Planning And System Development Approaches For An Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering System

Methodology

The success of a project is largely dependent on its careful planning and proper implementation. This is the reason why the planning phase is an important phase of a project (Kerzner 2022). Best Gifts ‘N’ Presents (BGNP) has undertaken a project Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system. The report aims to discuss the planning process and the approaches to system development related to the project.

The primary objective of the undertaken project is to create a Sale Ordering system that will integrate and automate the data and report generation process related to the online gift card sales. The system aims to enhance the process efficiency and delivery better operational efficiency in BGNP.

The scope of the online gift card sales operating system is clear, and the system has clear requirements specifications as well. Hence, there are no major uncertainties linked with this project. Therefore, for this project, the Waterfall method of system development is proposed (Thesing, Feldmann and Burchardt 2021). Since the project has no major complexities, it will be easier for the project team to deliver the project by following the waterfall approach mainly because of its ability in delivering the work on time (Andrei et al. 2018). The system requirements are clear, and there is no scope for additional requirements being added to this project in the later stages of system development.

The primary advantage of using the waterfall methodology in a project is that through this approach, it becomes easier for the project team to plan and deliver a project since, in this approach, project implementation follows a sequential approach. It is estimated that the project will take six months to complete, which includes the time for planning and preparation works. The waterfall method can significantly improve the transparency in plan development and project delivery process. Hence, the choice of the waterfall approach for project delivery is justified.

Since the waterfall method considers a sequential approach to system development, the implementation process will include project initiation, planning, execution, testing and deployment and closure (Ajam 2018). The completion of each phase will mark the beginning of the next phase (Van Casteren 2017). Through this approach, it is expected that the project team will be able to deliver working software within the specific time of six months.

In the development and delivery of a software system, it is significantly important to identify the functional and non-functional requirements according to which the final design of the software is prepared. The functional and non-functional requirements Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system project is discussed in this particular section of the report.

Functional Requirements: Functional Requirements can be described as the product features or functions that are necessary to be implemented by the developers to ensure the expected functionality of the system (Jarz?bowicz and Weichbroth 2021). Identification of the functional requirements at the initiation phase of the project is essential to make it clear to both the development team and the stakeholders about the expected system features. The primary functional requirements of the Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system are discussed as follows-

• The system to be developed should incorporate the registration and login feature for the users.
• The system should possess a simple and easy interface
• Automatic report generation is a major functional requirement of the system
• Automatic data backup

Functional and Non-Functional Requirements

Non-Functional Requirements: Non-functional requirements of a system are the requirements that primarily aim in analysing the operation of a system rather than its specific behaviours (Eckhardt, Vogelsang and Fernández 2016). Therefore, it can be said that the inclusion of non-functional requirements in a system generally contributes to enhancing the system’s capabilities. The non-functional requirements Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system are discussed as follows-

• The system will involve the collection and storage of the personal and confidential data of the customers; hence, security is the primary non-functional requirement.
• Along with security, scalability is another major non-functional requirement of the system (Khan et al. 2016).
• The system should be reliable to store the regular sales data and confidential data of the customers (Schön, Thomaschewski and Escalona 2017).
• The system should have the needed speed to process at least ten orders per second.

The inclusion of the above indicated functional and non-functional requirements of the system will enhance the system development process and its functionalities.

The Cost-Benefit analysis, in simple terms, can be described as the process of measuring the benefits of a project or a decision and can be used to estimate the strengths and weakness of a situation/project or a decision (Meredith et al. 2017). The Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system project is presented in the following table-

Table 1: Cost-Benefit Analysis

On the basis of the data obtained from the previous table, it can be indicated that the project has a positive ROI. Furthermore, the breakeven analysis indicates that the payback period of the project is 2.1163 years. Hence, it can be confirmed that the project is feasible and should be executed.

The work breakdown structure of the undertaken project is presented as follows-

Based on the work breakdown structure presented above, a detailed Gantt chart, which outlines the overall schedule and the time needed for project execution, is prepared. The Gantt chart is presented as follows-

FIGURE 2: Gantt Chart

According to data obtained from the Gantt chart, it can be said that it is possible to deliver the project within a time of six months.

Given the primary requirement of the project and the project scope, the project schedule is found to be reasonable. As per the Gantt chart presented above, all the task has been given the maximum time frame, and hence, timely completion of all the tasks can be expected.

In the effective implementation of a project, the involvement of the project stakeholders is necessary as, in the majority of the projects, the overall project outcome is dependent on the expectations and needs of the stakeholders (Heagney 2016). The primary stakeholders associated with the Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system project are listed as follows-

• Project Manager
• System Analyst
• Business Analyst
• Users
• Customers
• Employees
• Investors

The above-listed stakeholders are the primary stakeholders linked with the project. The requirements of any project are largely dependent on the expectation of the stakeholders. The stakeholders are responsible for requirements investigation (San Cristóbal et al. 2018). The three most important investigation techniques that can be considered for this project are discussed as follows-

Document Analysis:  It is the process of reviewing the documentation of an existing system to gather or understand the requirements of a particular system (Bidabadi et al. 2016). This is a method that is proposed to be considered for the Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system project, as many businesses have already implemented a similar system in their business. Therefore, the document analysis process can work towards to a better understanding of the key requirements of the project. The project manager and the system analyst can consider the document analysis techniques for a better understanding of the critical requirements of the project.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Interview:  This is another primary requirement investment technique that can be considered in the Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system project. The interview is an effective method for gathering data related to the project as the first hand-knowledge can be gathered directly from the users (Hoda and Murugesan 2016). The interview will be conducted with the users of the system to understand their expectations from the project or the systems.

Prototyping:  The prototyping process can be considered for requirements gathering as it helps in checking the functionality of the system. The prototyping process helps in addressing the issues linked with the system and can also contribute to a better understanding of the system requirements (Rafiq et al. 2017).

The above three requirements investigation techniques can be useful to consider for this project. It will help in a better understanding of the system requirements along with the primary functional and non-functional requirements. Hence, the choice of these techniques for requirements gathering is justified.

Conclusions

The information system analysis and design report provide a detailed idea of the system requirements related to the development and delivery of the Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system project. The planning process related to the project has been effectively done on the basis of the overall time allocated for the project. As per the plan, the project is to be executed within the time of six months. The primary limitation of this project is the fact that no change in the requirements or scope of the project is allowed.

On analysis of the findings of this report, it can be indicated that the project of Online Gift Cards Sale Ordering system development and delivery is feasible and can be executed within a time of six months. The use of the waterfall approach can help in the successful delivery of this project. The report presents a detailed discussion and analysis of the cost and benefits associated with the project and its economic feasibility.

References

Ajam, M.A., 2018. Project management beyond waterfall and agile. Auerbach Publications.

Andrei, B.A., Casu-Pop, A.C., Gheorghe, S.C. and Boiangiu, C.A., 2019. A study on using waterfall and agile methods in software project management. Journal Of Information Systems & Operations Management, pp.125-135.

Bidabadi, N.S., Isfahani, A.N., Rouhollahi, A. and Khalili, R., 2016. Effective teaching methods in higher education: requirements and barriers. Journal of advances in medical education & professionalism, 4(4), p.170.

Eckhardt, J., Vogelsang, A. and Fernández, D.M., 2016, May. Are” non-functional” requirements really non-functional? an investigation of non-functional requirements in practice. In Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering (pp. 832-842).

Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.

Hoda, R. and Murugesan, L.K., 2016. Multi-level agile project management challenges: A self-organizing team perspective. Journal of Systems and Software, 117, pp.245-257.

Jarz?bowicz, A. and Weichbroth, P., 2021, January. A systematic literature review on implementing non-functional requirements in agile software development: Issues and facilitating practices. In International Conference on Lean and Agile Software Development (pp. 91-110). Springer, Cham.

Kerzner, H., 2022. Project management case studies. John Wiley & Sons.

Khan, F., Jan, S.R., Tahir, M., Khan, S. and Ullah, F., 2016. Survey: dealing non-functional requirements at architecture level. VFAST Transactions on Software Engineering, 9(2), pp.7-13.

Meredith, J.R., Shafer, S.M. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2017. Project management: a strategic managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Rafiq, U., Bajwa, S.S., Wang, X. and Lunesu, I., 2017, August. Requirements elicitation techniques applied in software startups. In 2017 43rd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA) (pp. 141-144). IEEE.

San Cristóbal, J.R., Carral, L., Diaz, E., Fraguela, J.A. and Iglesias, G., 2018. Complexity and project management: A general overview. Complexity, 2018.

Schön, E.M., Thomaschewski, J. and Escalona, M.J., 2017. Agile Requirements Engineering: A systematic literature review. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 49, pp.79-91.

Thesing, T., Feldmann, C. and Burchardt, M., 2021. Agile versus waterfall project management: decision model for selecting the appropriate approach to a project. Procedia Computer Science, 181, pp.746-756.

Van Casteren, W., 2017. The Waterfall Model and the Agile Methodologies: A comparison by project characteristics. Research Gate, 2, pp.1-6.

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