Understanding the Digital Revolution
Assignment 1 - Paperback Planet
Overview
For this individual assignment, you will use skills acquired through practical laboratory exercises to automate a business process, and to visualize the impact of the automation.
The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:
Learning Outcomes
A1. Prepare a basic solution to a business problem;
A2. Select appropriate IT solutions for business functions;
A3. Apply business information software for data visualization and analysis purposes.
S1. Write basic programming logic;
S3. Interpret and construct representations of business data flow and processes;
K8. Outline the basic principles of programming.
Assessment Details
Paperback Planet is a small second-hand book shop, run by a team of three staff members: Amanda, Bakari, and Conrad.
For this assignment, you will complete the following set of tasks using Excel, and build an ePortfolio page to describe your work.
Task 0 - Setting up
Create an ePortfolio page for your assignment.
Hours of operation
Most of the time, each team member works separate shifts:
Amanda works 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; Bakari works 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and Conrad works 12:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday.
The shop runs from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM each day, except Saturday when it closes at 12:30. It is closed entirely on Sundays.
Costs
Amanda and Bakari are the semi-retired co-owners of the bookshop, and do not take a salary.
Conrad, however, is a part-time employee, with total employment costs of $22 per hour. Conrad is also entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave, during which a casual replacement is required at a cost of $33 per hour.
Fixed costs such as rent and insurance are $2900 per year, and utilities costs are $140 per month.
Task 1 - Costs of operating the business
Using Excel, create a spreadsheet called operating_costs.xlsx that calculates the projected annual outgoing costs of running Paperback Planet.
Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the working hours, hourly rates, and fixed and utility costs can be varied easily.
Document your findings in your ePortfolio page (approximately 100 words).
Task 2 - Sales team offers
Using Excel, process the history of purchases spreadsheet and use appropriate charts to visualize: How the prices paid differed for each staff member; and
How the prices paid have changed over time
Describe your findings in your ePortfolio (approximately 250 words), and attach the Excel file to your page.
Task 3 - Automation
Using Excel, create a spreadsheet page that automates the above process, allowing a member of the team to enter whether the book is hardcover, its publication year, and its condition, and receive a price to offer.
Ensure that you include enough text and formatting to make your spreadsheet usable by a member of the Paperback Planet team, or by a University lecturer.
Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the Low, Medium and High prices can be varied easily. Describe how you automated the process (approx 150 words), and attach your Excel file to your ePortfolio.
Task 4 - Price setting
Using Excel and the historical data you have available, determine sets of prices which meet the objectives of the following scenarios:
Scenario one: Total offer prices are approximately the same as for the historical data
Scenario two: Assuming all books purchased are sold, allow all staff to draw the same wage as Conrad.
Describe the strategy you used to find appropriate prices for each scenario (approximately 150 words). Ensure that the Low price is less than the Medium price, and both are less than the High price.
Optional task 5
Reimplement Task 1 and Task 3 using either Python or HTML+JavaScript.
Write a brief overview of how to run your solution, and attach a zip file containing your code to your ePortfolio page.
There are no partial marks awarded for this bonus task - you must complete all features to attain the bonus marks.
Attachment:- Assignment.rar