Case Study

Read chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the text and the case studies at the end of these chapters. Then answer the questions about the Rocky Mountain Outfitters case studies at the end of these chapters. Make answers short (2-3 sentences).

Textbook

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World by Satzinger, Jackson, and Burd Course Technology, Fifth Edition

Please find the attached paper for reading instructions

Suggestions and Guidelines:

-Use your own words and Thoughts. No Plagiarism.
-Give short answers to each question (not more than 3-4 lines)
-Total page length (not more than 3 pages, 300 words per page)
-1-inch margins, Double spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font

Instructions:

Chapter 4

RETHINKING ROCKY MOUNTAIN OUTFITTERS

Barbara Halifax, the project manager for the CSS project, had finished identifying the list of stakeholders in the project. As shown earlier in the chapter, quite a few senior executives would be involved. Most of them would not have major input. Those in Bill McDougal's area would, of course. Not only was he the project sponsor, but all his assistants were excited about this new system and its potential to help the business grow. Barbara had a good working relationship with all of these executives. Barbara had also identified numerous department managers and senior customer service representatives who would be able to provide detailed processing requirements. She had divided her list of stakeholders into two groups. The first group consisted of all those with primary responsibility to help define user requirements. The second group included those who would not have direct use of the system but would need reports and information from the system. She wanted to make sure the needs of these people were also satisfied. As an experienced project manager, Barbara had her checklists of things to do. She used a project manager checklist to help her remember all important tasks. Being a project manager was much too critical, and potentially stressful, to do it "by the seat of your pants." As she reviewed her list, she noticed several activities that she had not yet considered on the CSS project. She was thinking that before she let her project team start to meet with the users, she ought to consider these items and review them with her team.

The items that most caught her attention were the following:

• Develop a communications plan with the user.
• Manage user expectations.
• Control the scope and avoid scope creep.

Based on the concepts you learned in this chapter, what would you do if you were Barbara? (You also might want to review Appendix A on the book's Web site). Obviously, you want to provide the best possible solution for the company, but you also need to control the project, the scope, and the users so that the system will be successful and be installed on time.

1. Identify the major points you would include in a communications plan at this point in the project.
2. What advice would you give your project team to help it manage the user expectations?
3. What early planning can you do now to ensure that the scope is realistic-to meet the need but within the time and budget allotted?

Chapter 5

RETHINKING ROCKY MOUNTAIN OUTFITTERS

When listing nouns and making some decisions about the initial list of things (see Figure 5-19), the RMO team decided to research Customer Account as a possible data entity or class if the system included an RMO payment plan (similar to a company charge account plan). Many retail store chains have their own charge accounts for the convenience of the customer-to increase sales to the customer and to better track customer purchase behavior. Consider the implications to the system if management decided to incorporate an RMO charge account and payment plan as part of the customer support system.

1. Discuss the implications that such a change would have on the scope of the project. How might this new capability change the list of stakeholders the team would involve when collecting information and defining the requirements? Would the change have any effect on other RMO systems or system projects planned or under way? Would the change have any effect on the project plan originally developed by Barbara Halifax? In other words, is this a minor change or a major change?

2. What events need to be added to the event table? Complete the event table entries for these additional events. What activities or use cases for existing events might be changed because of a charge account and payment plan? Explain.

3. What are some additional things and relationships among things that the system would be required to store because of the charge account and payment plan? Modify the entity-relationship diagram and the class diagram to reflect these charges.

Chapter 6

RETHINKING ROCKY MOUNTAIN OUTFITTERS

This chapter contains many DFDs describing the RMO order-entry subsystem but no DFDs describing the RMO order fulfillment subsystem, customer maintenance subsystem, or catalog maintenance subsystem (see the subsystem event lists in Figure 6-10).

Review the RMO event table (Figure 5-12) and ERD (Figure 5-29) and perform the following tasks:

1. Develop DFD fragments for all of the events not documented in Figure 6-12.

2. Develop a single DFD that shows processing for all events, using one process for each subsystem and showing all needed data stores. To simplify the diagram, place all external agents along the outer edge, and duplicate them as necessary to minimize long or crossing data flows. Place all data stores in the middle of the diagram.

3. Develop a data flow definition for the RMO customer order form in Figure 6-35.