Systems Analysis and Design

• How was the Hoosier Burger project identified and selected? What focus will the new system have?

The Hoosier burger project was identified through its short-comings by the Mellankamps. The project was selected as the business grows and demand is at an all-time high, the current systems at Hoosier Burger are not getting the job done. This is causing customer discontent and is affecting business negatively. The new system is going to be heavily focused on inventory control systems.

While other systems of Hoosier Burger will be looked at, an improved inventory control system will greatly increase productivity for the Mellankamps. b. Identify the Hoosier Burger project’s scope. The Hoosier Burger project’s scope is to implement new systems in inventory control, customer ordering, and management reporting systems. This project is set up to increase the overall effectiveness by introducing new and improved systems. Alternatively, a new point-of-sale system may be within the scope of this project as well.

• Look over the scope statement. If you were an employee at Petrie’s Electronics, would you want to work on this project? Why or why not?

As an employee of Petrie’s Electronics, I would want to be on this project team. The project itself is being put together with the primary goal of increasing the amount of customers the frequent Petrie’s Electronics. As an employee of almost any title with in the company, increased customer base is equally important to everyone. Sales associates will make more sales, managers will increase their monthly numbers, profits will rise, and as the tores become busier, all positions will be in full demand and lay-offs would be less likely in a thriving business. If I had the opportunity to be on the team I would, and I would want to increase all odds of the projects success.

• If you were part of the management team at Petrie’s Electronics, would you approve the project outlined in the scope statement? What changes, if any, need to be made to the document?

As part of management, I would approve of the current scope statement. The statement clearly outlines what the goals of the project are in the Project Overview section. This overview is then broken down into individual objectives needed to be completed in an effort for the project to meet its goals. The only thing I would like added to the scope statement would be some kind of expected outcome. Obviously the goals are increased profits by creating a customer loyalty program. What could be added is what the project is expected to cost and how much of an increase would be expected after the implementation of the project. These estimates could be easily attained by researching other companies before/after their customer loyalty programs.

• Identify a preliminary set of tangible and intangible costs you think would occur for this project and the system it describes. What intangible benefits do you anticipate for the system? Tangible Costs: cost of project team, cost of implementing the project (rewards cards, rewards tracking software, rewards points redeemables) Intangible Costs: operational inefficiency, employee moral due to increased workload Intangible Benefits: customer loyalty, store reputation, competitive necessity 4. What do you consider to be the risks of the project as you currently understand it?

Is this a low-medium-or high-risk project? Justify your answer. Assuming you were part of Jim’s team, would you have any particular risks? I think one of the biggest risks of this project is time. With having busy team members on the project, getting things done and on schedule is going to be the most difficult part of the project. Overall, I would assess this project as a low or medium risk project. Historically, the trends in customer loyalty programs in the retail industry are huge. This programs do everything that Jim’s team is set out to do.

Spending enough research time into other companies’ rewards programs make this a rather easy project to streamline. As a member of the team, my assumed risks would be not being able to perform my duties as an employee of Petrie’s Electronic and as a member of the project team. If I am unable to perform these duties, it could negatively affect the security of my job with the company.

• If you were assigned to help Jim with this project, how would you utilize the concept of incremental commitment in the design of the baseline project plan?

Jim outlined some objectives in the scope statement for this project. After each of these objectives have been tackled and overcome, I would utilize incremental commitment to review what has just been accomplished, what is left to be accomplished and whether or not the project team is meeting its goals and if those goals are still in line with the companies goals.

• If you were assigned to Jim’s team for this project, when in the project schedule (in what phase of after which activities are completed) do you think you could develop an economics analysis of the proposed system?

What economic feasibility factors do you think would be relevant? After each of the objectives in Jim’s scope statement have been addressed, that is answered on paper with how they plan on accomplishing the task, would be a good time to assess economic analysis. At this time, there would be a clear understanding of what should be needed to address each objective successfully and analyzing the economic feasibility at this point would be much clearer than before.

•  If you were assigned to Jim’s team for this project, what activities would you conduct in order to prepare the details of the baseline project plan? Explain the purpose of each activity and show a timeline or schedule for these activities. First, access all feasibilities of the project. If the project is not going to be feasible then it needs to be cut off right away.

Accessing feasibilities up front will help make the project is worth it.

• Economic Feasibility
• Making sure the company has the money to fund the project and that the overall result of the project will aid in increasing profits for the company
• Technical Feasibility
• Outline what technologies would be needed to make this project successful and to make sure that the company either has access to these technologies and/or is willing to acquire these technologies.
• Operational Feasibility
• Assess whether or not the project’s goals are realistic.

If the project’s goals are unrealistic then it’s a waste of money. Attainable goals are important.

• Schedule Feasibility
• Can this project be completed in a timely manner in which the company will benefit the most from the project?
• Legal and Contractual Feasibility
• Will implementing this project break any laws or contracts that the company is bound by?
• Political Feasibility
• Make sure that stakeholders understand the risk and rewards of this project. Once all feasibilities have been accessed, its time outline management issues.

A plan needs to be set in place that details what all team members are responsible for and what the reporting procedures will be. This is important so that project time isn’t wasted on simple things such as figuring out how deliverables will be evaluated and what specific issues the team may face during the project. Now the system description should be written. This section will clearly mark what the project team’s system plans to deliver. This is also a good time to come up with an alternate system. Finally, the introduction of the Baseline Project Report will be written. This section will provide an overview of the entire project addressing the issues facing the project and how their proposed system will handle the issues.

• Once deployed, what are the operational risks of the proposed system? How do you factor operational risks into a system development plan?

The operational risks of this project would be that the loyalty rewards program isn’t enticing enough to keep the customer loyal to Petrie’s Electronics. On the other hand, if the program is overly enticing to the customer, this may lead to a much higher cost of maintaining the program for the foreseeable future. Throughout the development of the system, there should be applied incremental commitment. This will continuously analyze and assess where the project is at and how it can meet the goals of the company. Operational risk is something that should be addressed during each of these assessments. At some point if the risk outweighs the reward, then the project needs to be shut down. If the risk is kept in check, the project can continue until the next assessment after a particular activity or phase.