Assignment - Fiction Box
Overview
For this individual assignment, you will use skills acquired through practical laboratory exercises to automate a business process, and to visualize the impact of the automation.
You should use Microsoft Excel (or equivalent open-source software) for this assessment task.
Important: This assignment specification is generated just for you. Do not distribute this specification.
Timelines and Expectations
Percentage value of task:
Learning Outcomes Assessed
The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:
A1. Prepare a basic solution to a business problem;
A2. Select appropriate IT solutions for business functions;
A3. Apply business information software for data visualization and analysis purposes.
S1. Write basic programming logic;
S3. Interpret and construct representations of business data flow and processes;
K8. Outline the basic principles of programming.
Assessment Details
Fiction Box is a small second-hand book shop, run by a team of three staff members: Anna, Bernita, and Chloe.
For this assignment, you will complete the following set of tasks using Excel, and build an ePortfolio page to describe your work.
Task 0 - Setting up
Create an ePortfolio page for your assignment. You will submit this page to Moodle as per the lab tasks. You may call it whatever you like.
Hours of operation
Most of the time, each team member works separate shifts:
Anna works 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; Bernita works 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and Chloe works 12:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday.
The shop runs from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM each day, except Saturday when it closes at 12:30. It is closed entirely on Sundays.
Costs
Anna and Bernita are the semi-retired co-owners of the bookshop, and do not take a salary.
Chloe, however, is a part-time employee, with total employment costs of $22 per hour. Chloe is also entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave, during which a casual replacement is required at a cost of $33 per hour.
Fixed costs such as rent and insurance are $2900 per year, and utilities costs are $140 per month.
Task 1 - Costs of operating the business
Using Excel, create a spreadsheet called operating_costs.xlsx that calculates the projected annual outgoing costs of running Fiction Box.
Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the working hours, hourly rates, and fixed and utility costs can be varied easily.
Document your findings in your ePortfolio page (approximately 100 words).
Obtaining Books
Throughout the day, customers come to Fiction Box to buy books, and occasionally to sell them.
When people bring in books to sell to Fiction Box, the staff member on duty will review the books and make an offer for each one individually.
Currently, the process for determining how much the book shop will pay for a book is entirely subjective. Staff members offer an amount per book based on the quality of the book, and how popular they think it is, and how they are feeling at the time.
The sale amount is always simply double the amount paid and is set at the same time - if Fiction Box pays $3.00 for a book, they will put it on sale with a marked price of $6.00. (Fiction Box does not deal in rare or antique books)
For several months, staff have been keeping track of the date and time, quality, publication year and amount paid for each book in a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is available for download on Moodle.
Task 2 - Sales team offers
Using Excel, process the history of purchases spreadsheet and use appropriate charts to visualize: How the prices paid differed for each staff member; and
How the prices paid have changed over time
Describe your findings in your ePortfolio (approximately 250 words), and attach the Excel file to your page.
Process automation
Anna and Bernita want to improve the consistency of how they pay for and price books.
They'd like to standardize on three standard price offers, and have designed the following process to determine how to allocate them, including the option of rejecting the book altogether.
The staff have already agreed on how to determine whether a book is terrible, poor, or good.
Task 3 - Automation
Using Excel, create a spreadsheet page that automates the above process, allowing a member of the team to enter whether the book is hardcover, its publication year, and its condition, and receive a price to offer.
Ensure that you include enough text and formatting to make your spreadsheet usable by a member of the Fiction Box team, or by a University lecturer.
Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the Low, Medium and High prices can be varied easily. Describe how you automated the process (approx 150 words), and attach your Excel file to your ePortfolio.
Task 4 - Price setting
Using Excel and the historical data you have available, determine sets of prices which meet the objectives of the following scenarios:
Scenario one: Total offer prices are approximately the same as for the historical data
Scenario two: Assuming all books purchased are sold, allow all staff to draw the same wage as Chloe.
Describe the strategy you used to find appropriate prices for each scenario (approximately 150 words).
Ensure that the Low price is less than the Medium price, and both are less than the High price.
Bonus challenge task (optional!)
Disclaimer: This task is 100% optional, and you can receive full marks without attempting or completing it. It is intended to be a challenge if you are interested in such things, and the marks available do not reflect the significant research and effort required to implement it correctly. Tutors will not provide significant assistance for this challenge task.
Optional task 5
Reimplement Task 1 and Task 3 using either Python or HTML+JavaScript.
Write a brief overview of how to run your solution, and attach a zip file containing your code to your ePortfolio page.
There are no partial marks awarded for this bonus task - you must complete all features to attain the bonus marks.
It is possible to attain full marks for this assignment without completing this challenge task.