Manual systems and operations have often placed a lot of pressure on employees to be extra careful and do tasks in the right way every time, but the problem is that human is to error and they are prone to do them many times. Productivity, performance, and quality of services in manual system is solely depended on the person doing it, therefore, this requires that the business carries out regular training for its employees so as to enable them be more effective and efficient in their current responsibilities; this can be very costly to the organization.
However, with the evolution in technology businesses can now take advantage of the benefits that can be realized by implementing information systems within an enterprise. The problems associated with manual system such as inconsistency, inefficiency, large costs, insecurity, data duplication, limited abilities of information sharing, poor customer service, and slowness can be addressed.
Allsports is a multisport club that has many members who engage in different sporting activities like athletics, football, darts, cricket, and table tennis. In addition, every Wednesday the club publishes a newsletter which has ten articles done by members. The newsletter highlights the various field activities and a few paid adverts. However, due to manual system in Allsports, the club president experiences difficulties in keeping track of the club activities and operations. As such, the president has contracted High Voltage Information Services to examine and come up with specifications of an information system that will address the current challenges being faced by the club.
The system should be able to list all club members and the sports they engage in, articles to be published, adverts, members and the newsletters they have edited, members with emails addresses, and those without email addresses. This paper will propose a software development methodology to be employed in developing the information system, data collection methods, questionnaire, and system requirements (both functional and non-functional requirements).
Section A
Software Development Methodology
Software development methodology is a schema that is used in software engineering to plan, structure, and manage the development process of an information system (Obrenovic, 2013). If a project is managed well, it has a higher chance of becoming successful. Therefore, it is essential for the development team to analyze the various available methodologies and select one that best suits the project (Huskey, 2012). Every methodology has its one pros and cons and this will be the basis of choosing the most appropriate and relevant one. In this case, Extreme Programming have been selected as the development approach to be used while developing The Sports Report Information System (TSRIS) for Allsports Club.
Extreme Programming
Extreme programming employs the technique of high-level user involvement in the development process. This is an agile software engineering technique and is commonly referred to as XP methodology (Murphy, 2017). This methodology works well on projects with unpredictable requirements and atmosphere. By adopting the modelling procedure, it facilitates better tractability. Additionally, XP works best in projects with limited budget because one of the objectives of this methodology is to minimize the cost of software essentialities (Sharma & Singh, 2015). However, the price can be whooping if the requirements are modified in the final stages of the project.
Some of the advantages of XP methodology includes: more focus on the user engagement and this increases customer satisfaction, it establishes schedules and rational plans, ensures that the development team is fully committed to project success, and has the ability to produce quality information system (Tiwana, 2008). However, there exists some setbacks associated with this methodology such as it can be expensive and time consuming because of the regular meetings done, the future outcomes and exact possibilities are unknown, it’s the people that determines its effectiveness, and requires numerous changes during development.
Extreme programming methodology is well-known to offer add-on values such as:
Communication: the communication process in XP is robust, simple, and relatively transparent because team members depend on each other and share knowledge meaning that every member know the responsibilities of the rest of the team (Beyer, 2010).
Simplicity: simplicity is assured in all the development stages because of transparent and simple communication. Simplicity in such context refers to the technique of only including the necessary and relevant information and removing all the unnecessary ones (Ed, 2013).
Feedback: this add-on value offered by XP methodology makes it easier and faster to track down improvements resulting from requirements alteration.
Motivation: this perspective helps in identification of grave factors that may affect delivery capacities of the team members. Five different categories pf stakeholders are connected in XP including client, programmer, coordinator, tracker, and quality checker (Karim, Albuolayan, Saba & Rehman, 2016).
Rapid Application Development Methodology (RAD)
RAD is a development methodology that is condensed and produces software system of high quality. Allsport can adopt this methodology because it is cheap and gives quality results. This methodology allows the development team to adjust quickly to the changing system requirements in a changing market environment (Valacich, George & Hoffer, 2009). RAD is made up of four stages: Planning, user design, construction, and cutover.
RAD is a very effective approach especially for projects with well-defined business requirements. It is the best approach for Allsports because it has well-defined business requirements thus allowing the development team to design and construct the system using less resources. However, this approach requires highly skilled developers who are expertise in the development area otherwise the project may fail.
Recommended Methodology
The recommended approach that can be adopted by Allsports is Rapid Application Development. This is because this approach is cheap and produces high-quality system within a short period of time. Also, since the organization has laid out the business requirements, it will be easy to develop the system.
Data Collection Methods
A project will be successful if there is enough data and information driving it. As such, it is important to gather enough information from the target users in order to develop a requirement specification document (Duan, 2011). Additionally, the choice of data collection technique is also important as it determines the quality of data and information gathered. As such, the project team can adopt the following data collection methods:
Questionnaires
This is a stand-alone data gathering instrument that is issued out to the target sample participants either via phone, email, online, or physically by issuing a paper form. This method offers the researchers with a chance to formulate and structure the plan for collecting data carefully (Shirey, 2018). Additionally, the sample subjects or respondents can fill in the questionnaire at the time that is convenient for them are have enough space to think about the responses to give. Questionnaire can reach any place across the world and is theoretically limitless.
However, this technique can be passive and may miss out on some crucial details leaving the answers open for interpretation. When it comes to questionnaires, the rate of response is quite low compare to interviews and focus groups (Sowicz, 2017). In order to increase the response rate, it is important to design the questionnaire well by selecting the appropriate question.
The project team can carry out this process by administering the questionnaires directly to the Allsport employees and members because the data collection is focused on them and they are physically available (most of them). For those members with email addresses the questionnaires can be sent through email and for those without email addresses the questionnaire will be posted.
Interviews
Interviews is a data collection technique that involves meeting with the participants one on one allowing the researcher to ask questions and allowing the respondent to give his/her answers verbally. This gives the researcher a deeper understanding about the responses of the participant. Interview is a great way to conduct data collection because it gives the researcher a uncover deeper, richer understanding and can ask for clarification where it is not clear (Viles, 2016). Respondents may find it more comfortable when the interviewer is present because unclear questions can be clarified. Interview have a high response rate as compared to questionnaires.
However, interviews may be limited to few respondents because it consumes a lot of time and it can be costly especially if the respondents and interviewer have to travel. The interviewer should be equipped and well skilled in the relevant subject matter and necessary soft skills. Interviews would be a good choice for the project team to articulate more complex issues. The success of the data collection process can be more successful by having an interviewer present to interpret the questions (Vogt, 2010).
Focus Groups
This is a kind of an interview session but in this case, a group is carefully selected from the target audience and a moderated discussion is held about the concern topic. This is a very effective data collection technique because of the health discussion that the group engages in concerning the subject matter (Wilde, 2010). Researchers are presented with opportunity to unraveled more details that could otherwise be left out. Facts can be collected easily because any inaccurate response can be corrected by the group members instantly. The researchers can be able to come up with a balanced perspective of the organizations processes because they have a chance of looking on both sides of the coin at the same time.
However, it may be a challenge to get people who have relevant information about all the operations and processes that are normally carried out in Allsport. Additionally, it is difficult to convince them all at the same time. Some members may become ‘noisy’ which may subdue opinions from other members which may be of great value. One major setback about focus group is that members may think as a group and this can burry opinion diversity and thus, it is important that the focus group leader prevent such from occurring. Focus group can be effective especially when you are targeting a group with similar actions such as a department.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire has been designed for the president and the club members. The questionnaire seeks to gather the system requirements and the views of the members and president about implementing the new system.
? Not Satisfied. ? Satisfied.
? Not Informed. ? Fairly Informed. ? Informed. ? Well Informed.
? Strongly Disagree. ? Disagree. ? Agree . ? Strongly Agree.
? Strongly Disagree. ? Disagree. ? Agree . ? Strongly Agree.
system Requirements
System requirements are very essential because it dictates on what the system should do or how it should look like and acts as a guideline in system development. System requirements include functional and non-functional requirements. Nevertheless, there are other important aspects that should be captured in the system requirement specification document such as quality attributes, required performance level, and design constraints. System requirements are very important for the development team because it will reduce the effort and time that developers will use to attain the objective which ultimately reduces the cost of developing the system (Satzinger, Jackson & Burd, 2012). This paper will focus on the functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed The Sport Report Information System.
Functional Requirements
The following are the expected functional requirements form TSRIS:
Non-Functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements are very important and thus they should never be abstracted by the system development team. Overlooking on these requirements may lead to the entire project failing. Non-functional requirements entail usability, reliability, performance, and security. They have a great influence on the overall system acceptance and usability (Crudele & Castiglioni, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the non-functional requirements because sometimes the system may have met all the functional requirements but have missed to capture the non-functional ones thus leading to rejection of the system. These requirements are expounded below:
Usability: this describes the overall user interface experience for the users. The users might have different usability. The system may have different level of users for instance the interface that the president may be different from that of the members but it is important to ensure consistency and uniformity across the board (Phalnikar, 2016). The system should have a user-friendly interface that will allow the users to interact with it with a lot of ease and without having to refer to the manual document every time.
Reliability: system reliance is very important and lets the user to trust that the system will do what they instruct in to do whenever they require it. The system should be reliable enough to handle all the functional requirements of Allsport club. The system should ensure high level of availability to ensure that users carry out their responsibilities with minimal interruptions (Phalnikar & Jinwala, 2015).
Perfomance: often the system users anticipate that the system will be able to process their requests quickly, for instance, when the president want to see the list of the members without email address, the system will display it almost instantly and the user should not have to wait. Many users expect the system to process all their requests with the same speed regardless of the amount of information and instructions being issued to the system (Kendall & Kendall, 2006).
Security: this is a very critical feature that every system developer should pay attention to, that is, system security is not just about preventing external attacks such as hackers, viruses, and other malicious programs but it also includes the ability of the system to recover from internal errors i.e. fault tolerance. It is important to ensure system security to ensure that all the data stored in the system is safe.
Section B
|
Use Case Name |
Description |
|
Scenario |
Register Member |
|
Event triggering |
New member shows interest to join the club |
|
Short Explanation |
Member wants to join Allsport club, and is ready to pay membership fee. The new member will also register for preferred sport |
|
Actors |
President, member |
|
Associated use cases |
Member wiling to join President ready to register |
|
Stakeholders |
The member must be willing to pay membership fee |
|
Preconditions |
Actor System |
|
Post conditions |
1. New member visits the club 2. New member show interest to join the club 3. President register the member 4. Member selects preferred sport |
|
Activity flow |
If the favorite sport of the user is not available, the member may decline to register. |
|
Member wiling to join President ready to register |
Member wiling to join President ready to register |
|
Exceptional Condition |
The member must be willing to pay membership fee |
References
Beyer, H. (2010). User-centered agile methods. [San Rafael, Calif.]: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Crudele, M., & Castiglioni, F. (2014). Manage non-functional requirements for cloud applications.
Duan, M. (2011). Application of data collection techniques by human performance technology practitioners. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 24(3), 77-100. doi: 10.1002/piq.20118
Ed, K. (2013). Agile methodology for developing & measuring learning. [Bloomington, Indiana]: Authorhouse.
Huskey, J. (2012). Software development. Delhi: Research World.
Karim, N., Albuolayan, A., Saba, T., & Rehman, A. (2016). The practice of secure software development in SDLC: an investigation through existing model and a case study. Security And Communication Networks, 9(18), 5333-5345. doi: 10.1002/sec.1700
Kendall, K., & Kendall, J. (2006). Systems analysis and design. Cambridge: Pearson.
Murphy, D. (2017). Managing software development with Trac and Subversion. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing.
Obrenovic, Z. (2013). Software Sketchifying: Bringing Innovation into Software Development. IEEE Software, 30(3), 80-86. doi: 10.1109/ms.2012.71
Phalnikar, R. (2016). Validation of Non-functional Requirements in Cloud Based Systems (Short Paper). 2016 5Th IEEE International Conference On Cloud Networking (Cloudnet). doi: 10.1109/cloudnet.2016.18
Phalnikar, R., & Jinwala, D. (2015). Analysis of Conflicting User Requirements in Web Applications Using Graph Transformation. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 40(2), 1-7. doi: 10.1145/2735399.2735414
Satzinger, J., Jackson, R., & Burd, S. (2012). Systems analysis and design in a changing world. Boston, Mass.: Course Technology.
Satzinger, J., Jackson, R., & Burd, S. (2014). Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Sharma, P., & Singh, D. (2015). Comparative Study of Various SDLC Models on Different Parameters. International Journal Of Engineering Research, 4(4), 188-191. doi: 10.17950/ijer/v4s4/405
Sharma, P., & Singh, D. (2015). Comparative Study of Various SDLC Models on Different Parameters. International Journal Of Engineering Research, 4(4), 188-191. doi: 10.17950/ijer/v4s4/405
Shirey, V. (2018). Visualizing natural history collection data provides insight into collection development and bias. Biodiversity Data Journal, 6. doi: 10.3897/bdj.6.e26741
Sowicz, T. (2017). Mixed methods designs. PAIN, 158(4), 760. doi: 10.1097/
Tiwana, A. (2008). Impact of classes of development coordination tools on software development performance. ACM Transactions On Software Engineering And Methodology, 17(2), 1-47. doi: 10.1145/1348250.1348257
Valacich, J., George, J., & Hoffer, J. (2009). Essentials of systems analysis and design. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Viles, H. (2016). Technology and geomorphology: Are improvements in data collection techniques transforming geomorphic science?. Geomorphology, 270, 121-133. doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.07.011
Vogt, W. (2010). Data collection. Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
Wilde, M. (2010). Local Journal Utilization Report: Supporting Data for Collection Decisions. Collection Management, 35(2), 102-107. doi: 10.1080/01462671003615058
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download