1.a. The project consists of two programs to
maintain a PC monitoring and tracking system and a Dean’s communications
system.
The first project entails an up
front web interface with a backend database.
Ideally, a webpage will first come up which asks if the user is a
technician or is a student or faculty member reporting a problem. If the person just wants to report a
problem, the person will encounter a user information webpage. There, the person will enter information
such as UserID, First Name and Last Name, Title, Department, PhoneNumber,
Email, and a password. All this
information will be stored in a database.
If the password is valid, the user will encounter another webpage, the
one dealing with maintenance information.
Here, the user will enter problemID, Servicetag, Problem Description,
StatusID, Tech comments etc. dealing with the specific problem with a
particular PC. Again, all this
information pertaining to the Maintenance information will be stored in a
database. If the person is a technician
and wants to check out information regarding PC maintenance, the person will
also encounter user information webpage where the person will enter the
previously mentioned data fields.
However, the technician will immediately get access to four other
webpages which concern PC tracking. One
webpage will deal with each particular PC information, with the primary key
being the Service Tag and Serial Number.
In this webpage, the technician can enter fields such as the
manufacturer of the PC, model, HD size, Memory, Processor Type, etc. All this information will be stored in a
database. Another webpage will deal
with the location information of the PC.
Here, data fields would involve building, room number, service tag, etc.
with the building and room number being the primary key. All this information will be stored in a
database. Also, the webpage concerning
PC maintenance information would be available for the technician to use. The previously mentioned fields would be
available to the technician. Again, the
information will be stored in a database.
Finally, a webpage describing software information for the technician
would be available. Here, the data
fields might include software ID, software title, number of licenses acquired,
version number, etc. The primary key
will be software ID. Again, all the
information will be stored in a database.
The technician will also be able to do queries on the five separate
tables in the database. Queries will be
dependent upon the information stored in the separate five tables in the
database.
The second project also entails an
up front web interface with a backend database.
Ideally, a webpage will come up asking if the
person wants to enter data into the database or if the person wants to view
data from the database. For the first
case scenario, a valid username and password by the administrative staff or the
Dean herself will have to be entered.
Once this is accomplished, a menu of four possible webpages may be accessed. First, a webpage for important CSIS calendar
events can be entered. Second, a
webpage for winning of awards can be entered.
Third, a webpage for grant opportunities for students and faculty can be
entered. Fourth, a webpage for the
announcement of meetings and committees can be entered. In each of these webpages, possible data
fields might include Name of the Messenger, Comment field, Subject field, and a
date field. All this information will
be stored in a database. Queries can be
done by administrative staff on the four tables in the database. For the second case scenario of viewing data
from the databases, different webpages will appear depending on whether the
user is a faculty member or student.
For instance, the faculty members will be able to access the database on
committee meetings while students will not.
As another example, both students and faculty will be able to view data
from the awards presentation database.
1b. The scope of the project involves two
types of tracking and monitoring: first, a tracking system for PC repair and
maintenance and, second, a Dean’s communication system.
The scope of the first project
entails creating a two-tier system whereby users of PCs can report problems and
technicians of PCs can keep track of the problem PCs along with the attributes
of the PC. The people who report
problems with PCs will be allowed to access two tables in the database, the
User information database and the PC maintenance information database. The technicians who track problem PCs will
be allowed access to all five tables in the database. The Unique machine information database, the location information
database, the maintenance information database, the user information database,
and the software information database will be available to the
technicians. Once a problem is
reported, a problemID will be assigned to the particular PC. Information regarding whether the problem
has been solved or not will be available to the technician. Also, the technician will be able to see the
attributes associated with each PC in the school. Also, the technician will be able to see which rooms on the
different campuses contain what particular PCs. Finally, the technician will be able to see what types of
software are on the particular PCs.
The scope of the second project
allows administrative staff and the Dean to enter information regarding
committees, important calendar events, awarding of awards, grant opportunities,
and posting of meetings into a database.
The users of the system will have a two-tier track. On the one hand will be students, who will
be able to access certain information pertinent to their lives. On the other hand will be faculty and administration,
who will be able to access all information.
As an example, information such as when meetings will take place will
naturally be available to the faculty and administration but not to the
students.
1c. The
resources required will primarily involve students who will do the computer
programming and the availability of certain software. Noriel Nothmar, Than Nyi Nyi and Monica Murguia will do all of
the programming using HTML and Cold Fusion and Microsoft Access. The database that will be used is Microsoft
Access, which comes in every Microsoft Office package and therefore should not
present a problem. HTML only requires
the use of a browser which is standard fare on most computers. The only resource left which is needed is
the ability to use ColdFusion. Prof.
Tappert has said that a server which has access to ColdFusion will be available
to the student programmers and that files can be FTPed to the server to see if
the application is correct. Other than
these resources, we cannot think of any other resource which might be needed.
1d. The
project estimation might be disentangled into a few phases. First, the interviews with clients to obtain
project requirement specifications will approximately two weeks. Writing a project requirements specification
page will take approximately one week.
Development of the two systems will take roughly six to eight
weeks. Review of the prototypes used by
the clients and feedback on the prototypes will take about two weeks. And finally, last minute revisions on the
prototype will take roughly one week.
1e. Regarding the make/buy decision, it
is fairly apparent that we will be making the software products instead of
purchasing software. Although we are
sure that some software applications exist for tracking and monitoring, the
primary objective of this course is to develop our own software system for
tracking and monitoring.
1f. In our analysis of risk assessment, the
primary risk we face is the time obligation.
We must learn HTML, Cold Fusion, and Microsoft Access to fully implement
the software product. Learning all
three aspects of the software project will take time and the short time frame
that we have for completing the project is the primary risk. Another risk that we face is the relative
uncertainty regarding the specifications for the Dean’s Communications
system. Fran O’Gara, our client for the
Dean’s Communications system, was not able to fully articulate what the Dean
wanted in the final product. We have
attempted as best as we can to include all the dimensions of the project which
she articulated to us in a meeting.