Systems Analysis project 6: can you answer the 4 questions at the task section, thank you.
Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new “supercenter” in the Toronto area. Personal Trainer’s president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation.
Background:
Working as an IT consultant for Personal Trainer, Susan Park used data and process modeling tools to create a logical model of the proposed information system. Now she wants to build an object-oriented view of the system using O-O tools and techniques. Before you perform the following tasks, you should review the information and background in Chapters 1 and 2, and the fact-finding summary of the case provided in Chapter 4.
Info from chapter 1:
Cassia Umi, president, heads Personal Trainer’s management team. Three managers report to her at the firm’s Chicago headquarters: Janet McDonald, manager, finance; Tai Tranh, manager, sales and marketing; and Reed Curry, manager, operations. The managers who run the 12 existing centers all report to Reed. Cassia wants the new supercenter to emphasize a wide variety of personal services and special programs for members. If the supercenter approach is successful, it will become the model for Personal Trainer’s future growth. Cassia personally selected Gray Lewis, a manager with three years of fitness center experience, to run the new facility. The new supercenter will feature a large exercise area with state-of-the-art equipment, a swimming pool, a sporting goods shop, a health food store, and a snack bar. In addition, the center will offer child care with special programs for various ages, a teen center, and a computer café. Cassia also wants members to have online access to customized training programs and progress reports. Personal Trainer currently uses BumbleBee, a popular accounting package, to manage its receivables, payables, and general ledger. Membership lists and word processing are handled with Microsoft Office products. Cassia believes the new supercenter will require additional data management capability, and she decided to hire Patterson and Wilder, an IT consulting firm, to help Personal Trainer develop an information system for the new operation. The firm assigned Susan Park, an experienced consultant, to work with the Personal Trainer team. Susan’s first task was to learn more about business operations at the new center, so she requested a meeting with Gray. After some small talk, the discussion went like this: Susan: Tell me about your plans for the new operation. I’m especially interested in what kind of information management you’ll need. Gray: Cassia thinks that we’ll need more information support because of the size and complexity of the new operation.To tell the truth, I’m not so sure.We’ve had no problem with BumbleBee at the other centers, and I don’t really want to reinvent the wheel. Susan: Maybe we should start by looking at the similarities — and the differences — between the new center and the existing ones.
Gray: Okay, let’s do that. First of all, we offer the same basic services everywhere.That includes the exercise equipment, a pool, and, in most centers, a snack bar. Some centers also sell sporting goods, and one offers child care — but not child-fitness programs. It is true that we’ve never put all this together under one roof.And, I admit, we’ve never offered online access.To be honest, I’m not absolutely sure what Cassia has in mind when she talks about 24/7Web-based access. One more feature — we plan to set up two levels of membership — let’s call them silver and gold for now. Silver members can use all the basic services, but will pay additional fees for some special programs,such as child fitness. Gold members will have unlimited use of all services. Susan: So, with all this going on, wouldn’t an overall system make your job easier? Gray: Yes, but I don’t know where to start. Susan: Gray, that’s why I’m here. I’ll work with you and the rest of the team to come up with a solution that supports your business. Gray: Sounds good to me.When can we start? Susan: Let’s get together first thing tomorrow. Bring along an organization chart and think about how you plan to run the new facility.We’ll try to build a model of the new operation so we can identify the business functions.When we know what the functions are, we’ll know what kind of information is needed or generated by each function.That will be our starting point.
Info from chapter 2:
Continuing Case: Personal Trainer, Inc. Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new “supercenter” in the Toronto area. Personal Trainer’s president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation. Background At their initial meeting, Susan and Gray discussed some initial steps in planning an information system for the new facility. The next morning, they worked together on a business profile, drew an organization chart, discussed feasibility issues, and talked about various types of information systems that would provide the best support for the supercenter’s operations. Their main objective was to carry out a preliminary investigation of the new system and report their recommendations to Personal Trainer’s top managers. After the working session with Gray, Susan returned to her office and reviewed her notes. She knew that Personal Trainer’s president, Cassia Umi, wanted the supercenter to become a model for the company’s future growth, but she did not remember any mention of an overall strategic plan for the company. Susan also wondered whether the firm had done a SWOT analysis or analyzed the internal and external factors that might affect an information system for the supercenter. Because the new operation would be so important to the company, Susan believed that Personal Trainer should consider an enterprise resource planning strategy that could provide a company-wide framework for information management. After she finished compiling her notes, Susan listed several topics that might need more study and called Gray to arrange another meeting the following day.
Info from chapter 4:
Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new “supercenter” in the Toronto area. Personal Trainer’s president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation. Background During requirements modeling for the new system, Susan Park met with fitness center managers at several Personal Trainer locations. She conducted a series of interviews, reviewed company records, observed business operations, analyzed the BumbleBee accounting software, and studied a sample of sales and billing transactions. Susan’s objective was to develop a list of system requirements for the proposed system.
Fact-Finding Summary
• A typical center has 300–500 members, with two membership levels: full and limited. Full members have access to all activities. Limited members are restricted to activities they have selected, but they can participate in other activities by paying a usage fee. All members have charge privileges. Charges for merchandise and services are recorded on a charge slip, which is signed by the member. • At the end of each day, cash sales and charges are entered into the BumbleBee accounting software, which runs on a computer workstation at each location. Daily cash receipts are deposited in a local bank and credited to the corporate Personal Trainer account. The BumbleBee program produces a daily activity report with a listing of all sales transactions. • At the end of the month, the local manager uses BumbleBee to transmit an accounts receivable summary to the Personal Trainer headquarters in Chicago, where member statements are prepared and mailed. Members mail their payments to the Personal Trainer headquarters, where the payment is applied to the member account. • The BumbleBee program stores basic member information, but does not include information about member preferences, activities, and history. • Currently, the BumbleBee program produces one local report (the daily activity report) and three reports that are prepared at the headquarters location: a monthly member sales report, an exception report for inactive members and late payers, and a quarterly profitand-loss report that shows a breakdown of revenue and costs for each separate activity. During the interviews, Susan received a number of “wish list” comments from managers and staff members. For example, managers want more analytical features so they can spot trends and launch special promotions and temporary discounts. Managers also want better information about the profitability of specific business activities at their centers, instead of bottom-line totals. Several managers want to offer computerized activity and wellness logs, fitness coaching for seniors, and various social networking options, including e-mail communications, fitness blogs, Facebook, and Twitter posts. Staff members want better ways to handle information about part-time instructors and trainers, and several people suggested using scannable ID cards to capture data
Tasks:
1. Identify possible actors and use cases involved in Personal Trainer’s operations.
2. Create an object relationship diagram for the Personal Trainer information system.
3. Create a use case diagram for the system.
4. Select one of the use cases and create a sequence diagram and a state transition diagram.
