Feasibility Analysis For UNICEF Child Care System Development

Approach to Systems Development

This report is based on UNICEF Child care to propose a new system for the organization so that they can operate their business in an efficient manner. In this report, the analysis is done to determine the feasibility of the project so that the new system could meet requirements of the organization. The problems with the existing system are identified as presently the operations of the business are being handled manually. Hence, the discussions are carried out on suitable approach for system development along with statement of the functional and non-functional requirements for the system. Various techniques are also determined for investigating the system information requirement.

UNICEF Child Care is an organization that offers food facilities as well as other services like nannies, babysitter and teachers. The problems that has been identified in context to the existing system of UNICEF child care is with the manual processing of payments. For processing payments, the parents have to visit a bank or a branch and deposit money into the account of UNICEF child care. The major problems with the current system are listed as below:

• The staffs have to be available all the time for attending phone calls or emails from the parents. The staffs are responsible for noting the details of payments received from the parents to prepare tax invoices.
• Proper year ending statement are not provided suitably to the parents.
• Accurate stock keeping is not maintained that leads to wastage of supplies. 

The problems existing due to the current manual process being followed by the organization can be mitigated with the development of an Information system. Agile methodology is a suitable approach for development of the information system. In accordance to Matharu et al. (2015), the major advantage of Agile Methodology is that it is flexible and easily adjust to meet requirements of the project. This methodology provides scope of adopting changes as per the requirements of client and it follows an iterative structure to execute the complete project. The problems with the existing system can be easily solved with this methodology as the changing needs of the business will be taken into consideration while development of the new information system.

The case study on UNICEF child care has demonstrated various requirements that are needed to be fulfilled by the new information system. Some of the functional and non-functional requirements identified in context to the system are presented as below:

• Login and Registration: The parents or users of the system must register themselves as members of the organization to access the services of UNICEF child care.
• Authentication and accessibility levels: The system must have different segments according to user roles like different module for customers, administrator and staffs. Different users of the system will be provided with different access levels to records or data. For instance, the Admin will be able to generate report or update records from the system while the staffs will be able to only insert data into the system. The customers will be able to read information from the system but they will not be able to edit system data.
• Payment: The parents or users will be able to make payments online through the system which will be stored against their account.
• Inventory management: The system will also automate the process of ordering supplies so that there is no wastage and there is proper stock keeping maintained within the organization. 

• Reduction in costs associated with staffs and savings on wastage of food.
• Reduction in maintenance costs.
• The system must have user friendly interface and secure authentication measures have to be implemented.
• The system must provide easier accessibility along with safe and secure payment functionality.

Cost benefit analysis is considered as a tool that can be used for making decisions by comparing the benefits in terms of costs associated with development of a new system. This analysis forms the base to check whether it is feasible to invest in a particular project or not (Boardman et al. 2017). The economic feasibility of a project is determined from this analysis so that changes can be made according to the requirements.

Existing system of UNICEF Child Care

In context to the particular project for UNICEF child care system, the cost benefit analysis demonstrates feasibility of the project. The cost benefit analysis has been done by taking $225,000.00 to be the investment and $9500 per month savings on staff and food wastage along with $500 per month for maintenance purpose. The NPV (Net present value) demonstrated a positive value which means that the project is viable and the payback period has been estimated to be 1.55 years means the investment will be returned by that time.

Project Cost-Benefit Analysis
UNICEF CHILD CARE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Discount Rate Used	6.00%
Annual Benefits	$   174,000.00
Annual Operational Costs	$     55,000.00
One-Time Development Cost	$   170,000.00
		Year of Project
		0	1	2	3	4	5	TOTAL
Economic Benefit		$0.00	$ 174,000.00	$ 174,000.00	$    174,000.00	$  174,000.00	$    174,000.00
Discount Rate		1.0000	0.9434	0.8900	0.8396	0.7921	0.7473
PV of Benefits		$0.00	$164,150.94	$154,859.38	$146,093.76	$137,824.30	$130,022.92
NPV of all BENEFITS		$0.00	$ 164,150.94	$ 319,010.32	$    465,104.08	$  602,928.38	$    732,951.30	$         732,951.30
One-Time COSTS		$(170,000.00)
Recurring Costs		$0.00	$  (55,000.00)	$  (55,000.00)	$     (55,000.00)	$  (55,000.00)	$    (55,000.00)
Discount Rate		1.0000	0.9434	0.8900	0.8396	0.7921	0.7473
PV of Recurring Costs		$0.00	$  (51,886.79)	$  (48,949.80)	$     (46,179.06)	$  (43,565.15)	$    (41,099.20)
NPV of all COSTS		$(170,000.00)	$(221,886.79)	$(270,836.60)	$   (317,015.66)	$ (360,580.81)	$   (401,680.01)	$        (401,680.01)
Overall NPV								$         331,271.29
Overall ROI								0.8247
Break-even Analysis
Yearly NPV Cash FLOW		$(170,000.00)	$ 112,264.15	$ 105,909.58	$      99,914.69	$   94,259.15	$     88,923.72
Overall NPV Cash FLOW		$(170,000.00)	$  (57,735.85)	$   48,173.73	$    148,088.42	$  242,347.57	$    331,271.29
Project Breakeven occurs between year 1 and 2 (Actual Breakeven)	1.55

Table 1: Cost Benefit Analysis for the project

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is defined as the graphical representation of the list of activities that are required to execute a project. In WBS, the illustration shows the division of tasks into smaller work packages so that the project can be carried out in a successful manner (Kerzner & Kerzner 2017). The WBS gives an outline of the tasks to be carried out by providing general information of the work packages. In Figure 1, a WBS has been depicted to illustrate the activities that are required to accomplish the project successfully. From the above figure, it can be found that the project is divided as different phases.

A project schedule provides a detailed plan to execute a project along with the duration required for each tasks and the allocation of resources to complete those activities (Harrison & Lock 2017). The schedule provides precise and accurate analysis on the project feasibility.

The schedule has been developed after analysing the requirements and system goals as it forms the basis to ensure success of a project. The figure 2, presents an insight into the schedule that has been designed to execute the project. The schedule has been developed with the help of designed WBS so that every work package can be efficiently implemented during execution of the project.

Kerzner (2018), states that stakeholders are the members associated with a project and they play an important role to accomplish the project successfully. The major stakeholders that has been identified in context to the UNICEF child care system are divided into two groups as listed below:

Internal stakeholders:

1. Chairman (John Smith)
2. Accountant
3. Admin
4. Other staffs 

External Stakeholders:

1. Parents
2. Suppliers

Various investigation techniques can be used for analysing system information requirement while some of the important techniques that can be used in context to the UNICEF child care case are listed as below: 

Interviewing: Interviewing is considered as a suitable method for understanding the business capabilities and rules. According to Lu et al. (2017), this investigation technique helps to determine the requirements in a detailed manner to ensure successful completion of the project.

Selected Approach for system development

Usefulness: This investigation technique is essential for this particular project as the face to face sessions will help to collect precise data or information about requirements of the client.

Survey Questionnaires: This method is used to collect data with the help of developing questionnaires that will be distributed among individuals to collect data. In this method a standard set of questions are prepared to identify the exact requirements.

Usefulness: This method is useful in gathering exact information about the problems with current system and requirements of the client.

Document Review: This method is related to investigating the requirements from previous documents being recorded on the problems or functions of the system.

Usefulness: This method is useful to access the information quickly in an easy and efficient manner. 

Reflections and Conclusions

This project is aimed towards fulfilling requirements of UNICEF child care so that they can automate the payment processing as well as ordering of supplies. The functional and non-functional requirements of the system has been presented in a well-organized manner after determining the requirements.

From this project, it can be said that cost benefit analysis is an essential element in determining feasibility of a project. The problems that are encountered by the organization in terms of the manual process can be mitigate with the help of suitable system development approach. The three techniques for investigation contributes successfully towards investigating system information requirement. 

References 

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