Bead Bar System Development

The Bead Bar Corporation headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut, has made the commitment to replace its current paper-based system with a state of the art computer-based system.

The project purpose is to select and implement an Information Management System product to automate many functions for all departments in Bead Bar. This integrated, multi-user, multi-functional system will enhance each department’s ability to perform its mission, goals, and objectives. As stated by Bead Bar’s management, “It is in the best interest of the company to move in directions that move the company in to the global market.” The Information Management System is the key to meeting that goal.

Bead Bar’s headquarters consist of three divisions: studio, franchise and Bear Bar on Board. They support six studios, five-franchise store and a cruise ship located across the county and has approximately 35 employees throughout the company. The headquarters provides product support and sales data for each division. The franchise division is responsible for keeping the supply requirements filled for each franchise. The current system in place is inefficient and causes problems, including lost orders, incorrect invoicing, and fulfillment delay (Malaga, 2005). This is the reason Bead Bar is looking to improve their current process.

The scope of this project is to provide an Information Management System to meet Bead Bar’s requirement. This document provides a plan using systems development life cycle (SDLC) to develop Bead Bar’s new system, which will include upgrading hardware, software requirements and a database management system. An improved telecommunication solution is required with a network structure, which will allow shared information throughout the company. Along with providing a systems solution, Bead Bar’s goal of a global market will be addressed enabling the company to enter the e-commerce arena. Following is a phased approached to the implementation of the project.

Phase one will require a consulting team to define the system to be developed and to determine the feasibility of the project. The team must address the question, “what does Bead Bar want to automate in the company?" Bead Bar has identified the desire to move company data, including management, financial, and inventory, to an Information Management System to be share throughout the organization. Once a solution is identified, and the feasibility determined a project scope document will be generated. This document will define the high-level system requirements.

At this point a project plan is developed. The project plan must define all aspects of the project, i.e., specific tasks, manpower for each task (see Appendix A), resource requirements, and timeline. This project plan will provide a guideline to manage the project from beginning through completion. Milestones are to be identified and used to monitor the project plan allowing for adjusting timelines, budget and resources, as required to keep the project moving toward a successful completion.

During the analysis phase, the users and IT form a team to analyze Bead Bar’s current processes and the requirements of the new system (see Appendix B). Bead Bar’s requirements are prioritized and put in to a requirements definition document (RDD) (see Appendix C). The RDD is a list approved by Bead Bar’s management of the direction the system design needs to take during development. An example of a requirement would be the database management system Bead Bar needs to perform intra-company business. The RDD should contain information that shows what is required of the new system. Bead Bar has already determined the new system must be based on a fully relational database management system. The relational database management system should be a commercially available database system and have a true client/server interface. Preference will be given to a database that has a demonstrated distributed capability, such as Ingres (Ingres) or Oracle 10g (Oracle). After the Bead Bar management signs off that all requirement have been addressed the system design phase will commence.

The system design phase is a two-fold approach where the team will provide a logical systems design document and a physical systems design document. The logical systems design document provides the details of the system’s functionality, what the system should do (Malaga, 2005). The physical systems design document provides the description of the actual components used to achieve the functionality (Malaga, 2005). It is the responsibility of the design team to ensure that the hardware and software meet the requirements of the RDD.

In the logical systems design document, Bead Bar’s business models for each component are documented. The areas covered by this document will cover the database entity-relationship diagram; a network diagram and network