Management and Marketing Business Information Systems Design Assignment
Scenario, Background and Tasks -
Scenario - You are required to complete and submit the data modelling phase for this assignment by The implementation phase needs to be completed and submitted by Choice Appointments is a recruitment agency, having a network of offices providing a diverse range of job opportunities across the public and private sectors. Incorporated in the Choice group are several specialist divisions - so whatever your work requirements, there's a good chance they will be able to assist you. Whether you are seeking temporary/contract work or a permanent position they will endeavour to fulfil your wishes and work requirements. They are interested to learn as much as possible about you and your career aspirations in order to provide you with some challenging opportunities. Your Consultant will keep in regular contact to advise you of current and upcoming positions. If your priorities or direction change with regard to temporary/contract or permanent work, all you have to do is let them know.
You are required to complete and submit the data modelling phase for this assignment.
Background to the Project - Before applicant employees attend their first interview, they are required to e-mail in their resume to their assigned consultant at Choice Appointments. After reading through the resume the consultant will contact the applicant and organise an interview appointment. The interview process involves many short tests for the applicant in order for the consultant to get an understanding of the applicant's abilities.
The applicant first completes a spelling test on common words that are often misspelled. The applicant circles the correct spelling, eg. Circle one of the following: Accommodation Acommodation Accomodation Acomodation Seperate Separate Sepperate Sepparate Etc.
There are 15 different questions on this spelling test and it is scored out of 15. Only the final score is stored. After completing the spelling test, the applicant then fills out a Request for Recruitment for Appointment form which lists all the personal details about the applicant. At this stage, the real interview begins. The consultant takes the applicant into their office and conducts the interview. The consultant has a strict list of questions to ask the applicant and writes down relevant or interesting points from the applicant's answers as he or she explains them. These questions can be found in Appendix A. The consultant may also ask other questions to the applicant, based on information that was in the resume.
The consultant then sits the applicant in front of a computer and gets them to go through a few more tests on using Microsoft Word, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. These tests are computer based because the applicant is actually required to use these software applications and follow through questions, completing tasks in each particular software package. The secretary to the consultant at Choice Appointments maintains a folder containing all this information for the applicant's interview needs. This is particularly useful when a job becomes available with specific skill requirements. The secretary provides finds relevant contractors (successful applicants) for the job.
Choice Appointments has many client companies. These companies employ contractors from Choice Appointments on a temporary or permanent basis. They ring up Choice Appointments and speak to a consultant, specifying their requirements. A good example is that they may have a secretary who is going on leave for 6 months, and they need someone to come in for this period and work in that role. Going through Choice Appointments saves the company the tedious process of recruitment and interviews. The consultant can singly choose a contractor for the job, or he or she can single a select few out and send their skill sets (e.g. resumé or test results) to the client company and let them choose, or even hold an interview.
Choice appointments retains information for each job/position such as what the role is, the length of the appointment, the client company, a contact name, who the contractor selected for the position is, etc. Each job also has a wage negotiated by the consultant and the client company. Whatever wage is decided on, Choice Appointments is also paid 15% on top. This is how Choice Appointments makes its profit. For example, if a wage is negotiated for $17 per hour for the applicant, Choice Appointments actually receives $19.55. Choice Appointments then pays a weekly total of the hours worked @ $17 less tax (for this assignment, 10% of the total weekly earning) into the contractors bank account and keeps the extra. The contractor is always paid by Choice Appointments, never by the Client company.
When a contractor is chosen for an appointment, the contractor is sent a brief on the appointment. When a contractor is working for a client company, they must fill in a time sheet on their hours and fax it through to Choice Appointments. When Choice Appointments receives this timesheet, the details are entered into the database and an invoice is sent to the client company. For the purposes of this assignment, the week ending date, the total hours for that week, the contractor number and job number are all that need to be entered into the database. Also, the contractor is paid their due wage for which an invoice is generated and sent to the client company, and also needs to generate a pay slip to be sent to the contractor as proof of payment.
Choice Appointments wants to grow their recruitment business and increase their capacity to handle more client companies. The more efficiently the above tasks can be completed by Choice Appointments greater is their chance for growing their business and increasing the number of client companies. Additionally, looking after their client needs can also lead to more satisfied clients.
Assignment 1 -
TASK 1: Interviewing the Client/prospective customer
Adopt design thinking approach to interview prospective customer in order to get choice appointments system requirements. Tutor is your customer.
Based on the missing information identified in assignment scenario design a set of interview questions to determine complete set of requirements from the client (Choice Appointments). Conduct interviews with the client.
Document the method used in the design thinking approach.
Discuss weekly team meeting reports to your tutor providing details of the agenda, task allocation and minutes of meeting. Each member of the team will present and demonstrate the task or tasks they have completed in the assignment. The presentation and demonstration will take place after the submission of the assignment.
TASK 2: Work-Centred Analysis Framework -
Identify and define the six system elements in the Choice Appointments case study based on work-centred analysis framework. Also list missing information or system elements
TASK 3: Performance Analysis - Business Value and Customer Value -
Conduct a Performance Analysis of Business Process and Product/Output Components identified in Task 2 to determine business value and customer value gains which can be obtained through design and deployment of an information system as sub-system of the work system.
TASK 4: Architecture of the Information Component -
A. Develop an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) to represent the data identified in the information component of work-centred analysis framework for choice appointments information management system. The diagram of your ERD model must:
- Show all necessary entities, attributes and relationships
- Show unique identifiers and nature of interaction between entities.
B. Map the ERD into a set of relations in at least Third Normal Form (3NF). You should demonstrate that each relation satisfies the rules for first normal form, second normal form, and third normal form.
TASK 5: Business Process Architecture - Data Flow Diagram (DFD) -
Using DFD techniques draw the context diagram of Business Process Architecture of choice appointments System. Also draw level 0 data flow diagram showing the major sub-processes, data stores and flow of data between various sub-processes or steps in the business process component.
The submitted work will therefore comprise: A Microsoft Word document containing:
1) Application of Design thinking approach as an interview methodology for determining the requirements of your information management systems.
2) Mapping of requirements identified through the design thinking approach on to the 6 system elements of work-centred analysis framework.
3) Performance Analysis of business process and product/output components of Choise Appointment information management system.
4) A list of brief descriptions for each entity and attribute that you have identified in your case study.
- A copy of your entity-relationship model(s).
- A copy of relational tables in 3rd normal form.
- A list of any assumptions that you made (include any clarifications from your tutor).
- Context and level 0 dataflow diagram.
- Declaration form (Section
Assignment 2 -
Phase 2: Relational Database Implementation
TASK 6: Data Dictionary - submission date:
In your report, you must include a data dictionary based on given model solution (i.e., normalised ERD). You should briefly describe all entities and attributes are included, descriptions are clear, reasonable field formats, etc. See table above, example of data dictionary.
TASK 7: Database Implementation
A. Implement your data dictionary to create a relational database in Microsoft Access.
B. Create relationships and enforce referential integrity for all appropriate relationships in the database as appropriate.
C. Populate the database with sample data. Sufficient sample data must be included to demonstrate that the queries, view(s), and report(s) work correctly.
D. Create view objects ("SQL queries" in MS Access) to obtain tables that demonstrate following reports. (Note: it is strongly recommended that you do not use the Access query builder (QBE) - you should type the SQL queries in manually.)
E. Finally, write four reports, requiring a separate query to satisfy information needs of Choice appointments and their clients.
Save the database structure, test data and query/report designs to the USB and submit during your group presentation. However, printout the result of your forms and reports and include these in the online submission.
TASK 8: User Manual -
Create a user manual for your Choice appointments Information System. This manual should explain all the features of your database and how to do each task. The manual should also include screen shots of what you are explaining. Screen shots can be taken by pressing Alt+PrintScreen, and then pasting it into your document.
TASK 9: 10 minute Presentation and Demonstration of Tasks 1 to 8 in the lab.
Attachment:- Assignment File.rar