All Sports Club Information System (ASCIS)

Approach to Systems Development

Disucss about the information System All Sports Club Information System (ASCIS).

Allsports is a multi-sport organization that has a huge number of members that are engaged in different types of sporting activities. The company publishes its newsletter on a weekly basis. There are certain problems that are associated with the current system in terms of information management, storage, and processing. An automated system, All Sports Club Information System (ASCIS) has been recommended to overcome the problems with the current system.

The aim of the report is to cover the details of the new information system such as the system development approach, project cost benefit analysis and schedule along with system requirements and investigation techniques.

All Sports Club Information System (ASCIS) can be developed by using a number of different approaches and methodologies. There are primarily two categories of approaches that are applied as predictive approach or adaptive approach.

In case of ASCIS, the approach that has a higher degree of applicability is the adaptive approach for system development. It is because of the nature of the requirements that shall be implemented in the system. The members that are engaged with ASCIS may increase or decrease in number which is sure to have an impact on the frequency of the newsletters that are shared. It will be required for the system to be dynamic in nature so as to handle the variations in the information management and the data operations. Adaptive approach to system development such as agile methodology will be apt in the case of ASCIS as the methodology will be able to handle the dynamic nature of the requirements (Subramaniam, 2007). It will allow the system to be flexible and scalable in nature which will ensure that the changes in terms of the scope or related project factors are met with ease.

The project client will also be updated regularly regarding the project status and project progress and will also be asked for the feedback. In such a manner, the end-product that will be delivered and deployed in the form of ASCIS will be as per the specifications provided by the client. The information storage that will be included in the system will also be as per the changing nature of storage necessities in the system (Williams, 2007).
3. Systems Requirements

• The system shall provide the users with the ability to login.
•  The system shall have the ability to store member details as demographic information and the details of the sports that they play.
• The system must store newsletters with their date of submission, title of the article, and file name and advertiser details as the mandatory attributes (Turner, Maylor and Swart, 2013).
• Advertiser demographics and contact details must be stored in the system.
• The system must create, store and provide the ability to extract the reports including member details, advertiser information, details of the newsletters along with the article details.
• The system must create alerts before the due date of the publishing of a newsletter to ensure that there are no delays (Bredillet, 2005).
• The information associated with the members who have published or edited the newsletters shall be visible on the basis of filters such as member id or email address.

• The system shall be scalable in nature to ensure that it may be modified as per the changing nature of requirements.
• The system shall always be available to the users to allow them to view, share or edit the information.
• The system shall be secure in nature so that the information that is stored is always protected (Anshin, 2013).
• Reliability shall be included in the system to make sure that there is valid information that is presented as a response to the user action or the query made by the user.
• The system shall be easy to maintain and the support activities that are carried out must also be convenient to execute.

Cost-Benefit Analysis is one of the most significant estimates that are carried out in the projects. It is necessary to have an account of the probable costs and expenses that may be spent during the project timeline along with the corresponding benefits that will be gained.

In case of All Sports Club Information System (ASCIS), the overall budget that has been estimated is $60,000. The discount factor that is applicable in this project is 6%.

It has also been estimated that the staffing costs will reduce by $2,000 on a monthly basis. It will be because of the reason that there will an enhanced use of automation that will be carried out replacing the problems that are present with the current system. This in return will enhance the income by $1,000. The overall profitability that will come out as a result will be $3,000 (Caniëls and Romijn, 2008).

Functional Requirements

The budget that has been estimated includes the cost of maintenance which will be $1,200 per month making it $14,400 on a yearly basis. There will also be a one-time cost of tools that will be spent along with the cost of resources, development and designing cost, deployment and testing costs along with the closure costs.

Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the tool that is used to represent the project schedule and the project activities in the form of packages and sub-packages. The tool is used to estimate the project schedule and also tracks the completion of the activities that are involved. The cost estimation can also be done using WBS.

Gantt chart is another tool which is used to represent the project activities in the form of a timeline. The timeline represents the project activities and the resources that are assigned to each activity.

WBS and Gantt chart have a close association with each other as both of these tools are used to track the project progress and also aid in the processes of estimations regarding the project (Parnell, 2008).

The project schedule that has been estimated for the project is reasonable as the allocation of the hours that shall be spent on the completion of the activities is as per the effort that is required to be put in. Also, the activities have been estimated in such a manner that the budget that has been allocated for the project does not exceed. The schedule has been created in such a way that there is a proper allocation of the resources done without any cases of over-lapping or over-loading.

Project Stakeholders

Project Client: The client will be interested in the project as the system will overcome the issues with the current system and will enhance the quality of the operations resulting in better performance and results.

End-Users: The system will allow the easier management of the information and the operations leading to higher satisfaction and engagement (Stead, 2008).

Project Manager: The project manager will be responsible and accountable for project planning, closure and analysis activities. The project success or failure will have a direct impact on the project manager.

Project Team Members: The project resources will be responsible and accountable for all of the operational tasks and activities.  The project success or failure will have a direct impact on the project resources.

Information Investigation Techniques

Interviews: The technique will allow the system stakeholders to gain information regarding the project in terms of the functional and non-functional requirements and specifications. It will be done through the designing of the interview questions and conduction of the process by receiving the responses and recording of the same.

Brainstorming: This technique will allow the generation and exploration of the new ideas and concepts. It will be done through a process of group discussions with the relevant stakeholders to retrieve meaningful information.

Observation: There will be a lot of data that will be present with the organizations in the form of historical data and references along with the existing operations. The technique will include the practical observation of the processes carried out to understand the problems in the current system and implement the required changes in the new system.

Conclusions

The project of All Sports Club Information Systems (ASCIS) is a step towards the use and application of the latest technology in the business activities to overcome the issues and problems that are involved with the current system. The project is required to be completed in the estimated schedule and budget constraints to make sure that the timely delivery of the system is made successfully. The project brings forward the significance of the project phases as planning and analysis. These phases form the strong base that is required to be created in order to achieve project success. The information regarding the project requirements shall be investigated as per the apt technique.

References

Anshin, V. (2013). Strategic and Organizational Aspects of Project Systems Management Considering Sustainable Development Concept. Russian Journal of Project Management, 2(3), pp.3-12.

Bredillet, P. (2005). International Journal of Project Management. International Journal of Project Management, 23(1), p.86.

Caniëls, M. and Romijn, H. (2008). Strategic niche management: towards a policy tool for sustainable development. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 20(2), pp.245-266.

Parnell, J. (2008). Sustainable strategic management: construct, parameters, research directions. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 1(1), p.35.

Stead, J. (2008). Sustainable strategic management: an evolutionary perspective. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 1(1), p.62.

Subramaniam, V. (2007). Agile Methodologies. [online] Available at: https://www.agiledeveloper.com/presentations/AgileMethodologies.pdf [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].

Turner, N., Maylor, H. and Swart, J. (2013). Ambidexterity in managing business projects – an intellectual capital perspective. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 6(2), pp.379-389.

Williams, L. (2007). A Survey of Agile Development Methodologies. [online] Available at: https://agile.csc.ncsu.edu/SEMaterials/AgileMethods.pdf [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].