DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS
Sawicki Music Supply is a mail-order business that accepts merchandise orders by telephone and mail. All payments must be prepaid with a major credit card.
Once an order is received, either the item is found in inventory and shipped immediately, the item is not found in inventory and is ordered from the manufacturer, or a notice is sent to the customer indicating that the item is no longer stocked.
Required
Prepare a context-, intermediate-, and elementary- level data flow diagram for Sawicki Music Supply. For the elementary-level diagram, explode the inventory function.
10. PERT AND GANTT CHARTS
The lottery commission of a state with about $500 million a year in revenue has looked to modern technology for increasing lottery sales. The strategy is to place self-service sales machines around the state. Customers simply fill out the bubbles on the form and insert the form into the computer.
If they wish, they may enter their numbers directly in the computer and skip the form altogether. The machine accepts cash and automatic teller machine cards. The lottery commission is very excited about this project because it thinks it could boost lottery ticket sales by as much as 30 percent.
The systems department has finished the final feasibility report and has determined the following estimates for implementing the system. It plans on purchasing a larger, more powerful mainframe computer to handle the processing of the transactions. The manufacturer has promised a delivery date of three months from the time the order is placed. The lottery sales machines must be special ordered and require a lead time of five months.
The plan is to initially order 15 machines and test them for 12 weeks. If all goes well, the lottery commission will order a total of 500 machines, with 20 delivered and installed each month. This order will not be placed until the results of the pilot test have been analyzed. The writing of the programs is expected to take six weeks.
The testing of the programs on the main- frame is expected to take four weeks, with an additional three weeks once the sales machines have been received. The state gaming commission is expected to test for another two weeks. The design of the data- bases is expected to take only two weeks. Not much data transfer is expected to be necessary, so only three weeks is budgeted for this task.
An estimated 20 employees need to be hired and trained to install and maintain these machines around the state. The hiring process is expected to take six weeks, and the training should take an additional six weeks. The documentation should take about three months and should be completed before the training of the new employees. As soon as the gaming commission signs off on the programs, the 15 machines are to be installed at test sites around the state. Four weeks are allotted for this installation procedure. A one-week testing period is planned, with commission employees going to the sites and using the machines. An additional week is planned to review the results of these tests.
The pilot test then begins and runs for eight weeks. The data will be analyzed for four weeks after the pilot test. The final order for the additional machines will be placed after the data analysis is conducted, and the demand for the number of machines is more accurately determined.
Required
a. Prepare a PERT chart for the process described. Identify the critical path.
b. Prepare a Gantt chart for the process described.