Hey everyone! I wasn't sure where to post this, but I need to talk about the system development life cycle, the initial stages of it. So I would really appreciate if you help me.

The purpose of undertaking the initial stages of the systems life-cycle is to provide a report to the client:
• detailing the feasibility of the proposed system;
• proposing solutions to solve the problems of the current system and meet the needs of the end-users;
• including the design of the proposed input/output requirements.

I have to:

o the feasibility of the proposed system;
o a proposed solution to the problem;
o the design of the input/output requirements.

Scenario:

The Perfect Pie is a small business in Barrow. The main function of the business is to deliver pies to customers at their workplace. The pies are available with a number of different fillings. The business also provides a range of drinks, salads and hot snacks, such as chips, that can also be delivered. All pies can be ordered either hot or cold and with brown or red sauce. The pie fillings include:
• cheese and onion;
• pork;
• meat;
• meat and potato;
• steak.
Most of the customers of The Perfect Pie place regular orders but deliveries can also be made to businesses as a one-off order for a business lunch meeting.
The main office of The Perfect Pie is in the centre of the business district. Regular customers can arrange any change to their order and businesses can place one-off orders by calling into, faxing or phoning this office. The owner and the administration staff are based at this office.
The pies are made in a kitchen about five miles away from the main office. This is also where the delivery scooters are kept and where the orders are put on the correct scooter each morning.
At the moment all communication between the two sites is by phone or fax, or by the owner driving between the two sites to deliver the information by hand. This information may be on paper or on a floppy disk.
There are two desktop computers at the main office. One computer (the delivery system) is used by the administration staff to:
• keep records of all the orders made by customers;
• print out the invoices that are given to customers;
• record any payments that are received.
The other computer is in the owner’s office. This computer is used for keeping staff personnel records and recording the company accounts.
There is one desktop computer at the kitchen site. This computer is situated in the kitchen office and is supposed to be used to keep records about the customer orders and deliveries. However, there is no formal method for keeping these records and the computer is very rarely used. Most of the information is stored on paper and pinned to the notice board on the wall in this office. This method of storing the information is very disorganised and information is often lost or misplaced.


So does anyone have any idea of how begin this or any recommendations on what I should write?

This post has been edited by itani: 21 Apr, 2007 - 01:39 PM

Computers are tools. They are supposed to make your life easier. The above discription sounds like someone is in need of a well thought out computer system. -- Step 1 is more or less a sales pitch. First of all go over the discription, VISSUALIZE the situation (if it were real life, go over and look, and ask questions), and all the while think: how can a computer make this easier?

Brainstorm ideas (it helps to have one of the customers to bounce ideas off of) and then begin to form a ruff model of an application that will solve the most problems and create the least. -- think about functionality and begin to form an outline of requirements, problems that the software will solve.

Then write this out formally. State the problems that you see, and the purposed solutions. Keep "feasiblity" in mind (don't ask this co to spend 50,000$ on a dedicated web server to take online orders).

You can start by determining the specific goals.
Typical of a small business are these (not specific to type of business)
Accounting, marketing buying, and future planning (back office)
Order processing (kitchen)
Cash Register, order taking (front desk)

There are already three computers in place, so the hardware is mostly taken care of. There are still things that need to be resolved, like Internet access and a cash drawer. On the software side you have a (POS) Point of Sale system, accounting software, and a program that can be used by the person taking orders to post orders to the kitchen and place those same orders into the POS. At this point the descriptions are still broad. So you will need to continue to list the items, iterate over each item, and break them down into smaller and smaller scope. It is always better to buy software than to build it, so you have the question of what to buy and what to build, along with cost comparisons from different vendors and from you own programming shop. The most important goal at this point is to nail down exactly what needs to be done to implement this system, and every detail. Any forgotten detail will come back an bite you in the butt later on. But a bid that is to high will send the customer to competition to get the work done.

So lets see. This is probably the RFP (Request for Proposal) So you need a deliverable Proposal, including as much information as possible. The more information you provide up front the more it will cost you (time is money). If you don't get the job, that money is lost. If you provide incorrect or too little information you could lose the bid. So you need to know how much correct information you can afford to provide.

This may include Flow charts, Use Cases, Product Descriptions, explanation of processes. It should be as detailed as possible in the amount of time you have to provide it. So this stage is all research and reporting.

If you get the job the next stage will certainly be Use Cases, and UML diagrams and/or ER diagrams. If the the Use Cases are already done, they will just need to be revised. The programmers will be able to start building software from the Use Cases, and UML diagrams and/or ER diagrams.

This post has been edited by ajwsurfer: 23 Apr, 2007 - 07:27 AM