Case Study: Perfect Builders Pty Ltd.
Background:
Perfect Builders Pty Ltd(Perfect Builders) is a Sunshine Coast based business which primarily assesses, quotes and repairs homes and small commercial buildings for insurance companies. However building projects for private clients keeps the full time staff busy when the largely seasonal insurance work is not in full swing.
The business was established by businessman Dan Perfect in 1999 and has become well respected for its good quality work and reliable project management expertise. This reliability is highly valued by insurance companies especially in times of natural disaster when there is a need for Perfect Builders to respond quickly and perform a ‘make safe' operation sometimes before any formal paper work has been completed. To date Perfect Builders have relied on MS Word document templates and macros to produce reports and quotes, and MS Excel to cost and manage projects. Insurance companies are now moving to online quotes, contracts and reporting portals and Perfect Builders needs to update some of their project management and processing systems to allow them to automate communication through insurance company online portals.
Perfect Builders are a project oriented business and employ 10 to 15 fulltime staff depending on the workload.Employees include four admin and finance staff, three assessors who travel throughout Queensland to assess claims, and three building supervisors who manage building and repair projects.
The typical workflow process for a project would start with notification from an insurance company with details of the insured including contact details, physical site address, policy excess payment required (if any), policy number and further instructions such as a ‘make safe' order. The admin staff would instigate a new project and record the insured as a new client. The admin staff will contact the insured and organise the building supervisor to perform a ‘make safe' if required and arrange for an assessor to inspect the property. After assessing the property the assessor will compile a report and quote for the insurance company. The assessor may also quote the client to perform work that is not covered by insurance.The client may be invoiced for the insurance policy excess if applicable. If the quote is accepted by the insurance company (and the client if there is a private works component) the building supervisor will take over and project manage the work required. Specialist contractors will be employed as required to carry out the work. Janet holms, the head admin officer, will receive an overview report of all the projects in progress every day and Dan will receive this report every week. Once the project is complete the client will sign off on a Certificate of Completion which is tendered to the insurance company along with an invoice for final payment. The client may also be invoiced for private work completed.
The admin staff keep a diary entry for every step of the project including when it was instigated, details of every communication pertaining to the project, links to every document generated for the project (reports, quotes, estimation spreadsheets, invoices, etc.), details of every contractor involved in the project along with their quotes to Perfect Builders and work performed, and any other detail pertaining to the project.
Perfect Builders are wining more and more work because of their excellent reputation, they tend to be the first call an insurance company makes when building claims are lodged. However the increasing work highlights the inadequacies of theircurrent information processing systems. Not only is the inadequacy increasing staff stress levels but it's also causing tension in the office because assessors, supervisors and contractors are not able to access information and must rely heavily on already overworked admin staff. Dan is making enquiries as to his options with a new system. He is aware that his assessors and supervisors are builders and not computer oriented people so any new system needs to accommodate their level of expertise. At the same time his head administrator, Janet is a very IT savvy lady with many years' experience in the insurance industry and understands the business complexity. Dan knows that his business viability and reputation depends on having effective information systems in order to keep his clients (insurers and those private) satisfied and coming back.
Business Processes:
A JAD session with key stakeholders revealed the following information. The business processes described below are the system requirements for this information system solution:
- It has been decided to first build and implement the project management application and leave the automation ofdocument and invoice generation to a later date. However the model must include links to the documents and invoices which, for the time being, will still be generated using MS Word templates and macros.
- Perfect Builders has both corporate and individual clients. They have kept the insurance company clients separate to private clients. Records kept for all clients include: Name, Business number, Postal Address, Contact Name, Phone Number, Email,and Date of becoming a client. Records kept for insurance company clients include Perfect Builder's Supplier Account number with the insurance company and a link to the insurance company online portal. Records kept for private clients include a Notes field for comments.
- Each private client may be insured by many insurance companies for different properties. Each of these are separate policies are recorded with their own Policy Number and Property Address.
- Each project is associated with a private client and also may have an insurance company client but no more. The project has a Link to the excel spreadsheet which holds the project plan and schedule. However the database must record Start Date, Completion Date - filled in when project is finished (the Certificate of Completion is signed)but not necessarily finalised, name of Project Supervisor, Site Address and a general Notes field for comments about the project including special instructions like the ‘make safe'.
- Each project employs a number of specialist contractors who have the same attributes as for the Client along with a Specialty Area. Each contractor may be employed on the same project in a number of different specialist capacities. For example Rocky Plumbers not only looks after sinks, toilets, water pipes, etc. but it also is a roofing specialist and may be employed on the project in both roles.Each contractor specialist role for each project must be recorded. During the project all the activities carried out and all correspondence generated by each of those specialist roles must be recorded in the diary. However there is no direct link between contractors and the diary, they will be referenced by name in the diary notes entered by admin staff.
- The Diary not only keeps a record of contractors but also a record of every project activity, correspondence and conversations with anyone pertaining to the project. There is a Link to documents pertaining to the diary entry. Diary entries are all dated so a report can be run at any time showing what has happened on the project and where it is up to. Each Diary entry has a Title and Diary Entry.
- It is imperative that Janet the head admin officer can run an overview report at any time and see where all the projects are at and problems highlighted for attention. In busy times she runs this report every day. Dan wants this report run automatically for him every week all year round.
- Generating documents such as invoices, quotes, insurer reports, project plans, etc.are outside the scope of this project. However the database will accommodate links to all these documents which are stored in folders pertaining to the individual projects.
Part A
Question 1: Essay
Your manager has done some reading and is sure that an adaptive systems development approach is necessary for the new information systems project to develop a project management system for Perfect Builders.
Your manager has asked you to write short essay on oneadaptive systems development methodology suitable for this project, choosing from methodologies such as Scrum, XP and UP. State what makes this methodologyin particular align with this project. It is expected that you use the detail from the case study in your essay.
Your target audience is executive business people, who have extensive business experience but limited computing knowledge.
Your essay should be no less than one thousand (1000) words and it would be best to be no longer than one thousand five hundred (1500) words long.
Appropriate referencing is required. The textbook Satzingeret. al is a valid resource, however it is expected that at least five (5) other resources will also be used.
Question 2: Memo
Review the Perfect Builders case study and answer the following question with reference to the information in the case study.
Your manager has requested that you write a brief memorandum for the owner Dan Perfect and his management team commenting on the different ways you might handle the design of the Human Computer Interface of this new application.
There is limited information available to you at this time but you are required to make reasonable assumptions based on the information that you have. Assumptions should be noted and specifically mentioned within your memo.Your memo should be no less than seven hundred and fifty (750) words and it would be best to be no longer than one thousand (1000) words long.
Part B
Modelling and Diagramming
Review the Perfect Builderscase study and answer the following questions with reference to the information in the case study.
Do NOT extend the scope for any of the following solutions beyond that specifically described in the case study above.
You are permitted to make reasonable assumptions where necessary but these should be noted.
It is recommended that you review all documentation for this case study before finalising any single solution. Ensure that the required consistency has been included within and between each question solution.
Question 3: Event Table
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Event
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Event Type
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Trigger
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Source
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Activity/Use Case
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System Response/
Output
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Destination
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Review the Perfect Builderscase study and prepare an event table for the information system to support the business processes as described. Use at least the following headings for the Event Table:
Question 4: Domain Model Class Diagram
Review the Perfect Builderscase study to prepare a domain model class diagram for the supporting information system.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al textbook. Solutions are expected to show:
- The class name and attributes list for each class and sub class as required
- All required associations
- All attributes as specifically mentioned in the case study must be reflected
- Other attributes as needed to support the described functionality.
It is not necessary to show methods, however you may include them if you wish. Solutions are expected to align with the components as shown in figure 4-21.
Question 5: Design Class Diagram
Prepare a Design class diagram for the Diaryand Contractorclasses ONLY. These two classes should be part of the Domain model class diagram solution for the previous question.
Each of these design class diagrams are expected to have a complete attributes list and a comprehensive methods list which supports the specified functionality as described in the case study.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al textbook. Solutions are expected to align with the components for the ‘Design class diagram Student' as shown on the right hand of figure 12.4.
Question 6: Use Case Diagram
Review the Perfect Builderscase study and your event table solution from question 1 to prepare a Use Case diagram for the supporting information system.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al textbook. Solutions are expected to align with the components as shown in figures 3-12 and 3-15.
Question 7: Use Case Description (intermediate)
Prepare a Use Case intermediate description for the 'Create Project' use case, as documented in the event table solution and the use case diagram solution.
Solutions must follow the methodology as outlined within the Satzinger et al textbook. Solutions are expected to align with the components as shown in figure 5-2.