Systems Analysis and Design Example Project

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Marist is a private, nonprofit, Roman Catholic, college preparatory, coeducational day school for students in Grades 7-12. Their Campus Ministry provides students with personal volunteer retreat opportunities and experiences in community service.

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Currently, Marist sponsors a Volunteer Outreach Program that provides volunteer services at sites throughout the community. Each student at Marist is required to volunteer their time in the program for a certain amount of hours each semester. The program director Karen Shanahan, is responsible for cataloging all of the sites and maintaining records of each student and the amount of hours they have volunteered. At the present time, Mrs Shanahan uses little slips of paper as her only means of documentation. This has become a very tedious process as there are more than 1000 students enrolled at Marist. The objective of this team project was to implement a DBMS that would allow Mrs. Shanahan to catalog each volunteer site and maintain a record of each student's participation in the program. Throughout the Systems Development Life Cycle we produced the following deliverables: p p p p p

Baseline Project Plan System Requirements Report System Models Report Systems Design Report System Implementation Plan

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 !   "2      General Project Information Project Name: Marist School Outreach Program Sponsor: Marist School Problem/Opportunity Statement Increased opportunity to serve community Increased need for comprehensive cataloging of service projects The school's desire to us their resources more efficiently Project Objectives To enable the Outreach Coordinator flexibility in scheduling To keep track of students service activity To track service sites and potential service sites c
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Project Description A new Database Management System will be designed installed and maintained. This database will provide tracking for existing and potential service sights as well as student activity. The database will provide information about the sights and the amount of service students have performed compared to requisite hours of service. Opportunity for the Outreach Program to grow and encompass more locations as well as more volunteers. Business Benefits Improved record keeping Improved information tracking Improved public image New marketing channels Project Deliverables: Marist School Outreach Program DBMS Estimated Project Duration: 2 months &!* 

  2 After reviewing the planning process, it is recommended that the Marist School Outreach Program DBMS be developed. The costs that will be incurred will not exceed the benefits that will be enjoyed by the company and its community once the installation and training is complete.

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) !    a. Low End Solution: i. Maintain the current paper system b.

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High End Solution: i. Contract outside service to design, install and train new DBMS ii. Outsource training of current employee to design new DBMS Recommended Solution:

The Low End Solution is more than adequate for Marist School Outreach Program, considering what the director has accomplished using her current paper shuffling method. Having the current offer of volunteer personnel as well as donated equipment should not be overlooked. Another advantage is the flexibility this new system will provide for someone coming off the streets to be able to run the Outreach Program, should that need arise.

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&!  a. The completed Database Management System will provide all users the information needed to succeed in offering the best available coverage for the volunteer lists as well as the volunteer sights. b. Maintenance will be performed on a yearly basis by volunteers from the schools faculty.

!'    !%    One of the benefits of choosing this project is the fact that costs will be kept at a minimum. All necessary PC hardware and software is being donated from the Parents Club at Marist School. The fact that this project will be spared much of the major costs, such as PC equipment, makes the project quite feasible. Marist School is a large private school, but has a set budget for each school year. This would be a problem for this project if it were not for the fact that donations are being made. The school¶s budget did not take into consideration this project. The DBMS project will not have to cut into Marist¶s budget for this school year, and in turn it will leave the budget for other projects that will require major costs. &!#     There are several technical risk factors associated with this project. One of the project team¶s concerns is that the donated equipment will not be powerful enough to support the proposed DBMS. Each PC that will be integrated into the network will have certain requirements, such as an allotted amount of memory for the DBMS and the speed that the machine operates at. End Users will not want to operate a terminal that does not have a quick response and takes minutes to load programs such as the DBMS. Another important concern is that the DBMS will need to be user friendly. Many of the End Users for this DBMS will have little or no computer or technology knowledge. The project team will have to take this fact into consideration when designing the DBMS. Key- strokes should be easy, display screens should be easy to read, reports and forms should be easily accessible, etc.« The possibility of future upgrades is also a technical concern. Marist will have to keep up with the fast paced technology world and make the necessary hardware and software upgrades. The school should factor this into future budget plans in order to keep the DBMS functional and compatible with other programs. The technical risk of this project is indeed present, as is in any other technology related project. However, with the project team fully aware of these risks, the project should be able to be successfully completed with little or no concern of such risks. The risk involved with this project is considered moderate but under control.

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Ý!     Currently at Marist School one individual, the Outreach Coordinator, maintains the Outreach program. This individual has no access to computer equipment; all data and information gathered concerning this program is on paper. Converting all paperwork to electronic data will greatly enhance the Coordinator¶s capabilities as well as others involved with the program. All data will be stored in the proposed DBMS, allowing for easy flow among data. It will greatly reduce data redundancy; currently data is stored over and over on paper each day. Paperwork will no longer have to be filed away in space hogging file cabinets. Other program volunteers and employees will have PC terminals to enter data into forms and reports. The Coordinator can then manipulate this data with the ease of the DBMS. Forms can be re-printed each day with different information and reports can be run to combine this data. The proposed DBMS will be an operational advantage to the Coordinator, who will no longer have to maintain stacks of paperwork and dated file cabinets full of old paperwork. !   #   *    The scheduled completion date of this project is December 15, 2001. Factors that will contribute to meeting the completion date are the project team¶s capability to implement the DBMS in the allotted time and the training that will be necessary for the use of the DBMS. The Coordinator will need adequate time to be trained for the use of the system, so the design and implementation of the project will have to be completed before training can begin. The DBMS should be completed in time to allow for 3 full days of training at Marist. Three days will allow for proper training and potential questions regarding the system to be made and answered. The design of the DBMS will be completed on November 21, 2001. This will allow for ample time for project testing, potential problem corrections, and setting up and running the DBMS at Marist School.

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  !# Ý    $   Each member of the team will participate and complete project tasks throughout each phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle. The responsibilities of each team member are as follows: a. Project Manager Erik Friebolin will serve as the Project Manager, his responsibilities will include, directing the team, controlling the project scope, monitoring issues and instituting change control.

b. Business Area Expert, Trainer

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Marlene Topping will serve as the Business Area Expert and Trainer for the project. As an employee of the organization for which the system will be designed, Marlene will be relied upon to provide concise and accurate knowledge. Upon completion of the project, Marlene will assume the role of Trainer. Her duties will then be to develop the curriculum, create support materials and properly train all users of the system.

c. Document Architect, Object Architect Elisabeth Bruce will serve as the Document Architect and Object Architect. Elisabeth will be responsible for creating all documentation needed to support the system. In addition, her duties as object architect will require her to create the object models and ensure that they are complete and traceable.

d. Database Architect, Object Developer Larry Nelson will serve as the Database Architect and Object Developer. He will be responsible for building and designing the database from the object models created by the Object Architect.

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    The project team will use several methods of communication. The primary method used will be group meetings. These meetings are to be held at the end of class each Monday and Wednesday. As the project nears completion, it might be necessary for the team to meet once or twice outside of class. The secondary form of communication will be through electronic mail or facsimile. Using this type of communication will allow team members to share documents when group meetings are not possible. The final method by which the team will communicate will be through use of the telephone. Each member of the team has provided his or her home and cellular telephone numbers. All correspondence to the client will be done via written progress reports after each phase of development. Ý!        In the event that a team member feels that changes need to be made to the direction or objectives of the project, that individual will need to notify the project manager. The project manager will then present this information to the other members of the group for discussion. If the request(s) are determined to be feasible and the team believes that they will result in added value, the decision will be put to a vote. !    # Any issues relevant to the project that arise during the planning phase should be c
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first presented to the project manager who will then in turn present them to the team. Back to top

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The members of Group #3 have undertaken a project that involves the creation of a database application for the Volunteer Outreach Program at Marist School in Atlanta, GA. A database is needed to track each of the volunteer sites, volunteers, number of hours assigned to each work detail and possible volunteer sights. Listed below are the entities and their attributes:

1. Volunteer - A volunteer is any student at Marist School who volunteers time at a volunteer site. A volunteer has the following attributes: Attributes: Each volunteer will be uniquely identified by a volunteer identification number (volunteer_ID). Personal information about the volunteer such as name, address, telephone number, classification, hours earned, legal guardian will also be maintained. Because many of the volunteer sites require students who can drive, the database will also need to track students who have driver's licenses. 2. Volunteer Site - A volunteer site is a location at which the students participating in the outreach program volunteer their time. Attributes: Each volunteer site will be identified by a volunteer site identification number (volunteer_site_ID). The information that the database will need to maintain in regards to the volunteer site include: the name of the contact person for the site, site address, telephone number, the type of work required, the number of hours required, the number of volunteers needed, distance from the Marist campus, the Marist supervisor for the location, and the date that the site was serviced.

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    Since there is no current system in place for the Outreach Program, the implementation plan should be straight forward. We do not need to worry about converting existing data into the new DBMS, or deal with issues regarding cutovers. The only real issue was to ensure that correct up to date information was entered into the DMBS system, which would allow the system to be functional immediately. Our first step was to compile accurate and current information from the program director. We assisted her in compiling this information into a series of spreadsheets that we could then cut and paste the information into the tables within the DMBS. Due to the current ³paper system´, there was a considerable amount of data redundancy and errors that had to be corrected before the tables were truly accurate. This process proved to be the most time consuming throughout the entire implementation process.

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Marist decided that they would like to have the DBMS available from anywhere within their network. Since all workstations already had copies of MS Access, this made the deployment much easier. Once the tables were populated with correct information, the DBMS system was installed on their main NT file server. This would allow all clients on their local network to access the DBMS system to update information and access reports. Finally, we had to touch every client to provide a ³shortcut´ to the DBMS system, but fortunately the clients are clustered together and this process was not too difficult.

%   $   Listed below are the evaluation criteria that our group has used in order to determine whether or not the DBMS was successful in all aspects of the project scope. · User Compatibility · Ease of Operations · Paperless Office · Positive Feedback After fully implementing the DBMS at Marist School and allowing time for testing and training, the Outreach Director can now successfully use the DBMS in place of all previous paper related forms, reports, and personal information. The Director is completely knowledgeable at using the DBMS. The Director finds our DBMS a ³user-friendly, easy way of storing information without all of the paperwork´. The Director has high hopes that she will continue to learn more about the system and perhaps be able to add to it in the near future. The forms are easy to read, the reports are exactly what the Director needs in order to keep track of volunteer hours, and there is n longer a use for the many file cabinets that are busting at the seams in her office. The Director also reports that the students are pleased with the new system. The students enjoy the fact that they can have access to their information and are able to run a report to keep track of their volunteer hours that have been earned. The Outreach Director is extremely happy with the end results of our project. The DBMS has not experienced any down time, and our team has devised a handbook for troubleshooting if a problem should arise.

$    The Marist School Outreach Program DBMS will have adequate ability to maintain the system at regular intervals. The following areas will be specifically addressed in this maintenance procedure. 1. User Compatibility will be handled through the use of user surveys. After each user's initial input to system, they will be required to complete a survey c
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form. Once a significant number of surveys have been compiled, the information will be assessed and the Project Team #3 will meet to review the results. 2. Ease of Operations will be primarily handled with the use of the training manual which will be developed by Project Team #3 during the implementation phase. This documentation may be revised according to the findings in #1. 3. Paperless office will be accomplished through the successful use of the DBMS. 4. Positive Feedback will be provided via the survey form. If another survey is required, the Project Team #3 will provide same during implementation period. Back to top



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