Snacks Now - Information Systems - Case Study Example

Information Systems INFS 5093 SP2 2017 Systems Analysis Assessment Student's name Institutional affiliation Case study: Snacks Now From the Systems Planning assessment Dionne Worontschak and John Sawitt own and manage an independent supermarket in the inner suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. They believe in hard work and acting to capture business opportunities. Neither of them went to university, but John holds a Certificate IV in business management from TAFE. They have developed a business concept and it is ready for systems planning. The concept is Snacks Now. Dionne and John have contracted IT Foundry for systems development. You are a systems analyst working at IT Foundry and your manager has allocated to you the systems planning tasks for the Snacks Now project. Snacks Now will offer home deliveries of groceries or fast food to customers who order via a website or smartphone app. Customers will be able to ‘like' Snacks Now on Facebook and follow Snacks Now on Twitter; also they will be able to share and tweet their orders. When customers share or tweet an order they will accrue social points and once the points reach a certain level, customers will be rewarded with a 20% discount on their next order. Customers will also accrue loyalty points with every purchase. When a customer's loyalty points reach a particular threshold, they receive a $20 discount on their next purchase. The menus of participating fast food outlets will be available via Snacks Now. Any groceries that are available in Dionne and John's supermarket can be delivered, including dairy, delicatessen, fruit and vegetables. An online menu will be compiled from the supermarket's inventory system and from the online menus of participating fast food outlets.When customers place an order, they pay via PayPal. Prices will be automatically updated once a week, on Wednesdays. Prices will account for all ongoing costs, plus a 5% profit margin, some of which will recoup start-up costs. Snacks Now will operate Thursday-Sunday nights from 8pm to 5am. If the Snacks Now business concept is successful and opportunity to expand exists, additional hours or nights will be added. As Dionne and John work full time on running the supermarket, they will hire a junior manager who will be responsible for the day-to-day management of Snacks Now. Dionne and John expect to hire one driver in the first instance. If Snacks Now expands, additional positions will be created. The junior manager will be based in the supermarket. He or she will be responsible for compiling orders and handling any issues that arise. The driver will collect an order from the supermarket or from participating fast food outlets. Then, he or she will deliver the order to the address specified by the customer. If no one is home, the order will be left by the front door. As Snacks Now is the first service offering such a wide range of delivered items in Adelaide, there is limited competition. However, it is important that the technology is available as soon as possible in order to capture early adopters. A social media viral marketing campaign is being designed by a local advertising company. Finally, you present your findings to your manager and to Dionne and John. Your manager and clients have requested a 15 minute presentation. You have completed systems planning and Dionne and John have approved the plan you prepared and they have approved progress to the systems analysis phase of the Snacks Now project. At IT Foundry, you have a regular lunch with one of your colleagues, Tanya Collins, who is an old friend from your days as a uni student. At your next lunch, you discuss the Snacks Now project: your recent project planning success, your forthcoming systems analysis tasks and the various plans Dionne and John have for Snacks Now. Tanya says, "So, it's a late night home-delivery service? People can order their favourite pizza and maybe cleaning products and everything is brought in one delivery to their house?" "Not necessarily their house, it could be any address." "Well, it's perfect. I would order from them all the time. How are they going to staff it?" "One person in their supermarket will prepare the orders and a driver will deliver." "One person? Alone in a supermarket all night long? That doesn't sound very safe. It's not a job I'd like to have." You hadn't thought of that, but you can see that Tanya has a point. You wonder if this is something Dionne and John have considered. You have a client meeting scheduled for the next day. You know that future staffing decisions are not really within a systems analyst's purview, but Tanya's comments are troubling you. New Information The preliminary investigation you wrote up for the Snacks Now project enabled you to develop a basic understanding of the business context. Your scope lists and scope statement captured the project's key elements and made a positive impression on Dionne and John. They have approved the project's progression to system analysis and you have scheduled a meeting with them. 1. Prepare for this meeting. Write an agenda that includes six topics you would like to discuss with the Dionne and John (if you do not know what an agenda is, look it up on the internet). These topics should provide them with an opportunity to discuss data and processing in depth. Snacks Now Meeting Agenda Welcome and Introduction 1. Discuss the packaging and presentation procedures 2. Brainstorm on the Snacks Now accounting system 3. Review and finalize menu creation and updating process 4. Discuss the handling of customer databases including the privacy option 5. Discuss the regular presentation of transaction reports 6. Discuss the requirements of data analytics on the website Question & Answer session Any Other Business Conclusion After this meeting, the following requirements are known: The information you provided in the systems planning documents is confirmed, except where it conflicts with the following. When an order is placed, the junior manager will gather items from shelves in the supermarket scan them and package them for delivery. When all the items are packaged, the junior manager will close the ‘packaging' business process for the order; an alert and delivery address will be automatically sent to the driver's mobile device. When items are scanned, the supermarket's inventory database is updated and the transaction is placed in the Snacks Now accounting system (it is not considered a transaction of the supermarket). As the supermarket carries thousands of different products, and as the local fast food outlets also have specific ranges of products, the website and mobile app will have nested menus. When a supermarket product is out of stock, it must not be displayed in the menus. For example, when a hurricane destroys the banana crop in Queensland. The menus are updated dynamically in response to changes in the inventory. Daily, weekly and monthly transaction reports are required. Data analytics on the website and the mobile app are required. A customer database will maintain customer details, transaction history, loyalty and social points. In compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles, it will be possible for customers to opt out of storing any data that identifies them as individuals. As yet, no decision has been made regarding the most effective way to present the items offered by local fast food outlets; suggestions are welcome. Also, a final decision on which accounting software will be used for Snacks Now has not yet been made, but Dionne and John have expressed a preference for buying a second license for the accounting system they are already using for the supermarket. You make a start on systems analysis. It is clear that system response times are important. It is also clear that interfacing with the supermarket's existing inventory database is important. However, you also realize more detailed information will come to light over time, which may require you to amend your current analysis. Data and process modelling 2. What is the purpose of a full set of data flow diagrams? Data flow diagrams offer a pictorial view of the processes in a continuous manner. It also shows the connectivity and interrelation of the functional processes. 3. Do data flow diagrams show system logic and decision points? Explain. Yes Data flow diagrams illustrate the system's logical flow from beginning to end with the different processes and entities denoted by rectangle shapes. They also consider the different procedures undertaken depending on the choice/decisions made at decision points which are represented by a rhombus (Kendall & Kendall, 2010). 4. Why is it important for a systems analyst to understand how data flows through an information system? It is important for a system analyst to understand the data flows so as to analyze the system and determine its specific requirements (processes and entities) and whether they will be manual or automated for the processes. It also helps the analyst to visualize the sub-systems and the system as a whole (Dennis, Wixom & Roth, 2014). 5. Draw a context diagram for the Snacks Now information system. 6. With respect to DFDs, what does ‘balanced' mean? This is where the incoming and outgoing data flows at one level correspond to the incoming and outgoing flows of the next level (Valaich, George & Hoffer, 2015). 7. Draw two Level 1 DFDs for the new information system. (Tilley & Rossenblat, 2017) 8. Write your top five tips for how to read a set of DFDs. Identify the processes and entities Isolate the level 0 (context) diagrams Analyze the data flow and interrelation of the entities and processes in the context diagram Using the data flow symbols, follow through from the context diagram to get detailed information of the system Examine the diagram in a holistic manner consolidating the data collected in the previous steps 9. Name the data stores in the new information system. Inventory database Customer database 10. Draw a FDD for the new information system. (Tilley & Rossenblat, 2017 ) 11. Identify and name four functional primitives in the new information system. Order processing Storing the customer and order information Billing and payment Delivery of the order 12. Draw a modular design for two of the functional primitives named in your previous answer. 13. Draw a decision tree for the other two functional primitives. (Tilley & Rossenblat, 2017) Development Strategies 14. Explain how you will make the build or buy decisions for the new information system. Making the build or buy decision calls for consideration of different factors. These factors includes: cost, time frame, features and nature of the system and the expected return on initial investment. The combination of these factors that will give an efficient, easy and a working system will present the analyst with which decision to take. The advantages of buying are: less expenses during installation, easier adaptation and transition and may also have an easy incorporation with the main system since it a tested system. However, it has standard features that may not fit the customer's system. For the payment, accounting and inventory system, the buy option is viable since the systems are already in place which can perform the functions in the system. For the discounts calculation, the building system will work best to cater for the specific system functions. 15. You prepare a systems requirements document for Dionne and John. What sections will you include? Payment Loyalty points and discount system Storage system 16. For which components of the new information system will you recommend prototyping? Why? Ordering and loyalty points system - This is a relatively new service in the area hence there are no established methods in the area. Additionally, the incorporation of two stores presents a technological challenge. The inclusion of the loyalty points of two different types is also a complex technical point which requires a prototype to perfect the technology. Ethical analysis During prototyping, some database integrity issues arise. In the testing sandpit, your code passes data to the supermarket's inventory system (YourInventory), but the inventory system does not update data as it should. You have run 263 automated tests, the test results show the error three times and each time it was under a different set of test data with no apparent consistency. The error causes certain products to have incorrect inventory levels in the database and you are not able to explain it. YourInventory is not an IT Foundry product, it was developed by Retail Systems, Inc. You call a former colleague, Patrick, who works at Retail Systems and you discuss the inexplicable error. Patrick has never heard of this type of error and says there might be something wrong with the sandpit version of YourInventory if someone at IT Foundry had tinkered with its settings. At this point of the project, the budget for systems analysis is almost exhausted and further testing will add significant costs. You speak to your manager who advises you to demo the prototype for Dionne and John without mentioning the error, because it is unlikely to arise during the demo, Dionne and John are unlikely to be able to help you fix it, and it can be fixed during the design and implementation phases of the project. But you prefer to fix it now because it will be harder and more expensive to fix during design, and even more so during implementation. Analyse this scenario by responding the following questions. These questions encourage you to apply the stages of the ethical decision-making process described in O'Boyle (2002). This reading can be located on the course web site. Do not overlook the ‘Why?' questions as these support the development of your certitude. 17. Stage 1, perception. Identify all ethical problems suggested by the scenario above. The problem of the error in the database is unexplainable due to different reasons, including inadequate funds for further testing. Retail Inc. did not fully investigate the error in the database. The follow up of Patrick's feedback from Retail Inc. of someone tinkering with the settings was not done. The manager assumes that the errors will affect both the community and Snacks Now (O’Boyle, 2002). 18. Stage 2, discernment. Which of the ethical problems is the most significant? Why? There is an error in the database, and occurs during testing and on three occasions. The analyst cannot find the causes of the error since there is no repetitive pattern to the situation. Due to inadequate funds, the analyst cannot do further testing to establish the problem. This error will affect both the customers and Snacks now as neither will be able to get accurate inventory results. The manager's assumption of the error means that the error was left unsolved and was passed on to the subsequent stages. The error at its primary stage affected the inventory and the menu. These errors will be carried forward and may also develop through the stages, hence making it difficult to solve it in the late stages. 19. Stage 3, resolution. Articulate your resolve with respect to the most significant ethical problem. The resolution to this problem will be informing the manager on the seriousness of the error and requesting for more funds and time to clear the error. 20. Stage 4, assessment. Are you qualified to act in accordance with your resolve or do you need to seek the advice of an independent expert? Why? Seeking advice of an independent expert will boost the chances of sorting the problem faster and efficiently. Sticking to the resolve, which already requires additional help, will slow down the process hence not creating an effective solution. 21. Stage 5, decision. What are your professional duties in this situation? Why? Informing Snacks Now management on the error found, its effects in the system and the course of action planned to be taken. This will help the management and stakeholders to understand and plan for the future. Solving the error in the database as soon as possible so as to adhere to enhance the quality of the product. 22. Stage 6, action. Have stages 1-5 enabled you to form a commitment to action? Why? Yes The stages have clearly elaborated the problems resulting from the analyst and manager's actions and their effects on the Snacks Now system. Any professional compromise taken by the analyst will result in dire consequences on the system, management and also the analyst's future works (image). Conceptual development So far, this assignment has supported the development of skills required in professional practice, including ethics. Now, it supports the development of professional expertise. 23. What is the overall purpose of the systems analysis phase of a project and how does it differ from the systems planning phase? The system planning phase identifies the different sections and subsystems that require development. It precedes system analysis and provides a basis for the analysis. The systems analysis phase seeks to gain an understanding of the system as a whole and also per section. This enables users to understand the system requirements and also the needed information in the system (Satzinger, Jackson & Burd, 2011). Consider the case study above and the analysis you have prepared. You may have completed the tasks with a lot of care. If so, your analysis is more likely to be effective in supporting future project activities. Consider a situation in which the analysis was conducted in a careless manner. 24. With respect to the systems analysis tasks completed above, identify problems that may arise for the following stakeholders. Your answer should have six unique problems (two per stakeholder). a. Snacks Now The allocation of funds during the analysis and later phases might be tampered Acquisition of the proper requirements and skilled labour for different departments might not be done accurately b. Snacks Now's customers or the wider community Customers might experience mistaken identities due to the customer database. There might be confusion of orders or their delivery. c. Your own future work tasks (systems design tasks) There will be doubt and lack of confidence in completion of future design tasks There will be a possible drop in wages offered. 25. With reference to three of the problems you have identified above, what are your conclusions about the importance of attention to detail with respect to systems analysis? Detailed information is the main focus in system analysis. Identification of the small details will give a report that fully encompasses the sections and enlightens the stakeholders on the expected outcome. Inadequate information will lead to omission of some actions that may prove fatal in the later phases. Recall the systems planning assessment asked you to draw some conclusions about the importance of attention to detail during systems planning activities. In this assignment, you are thinking about and demonstrating systems analysis. 26. Read and think about your answer to question 25 of the Systems Planning assessment. Compare it to your answer to question 25above. Identify and discuss two important differences in your answers. Note: this question does not ask you to compare systems planning and systems analysis. Instead, it asks you to compare what you think about these two topics. The focuses of the two topics are different. System analysis focuses on the detailed report of the whole system while in planning; the focus is giving an overview of the whole system. The objective of the two phases differ, hence their end products are different. The fact that systems’ planning precedes the analysis means that the former forms the foundation of the analysis. Not for assessment How many hours did you invest in this assessment? This information will be provided to future students in this course. 35 hours Reference List Dennis A. Wixom B.H. & Roth R.M., 2014. Systems analysis and design. John Wiley & Sons Kendall J.E. & Kendall K.E., 2010 Systems analysis and design. Prentice Hall Press O'Boyle, E J 2002, 'An ethical decision-making process for computing professionals', Ethics and Information Technology, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 267-277. Satzinger J.W., Jackson R.B & Burd S.D., 2011. Systems analysis and design in a changing world. Cengage Learning. Tilley S. & Rosenblatt H., 2017, Systems Analysis and Design, 11th edition, Cengage Learning. Valaich S. J., George F.J. & Hoffer A.J. 2015 Essentials of System Analysis and Design, 6th edition, Pearson Education Read More