Bncc Information System - Feasibility Study

Project Feasibility Assessment Report

BunCis Bina Nusantara Computer Club Information System Sasmito Adibowo Arcle Technologies [email protected]

March 5, 2002 In collaboration with: Faran Gunawan Rama Ambara Felicia Lie Bina Nusantara Computer Club

Table of Contents Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Preliminary Findings and Analysis . . . Project Description . . . . . . . . . . . Project Environment . . . . . . . . . . Preliminary Solutions and Ideas . Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Project Schedule Overview . . . . . . Analyst History and Qualifications Project Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Purpose This Project Feasibility Assessment Report presents the preliminary findings of our investigation into the feasibility of your project to analyze, specify, design, and build a prototype for the upcoming Bina Nusantara Computer Club (BNCC) Information System. This report also outlines our proposal of the procedures and schedule to be followed during the project. If you find any discrepancies or misconceptions, please bring them to our immediate attention.

Preliminary Findings and Analysis After a brief, preliminary investigation of the system being studied, we offer the following observations and initial analysis. These analyses are based on the observations made by Sasmito Adibowo as a new member of Fave Club, a subdivision of BNCC. It is in no way complete and will still require further study and investigations. Note that the assumptions and statements in this document have not been verified by a qualified representative of BNCC.

Project Description This section of the report describes the history that led to this project and the proposed project scope. It functions as a bird’s eye view to the project and partially serves as a basis for further project specifications. History Leading to this Project Proposal BNCC is a Student Activity Unit which operates under the consent of Bina Nusantara University. It is organized as a club that focuses on computerrelated interest groups. It accepts approximately 300 new members yearly, most of which are first-year undergraduate students. Its activities include tutoring, member meetings, annual publications, visitations, contests, seminars, expositions, and research. Its major revenues come from the yearly members’ fees and alumnus’ donations. At the core of BNCC lies a committee which organizes all of its activities. The committee is divided categorically into several major divisions, and each led by a Division Chair. Each of the chairs is organized horizontally and answers directly to the General Chair. The need for an information system was communicated in a meeting conducted by Faran Gunawan, the present coordinator of Fave Club. Fave Club recognizes that the increasing number activities performed by BNCC and likewise the number of members involved in it poses a growing load to its core committee. In order to provide a better service for its members, BNCC requires a strong information system to back its daily activities. While Fave Club has the necessary programmer human resource to perform the implementation of an information system, it lacks an analyst to complete the system specification. That is why Sasmito Adibowo was invited by Faran Gunawan to assist developing the system. Scope of this Project

BunCis C March 5, 2002 C Page 3 of 11

In the coming weeks, we will be carefully analyzing the project's scope to define a reasonable target and schedule. In the meantime, our preliminary definition is as follows: C

The project will be focused on core member and activity management functions. Specification and design should result in a system that can be minimally implemented and run, and then incrementally expanded as the need arises.

C

Several complex functions such as financial and asset management that typically present in most ERP systems will be deliberately omitted from the project. The design and implementation of such systems will require an additional problem domain expert and will demand a significant increase of the expertise of the system analyst.

The project will address the following business functions: 1. Member Management BNCC possesses a large pool of members. Additionally it receives new members yearly, most of which are first-year Bina Nusantara undergraduate students. Each of the activities of BNCC revolves around, and for, this pool of members. 2. Event Organizer What constitutes the lifeblood of BNCC are the events it organizes. Some of these events are held annually and others sporadically. For every event that requires an active participation of the members, he or she must register for the event beforehand. For most events – especially for sporadic events – an ad-hoc committee responsible for the event is formed from both a subset of the members and a subset of the core committee. 3. Media Management BNCC provides annual publications for its members in the form of magazines and CD-ROMs. Since the member’s fees include the cost of such subscriptions, it is essential that each member can obtain a copy upon request. But overproduction and unclaimed copies are not desirable, as it incurs a loss to the organization. 4. Library Management BNCC operates a small library of reference materials provided for its members. Occasionally, it also purchases additional books to extend its collection. The library needs to keep track which books are lent to which members, its return date, and also the books that are still available in the collection. 5. Document Storage and Retrieval Most of BNCC’s activities are documented in some way. The form of the documentation varies and may range from inter-staff memos, proposals, correspondence, announcements, and other free-form documents. A method is required to provide a centralized repository for storage and retrieval of these documents. The documents will need to be categorized, BunCis C March 5, 2002 C Page 4 of 11

and each document may belong to multiple categories. In the latter case, redundancy should be avoided.

Project Environment This section of the survey describes the project environment in terms of project participants, problems and opportunities to be addressed, and project constraints that will or may limit eventual solutions. Figure 2 represents a context diagram of the current system. From the diagram, it is noticeable that Member and Event play a significant role in the system. This is due to the fact that those two are the most important entities in all of BNCC’s activities. The various Events held by BNCC are mostly intended for the Members. Examples of such events include tutoring, member meetings, and visitations. An event, such as expositions and seminars, may also be targeted at the outside communities. In that case the member may choose to take an active part in it. Events may be announced beforehand, or be reported after it happened in the Media that BNCC publishes. Each event may generate Documents such as proposals, invitations, correspondence, etc. These Documents provide a written record about the Events. The current practice for document storage is, after the event had finished, the resulting documentations are recorded onto CD-ROMs and placed as archives. After some experience and sufficient management skills, a Member may be elected as a Core Committee. A Member may also choose to participate in an Ad-Hoc Committee which organizes Sporadic Events. The Core Committee runs the general daily operations of BNCC, among which organizes Annual Events. The Core Committee also operates the BNCC Library which the Member can borrow Books from. Annually the Core Committee publishes a periodical Media, which may take the form of a Magazine or a CD-ROM. A member may claim these Media at the BNCC secretariate.

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1

1

organizes

1

takes part in

organizes

Ad-Hoc commitee

0..1

1..*

0..1

0..1

Event

0..*

0..1

Sporadic Event

0..*

reported in

0..*

Media

0..*

Figure 2 Context Diagram concerning the BunCis system

Core Committee

1

Member

0..1

subscribes to

pa rti ci pat es in

1..*

publ ishes

Annual Event

0..*

generates

CD-ROM

Mag azi ne

0..*

Documen t

1..*

bo rrows

stores

1 Document Repository

0..*

Boo k

0..*

stores

1

Library

Project Participants To date, we have identified the following list of participants for this project. Please inform us of any potential omissions. 1.

Management – Managers of The System 1. Fransiska General Chair 2. Faran Filbert Gunawan Fave Club Coordinator

2.

Non-Management – Direct Users of The System 1. Felicia Lie Magazine Division 2. Frenki Yuliko Publication 3. Jefri Hendrawan Public Relations

3.

Other People Affected by or Interested in The System 1. Rama Ambara Fave Club 2. Rubi Sutanto Fave Club

Problems and Opportunities I have compiled the following list of problems and opportunities to be addressed in the project. The list is not final. In the coming weeks, I will modify the list and provide you with a detailed analysis of problems, opportunities, and solutions. At any time during this project, you should feel free to add to, subtract from, or expand upon this preliminary list. C

The newly enlisted member always drops to a mere quarter or one-eights on the following year.

C

Production of magazines and CD-ROMs were never on-time.

C

Relation with seniors and alumni are often cut-off.

C

There are no standard numbering scheme for correspondence documents.

C

Each year the organization website is always re-developed because of the change of webmaster.

C

The committee spends too much time playing capsa instead of working.

C

The air conditioner is not cool enough.

Project Constraints

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Project constraints are limitations, good or bad, that will or may constrain any solutions that we might propose. Constraints can be technical, monetary, time, or political. To date, we have identified the following preliminary list: C

The analysis, design, and prototype (when possible) must be completed before mid-May 2002.

C

The specification document of the system should be readable to facilitate implementation by an average programmer.

Preliminary Solutions and Ideas Our project approach will eventually examine numerous alternative system solutions, and it would be premature to commit to any solution at this time. However, it is never too early to begin brainstorming and cataloging ideas. Client's perceptions of what they want or expect It is my understanding that you envision a new or improved system that: C

Provides weekly reports to the chair on member statistics. These reports are assessed primarily through a polling mechanism. The members are facilitated to provide feedback through complaints and suggestions concerning BNCC’s activities.

C

Facilitates communications among members through the use of a forumlike system provided by BNCC.

C

Provide scheduling and time line functions for events and project management.

C

Provide attendance records for every activity of each member involved.

The above facilities should be easily accessible via the Internet. The analyst's perceptions of possible solutions and ideas It is realized that a solution of an information system often does not merely consists of custom-built software. A thorough solution may comprise of a synergy between manual processes, off-the shelf software, and custom-built systems. Project-management problems may be addressed by providing projectmanagement training for the related individuals. The training programme should also include the use of project-management software such as Microsoft Project. Standard templates should be provided for common types of documents. A standardized numbering scheme should also be a part of the template. The resulting templates and documents are then to be placed in a central repository for easy retrieval. Provide a publicly accessible newsgroup server and a web-based news client to facilitate communication among members. Provide a web-based polling service where the members are also able to create polls of their own. That way, members are more encouraged to visit the site.

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Provide a web-based event-management software which is integrated with the members’ database. It is also possible to extend this system into a full-blown event and project management software complete with resource allocation functions.

Proposal We propose to perform an analysis and design for an information system that supports the daily activities of BNCC. Should the constraints allow, the project will continue to build a prototype of the system. This section of the report outlines our proposal.

Project Schedule Overview The following overall project approach and schedule is proposed. The systems development will adhere to the Framework for the Application of Systems Techniques (FAST) methodology proposed by Jeffrey Whitten, et. al. The methodology requires that the system development undergo several phases: C

Preliminary Investigation Phase This phase determines whether it is feasible to start the project. The goal of this phase is to catalog and categorize existing and potential problems.

C

Problem Analysis Phase This phase enables the analyst to obtain a thorough understanding of the problems that triggered the project. The primary deliverable of this phase is system improvement objectives, which defines the business criteria on which any new system will be evaluated.

C

Requirements Analysis Phase This phase defines and prioritizes business requirements. The requirements are to be specified without prematurely expressing computer alternatives and technology details.

C

Decision Analysis Phase The purpose of this phase is to identify candidate solutions, analyze those candidate solutions for feasibility, and recommend a candidate system as the target solution to be designed. The primary deliverable of this phase is an approved system proposal.

C

Design Phase This phase transforms the business requirements statement from the requirements analysis phase into design specification for construction. The deliverable of this phase is a systems specification document which will be used to construct the system.

C

Construction Phase This phase takes the system specification and translates it into a working system. The deliverable of this phase is a working system which fulfills business requirements and design specifications.

C

Implementation Phase The working system in isolation that was produced in the construction BunCis C March 5, 2002 C Page 9 of 11

phase is then implemented and deployed to support the business activities it was originally developed for. Care must be taken so that a smooth transition occurs from the old system to the new system. This phase may also include user education and training. C

Operation and Support Phase Once the system is operational and delivers the business solution, it will require an ongoing support for the remainder of its life. The support needed include fixing errors and omissions, and also implementing new requirements that may arise.

Because of time and human resources constraints, the project will be considered complete at the design phase. When conditions allow, the construction, implementation, and support will be passed on to BNCC members, primarily to the Fave Club division that possesses the human resources needed in systems construction, deployment and maintenance. The project phases, including start and stop dates is given in Figure 3. ID 1

Task Name Preliminary Investigation

2

Problem Analysis

3

Requirement Analysis

4

Decision Analysis

5

Design

eb 17, '02 Mar 03, '02 Mar 17, '02 Mar 31, '02 Apr 14, '02 Apr 28, '02 May 12, '02 19 23 27 03 07 11 15 19 23 27 31 04 08 12 16 20 24 28 02 06 10 14 18 22 02/27 03/06 03/07

03/21 03/26

04/09 04/12

04/26 05/01

05/15

Figure 3 Estimated project schedule

Analyst History and Qualifications Sasmito Adibowo is a computer science student studying at the University of Indonesia. His programming experiences spanned for about eight years, ranging from simple command-line utilities to Windows-based GUI and webbased systems. Preferring C++ and Java for most of his software development projects, he emphasizes on the utilization of reusable components and algorithms. Known for his self-motivated and the ability to work with minimal supervision qualities, he worked as several professions, including an Independent Software Author and an Internet Engineer. He is currently working as a Software Developer Intern for Code Jawa. Apart from jobs, he often takes freelance projects, both commercial and noncommercial. He also authored several programming articles for Mikrodata.

Project Budget This section of the report covers the estimated costs for this project. It should be emphasized that these figures represent mere estimates, which are based on minimal background information. These estimates will continually be revised as the project progresses. Although this is essentially a charity project, budget calculations will be included nonetheless. These calculations may be used to estimate the efforts spent in the project, and also serve to assist the estimation of the system’s worth as an asset to BNCC. BunCis C March 5, 2002 C Page 10 of 11

Project Costs Development Costs Personnel 1

Systems Analysts (400 hours/ea $13.3/hr)

$5,320.0

2

Programmer/Analyst (250 hours/ea $9.5/hr)

$4,750.0

1

Web Designer (200 hours/ea $10.9/hr)

$2,180.0

1

Database Specialist (15 hours/ea $12.2/hr)

Total Development Costs:

$183.0 $12,433.0

Projected Annual Operating Costs Personnel 1

Programmer/Analyst (125 hours/ea $9.5/hr)

1

Webmaster/Systems Administrator (125 hours/ea $5/hr)

$1,187.5 $625.0

Expenses 1

Web space and database contract ($10/month)

1

Website host name contract ($15/year)

Total Projected Annual Costs:

$120.0 $15.0 $1,947.5

Conclusion The development of an information systems solution is not a trivial task. This preliminary feasibility study only uncovers more terrains to explore. Nonetheless, it is expected that this document may serve as a valuable management input in making strategic decisions and committing resources. Should the project considered worthy, the next phase of development will be the detailed study and analysis phase. Upon completion of that phase, a thorough understanding to the task at hand should be obtained.

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