On The Spot Courier Services – Stakeholder Analysis And System Requirements

Internal and External Stakeholders for On the Spot Courier Services

The stakeholders for the On the Spot Courier services can be classified into two;

• Internal stakeholders to the business
• External stakeholders to the business

Internal stakeholders to the business are those who ae directly involved with the business. These stakeholders can also be classified in to two;

• Internal executive stakeholders- These type of stakeholders are the most important and have the most influence on how the business is running (Thompson, 2018). For the on spot courier services, this stakeholder is Bill who is the owner and the manager of the business.
• Internal operational stakeholders- These type of stakeholders are important to the business but do not have a lot of power or influence on how the business is ran. For the on spot courier services, these stakeholders are the employees of the business (Toolkit, 2009).

External stakeholders are stakeholders who are external to the business but are involved with the business one way or another. For the on the spot courier services business, these type of stakeholders can be classified into two;

• External executive stakeholders- These type of stakeholders are external to the business but have a lot of influence on how the business is ran (Gray, 2011). These stakeholders might the investors who are not in the management of the business. Currently on the spot courier services does not have these type of stakeholders as the business is owned and managed by Bill only.
• External operational stakeholders- These type of stakeholders are external to the business but are involved with the operations. They are important to the business but have no influence on how the business is ran by the management. For the on the spot courier services, these stakeholders are the customer in need of services offered by the business.

As the business grows, new stakeholders might be introduced into the business. Looking at the type of business that on the spot courier services is running, there is need for assets, for example delivery vans and the staff to operate those delivery vans and the warehouses that the packages will be stored. Thus to expand the business, Bill who is the manager might have to get external investors who will invest into the business to facilitate its expansion as there is a lot of potential in the business. These investors might as in return for some equity from the business for them to invest meaning that they will be part owners in the business but will not be directly involved in day to day management of the business because that will be done by Bill.

If I was commissioned to build the system for Bill I would use two types of methods to determine the requirements for the proposed system. These two methods are;

• Observation
• Interviewing

Requirements gathering using observation will be done to get the requirements depending on how the business is operating at the moment so as to determine how an information system can be used to improve business processes. Observation will involve going to the business premises for a few days or weeks and keeping a record of all that is going on in the business so as to find where an information system can fit in. To improve this method of requirements gathering I would have to be involved in some of the processes. For example, to know how deliveries are made, I would have to accompany the delivery person as he makes different deliveries so as to get a full idea of how the whole process of delivery works. For the warehouse, I would have to spend time at the warehouse helping with the activities going in the warehouse to make sure all details about operations of the business are captured during the observation process.

Methods Used to Determine Requirements for an Information System

Interviewing will be used to compliment the observation method. Interviews will be conducted to get the end user’s perspective of the system and how they think of the system or expect the system to help them. The type of interviews to be conducted will be semi-structured interviews (Stephen, 2013). This type of interviews are a combination of both structured and unstructured interviews. This interviews will be conducted for all employees and customers so as to get requirements from all sides.

For the system to be fully operational there are various requirements that will have to be met;

Because the system will run on a web server the following hardware requirement should be met.

• Desktop computers- Standard specifications for example Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB or more RAM.
• Internet connectivity thus networking will have to be done within the business premises. These will require a switch, Coaxial cables and a wireless access point.
• A tablet or IPad. This will be mounted on the delivery person’s vehicle and will show where the delivery person is supposed to deliver various packages. 

Instead of acquiring infrastructure to deploy the web server on which the information system will run on, the best recommended option for the business is to purchase a cloud service. I would recommend for Bill to purchase a PAAS (Platform as a Service) cloud service (Colman, 2013). This will be easy to deploy and does not require any maintenance as would be required with an on premise deployed web server which would require Bill to hire an IT professional to maintain the server (Butler, 2013).

Functional requirements can be subdivided in terms of;

Customers

• The system should provide an option for customers to create an account by registering and login
• The system should allow customers to make a delivery request.
• The system should allow customers to make payment for a delivery
• The system should allow customers to track the status of the delivery

On the spot staff

• The system should enable a staff to login
• The system should allow a staff to view all delivery requests
• The system should allow the warehouse manager to manage packages; add or dispatch packages
• The system should allow the delivery person to see addresses of various packages during a delivery
• The system should enable the manager to produce different reports

The requirement identified in category 1 is;

• A member should be able to register for either a full membership or a limited membership.

Checklist

Requirement	Result
Is it necessary (trace a user need)	Yes: (A typical centre has 300–500 members, with two membership levels: full and limited)
is it concise	Yes
Is it feasible	Yes
Is it testable	Yes
Is it unambiguous	Yes
Is it complete	Yes

The requirement identified in category 2 is;

• A staff should be able to produce a daily activity report

Checklist

Requirement	Result
Is it necessary (trace a user need)	Yes: (The Bumblebee program produces a daily activity report with a listing of all sales transactions)
is it concise	Yes
Is it feasible	Yes
Is it testable	Yes
Is it unambiguous	Yes
Is it complete	Yes

The requirement identified in category 3 is;

• Local manager should be able to generate an accounts receivable summary

Checklist

Requirement	Result
Is it necessary (trace a user need)	Yes: (the local manager uses Bumblebee to transmit an accounts receivable summary to the Personal Trainer headquarters in Chicago)
is it concise	Yes
Is it feasible	Yes
Is it testable	Yes
Is it unambiguous	Yes
Is it complete	Yes

The requirement identified in category 4 is;

• The system should  store basic member information

Checklist

Requirement	Result
Is it necessary (trace a user need)	Yes: (The Bumblebee program stores basic member information)
is it concise	Yes
Is it feasible	Yes
Is it testable	Yes
Is it unambiguous	Yes
Is it complete	Yes

He requirement identified in category 5 is;

• The system should be able to produce an exception report for inactive members and late payers

Checklist

Requirement	Result
Is it necessary (trace a user need)	Yes: (an exception report for inactive members and late payers)
is it concise	Yes
Is it feasible	Yes
Is it testable	Yes
Is it unambiguous	Yes
Is it complete	Yes

Susan should explain TCO concept to Gray as Total Cost of Ownership which is a financial estimate that is aimed to help her to determine the direct and indirect costs that will be met while acquiring the new information system (Reh, 2018). It will help Gray by providing a cost basis that will determine the total economic value of acquiring the new information system; TCO will show gray the;

• Return on investment
• Internal rate of return
• Value added
• Operation expenses
• Long term expenses
• Cost of migrating to the new system

Requirement	actor	input	output	Process	Performance
Schedule patient	receptionist	patientID date, time	Success or error message	The receptionist schedules a patient for an appointment	Should display a message within 5 seconds of execution
Pay staff	HR manager	staffID	Success or error message	THe HR manager selects a staff and pays the salary	The system should complete execution within 5 seconds
Register new patient	Receptionist	Patient details	Message	THe receptionist registers a patient	The system should complete execution within 5 seconds

This questionnaire has been designed to get your inputs as a patient of New Century wellness group on matters regarding insurance procedures and appointment scheduling. Please answer the questions accordingly and give your honest opinion where necessary.

A YOUR OBSERVATIONS

Please answer each question by checking one box

1. How Many times have you visited New Century Wellness Group?

{ } First time

{ } Twice

{ } Thrice

{ } Over Three times 

1. What do you think about the current scheduling process?

{ } Good

{ } Bad

{ } Should be improved 

1. How much time did it take you to see the doctor on your last visit?

{ } About 5 minutes

{ } About 10 minutes

{ } About 30 minutes

{ } More than 30 minutes 

1. Do you have insurance policy?

{ } No

{ } Yes 

1. Would you prefer it if the hospital do away with cash completely? If No tell us why

{ } Yes

{ } No

1. YOUR SUGGESTIONS

Please be specific and give examples if possible

1. If a new appointment scheduling system were to be introduced how do you recommend it to operate?

1. Would you be interested in meeting with an information technology representative to discuss your ideas further? If so please complete the following information:

Name __________________________

Email address___________________________

Telephone _____________________________

Thank you for your time

References

Butler, B. (2013). PaaS Primer: What is platform as a service and why does it matter?. [online] Network world. Available at: https://www.networkworld.com/article/2163430/cloud-computing/paas-primer–what-is-platform-as-a-service-and-why-does-it-matter-.html [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].

Colman, E. (2013). When to use SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. [online] Compute Next.Available at: https://www.computenext.com/blog/when-to-use-saas-paas-and-iaas/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].

Gray, D. (2011). Stakeholder Analysis. [online] Gamestroriming. Available at: https://gamestorming.com/stakeholder-analysis/ [Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].

Reh, J. (2018). A Guide for Managers to Understand Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). [online] The balance. Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/total-cost-of-ownership-tco-2276009 [Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].

Stephen, F. (2013). Inerviews: Requirements Elicitation Technique. [online] Business Analyst Learnings. Available at: https://businessanalystlearnings.com/ba-techniques/2013/7/18/interviews-requirements-elicitation-technique [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].

Thompson, R. (2018). Stakeholder Analysis. [online] Mind tools. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm [Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].

Toolkit (2009). Mapping Political Context: Stakeholder Analysis. [online] ODI. Available at: https://www.odi.org/publications/5530-stakeholder-analysis [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].