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Mewslade Project Proposal

Josh Hopkins
HND Year 2 assignment

Bridgwater College HND

Mewslade Project Proposal

2012

HE ASSIGNMENT FRONT SHEET

Programme Title: Unit Number/Title: Title of Assignment: Assignment Internally Verified by: Tutor Name: Issue Date: 03/01/2012 Higher National Diploma Computing & Systems Development Year Two Unit 1 Business Skills for e-Commerce, Unit 8 Management of Projects, Unit 10 HCI, Unit 17 Database Design Concepts, Unit 29 e-Commerce Strategy, Unit 32 Quality Systems in IT, Unit 33 Data Analysis & Design Assignment 2 Joint: Mewslade Database and e-Commerce System Analysis, Design, Develop and Document Greg Chamberlain Fran MacKenzie Submission Date: Re-Submission Date:
Unit 1 Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment Criteria. P1.1 P1.2 P2.1 Task No. 1v 1v 1i Met Criteria. D1.3 D1.4 D2.2 Met Unit 8 PASS Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment Criteria. P1.2 P2.1 P2.2 Task No. 1iii 1vii, 1viii 1vii Met Criteria. M3.3 M3.4 M3.5 Met Unit 10 PASS Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment Criteria. P2.1 P3.1 P3.2 Task No. 1iv 3i, 4ii 3ii Met Criteria. M3.2 M3.3 M3.4 Met Unit 17 Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment P2.2 1i D3.7 P3.1 1ii P3.2 1ii P3.3 1ix P3.4 3iv P3.5 4i M1.2 M1.3 M2.1 M2.3 M3.1 M3.2 M3.3

Date: 22/08/2011 21/05/12

P2.3 1viii D1.2

P2.5 1viii D2.1

P3.1 P3.2 1vii, 1viii 1viii D2.2 D2.3

P3.5 4v D2.4

M1.1

M1.2

M1.3

M2.2

M2.3

M2.4

M3.1

M3.2

D3.1

P3.3 4iii, 4v M3.5

P3.4 4iii D1.2

P3.5 4v D2.1

P3.6 3i, 4ii D2.2

P3.7 4iv D2.3

M1.1

M1.2

M1.3

M2.1

M2.2

M2.3

M2.4

M3.1

D3.1

Mewslade Project Proposal

Criteria. P2.1 P2.2 P3.1 P3.2 Task No. 1vi 1vi 3iii 3i, 3iii Met Criteria. M3.4 M3.5 D1.2 D2.1 Met Unit 29 Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment Criteria. P1.1 P1.2 P2.1 P3.1 Task No. 1i, 1ii 1i, 1ii 3iv 2ii Met Criteria. D3.7 Met Unit 32 Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment Criteria. P1.1 P1.2 P1.3 P2.1 Task No. 2i 2ii 2iii 2iii Met Criteria. M3.5 D1.2 D2.1 D2.2 Met Unit 33 PASS Targeted Criteria Within This Assignment Criteria. P2.1 P2.2 P2.3 P3.1 Task No. 3i, 3v 4ii 4ii 4ii Met Criteria. M2.3 M2.4 M3.1 M3.2 Met P3.3 4v D2.2 P3.4 4iv D2.3 M1.1 M1.2 M1.3 M2.1 M2.2 M2.3 M2.4 M3.1 M3.2

2012
M3.3

D3.1

P3.2 3v

P3.3 3iv, 3v

P3.4 3iv

M1.2

M1.3

M2.1

M2.3

M3.1

M3.2

M3.3

D1.3

D2.2

P3.1 1viii D2.3

P3.2 1vi D2.4

M1.1

M1.3

M2.1

M2.2

M2.3

M2.4

M3.1

M3.2

M3.3

M3.4

D3.1

P3.2 4ii M3.3

P3.3 4ii M3.4

P4.1 4iii M3.5

P4.2 4iii D1.2

P4.3 4iv D2.1

P4.4 4v D2.2

P4.5 4v D2.3

M1.1

M1.2

M1.3

M2.1

M2.2

D3.1

You must fill in your name in lieu of a signature on the assignment front sheet to attest that the work is entirely your own unless otherwise stated in the body of the assignment. Failure to do this will invalidate your submission. The written element of the assignment should be in Word format. Your work should be submitted as a single zip file via the assignment submission area provided in the Blackboard assignments folder. Your files should be named HND_U1_U8_U10_U17_U29_U32_U33_A2. Do not name the files anything else as they will not be picked up and you will be deemed not to have submitted this will result in a fail. Statement of Authentication: I declare all work within the submitted assignment to be entirely my own unless otherwise stated and that I fully understand the college disciplinary process for plagiarism. Josh Hopkins 07/02/2012 Print Student Name: Date: Re-Submission Date:

Mewslade Project Proposal

i (U1 P.2.1, P2.2 U29 P1.1, P1.2) Analyse and discuss the impact, both to consumers and business, of introducing an e-commerce solution and include reference to the scenario to illustrate your points. Include a discussion of the global impact of e-commerce on society and common applications that can be used in the e-commerce solution.

E-commerce and its impacts and influences on society, and the global market

E-Commerce, business and consumers. E-commerce has become a widely utilized and prominent solution to business over recent years mainly due to the fact that it is extremely convenient for everyday users. E-commerce is essentially the buying and selling of goods or services over the internet. For years if you wanted to buy something such as t-shirt or a book youd have to go to a high street retailer and look for it, this could mean hours of walking around aimlessly looking for something and then finding out that nowhere has it in stock. E-commerce essentially eliminates the need for this, because of the fact that a vast majority of businesses in the modern age either solely trade online, or have both high street and online shops. E-commerce has revolutionized the way that business is done in the modern age, and represents a large percentage of all sales made every year, a day named Cyber Monday is named as the day on which spending online was marked as a record high. In a quote from .. This years Cyber Monday was the biggest day in online spending ever, with $1.25 billion spent at online retailers, up 22 percent from a year ago This quote shows that online shopping is on the rise, and despite times of economic uncertainty people still shop and spend substantial amounts of money online. The way that companies use e-commerce is extremely important and can have a huge impact on the success of the company, there are various aspects that make e-commerce advantageous to both the business themselves and the customer. One of these aspects is the ease of use, because of the fact that most high-street shops will have opening times, and may not be accessible to customers outside of certain areas this means that they would not have anywhere near as many customers due to the fact they only have a small target market, for example if a small company based in the UK has a small shop in Cornwall, they have no website and only trade from the shop premises. This means that their target market would be mainly either people visiting the area and those that live there, which narrows their target market down to a tiny percentage of the country, and furthermore a miniscule percentage of the international market. If however the company was to take a web approach as well as the shop, this would broaden their target market to the

Mewslade Project Proposal

international market fully, which would mean that people that dont live near or can commute to the premises directly can acquire the products that they sell over the internet. In terms of Sun Parks implementing an e-commerce system in place of their current system it would have a lot of beneficial aspects due to the fact it would be a lot more organised and efficient not only for the company themselves but also for the customer, whereas the current system requires the customer to enquire and book with separate offices depending on which holiday park they were looking at going to, this is extremely inconvenient. One of the easiest ways to start up an e-commerce solution is to use something like PayPal, PayPal is a checkout system used by various e-commerce sites, using PayPal as a payment method can be advantageous in the fact that a lot of people have PayPal accounts set up already or are willing to enter their details into PayPal and create an account, however some will not, despite e-commerce from larger online retailers being fairly secure, some people still dont like to enter their details online, there are various reasons for why some people dont like to purchase online such as the fact that they cannot actually see or touch the product their buying, this can lead to becoming anxious as to whether what your buying actually exists as there is no tangible object. Global effects of E-Commerce E-commerce is used globally as a business solution for various companies that offer various products and services; this can be viewed as both good and bad. There are several reasons why it is good, of course one of the main ones is that it is convenient and is the fastest and easiest way to bring products or services to the global market. Although e-commerce is a profound solution to business it can have its drawbacks. Because of the fact that the internet is such a vast cyber space, it means that is is fairly difficult for a new company to become recognized and gain credibility, so without a high-street name already it is very difficult to climb onto the ever growing list of big e-commerce players such as Amazon and Play.com, these are two e-commerce giants that accumulate insert figure here worth of revenue every day. So thus far research done on the business field shows that it has a positive impact on business, due to the fact that both small and large companies alike have a facility to market their products to the global market as well as local areas, and due to the price of an e-commerce site compared to renting premises in some cases all over the country it is a lot cheaper. In a similar way e-commerce effects society, this is because of the fact that it impacts everything. E-commerce changes the way that millions of people have done the same way for many years,

Mewslade Project Proposal

some stores have moved entirely online, and despite the digital divide becoming ever smaller, there are still social implications that mean that companies may lose out on custom. For example some people may not be able to afford to have the internet, in more remote places there are blind spots meaning that the internet is not available to some people. This in turn means that they may not have access to certain products and services that are only available online and may miss out on the best deals due to the fact that they do not have access to them. Social Implications of E-Commerce. E-commerce despite being healthy in some respects for business does have a rather profound effect on society as a whole, there are several aspects of which e-commerce effects within society, due to the fact that it is a growth on top of an already massive global trading market, and in some instances has replaced the traditional way that some businesses trade. E-commerce is to many people an easy and convenient way to acquire products and services, without having to even leave the house. For people that live further away from areas with shopping centres and high streets it allows them access to products and services they would not have been able to acquire without travelling, in some cases great distances, to get them. In some cases it has allowed for people to become lazy and dependant on technology, because of the fact that almost everything is available online to be delivered straight to your door. Another of the impacts that E-commerce has on society is that it removes the face to face buying and selling that was as standard before e-commerce was introduced. This means that although consumers can buy from places they trust, other times the products or service they require may not be available through somewhere that they are familiar with, which in turns means that they are possibly buying from a company that they know nothing about, this requires trust in the seller from the buyers point of view. Buying online comes with its own risks entirely, that you would not usually get when buying physically from a high street store, these all circle around the heading of security. The media has a lot of stories surrounding peoples views on online shopping, and according to Metro.co.uk One in Three people is scared to shop online, this is because many are scared to enter their credentials online due to fears that security is not strong enough to protect them, even though the vast majority of major online retailers such as Amazon and EBay use several layer of protection to encrypt users sensitive information. Despite the efforts of most companies doing all they can to protect customers shopping at their online store some people are still scared to enter their details online due to fears that their information will be sold on to the highest bidder. This I turn means that the online shopping sector cannot reach its potential size and growth until these problems are addressed. In terms of the Mewslade e-commerce solution, the security aspects of the site will be important especially as customers will be booking online and paying deposits so the site will need to be secure so that it can safely and securely handle any transactions that have to be carried out through the sites chosen payment solution. Effects on consumers. E-commerce and its effect on consumers is a very potent topic and there are a lot of impacts surrounding it, both positive and negative. E-commerce as previously stated is the act of buying and selling goods and services over the internet, so of course there are going to be complications, in various different areas. One of the areas of concern with E-commerce is the security aspect, and

Mewslade Project Proposal

as with everything users can be sceptical about entering their sensitive information online, and there are concerns about security, as identity theft and cyber-crime are on the rise. A statistic shows that one three users on the internet are scared to enter their financial information online, which immediately poses a risk to the growth of e-commerce itself as well as business that operate solely online, because of the fact they could be losing up to a third on average of their target market. Another of the effects on consumers in terms of e-commerce is that there is no way of knowing who you are buying from, as the human interaction is taken out of the equation, which in turns leads to scepticism in users not being able to ask direct questions or even see the object that they are buying, of course with services there is no guarantee that the user will receive the service that they are paying for, so the byer places trust in the seller that they will receive the goods/services that they have paid for, obviously in most areas there are protections from being scammed but sometimes it is difficult to assess the legitimacy of a website. Despite there being some concerns with certain aspects of e-commerce, there are also some positive aspects. The fact that consumers are able to obtain products via the internet that they may not normally be able to get without a lot of added cost or hassle, which means that online services offer convenience, and often at very competitive prices. This is good for consumers as it means that they can avoid a lot of inflating costs on the high street, this is because if an ecommerce solution is well implemented, it can lower the companies costs allowing for the company to pass those savings on to the consumer, thus saving the consumer money. Another of the benefits available to consumers via e-commerce is a more personalised shopping experience, meaning that customers can shop the way that they want to. It also allows customisation so people can have things exactly as they want them, which is ultimately what people really want. An example of this would be Amazon, as it offers a personalised service to users with registered accounts, and allows you to easily create wish lists and store viewed items. Users also receive an updated list of recommendations when they log in. Ultimately e-commerce is very useful and beneficial to consumers as it offers an easy and convenient way to find great goods and services at great prices online, without having to leave the house, and goods/services can also be purchased on the fly so that customers can easily purchase the things they want, when they want them.

Effects on business. E-commerce is widely used in business more and more due to the fact that it is becoming more robust and can provide a massive boost to trading, and ultimately makes the company more money. As a now prominent business solution, e-commerce has come a long way to providing a stable platform on which companies can trade. Some companies that began as high-street names have transformed into online businesses due to the fact that it most cases it is cheaper to host a website than it is to rent a property from which to set-up shop.

Mewslade Project Proposal

E-commerce has various effects on the business itself, one of these being that if the company is also a high-street brand with many stores, it will increase its expenditure due to the fact the website would need to be built and maintained, however if this is done correctly it would allow the company to make back that money in the long run, and provide another source of income to the company. As well as e-commerce providing another route for the company to extend their target market, it also allows for the company to develop and grow as it provides new ways to enhance their services.

New features that web sites offer include the ability to build an order over several days, configure products and see actual prices, easily build complicated custom orders, compare prices between multiple vendors easily and search large catalogs easily

E-commerce applications. E-commerce as a whole is the idea of trading online, but there are several applications available to businesses in order to give them an e-commerce solution so they do not have to build and integrate a system from scratch. When implementing an E-commerce solution there are several aspects that need to be looked at carefully, due to the fact that in the case of Mewslade it will be an entire new system to replace the old one, and not to run parallel with it so obviously it is vital that the new system has all of the functionality of the old system with all of the new components added, and those components must all work optimally together. Because the new system for Mewslade is a radical change from the old system the staff will also more than likely need to be trained, this could mean further costs to the company, but as the new proposed system will probably increase custom. E-commerce applications are solutions that allow a company to easily set up a website and start trading; they vary from open-source applications to pay monthly solutions each having their advantages and disadvantages. In terms of the Mewslade system because of the type of system the proposal is it would be best to use a stable and secure e-commerce solution as when implemented it will be their sole point of trading. 3DCart is an e-commerce application that allows for trading online; essentially it is a shopping cart for a company so that the company can display their products and services online using an electronic shop-front. E-commerce applications in terms of their advantages to business can be very beneficial as they are not usually expensive solutions and can be effective especially in terms of advertising and accessibility worldwide; this means that a company that is based in the UK can offer their products and/or services to people all over the UK and the rest of the world depending on what the product or service is, because of this it allows for much lower costs within business as this can expand the business worldwide with a single building or headquarters for the company itself. Before E-commerce came into being companies that wanted to trade worldwide had to set up new shops and possibly management facilities in various countries around the world in order to cater for that country, obviously now with E-commerce thats not the case.

Mewslade Project Proposal

Despite the UK slipping back into recession the amount of online sales this Christmas is set to rise by 14% when compared to last year which is good news for all e-commerce businesses. During December consumers are predicted to spend 13.4 billion via online shopping methods. In comparison sales on the high street are expected to fall by 2.1% with a total of 55.7 billion being spent in shops a trend which is only expected to continue due to the popularity of the Internet.

In the above statement taken from mushroomdigital.co.uk it states the predictive statistics for December 2011 in the lead up to Christmas, showing that e-commerce was predicted to make more in sales than on the high street, as it states this is good for all e-commerce businesses. Ecommerce applications are usually just a platform on which companies can display their products and services so it is not a wonder solution that will instantly mean that a company is going to receive booming profits and become a commerce giant overnight, but it does help. The Mewslade project solution would require a much simpler E-commerce application that would run within the website, due to the fact that the company is essentially selling a service and has no need for a shop-front so to speak. Due to the fact that the proposed Mewslade system doesnt really need a shop-front, it would require something along the lines of a fairly simple payment solution. There are several options available to use, SagePay and PayPal are used fairly commonly in various solutions to accept payments via credit/debit cards and by phone. SagePay

ii (U1 P3.1, P3.2 U29 P1.1, P1.2) Research the market for the proposed Sun Parks e-commerce solution and analyse and discuss the potential market including the expectations of the internet customers. Include analysis of at least two similar e-commerce organisations and the system they use. Market research into people that would use/benefit from sun parks. People that would use Sun Parks Families Holiday/getaway Couples Groups (for stag/hen parties) Current sites? Analyse market.

Mewslade Project Proposal

Market Analysis for the proposed Sun Parks e-commerce solution. The market for Sun Parks is an already very well established scene, and there are many sites and locations available for booking via the internet. E-commerce is becoming and evermore prominent solution to business within the travel and tourism sector. Because of the increasing pressure for all businesses and organizations to embrace e-commerce as either the primary shop front, or as an equal measure to its high-street stores (if it has any). It is estimated that E-commerce turnover doubles every 9 -12 months, meaning that given the nature of the sun parks business there is room for development within the company itself which is always a good thing, it means that they will have an ability to expand and grow whilst maintaining low costs. The sun parks solution is a similar concept to various other sites out there that offers similar services, this would mean that the sun parks solution would need to stand out and be robust enough to hold up against the better known and better established competition. Haven Holidays is one well-known name within the English holiday market, and have a substantial number of sites within the UK, similar to what sun parks hope to achieve.

Haven.com is a holiday site for holiday parks within the UK, as the image above shows the website is fairly well designed and helpful. It has a search form so that users can specify which holiday park they are looking for or just search by area, it also has a feature that allows a time frame in which they would like to look for the site to available to them, and also allows them to select a filter so that it only displays search results for sites that take pets. All of the offers are also featured above the fold of the page, so that users can easily see what offers are available to them within plain view, meaning that they dont have to waste time searching for them on the site. Users tend to concentrate on the content they need being above the fold of the page, which is why the search form is positioned where it is, if it was at the bottom it is more than likely that a lot of users would exit the site purely for this reason.

Mewslade Project Proposal

Before the introduction of e-commerce solutions in the context of the travel and tourism industry there was very little option to find out much information about areas other than the area you live and surrounding areas, so people that for example that dont live near say the south west, may not have had a chance to find out about a nice caravan and camping park overlooking the beach. The Haven website itself is fairly well designed and adhered to various guidelines of web design, the fact that they have a facility on the right hand side of the home page for the user to go straight into searching for where and when they want to go on holiday and also if they want to book. As well as having the offers that they currently have on so as soon as the user visits the website they can see if any of the deals apply to their situation so they can take advantage of them. The market for Sun Parks will be the same target market that applies to most other companies in the travel and tourism sector and will need to adhere to similar principles, the things that need to be considered within the feasibility stages of the project is whether the proposed plan encapsulates all of the required needs for the target market as well as keeping in with the needs of the business. When the proposal reaches the design stage the project will again need to be assessed to determine whether the design is being built to fit within the specified criteria.
iii (U1 P2.1 U8 P1.2) An appraisal of the viability of the project including criteria that will govern the success or failure of the project. Project success/failure measures, including outlined proposal and feasibility study. Time/Scope/Cost. Look at budget, resources, timescale and compare them to what needs to be done. Say it is viable but mention the risks such as whether the budget will be tight. Discuss the database and then e-commerce solutions viability. Pros and cons What governs success or failure of SOFTWARE PROJECTS both database and then the e-commerce solution.

Viability appraisal Success and Failure criteria. The Mewslade proposed system is a solution that will computerise the system that is already in place, however this needs to be viewed in terms of viability, how viable is the proposed project? Firstly the requirements of the actual company are not unrealistic. In terms of implementing a full e-commerce solution it is certainly viable for them to do so, as the market for travel and tourism online is on the increase as it is extremely convenient. It would also allow for the company to stretch out to people that do browse online for holidays so that they can bring their entire set of holiday destination to a single place that users can browse easily and find what they want, and would also allow for them to pay for it online. Within any software project there are criteria that govern the success or failure of the project, and many of these are things that can be eliminated or reduced by planning well. Before a project is even begun it would need to be assessed in terms of viability, so is it going to be possible given the resources provided? And is it realistic? If the answer to either of these questions is no then the project should not be entered into. Within the majority of projects there will be time constraints,

Mewslade Project Proposal

cost constraints and there will also be a defined scope that the project is required to follow. There are various things to take into consideration when entering into any project, firstly that the team taking on the project are confident that they can achieve the result required, as if they cant it can severely damage the reputation of the company. The client would have defined a set of requirements for the system but may also leave some slack for added extras to be added in if possible, they may also have some priority parts, so they will have a set of must haves for the project, as well as could haves; of course the priority would be that the must haves are completed before any of the could haves, as these are usually things that can be implemented at a later date once the project is completed. The budget for a project is an important factor in determining the success or failure of a project due to the fact that all of the work that is carried out and the resources required to complete the project will require a sufficient budget to able to cover those costs. All of the costs to be incurred should as a matter of importance be completed before a project is undertaken or started, because if you need to hire 20 staff at 20.00 per hour for 100 hours at a total of 40,000 and the client has set a budget of 20,000 for the hiring of staff it would be unable to meet the staffing cost with the budget originally set. Within the Mewslade project the budget is fairly reasonable considering the outlined requirements for the system. That said when a budget is set it should account for slack that may be needed for some areas, during the risk management process the risks of the project would be defined, and it is extremely important that these risks are catered for, so that in any scenario it can either be avoided or be put right with a minimal impact on the overall project. Time is also a massive factor in governing the success or failure of a project; this is one of the main things that need to be planned correctly from the beginning of the project, as an unrealistic timescale can put a project in jeopardy. Similarly to cost there needs to be slack within the timescale of the project to account for any risks, this is an important part of the planning stage and before a timescale is produced a risk report would need to be produced to allow for the project team to see exactly where things are likely to go wrong, so that they can produce a timescale that fits correctly. Time management is an extremely important asset to any project manager and it is an essential part to any project, this will be one of the critical factors in determining whether the project is a success or not. Within the Mewslade project there is no clear time constraints or a project deadline, however this does still allow for a reasonable timescale to produced, and it is slightly less pressure to the project team allowing them to make sure that everything is working correctly before the release of the project, this ultimately means that the chances of the project succeeding are slightly higher. Within the scope that they have set for the system they want a full e-commerce solution, whereas currently when customers enquire about a holiday there would be a different contact number for each site as well as a different address. Customers are currently required to complete a form with all of their personal details including the pitch that they wish to book and how many people the party consists of and which type of accommodation they have and also whether they need to be a family only area, require an electric hook-up and/or wish to be in a dog free area. One the customer had then completed this form, there are 2 payment options, and both require a 20 nonrefundable deposit. The first payment option is that the customer can send a cheque payable to the specific site that they are booking with, the other is that they can ring the site that they are

Mewslade Project Proposal

booking with and give their debit card details over the phone. With the implementation of a full ecommerce system it would eliminate the need for both of these processes and automate and optimize the payment solution, meaning it would be much quicker and much more secure.

If a full e-commerce solution is implemented in place of the current system, then the staffing will change, as some areas would become obsolete and there would also need to be newly instantiated departments, at the current time the system hierarchical structure is as follows:

The diagram shows the structure of the current staff employed of the Mewslade site, which will mostly stay the same, there would need to be an addition in terms of an IT support/administration and maintenance team, as the system would need to be monitored and regularly maintained. Sun Parks have specified that the system for Mewslade is a pilot scheme so that they can assess how well it works, if it works as they require it too they wish to roll it out across all of their 20 sites, and have a central database for all of the records from all 20 sites. This requires the system to be flexible enough to adhere to any changes across the individual sites. This is not impossible to do however it will mean that the design stage would need to be planned with that in mind, as it may be required to be changed circumstantially, as not all of the sites will have for example the same number of pitches.

Mewslade Project Proposal

The success of the project much depends on the planning and design stages being done correctly, as time, cost and scope all need to be catered for, so a good project plan is needed. The budget for the project (30,000) is realistic and reflects the requirements outlined by the company for the project. There is no specific timescale outlined for the project which gives no clear constraints but the project will be completed within a realistic timescale, allowing for slack where needed. Keeping the timescale realistic whilst not leaving too much time slack is extremely important in any project, and it is the case in this project, if there are unrealistic time constraints then some parts of the project may be rushed to be completed and some aspects may be overlooked. But as stated earlier the time constraints within the Mewslade project are fairly reasonable, allowing for the project to be completed in as much time as it needs, within a reasonable time. Overall the Mewslade project is feasible in all aspects, as it has a reasonable timescale to work, as well as a reasonable budget, so providing the project is well managed it is more than likely to succeed, as stated there are risks involved with any project, but with a well thought out risk management strategy these risks are contained and less likely to impact the project.

iv (U10 2.1) A report on user issues concerning implementation of the HCI aspects of the Mewslade database system.

The current system for the Mewslade is a paper based system, so currently all the staff that use the system are familiar with this system and know how it works. With the current system a customer would call the centre that they wished to enquire within, so this could be any number of the sites under the sun parks name, and then ask to view any of the pitches that are available at that current time that fit their criteria for the date they want and if they want to take pets and specify the number of people they will be bringing. From an administration point of view the new system would be much easier to use, especially when its made in conjunction with the rest of the sun parks system so that are sites are interlinked through a central database, so this proposed system does have several advantages, as it would speed up the process because people could easily check-up and book online without having to be in direct contact with the site that they want to book with, it also means that they can book all of their tickets and fill in their details online, and can even makes payments online due to the proposed e-commerce system which means it can support transactions. The first want of any company is to have an all singing all dancing e-commerce solution with all the bells and whistles, however this is not always possible as most businesses will be bound by constraints, whether they are the budget, timescale that they have for the solution, it could even be that once they have considered the user base of the website itself it may not seem like a viable solution. Cost is a massive factor within any solution, and is a large constraint of any project, often companies will set an unrealistic budget for a very vast set of requirements, this of course would

Mewslade Project Proposal

need to be discussed during the feasibility stage of the project so that the project manager can assess whether its viable for the company to take on the project. In terms of the website itself there are several unwritten rules and also sets of guidelines for good web design, as it makes a massive difference to the success of the website, one of the important factors is the order the pages are in. With the Mewslade system the booking page is more than likely to be the most commonly used page, so its important that the booking page is clear and easy to find as well as being easy to use. It is also important that the pages are correctly labelled and ordered, headings should be clear and describe the content of the page, for example if a page heading is bookings and it just contains the information about the business and a contact form without the ability to actually book, this could be deemed misleading. User needs also need to be brought into consideration, due to the fact that some users will have certain needs that the website can accommodate quite easily. Due to the fact that in the case of the Mewslade system, the target market is very broad, as it could be anything from couples of all ages, groups of young adults, parties of older people and families of all ages. Within these groups it covers a very wide area, so there is a lot of room for people to have needs from a website, even if its something as simple as having an option to enlarge text so that it is more easily readable, it may encourage those users to continue using the site due to the fact that their needs have been catered for. Some users may also be colour-blind for example, this can also be catered for fairly easily, and ultimately it can be these smaller things that lead to big differences in customer satisfaction and can determine whether a user continues to use the site. The Mewslade system when set up will process all of the bookings for the site, and will mean that the whole system is computerised, so the staff will at first need to be trained to use the system, ultimately the system will be much easier to use after the staff have been trained to use it as many of the original processes would have been eliminated or would now be fully automatic so all the staff need to do is take the information output by the system itself and use it. The system could expand to the use of handheld devices, this would mean the staff have access to any information they need from the system when they are out on site or away from the office, this in terms of ease of use is a good step to take given that the price of setting up a mobile system doesnt outweigh the benefits. A handheld system would also allow staff on site to communicate with each other quickly and efficiently at low cost using Wi-Fi that could be installed on site.

HCI aspects of implementing the system - Users and Admins systems (can current system be removed straight away? Parallel implementation?

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v (U1 P1.1, P1.2) An assessment of Sun Parks core business functions and an evaluation of their business aims and how they relate to stakeholders. Oh Shit?! Ill write something here when I figure out what it means..

Assessment of Sun Parks Core Business Functions.

Finance.

The finance department of Sun Parks will remain fairly similar, in respect of the documentation that needs to be kept concerning deposits, bookings and payments. The current system will of course need to be adapted to fit with the new proposed system, due to the new system being a fully computerised system all of the records would need to be stored on a secure server, and backed up daily. The function of the Finance department is to not only keep track of income and expenditure but also to keep records of all payments made to the company from the different parks, including Mewslade. It is important for the Finance department to keep track of all of these aspects not only because they need to keep track of how the business is progressing and discover any risks/problems, but also because this information can be used for future modelling. Future modelling can be used to predict in which way the company is moving, and can be used to make decisions on future developments of the company, this in terms of stakeholders is very important, as they can fairly accurately predict the success or failure of the company, and allows them to make a decision on whether or not the company is going in the expected direction and it gives them piece of mind.
Human Resources / Personnel

The human resources within Sun Parks again will remain largely the same, in terms of structure it will be the same as it was before, due to the fact that the new proposed system will not necessarily directly affect this specific department. This department In terms of stakeholders is important as they are the people that deal directly with the staff on site, from dealing with working patterns and covering sicknesses etc. This is important as with Sun Parks business aims in mind not only do the HR staff have to make sure that there is enough people in each day to cover all of the activities that take place daily, but they also need to make sure that if any of the staff go sick or need holiday or leave, there is someone to take their place.
Advertising

Advertising is a crucial department for the majority of companies, and organizations spend billions every year on advertising. Advertising is everywhere and there is a science behind it, so it is important that a company gets it right, as this can determine the success or failure of a company. In terms of Sun Parks it would need to advertise in appropriate places to give them the best chance of attracting their target market. Advertising is crucial as it allows companies to show what they have to offer, so Sun Parks would need to spend a good amount on advertising and also do research into where the best places to advertise are, as a core business function this is very important to stakeholders, as getting advertising right can boost profits considerably.

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Administration

The administration of Sun Parks is an important department, due to the fact that the administration usually deals with everything to do with keeping the entire system running smoothly. Due to the fact that the new proposed system is a full e-commerce solution and would require a computerised back-end system. The proposed system is currently only for Mewslade and will be rolled out across all sites if the new system is successful. In terms of the business aims of the company the administration department although being an extremely important factor within the company as it provides the backbone for the company to run from is not going to be massively effected by the new proposed system.
Adaptations

The new proposed system would also require new departments to be instantiated, of course due to the fact that the new proposed system is a fully computerised and fully e-commerce solution there would need to be an IT support/maintenance department, this would bring extra cost to the company but ultimately it is needed in order to keep the system running and its full capacity. In terms of stakeholders this would be of benefit to them as it will allow the company to expand and ultimately make more money. All of the current departments would experience a change in the way that the system is run so the majority of staff would need to be re-trained to use the new system, but the cost is spent well as with extra training the staff would be able to use the new system to its full potential thus increasing productivity. This ultimately all contributes towards the business aims of the company and means that the company will be able to expand and grow, not just in size and reputation but also profits will grow, which is good news for stakeholders.

vi (U17 P2.1, P2.2 U32 P3.2) Research and discuss possible developmental methodologies and development management tools for use throughout the project and discuss the concepts of entityrelationship modelling and normalisation stating how they will improve the design and integrity of the Mewslade database. Methodologies Waterfall, spiral etc..

Developmental Methodologies
Waterfall Model

The waterfall model is a development methodology that is used to aid companies and businesses organise their projects using a model. The model itself is divided into 5 separate phases so parts of the project are done incrementally, and each phase would need its predecessor to be complete before it can begin. The model is designed so that the phases do not overlap which means that each individual phase can be completed with particular attention to detail, meaning that there is a better chance of first time success. Because of the way the model is created it means that the phases are done in increments, so before the 2nd phase can begin, the 1st phase would need to be completed, which is the Requirements phase, during this stage the requirements for the project would need to be outlined clearly, so that the company can establish exactly what they want to achieve with the project. It is important whilst undergoing the requirements phase that all of the

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requirements for the system are gathered and analysed to establish the foundations for the project itself, the feasibility of the project also needs to be looked at, as the requirements need to be assessed to make sure that they are all possible, given the budget and timescale of the project, if they are however unrealistic, they would need to be amended if at all possible, or the other factors would need to be adjusted. The next phase of the model is the Design stage, this phase is usually broken up into 2 parts, which is the initial design and prototyping of sorts, in this initial sub phase the system would be designed more than likely on paper by the design team, mostly just to give a first prototype of what the system will consist of and how it will fit together. Once this initial design phase is completed the technical/detailed design part can begin this is the part where the design team can begin to draw up the more technical designs for the project, these will more than likely be produced using a computer so that the detail can be added, and it also means that the customer can get an idea of what the finished system will actually be like. Once the design phase has been successfully completed the next phase of the waterfall model is the Implementation & testing phase, during this phase the project team would actually start and finish the project, and the system will then be tested extensively to ensure that all aspects of the system are working correctly and in their intended way. Once again when this phase is completed successfully the next phase can begin, and the waterfall models fourth phase is the Verification stage, during this phase the system would be handed over to the client so that they can begin testing it for themselves to ensure that all of the proposed requirements have been met and so they can make sure that the system works in the correct way that they need it to. Finally the Maintenance phase, this is the last phase of the waterfall model and essentially is the act of ensuring the system works correctly and at its full capacity, and continues to do so.

The fourth stage is the verification stage. The verification stage is where the customer gets the finished product and starts their own tests on it. They will then make sure that product hits all of the requirements set in the first stage. The final stage is Maintenance. Maintenance is important in any type of product. Maintenance is required to make sure that all of the features are still working and to ensure that the system will continue to work for a long time.
Requirements Design
Implementation & Testing

Verification Maintenance

The Waterfall Model

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Advantages & Disadvantages of the Waterfall Model

The waterfall model is a very widely used model and has several advantages and disadvantages to its use within project creation. One of the massive advantages of this model is its ease of use; this is because this model can be easily used by anyone as its a very simple incremental process that can be successfully be applied to a vast range of projects, this is extremely beneficial in the fact that if for example a member of the project team was unable to continue for any reason, they can be replaced and it would not have a huge impact on the flow of the actual project, due to the fact that the new member could quite easily pick up in place of the old member and continue as was before with minimal disruption. Another of the advantages of the Waterfall Model is that the model is such that the phases have to be completed incrementally, and each phase would need to be completed before the next one can begin, this essentially means that there is space to check for any errors within each phases and means that there is a minimal chance that any errors would be carried over to later phases making them harder to correct. As well as the Waterfall mode having several advantages it also has its disadvantages; one of these being that a lot of the time within the project is wasted, due to the fact that each stage needs to be completed before the next, so the Design team cannot begin designing until the initial requirements phase is complete, and the Developers would not be able to begin work on the system until the design phase is complete and so on and obviously the documentation at the end of each phase is very time consuming.
Extreme Programming

Extreme programming is an agile methodology that can be used as a project model; it has a very strong focus on customer satisfaction which means it is very successful in delivering the customer what they want, and in time they need them. Extreme programming has 5 stages; Planning, Managing, Designing, Coding and Testing and each of the 5 stages has a specific set of rules that the project needs to adhere to so that it ensures the project is completed to the highest standard. The rules are as follows;
Planning phase: User stories are written. Release planning will create the release plan. Make frequent and small releases. The project is divided into Iterations. Iteration planning starts each iteration. Managing Phase: Give the team a dedicated open work space. Set a sustainable pace. A stand up meeting starts every day. The project velocity is measured. Move people around. Fix XP when it breaks.

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Designing Phase Simplicity. Choose a system metaphor. Use CRC cards for design sessions. Create spike solutions to reduce risk. No functionality is added early. Refactor whenever and wherever possible. Coding Phase: The customer is always available. Code must be written to agreed standards. Code the unit test first. All production code is pair programmed. Only one pair integrates code at a time. Integrate often. Set up a dedicated integration computer. Use collective ownership. Testing Phase: All code must have unit tests. All code must pass all unit tests before it can be released. When a bug is found tests are created. Acceptance tests are run often and the score is published.

The advantages and disadvantages of Extreme Programming

One of the main advantages of Extreme Programming is the fact that it focuss largely the client themselves and maintains consistent communication with the client at all times, this is a good idea and can help to complete the project so that the client is completely satisfied however there may be times that the client is unavailable and unable to provide constant communication as it may get in the way of their normal work, this can be a disadvantage in some respects if these things occur. Another advantage of extreme programming is that it is an agile methodology which really pushes the values & principles rather than processes, and it also means that it is adaptable depending on the specific project it is being applied to, which makes it a very versatile and comprehensive model to use.
The Conclusion

After doing an analysis of the models stated above, it was clear that they both have advantages that would help a project succeed; the Waterfall method would be the best option for this particular project as it is a very easy model to use, and as stated would allow for each of the project team to know exactly what they are doing and would easily be able to pick up anywhere if any problems were to occur and it also allows them to work on the individual phases paying attention to ensure that the project is completed to the clients requirements. This method has been chosen over the extreme programming method as despite the extreme programming model being very versatile and adaptable, it is more complex and difficult to use and ultimately distract the project team from their aims.

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Development Management Tools Development management tools provide a very useful platform for project managers to work from, and there are a mass of tools available that range from online applications to standalone programs each of which has their advantages and disadvantages. Online applications such as projectmanager.com are among the vast expanse of tools available at a project managers disposal. ProjectManager.com has a vast range of features and for a project manager to use to create a project plan and successfully manage all aspects of the project from a single place, some of the services that can be utilised from this particular application are things such as time tracking, project planner and expense tracking. As well as having various other features it also has the functionality that you would get with something like Microsoft Project, and allows you to create detailed timescales and tasks, allowing the user to set individual tasks with defined timescales for each task, this is helpful in the fact that it displays the overall timescale for the project as well as an overview of the individual timeframes for each individual part. This application also allows for the user to create resources, such as the people that will be working on each part of the project and also allows for their hourly rates to be included so that the cost can easily be managed across the entire project and also over individual aspects.
"As soon as our projects are setup in ProjectManager.com, our whole team can login to update status online. The dashboard tells us where we need to focus our attention and the 'Due this week' report tells us which activities to review at the next team meeting." Brian Belworthy Senior Project Manager Telecom New Zealand

The above statement from a Project Manager of a company based in New Zealand shows just how comprehensive and reliable this application is, it easily allows for any project team to easily follow the project closely and review all aspects of it, so that everyone knows exactly where they are at all times. Another of the tools available for use by project managers and project teams is Microsoft Project. The program was released for the first time in 1984 and ever since then newer updated versions have been released, up to the current 2010 version. Many features have been adapted and added throughout the version updates, one of the latest features is the user controlled scheduling, and this essentially means that the user has control of all of the schedules to be put in place to fit the specific timescale of a project, this gives more control to the user but can also mean that if the user isnt familiar with the software or doesnt know what theyre doing with it then errors could be made. Microsoft project also has the ability to create predecessors within the project meaning that the phase after a predecessor can only begin once the predecessor has been completed.
Application ProjectManager MS Project Issue tracking YES NO Schedule system YES YES Management of resources YES YES Management of documentation YES NO Reports and analysis YES YES

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The above table clearly illustrates some of the features available to the user in both MS Project and the online application ProjectManager.com, it shows that the online application has more of the stated features such as issue tracking and documentation management, this could be beneficial in some cases but would not of a huge disadvantage to the user especially on a small scale. The fact that ProjectManager.com is an online application it leaves it open to various risks not only in terms of security due to the fact there would be various items of sensitive information about employees, but also is susceptible to other risks, such as the fact the site could be down, or the connection from the user to the application cannot be established, this would leave the project team unable to access the information that they need for an undefined amount of time, this could cause problems within the project as deadlines may be missed. Normalisation The process of Normalisation is that of which all requirements are converged together and then processed into smaller more manageable attributes; this effectively is the act of removing duplicate and redundant data within the database and also removes inconsistencies within data. When normalising a database it is common to have singular attributes and create relationships between tables so that the information from one table can be used by the other and vice versa, this means that there is not duplicate data across tables, so that the user can easily organize the data within the database efficiently and decrease data inefficiencies. Normalisation of a database is divided into different stages, the first being 1st normal form (1NF), there are 5 stages going right up to 5NF, though the fact that it is the highest doesnt mean that it is necessarily the best option, some databases will purposely need to ignore the rules of normalisation in order for the database to perform in the required way. Generally normalisation, if required will only go to 3NF. When undertaking a project there may already be a database in place, that may have not been normalised, an example of a database that has not been normalised is as follows: Un-normalised Data:
Student (Student_ID, Surname, Forename, Address, Gender, [Course_Code, Course_Title, Tutor_Code, Tutor_Name])

The above information is not normalised, as it shows that a student can apply for a course, and the course code and title etc. will be multiple entries within the database, creating duplicates of the same information. In order for the information to be normalised to 1NF the multiple entries will need to be removed, to achieve this result another entity can be instantiated to contain the information that would otherwise be duplicated with every student record, so for example the following is the information normalised to 1NF: 1st Normal Form:
Student-1 (Student_ID, Surname, Forename, Address, Gender) Enrolment-1(Student_ID, Course_Code, Course_Title, Tutor_Code, Tutor_Name)

Mewslade Project Proposal

The above information is the same data as at the beginning of the process, but has been normalised to 1NF by instantiating a new entity to contain the course information named Enrolment, this is to remove recurring duplicates of the same information from the database. In order to achieve the 2NF normalisation all entries that rely partially on the composite key will need to be removed, in this particular case it would be the Course_Code and Course_Title attributes, so they will need to be moved into yet another entity which will be named Course. (As a side note it is important that all entity names are standardised and relevant to the data contained within them, so that it will adhere to quality standards, and make it much easier to maintain and diagnose any problems, even if the user is not familiar with the database.) Once normalised to 2NF the data will be organised such as in the example below:
Student-2 (Student_ID, Surname, Forename, Address, Gender) Enrolment-2(Student_No Course_Code, Tutor_Code, Tutor_Name) Course-2 (Course_Code, Course_Title)

In order to progress from 2NF to 3NF the Tutor_Name Attribute will need to be separated and instantiated into its own entity appropriately named Tutor. This will also remove data redundancies due to the fact that the tutor attributes will have their own entity, as many students may be assigned to the same tutor. Once refined to 3NF, the data will be organized as is shown below:
Student-3 (Student_ID, Surname, Forename, Address, Gender) Enrolment-3(Student_No Crse_Code, Tutor_Code) Course-3 (Course_Code, Course_Title) Tutor-3(Tutor_Code, Tutor_Name)

Normalisation would be of benefit to Mewslade due to the fact that they would be able to manage all aspects of the data more effectively, because the database will be normalised it will mean that everything is independent of eachother that is required to be, this means for example that if a customer is checking out after their stay, the database will then need to be amended so that the pitch that customer was using is freed up, if however the database was not normalised it would mean that they could end up with duplicate customers records that have stayed in that pitch previously. Normalising the database would be a good thing to do in terms of the Mewslade project due to the reasons stated, and would help with any on-going maintenance.

Entity relationship modelling

An entity relationship model is a diagram that shows the relationship between the entities in a database. An example of a simple ERD is shown below. Supplier Project

Order Customer Order item

Requests Contains Supplies Ordered by

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As you can see from the diagram above the project entity requests an order. The order contains the order item. The order item is ordered by the customer. And the supplier supplies the customer. An ERD can either have one-to-one, one-to-many or many-to-many relationships. The above diagram only uses one-tomany relationships. For example a project can request many order and a supplier supplies many items to the customer. An entity relationship model is a good way of designing you database. This could be useful to Mewslade as they might not know in what order to put things in the database. By using an ERD will make it easier, they will be able to determine which are the best things to put in the database first.

Normalisation Decomposing data structures. Analysis = NONO.

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Prevents inconsistencies in data (Duped records) (Speed, Efficiency) Amendments are global.

vii (U8 P2.1, P2.2, P3.1) Given that you are the project manager of a development team on the project, identify the most suitable organisational structure, roles and responsibilities of the project team this may include the users/customer explain your reasons for the choices made. You have a Systems Analyst, 1 programmer, a Quality Management specialist and a Programmer/Analyst available to you. There may be other staff available if you can make a case for their inclusion. The management of Mewslade have set a budget of 30,000 for the complete project including the systems analysis already carried out. The hourly rates for the development team are shown below: Project Manager Systems Analyst Programmer/Analyst QA Specialist Programmer 40.00 27.50 24.50 24.50 20.00

viii (U32 3.1 U8 2.1,2.3,2.5,3.1,3.2) A project plan defining timescales, milestones, resource scheduling and cost control for the development of the system. The plan should also reflect the chosen development methodology for the project. (Save a baseline of the plan for review purposes.) ix (U1 P3.3) Discuss the financial implications of progressing the project to a full eCommerce solution including any further set-up costs, ongoing costs and cost savings that could be made.

Cost Implications of a full E-commerce Solution

In order for the new proposed Mewslade system to be implemented there would be implications; one of these is the cost. Within any project there would be a defined budget for the project that is often split up into costings for each area of the project, it is important that all areas of the project are costed correctly and with room for slack. Within the Mewslade project there has been a budget outlined for the new proposed system of 30,000, this would need to be assessed to make sure that all aspects have been costed effectively. Due to the fact that the proposed solution is a full e-commerce solution there are several aspects that need to be looked at in terms of cost, firstly the company would need to purchase a domain name, which means purchasing essentially the URL on which the website can be found, this is usually a yearly cost but can be bought for multiple years at once for a discounted price, and because this is a company it would be more cost effective for them to purchase the domain name for as many years as possible so that they would save money on the domain itself, once this has been purchased it needs to be hosted online on a server, to begin with the company would most likely want to rent a server due to the fact the system is currently only proposed to be rolled out across the one site.

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The cost of the company to rent a server would be roughly 50 to 80 per month for a fully managed dedicated server, this means that they could then host their website from the server itself and they would have full control over the server and its settings and configuration. Despite the fact that renting a server isnt cheap for a short terms solution is a good idea for the company, and then if and when the project is rolled out across all sites it would be a more effective solution to purchase one or more servers to deal with the data transfer that the company demands. All of the aspects of the server and solution such as the servers and all other hardware and software will come with recurring costs.

Maintenance costs/initial set-up costs

Milestone 1 06/02/12 Submit your report containing the feasibility study, organisational structure and project plan to the client for approval before continuing with the project and obtain a signed agreement. Document the meeting and any agreed changes to be made. Amend your project plan if necessary to reflect any changes.

http://www.sitejabber.com/blog/2010/09/20/why-are-people-afraid-of-e-commerce/?display=wide http://www.metro.co.uk/news/654022-one-in-three-is-scared-to-shop-on-web http://www.mushroomdigital.co.uk/blog/ecommerce-vs-the-high-street-december-2011/ (by LEE http://databases.about.com/od/specificproducts/a/normalization.htm

THAI on DECEMBER

21, 2011)

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Arrange an appointment with your client to present your designs for review and approval before continuing with development of the database system. Document the meeting and any agreed changes to be made. Amend your project plan if necessary to reflect any changes.