Max Tennyson is a small business owner, specializing in renting vacation cottages in Europe and Africa. Up to now, his business, Tennyson's Travel, has been manageable with spreadsheets and manual records.
All business has been conducted in the travel office or on the phone. TT has been experiencing phenomenal growth, at a rate of 25% a year. Max has only 3 employees currently but is now looking to expand the operations, up to 10 employees.
He knows that he needs to automate the records and is unsure where to start. He also believes that he needs to create a website. Keep in mind that both the travel agents and customers would like to search the inventory using criteria, such as price, location, property type, number of bedrooms and how many people total can sleep in property.
Max hires you to analyze his business/industry and come up with a plan to automate his small business.
Where to start:
TASKS:
- If you were to interview the three employees, Max (owner), Sophie (sales and rental inventory) and Ben (bookkeeper - accounts payable and receivable), what questions would you ask each of them. Be sure to have at least 10 questions for each.
- Create a Data Flow Diagram (DFD).
- Research current travel systems and costs. Write a memo of best features. Isolate the features that MUST be in the new system and which features are optional features. Keep in mind scalability. Currently, Tennyson Travel is grossing $500,000 per year and experiencing 25% growth annually.
- Explain the problem or opportunity and define the project scope and constraints.