Assignment 4 specifications
This Assignment 4 builds on the research and analysis conducted for your proposed e-commerce strategy and preliminary prototype e-commerce built in Assignment 2. Assignment 4 consists of THREE tasks.
TASK 1 - Assignment 4 Journal
In this task you are required to maintain a journal of the activities and research associated with Assignment 4 and to submit the completed journal with this assignment.
TASK 2 - Prototype E-commerce website
Develop and populate the prototype e-commerce website for which you prepared a strategic analysis and preliminary prototype e-commerce website using Joomla in Assignment 2.
Your e-commerce website should contain, at a minimum, the following functionality:
1. An aesthetically pleasing, easy- to-use interface
2. A product catalogue
3. A shopping cart
4. An order form and payment interface
5. Customer registration
6. Discussion forum
7. Business policy statements on security, privacy, confidentiality and refunds and returns
In building your prototype e-Commerce website using Joomla!2.5 make use of one or more of following online resources: (1) Cloudaccess.net Knowledge base for Joomla!2.5 ,
(2) Joomla! explained : your step-by-step guide / Stephen Burge (can be purchased as a Kindle Edition, ebook or in hard copy) (3), Official Joomla! Book 2nd Edn Jennifer Marriot & Ein Waring as a Kindle Edition as ebook or in hard copy and (4) Joomla! Beginner's Guide 2.5 free e-book and any other related Joomla! resources which you identify as relevant for completing this assignment.
Task 2 will be assessed for completeness and working functionality based on an inspection of your e-commerce website (you are required to provide the URL of the Joomla!2.5 website that was assigned to you for Assignment 2 in Assignment 4).
TASK 3 - Business Case Report for your e-commerce strategy
You are required to provide a business case for the e-commerce strategy you have adopted for your organization and reflect on your experiences and insight arising from the development of the accompanying e-commerce website in terms of the following:
1. Describe the e-commerce website features and functionality that have been implemented in Task 2. (500 words approx.)
2. List any additional features incorporated in your website over and above the specified requirements (200 words approx.)
3. Provide a site map of your e-commerce website in the form of a tree diagram that shows hierarchical structure of your e-commerce website.
4. List any essential features not implemented in your e-commerce website and describe any major deviations from your original plans outlined in Assignment 2 (400 words approx.)
5. Describe the features that are likely to be implemented in your e-commerce website in the next phase of the development process to further enhance the usability and functionality of your e-commerce site, and how you would use the Joomla CMS to facilitate this (400 words approx.)
6. Briefly describe and reflect on the challenges encountered in using Joomla! as the development environment for your e-commerce website (400 words approx.)
7. Describe how you will address security and privacy issues in your e-commerce website (500 words approx.)
8. Describe how you will address backend integration and legacy system issues associated with your e-commerce website (500 words approx.)
9. List and briefly describe the hardware and software required to establish your e-commerce website as a live and fully functional entity, and provide a table of the estimated costs (hardware, software, human resources, ongoing maintenance, etc.) (400 words approx.)
10. Provide and justify a plan for a live implementation of your proposed e-commerce web site including a prioritised timeline in a table (400 words approx.)
11. Identify and describe the expected benefits that will arise from implementing your e-commerce website (400 words approx.)
12. List and briefly describe how you used any links and resources to research and build your e-commerce site for this assignment (400 words approx.)