing manager: The marketing of the web store being developed for BGNP will lie under the responsibility of the marketing manager. The marketing manager will be responsible for introducing the web store to the audience and customers (de Oliveira and Rabechini Jr 2019).
- Quality Control: The main responsibility of quality control is to keep a check on the quality of the deliverables that will be produced by this project (Jiang, Klein and Fernandez 2018).
- Production Manager: The process of organizing the schedule of production along with planning and assessing the project is the primary responsibility of the production manager (Eskerod and Larsen 2018).
- Technical Expert: All the technical requirements in terms of hardware and software that shall be required for the purpose of developing the web store will be undertaken by the technical expert.
- Software Engineer: All the activities related to coding and other programming tasks will be undertaken by the software engineer (Nguyen, Mohamed and Panuwatwanich 2018).
System investigation is mainly referred to as a useful process that needs to be carried out once a new or specifically upgraded system is introduced into the workplace. The system investigation method mainly aims at obtaining information on the feedback received on utilizing the system after it has been integrated into the daily business operations at the organization (Kaur et al. 2019). With respect to the online gift cards sale ordering system to be implemented at the BGNP Company, there is a likely requirement of carrying out a system investigation to highlight the positive as well as the negative aspects of the implemented system from the users directly themselves. Hence, the three chosen methods of investigation are,
- Interviews: this has been chosen as one of the primary techniques for carrying out a system investigation since this technique will provision come in direct contact with the users of the system (Guidotti et al. 2020). The interview technique will help document a list of benefits that have been obtained upon using the system and, at the same time, will also provide a helping hand in understanding the difficulties that are mainly faced by the users in specific terms.
- Studying the current system documentation: this has also been chosen as a primitive method of carrying out a system investigation with respect to all the necessary details of the system that is present in the relevant document (Haq et al. 2018). At BGNP Company, the system investigators will be able to understand the primary working of the system and the necessary faults that are still existing within the system, providing scope to understand the likely requirements of resolving the issues.
- Questionnaires: this technique for system investigation will put forward a helping hand in putting forward a pre-defined set of questions for the users of the system at BGNP Company to attend and choose the most suitable answer from the provisioned list without fail (Mishra et al. 2018). This technique integrates efficiency in successfully meeting the likely demands of understanding the decision of the mass through a simple set of questions and the obtained answers.
In the above section of this document, three primary investigation techniques have been listed and outlined, which can provide a helping hand in carrying out a system investigation of the online gift cards sale ordering system present at the BGNP Company. In this section, each of the chosen system investigation techniques has been justified based on the benefits that will be obtained from each of the chosen techniques.
- The process of the interview has been mainly chosen since this will allow the system investigators to directly question the users of the implemented online gift system. Through the direct questions, there is a likely provision of obtaining better outcomes from the existing system and, at the same time, will provide a helping hand in an appropriate manner by meeting the likely demands of understanding the existing faults as well as the necessary changes that are required (Yaqoob et al. 2019).
- The current system documentation technique has been chosen since this document contains all the necessary details of the online gift card sale ordering system. Upon having the necessary details, any specific changes that might be required on the system can be instantly mitigated without further delay caused in the normal occurrence of business operations at the BGNP Company.
- Lastly, the questionnaire technique has been chosen as a primary method to carry out the system investigation since this technique mainly provides a faster system investigation where the participating users only have a pre-defined list of options to choose from during the method (Tian et al. 2019). This will offer a better and faster change made to the identified issues on the system.
Reflection and Conclusion:
This project was helpful for understanding the different concepts and aspects of project management. The time, budget and resources are considered the major constraint during the project because the limitation of time for the purpose of completing the project is a major issue. Budget is another constraint because it is very much essential to ensure that the project gets completed within the estimated duration.
The report has successfully identified the different system approaches for the development of the online gift cards sale ordering system for the BGNP Company. The approach for the system development along with the functional as well as the non-functional has been further identified. A cost-benefit analysis has also been conducted for identifying the benefit of the project. The work breakdown structure and the Gantt chart have also been developed for this project, and the relation between the both has been documented. The reasonability of the project schedule is also mentioned in the report. Finally, the different stakeholders involved in this project have been listed, along with the investigation techniques related to system information requirements and justifications for the identified technique.
References:
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Project Schedule
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