HOOSIER BURGER CASE

Hoosier Burger Case An Assignment Submitted by Name of Student Name of Establishment Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall 2012

HOOSIER BURGER CASE Abstract

The paper is devoted to system analysis and design of a particular case of Hoosier Burger restaurant, a fictional fast-food establishment, the owners of which would like to introduce some radical changes to their business management. It outlines the most pressing problems faced by consultants and their possible solutions. The paper consists of an Introduction, Conclusions and such sections as Information Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Analysis, Hoosier Burger Projects Scope and Feasibility, Customers and Employees Feedback, Process Modeling, Conceptual Data Modeling, all of which encompass major consultants tasks.

Key words: Hoosier Burger case

HOOSIER BURGER CASE Hoosier Burger Case

Hoosier Burger, as we know, is an imaginary fast-food service, located in Indiana. Its fictional creators, Bob and Thelma Mellankemp, dreaming of developing a business for their own, buy a former family restaurant and start their business there. However, they soon face a number of problems, in particular, inventory items track keeping, which have to be solved by consultants. Their next step is implementing an automated food-ordering system, which will tackle some of the most important issues the owners have to deal with (Valacich et al, 2012). In this paper we, in a role of consultants, will demonstrate how system analysis works out in a specific situation trying to provide step-by-step proper solutions to each of the case scenarios. Information Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Analysis In this part of the given assignment we will apply the SDLC approach to the given restaurant of Hoosier Burger. But, first, let us try to define information system analysis and design. This is a method which helps to develop and maintain various information systems that perform general business functions, for example, listing customers names, analyzing orders or paying the workers (Valacich et al, 2012). Then, SDLC, in particular, is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project, from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application (Search Software Quality, 2012). There are four steps in SDLC, which are the following: (1) planning and selection, (2) analysis, (3) design, and (4) implementation and operation (Valacich et al, 2012, p. 13). The first phase is obvious from the very case scenario given in the book (Valacich et al, 2012): the owners of Hoosier Burger have come up with the idea of a new, enhanced system, i.e. they want to computerize their business, paying special attention to inventory supervision,

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customers orders, and management systems, within the work of which errors often occur. This stage also includes a plan consisting of a schedule for system development and then the owners have to decide whether they really want to spend some of their resources on a new system establishment or not. Step two is usually devoted to analyzing current systems in use and what a new system should be like (Valacich et al, 2012). In the case of Hoosier Burger this is paper-based system and the owners have decided to have an opportunity for electronic access to forecasting information, inventory usage, and basic sales information, which will save their time and will be more useful when making crucial decisions in business management (Valacich et al, 2012, p.25). The third phase includes logical and physical designs of a new system (Valacich et al, 2012). This means that all owners preferences concerning their business should be taken into consideration and included, if possible, within the frame of a new system. For example, some specific point-of-sale registers should be chosen and adjusted to Hoosier Burger owners needs. During the last stage, a new system must be tested and verified in addition to primary user support (Valacich et al, 2012). In Hoosier Burger case, new registers, for instance, should be programmed accordingly and adjusted in the future, if necessary. Employees will also have to get acquainted how the new registers work. When applying major system characteristics to Hoosier Burger case (Valacich et al, 2012), we will get the following: Components: all types of inventory, basic customers orders information, customers names and addresses; Interrelated components: inventory and orders;

HOOSIER BURGER CASE Boundary: counter area, kitchen, office, storage area, the size of the restaurant; Purpose: effective selling of fast-food and earning money; Environment: the area for customers in the restaurant; Interface: counter where cash registers are installed; Constraint: the system cannot cook the food or order supplies for delivery; Input: stock log form; Output: inventory management.

The whole process of delivering fast-food to customers may be described in the following way: at first, food is brought to the restaurant, then kept in storage area, ordered and sold at the cash register area, cooked in the kitchen, and, finally, consumed in the dining-room. As a result, the main subsystems of a new system will be: Storage: for keeping inventory and receiving it from suppliers; Kitchen: for preparing food; Counter: for receiving orders and selling; Dining-room: for clients to receive their orders; Office: for documentation.

There are many systems development approaches: Computer-Aided Software Engineering, Prototyping, Rapid Application Development, Joint Application Design, etc (Valacich et al, 2012). Each of them can be chosen by an organization depending on its needs, strong or weak points, or strategy of development. For Hoosier Burger the best choice would be prototyping, since its owners would see the final result and whether it meets their expectations.

HOOSIER BURGER CASE Hoosier Burger Projects Scope and Feasibility

The Hoosier Burger project was identified by the restaurants owners, because their previous paper-based management system had a few problems concerning inventory supervision. Though the demand for food was high, the owners were on the threshold of losing their income due to inefficient management system. Now, the newly developed enhanced system is expected to concentrate more on inventory supervision and faster customer order processing (Valacich et al, 2012). The project is planned to cover implementing of a new point-of-sale system, which will be more useful in keeping the track of the necessary inventory and making shortages more unlikely to appear: it is capable of tracking bills and alerting the staff when supplies get low. Projects feasibility analysis includes close consideration of six different factors (Valacich et al, 2012). The results will show whether the project is beneficial to the restaurant or not. Keeping in mind the pressing problems with inventory control, customer service and their dissatisfaction, management inefficiency and possible lost sales due to untimely supplies deliveries, the project may prove to be feasible. Regarding economical, operational and technical factors, Hoosier Burger project can be profitable, since it will add to the number of sales, despite its initial cost. Apparently, it will improve restaurant functioning, making all the necessary ordering routine faster. Besides, providing the new point-of-sale system with necessary software and service is not an insurmountable technical task. When talking about schedule, legal, and political feasibility, Hoosier Burger project should not have any problems, too. The Hoosier Burger projects scope statement will be as following: To shift from manual management system to a new computerized one; To implement more efficient point-of-sale system, properly devised and installed; To attain better results in inventory supervision and order processing;

HOOSIER BURGER CASE To increase profits. Customers and Employees Feedback

Now, it is the time for assessing new systems work. One of the restaurants staff has asked the consultants to interview cooks, waiters, as well as customers in order to better understand possible future improvements to the Hoosier Burger project (Valacich et al, 2012). As a result, starting from customer satisfaction survey, the following questions should be included: (1) What is the average time that you to have to wait to place your order? (2) How long do you usually wait for your order to be served to you? (3) Was there an occasion, when you were not served your order because of supplies shortage? (4) Was there an occasion, when you received somebody elses order? (5) Are you generally satisfied with the work of our restaurant? When interviewing cooks, the possible questions would be: (1) Is there always enough supplies at hand to prepare an order? (2) How long does it take for you to prepare an average order? (3) At rush hours, do you have any problems with cooking the food in time? (4) Do the deliveries of supplies arrive in time? (5) Was there an occasion, when the food was delivered not fresh or was spoiled due too long storage period? Finally, waiters interview may include such questions: (1) How long does it take for you to take an order? (2) Do you have any difficulties working with point-of-sale registers? (3) Do you have to wait long for orders to be processed and prepared? (4) How often do you stay idle because of new systems failure or delays? (5) Relying on your personal observation, do the customers seem satisfied with the work of our restaurant? When analyzing how successful a new project is, it is not enough to only conduct interviews or compile surveys. There may be some other documents worth considering. For

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example, in our case the most accessible will be those describing the amount of supplies deliveries, stock log forms, point-of-sale information from the new register, receipts, etc. Considering modern methods for determining requirements, the most appropriate in Hoosier Burger case would be Joint Application Design, which includes collecting information from the key people that deal with the system (Valacich et al, 2012). Process Modeling Process modeling is one of the most important stages in system analysis. It involves graphic representation of how the system is going to work including data distribution between systems components, system itself, and its environment. These graphic representations are called Data-Flow Diagrams (or simply DFD) (Valacich et al, 2012). Knowing that Hoosier Burgers owners want to expand their business by introducing drive-through and customer delivery systems, the context diagram provided in Figure 6-4 should be modified accordingly (Valacich et al, 2012, p. 158). There should be one more data flow added to the external entity Customer, since the owners decided to firstly do everything manually what concerns home deliveries. Drive-through orders should not be taken into consideration, since the mechanism of their processing is the same as typical orders. So, it would be a good idea to differentiate two data flows from customers, naming them Typical Order and Delivery Order. In addition, Food Ordering System should also be able to record customers names, addresses, phone numbers, when referring to delivery orders. Level-0 diagram presented in Figure 6-5 already provides more details on the systems separate processes, especially those in Food Ordering System, which are then further subdivided (Valacich et al, 2012, p. 159). It goes without saying that this diagram should be changed, too. Since Hoosier Burger will have two types of customers (at the restaurant and

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private homes), new process Filling/Reviewing Delivery Order should be added. As a result, new data stores will appear, for example, Delivered Order Tickets and Delivery Orders. Then, extra data flows should be established between Customer and Filling/ Reviewing Delivery Order, Filling/ Reviewing Delivery Order and Kitchen. Besides, the necessary information on home deliveries should be transmitted to Restaurant Manager via Daily Delivery Orders and Reconciled Delivery Order Report new data flows. In level-1 diagrams main processes of the system are further decomposed into subprocesses, but the sources/ sinks are not labeled (Valacich et al, 2012). Applying this to the Hoosier Burger scenario of delivery system establishment, the process of receiving customers delivery order may be further decomposed into the following processes: (1) to receive customers order, including their names, addresses, phone number, etc. by filling-in the special form; (2) to produce three copies of the filling form, one into reconciliation box, one for the customer, and one taken back to the restaurant after delivery; (3) to change the order to the kitchen format; (4) to update information on sold goods and inventory; (5) to generate and give the receipt to the customer. Conceptual Data Modeling Now, that the Hoosier Burger receives large orders from private businesses, its owners are interested whether it is possible to track their orders history, since they give a chance to their permanent clients to charge orders. At the given moment the owners save information on their products, recipes, inventory items, sales, item sales, invoice and invoice items (Valacich et al, 2012). However, there will be a number of additional entities Hoosier Burger will have to store information about, such as delivery customers, their charges, and order histories, in general. A set of attributes concerning each above-mentioned entity will be as follows:

HOOSIER BURGER CASE Sale: number of the receipt, date of selling; Item sale: product ID, number of the receipt, sold quantity; Product: product ID and its description; Recipe: number of the item, product ID, used quantity;

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Inventory item: number of the item and its description, quantity available, type of item, quantity for minimum order;

Invoice item: sellers ID, invoice number, number of the item, added quantity; Invoice: sellers ID, number of the invoice, date of paying invoice; Charge: customers ID, number of the receipt, date of purchase, quantity; Customer: customers ID, delivery address, phone number; Order history: customers ID, number of the receipt.

As we may see from the above-mentioned attributes, it is important to specify identifiers for each entity: in the case of customers, it is their IDs; for inventory products ID and its description; for venders also their IDs; for receipts its numbers, etc. In order to select a proper identifier for an entity, it is advisable to use the following rules: (1) to choose candidate keys that will not change overtime; (2) to choose such a candidate key that an attribute will not have an invalid value; (3) not to use intelligent keys, which later may be modified; (4) it is better to substitute single-attribute key with the ones of composite nature (Valacich et al, 2012). As it is seen from the entities description, all of the given rules were applied. As far as modification of the Figure 7-10 (Valacich et al, 2012, p. 207) is concerned, such entities as Charge, Customer and Order History should be added to the general diagram. Besides, it is necessary that each of the above-described entities include appropriate attributes identified before.

HOOSIER BURGER CASE Conclusions

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System analysis is a complex process, the successful results of which depend on step-bystep consideration of the given problem. System consultants take on a huge responsibility developing projects for specific purposes and for specific organizations. A lot of details should be weighed while making final decisions about new systems introduction and beneficial implementation. As a result, a number of mechanisms, methodologies, and approaches are to be carefully studied in order not to let down ones business customers. In the Burger Hoosier case we tried to trace all possible problematic issues and provide reasonable solutions starting from the very idea of the enhanced project up to its verification process and even further. Generally speaking, all four stages of SDLC analysis have been studied within the framework of Hoosier Burger restaurant. Then, an attempt has been made to determine projects scope and feasibility. Furthermore, questions were prepared in order to get employees and customers feedback concerning the project. Finally, we got acquainted with, probably, the most difficult stages of process and conceptual data modeling, which require both creative and good analytical skills on the part of consultants. All in all, studying a particular case helps students to experience difficult job of analysts, broaden their practical knowledge in the sphere as well as to put to the test their creative skills.

HOOSIER BURGER CASE References

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Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) (2012). In Search Sowtware Quality online. Retrieved from: <http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/systems-development-lifecycle> Valacich, J., George, J., Hoffer, J. (2012). Essentials of Systems Analysis and Design (5th Ed). Pearson Education, Inc, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.