Cit 376 final

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CIT-376 System Design And Analysis Get Off Your Dime Information System By: Tacey Lenyard

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Table of Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………….Page 3-5 Assumptions……………………………………………………….Page 5-6 Dependencies………………………………………………………Page 6 Twelve Use Cases………………………………………………….Page 7 Description of Design Elements………………………………….Page 8 Appendix 1 (Event Registration UI)……………………………..Page 9 Appendix 2 (Apply Payment UI)………………………………..Page 10 Appendix 3 (Add/Modify Attendee Contact UI)……………….Page 11 Appendix 4 (Create Event Postcard UI)……………………......Page 12 Appendix 5 (Add/Modify Vendor Contact UI)…………………Page 13 Appendix 6 (Select Venue UI)……………………………………Page 14 Appendix 7 (Schedule Volunteers UI)…………………………..Page 15 Appendix 8 (Generate Report UI)………………………………Page 16 Appendix 9 (Analyze Event UI)…………………………………Page 17 Appendix 10 (Import Contacts UI)……………………………Page 18 Appendix 11 (Test Usability UI)……………………………….Page 19 Appendix 12 (Train Staff UI)…………………………………..Page 20

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Company Overview Get Off Your Dime (GOYD) services provides training events for financial and small business education for the past 5 years. These events are held in a wide variety of locations throughout the United States and throughout the year. Up until this point, all of the services have been managed with manual processes. Over the course of the last few years attendance and the scope of events has grown over 30%, year over year, with the projected attendance numbers to be three times as many as there are in the current year. This is why GOYD has been prompted to move the management of these events over to a database application to increase the efficiency of the events, the people, and the processes used to support the business.

Mission Get Off Your Dime’s mission is to provide training and education to financial and small business through events, that are effectively managed through the utilization of a database application.

Operations GOYD events are sponsored by public and private funders. Attendees register for these events by filling out a form and submitting a payment. That information (contact information and receipt of payment) is recorded for future reference. The event coordinator coordinates the event by acquiring catering services for the attendee’s lunch, and managing vendors, volunteers, and exhibitors. Once the event is finished, staff, and volunteers are debriefed, and event analysis should ensue, to make the next event better. All information should be migrated to the new database system for future use, and modification.

The Competition Almost every organization provides some form of educational services to individuals and businesses, some of which charge also charge a fee associated with membership or an event fee.

Some of those companies are funded by funds generated by revenue of the company, and others are sponsored by public and private funders as well.

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Objectives •

To allow an increase in volume of attendees, vendors, and exhibitors to be managed more efficiently.

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To allow for future expansion in capability for event management.

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To allow for easier analysis of past event activity for new event forecasting.

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To make volunteers, vendors, attendees, venue contacts, exhibitors and caterers all reusable relationships.

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An organized structure and database of pre-existing files and contacts.

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To implement more effective course scheduling.

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To create advanced registration process.

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To be able to use the system for automated mailings.

Strategies •

The program will initially run on one computer.

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Creating usage scenarios that are simple and straight forward to use.

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Making the user interface easy to use

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Test usability before go-live date.

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Implementation of the new solution will be done in stages, and analysis of results will take place to ensure accuracy.

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Accurately determine which pre-existing records need to be imported into the new database solution.

Vision The Event Management Database System is a database combined with reporting capabilities that provide complete management of events, attendees, and courses allowing for an integrated system of information, stored in one local area, which can be accessed by event providers who require a more efficient way to manage and analyze events.

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Financials The attendance has increased 30% consecutively over the past few years, increasing the amount of revenue generated by these events. GOYD has been looking for ways to target funding support from both private and grant sources. It is the assumption that the new Event Management Database System will allow GOYD to effectively manage the current and future increase in attendance and payment, as well as assist in targeting the public and private funding through the new automated mailing capability.

The initial cost of this project is higher in dollars than manpower by current standards, but the return on investment will be greater once the initial release is tested and subsequent releases go live.

Scope The Event Management database will increase efficiency in the management of events by integrating pre-existing information and new information modifications into one localized are which can be accessed by anyone with knowledge of the system. Event providers will now be able to successfully analyze previous events for forecasting as well. The initial scope will be to have a complete design of the event management database system which will include all previous statements in regards to the scope, as well as tables, forms and queries for contacts, event, and seminar capabilities. The scope of subsequent releases will include to add funding capabilities as well as potential new data.

Assumptions •

The user will have a functional power connection.

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The user will have a functional internet connection.

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The user will be accessing the event management database system by computer.

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The database management system will be supported by technical support and financial resources, to install updates to the system and support patches that may need to be installed, as well as expansion and upgrade to the system as necessary.

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User acceptance will be high because the usage scenarios are straight forward.

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The event management database system will reduce costs in manpower and quality of events assuming that staff is trained properly.

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All seminars will start on time.

Dependencies •

Operational reports will be dependent on the closing of registration.

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The ability to access the event management database system will be dependent on a functional internet connection.

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Access to the pages within the event management database system will be dependent on the user entering in the correct login on the home page.

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Credit card machines must be connected to a phone/data line in order for payments to be processed.

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Attendees must register by submitting form and payment before they can attend a class.

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A venue must be acquired before a class can be held.

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Use Cases

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Reasoning for Choices behind the Design As stated in the executive summary, GOYD’s end goal is to have a newly implemented event management database that allows some automation, increasing the productivity and decreasing the amount of errors surrounding the facilitation of an event and client relationship management. The design that I chose to implement was a healthy integration of menu interaction and form interaction as well as command language interaction.

Command language interaction is established in the reports section of the database system. This requires the user to be very specific when writing a report, since the information will be used for strategic planning, this right has been reserved for the event manager since they will be a more advanced user by training.

Menu interaction was used to provide some consistency throughout the database system.

The menu provides hyperlink to all pages within the site. The menu shows up at the bottom of the page on each page, letting the user know that they are on the same site.

Form interaction was integrated into most of the pages, since the user would have to input information into the system. This was the best way to integrate the need for the system to receive information from the user, provide easy navigation throughout the page, and provide feedback and error catch statements.

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Appendix 1 (Event Registration) Primary Actor: Attendee Supporting Actor: Registrar/Event Management Database System Case: The form needs to be completed by the Attendee and submitted to the registrar, the registrar will then enter the information into the system.

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*In future updates of the system, we may be able to create an end-user side that would allow end-

users to submit registration forms online, and create a notification that would notify the registrar that a new user has registered for the event.

Appendix 2 (Apply Payment) Primary Actor: Attendee Supporting Actor/s: Registrar and Event Management Database System Case: The attendee needs to choose a payment method. That payment needs to be given to the registrar and applied to the event. At that time the attendee will get the wrist-band for entry into the event.

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*In future updates of the Event Management Database System, we can set up an end-user functionality that would allow the attendee to apply their own payment to an event on the site, and notification would be sent to the registrar in regards to the payment applied. At that time a automatic confirmation could be sent to the attendee based on information held within the contact ID associated with the attendee.

Appendix 3 (Add/Modify Attendee Contact) Primary Actor: Attendee (notifies GOYD of contact change or need) Supporting Actor: GOYD customer support and Event Management Database System Case: The attendee notifies GOYD of a contact change, the GOYD customer support rep would then enter the information into the Event Management Database System.

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*Once submit is pressed the customer support representative will be re-directed to a screen letting them know that the contact has been modified. Please see Appendix 1 for adding a brand new Attendee Contact.

Appendix 4 (Create Event Postcard) Primary Actor: GOYD customer support representative Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System

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Case: The GOYD customer support representative will select the type of contacts that they want to send the event postcard to, input a title into the subject area, and a message that will appear on the postcard, they hit submit and the system will compile the email addresses of the selected contacts, and send an email-blast (postcard).

*In future updates, we can enhance the options and templates available for the postcards. The customer support representative will be able to not only choose the type of contacts that they would like to send the postcard to, but they would be able to change the design of the postcard.

Appendix 5 (Add/Modify a Vendor Contact) Primary Actor: GOYD support representative

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Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System Case: The GOYD support representative will receive information from the vendor in regards to their contact information. It could be a change in contact information or it could be a new addition as a vendor contact.

*Pre-existing contacts can be modified by entering text into any of the fields and navigating to the specific vendor contact for modification, or the customer support representative can complete the blank form and the contact will be added and a similar pop-up message will be presented letting the support representative know that the contact has been saved successfully.

Appendix 6 (Select Venue) Primary Actor: Event Coordinator

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Secondary Actor: Venue Contacts Case: The event coordinator will submit a Request for Quote (RFQ) to each venue and select the correct venue based on the business and financial feasibility.

Get Off Your Dime Venue Contact:____________________________________________________ Address:_________________________________________________________ City:_______________________ State:________

Zip:__________________

Phone:______________________________________ Email Address:_______________________________ What kind of events do you hold?

Can I hire my own vendors? Do you have a list of recommended vendors?__________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Is there parking on-site?________________________________________________________ What overnight accomodations do you provide?_______________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _ How much is the deposit and when is it due?__________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _

Venue Contact Signature:_________________________________________________________ Date:_____________________

Appendix 7 (Schedule Volunteers)

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Primary Actor: GOYD event coordinator Supporting Actor: volunteers and Event Management Database System Case: Based on volunteers showing a want and availability to volunteer for an event, the event coordinator will schedule volunteers based on the needs of the event. Once the volunteer is scheduled, he/she will know exactly what they need to do at the event and what time to be there and who they will be working with.

Appendix 8 (Generate Report)

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Primary Actor: GOYD event manager Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System Case: The event manager need to run reports that give raw data in regards to events as well as the system itself. These reports will be customizable based on the need.

Entities

Design Area for the Report

Attendee Vendor Volunteer Payments Event Postcard Fields

Results Pane

Attendee_ContactID

*This area will have each

Name

field label and all of the

Email_Address

results from the event

Attendee_PaymentAmount

management database,

Attendee_PaymentID

allowing for analysis and forecasting.

*Tables with columns will be present in the database. Each column will have a primary key that allows the event manager to link information from various tables into one report.

Appendix 9 (Analyze Event) Primary Actor: GOYD event manager

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Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System Case: The GOYD event manager will analyze an event once the registration is closed, to assist in forecasting future events.

*The event manager can utilize any field on this page to search for an event. Once the search results come back, it will display the event ID, attendees, vendors used, venue used, exhibitors used, total attendance and some information in regards to how people would rate it on a scale, created by the event manager.

Appendix 10 (Import Contacts) Primary Actor: GOYD event manager

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Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System Case: The GOYD event manager will need to import pre-existing contact information into the event management database system. That information will be formatted in excel, with the headers to match the fields in the system. The document will be saved as a .csv file and imported into the system.

*Once the information has been imported successfully, the event manager can either run a report to make sure the contacts have come through properly or check for different contact IDs within the system. The system will let the event manager know how many contacts have went through successfully and how many have failed once the import is complete through a series of IO exceptions that will be written into the report as an error/warning mechanism.

Appendix 11 (Test Usability) Primary Actor: GOYD event manager, GOYD staff

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Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System, and System technical support Case: The event manager and the GOYD staff will test all of their processes within the system, they will also provide feedback in regards to the look and feel of the system. This feedback will be integrated into future updates and system enhancements. The usability tests will provide a sunny day scenario and hopefully several iterations that deviate from the sunny day scenario.

This information will be corrected before implementation of the event management database system.

During this use case, the system will be tested based on speed, accuracy, and satisfaction. All of the user interfaces have built-in feedback that catches errors. All of the user interfaces have been created based on the needs vocalized by the business. In an event to make sure that the system is an accurate display of the manual processes, accuracy will be tested.

Appendix 12 (Train Staff) Primary Actor: GOYD event manager, Event Management Database System technical support

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Supporting Actor: GOYD staff Case: The staff of GOYD will need to be trained on how to enter different contact types, how to search for data, and how to generate reports and postcards. *Each group of GOYD staff will be separated based on job roles established. For example, registrars, customer support, event coordination, event management. Each of these groups will be trained on the functionality of the system as it applies to their job. The users will be trained on not only use of the system, but also: •

Basic computer concepts for increased productivity

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System management (Event Management)

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System Installation (Event Management)

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Reporting errors in process or response of the system