Business Information System Development Project Report for Opal Woodwork Company

This report proposes a business information system development project for Opal Woodwork company. It identifies the business processes encountered by the company, proposes the requirements of the business information system, proposes the approach to implement the project through scrum agile methodology, portrays how the business information system would operate through context diagrams, dataflow diagrams, and use case diagrams, lays out the project plan for the entire business information system project development, recommends a delivery method through cloud computing, decomposes the business processes into services, and gives a user documentation of the data formats.

Name
University
Course
Instructor

Table of Contents
Project introduction.......................................................................................................................4
Comprehensive client information and business scenario.........................................................4
Business scenario........................................................................................................................4
Business processes involved.......................................................................................................5
Requirements of the business information system..................................................................5
Business process modeling notation diagram with reference to (Chinosi, & Trombetta, 2012)
.........................................................................................................................................................6
Order placement BPMN............................................................................................................6
Inventory management BPMN.................................................................................................7
Context diagram with reference to (Zhao et.al; 2009).................................................................7
Data flow diagram with reference to (Fosdick & Osterweil, 2011)............................................8
Use case diagrams with reference to (Swain, Mohapatra, and Mall, 2010) and (Thakur, &
Gupta, 2014)....................................................................................................................................9
User registration use case..........................................................................................................9
Use case description...................................................................................................................9
Customer login use case...........................................................................................................11
Use case description for customer login.................................................................................11
Order Placement use case........................................................................................................13
Use case description for order placement..............................................................................14
Inventory management use case.............................................................................................15
Use case description for inventory management...................................................................15
Project development approach for the solution........................................................................16
Scrum methodology approach................................................................................................16
Advantages of scrum with reference to (Mahalakshmi & Sundararajan, 2013)................17
Disadvantages of Scrum.......................................................................................................18
Expected outcome........................................................................................................................18
Project Planning and Management............................................................................................19
Tasks..........................................................................................................................................20
Approaches...............................................................................................................................20
Deliverables...............................................................................................................................21
Information system design..........................................................................................................21
System implementation...............................................................................................................22

Services and SOA.....................................................................................................................22
The choice of platform.............................................................................................................22
Adoption of a delivery method................................................................................................23
Cloud computing as a delivery method or platform.........................................................23
Results Analysis and Conclusion................................................................................................24
User documentation.....................................................................................................................24
Inputs and outputs...................................................................................................................24
Input and output data formats...............................................................................................25
System environment.................................................................................................................25
References.....................................................................................................................................26

Project introduction
This is a business information system development project report for Opal Woodwork company.
The business information system aims to make Opal Woodwork business processes fast,
accurate, effective, efficient and consistent. Opal Woodwork aims to achieve business excellence
in their furniture industry through the use of the business information system. The report
identifies the business processes encountered by the company in its day-to-day activities,
proposes a way to solve them, proposes the requirements of the business information system,
proposes the approach to implement the project through scrum agile methodology, portrays how
the business information system would operate through context diagrams, dataflow diagrams,
and use case diagrams, it lays out the project plan for the entire business information system
project development, it recommends a delivery method through cloud computing, decomposes
the business processes into services, and gives a user documentation of the data formats.
Comprehensive client information and business scenario
Opal woodwork, an Australian furniture company that was established in 1995 has since
expanded its branches to three. Due to the complexity of the business processes it now handles,
Opal Woodwork now requires a business information system that can enable it to handle its
business processes efficiently and effectively. It has a budget for 236000 Australia dollars to
complete the project in two hundred days.
Business scenario
Opal Woodwork has suppliers who supply them with timber which they use to produce furniture
for their customers. These suppliers sent them invoices every end of the month. Opal Woodwork
then pay their suppliers after comparing the invoice with their records they make payment. The
records of stock of timber are also kept. Before Opal Woodwork runs out of timber they order for
more from their suppliers. After being made, the company displays the furniture to their
customers. Customers place orders for the furniture and can pay cash or cash on delivery. The
company offers delivery services for furniture that cost over ten thousand Australian dollars.
The company also has employees whom it pays on a monthly basis. All its employees are kept
on the payroll system.

Business processes involved
Supplier registration and login business process which allows suppliers to register and login to
their accounts.
Invoice processing business process through which the company receives invoices from
suppliers. It can also use this to send invoices to customers.
Customer registration and login business process through which customers can access their
accounts.
Furniture ordering business process through which customers can order furniture from the
company.
A payment business process through which the company can receive payments from customers
and send payments to suppliers.
A payroll business process through which the company can pay its employees.
The delivery business process through which the company can monitor, manage and track
deliveries.
A stock management business process through which the company can control the timber and the
furniture in its stores.
A customer relationship management business process that allows the company to manage the
intimacy between it and its customers.
Requirements of the business information system
Supplier accounts system
An invoice system
Customer accounts system
Order placement system
Payment system
A payroll system

Delivery management system
Stock management or inventory management system
A customer relationship management system.
With all these requirements the business needs a business intelligent system (Yeoh, & Koronios,
2010) and (Yoo, Henfridsson, and Lyytinen, 2010)
Business process modeling notation diagram with reference to (Chinosi, & Trombetta, 2012)
Order placement BPMN
The order placement business process modeling notation diagram shows the process of ordering
for furniture. A customer logs in and places the order, the system receives the order and checks
for the stock of the furniture ordered, if the stock is not sufficient the customer is notified, if the
stock is sufficient then packaging request is sent to the store and an invoice is sent to the
customer who pays and the furniture he or she has ordered is delivered.

Inventory management BPMN
The inventory management business process management notation diagram depicts the process
of inventory management. An admin logs into the system, if there are furniture products that are
low in stock the system notifies the admin. When the admin adds the stock, the system receives
the information and updates the stock database.
Context diagram with reference to (Zhao et.al; 2009)

Opal Woodwork business information system has three entities; customer, admin, and supplier
who interact with the system differently. In the above context diagram, a customer can register
an account, log in to the account, place furniture orders and make payments. Supplier can send
invoices to Opal Woodwork. An admin can log into the system, get stock notifications from the
system, and update the furniture stock.
Data flow diagram with reference to (Fosdick & Osterweil, 2011)
The data flow diagram is a decomposition of the business information system depicting the
different subsystems. There are five subsystems within the business information system; the
registration subsystem, the login subsystem, the order placement subsystem, the invoice
subsystem, and the inventory subsystem. A customer registers an account through the
registration subsystem. A customer, Supplier, and the admin get access to their accounts through
the login subsystem. A customer places furniture orders through the order placement subsystem,
gets an invoice through the invoice subsystem and makes payment through the order placement
subsystem.
Supplier sends invoices to the company through the invoice subsystem and admin manages
furniture stock through the inventory management subsystem. The order placement subsystem

stores all the order details in the database. The invoice subsystem stores all the details of the send
and receive invoices in the database. The inventory management subsystem updates the database
when it comes to furniture products stock.
Use case diagrams with reference to (Swain, Mohapatra, and Mall, 2010) and (Thakur, &
Gupta, 2014)
User registration use case
Use case description
Use case name Customer registration
Participating Actors Customer

Flow of events A customer clicks on the customer
registration button
The system displays the customer registration
page
A customer enters registration details
The system validates the details entered by
the customer
If the details are valid the The system displays
the message customer registered successfully
If the details entered are not valid the The
system displays a registration failure message.
Entry condition Customer clicks the customer registration
button
Exit condition The system displays a customer has been
registered successfully.
Quality requirements Rejecting invalid customer details
Being able to register a customer.

Customer login use case
Use case description for customer login
Use case name Customer login
Participating Actors Customer
Flow of events A customer clicks on the account login button
The system displays the account login form
page
A customer enters login credentials
The system authenticates the details entered
by the customer

If the details are authentic, the system gives
the customer access to his or her own account.
If the details entered are wrong, the system
displays wrong credentials entered.
Entry condition Customer clicks on the account login button
Exit condition System gives the user access to his or her
account
Quality requirements Rejecting wrong login credentials
Giving account access to a customer with
correct login credentials.

Order Placement use case with reference to (Chanda et.al; 2009)

Use case description for order placement (Raengkla & Suwannasart, 2013)
Use case name Order placement
Participating Actors Customer
Flow of events Customer logs into his or her own account.
A customer clicks on the order button against
the furniture product
The system displays the order page
A customer enters order details
The system checks for the furniture ordered in
stock
If the furniture ordered is out of stock the
system displays an out of stock message.
If the furniture is in stock, the system records
the details of the order and displays an
invoice for the order placed by the customer.
Customer pays for the order according to the
invoice provided.
Entry condition Customer clicks on the order button beside
the furniture of interest
Exit condition The system displays a not in stock message
The system displays the invoice for the
furniture products ordered.
Quality requirements The system checks for the furniture ordered in
the stock.
The system displays an out of stock message
when the furniture ordered by the customer is
indeed out of stock.
The system proceeds with the invoice
generation when the furniture ordered by the
customer is in stock
The system displays a correct invoice for the

furniture ordered.
The system accepts the correct amount of
payment as stated in the invoice generated
Inventory management use case
Use case description for inventory management
Use case name Inventory management
Participating Actors System administrator
Flow of events The system administrator logs into the system
The system checks the stock for all the
furniture products in the store

If there are furniture products that are out of
stock or low in stock, the system displays an
out of stock notification message.
When the system administrator restocks the
furniture products he or she updates the stock
details.
The system displays an update success
message
Entry condition System administrator logs into the system
The system does stock check.
System administrator updates the stock details
Exit condition The system displays an out of stock
notification message for the furniture products
out of stock.
System updates the database
Quality requirements The system displays accurate details for the
furniture products out of stock
The system accepts stock update details
entered by the system administrator.
Project development approach for the solution
The best way to implement the business information system project for Opal Woodwork
company is through the scrum methodology.
Scrum methodology approach
Scrum is an agile project development methodology that is especially used in the management of
development of software or information systems (Del Nuevo, Piattini, and Pino, 2011). The
development of a project using the scrum methodology divides the roles into three; scrum
master, product owner and the development team. The scrum master is the development’s team
coach who oversees the development of the project utilizing scrum methodology and acts as an
intermediary or a facilitator of communication between the product owner and the development

team (Bass, 2014). The product owner is the most significant stakeholder of the project or system
being developed (Sverrisdottir, Ingason, and Jonasson, 2014). The product owner in this case is a
representative from Opal Woodwork company. He or she is responsible for the management and
control of the backlog.
The development team is a combination of experts from different disciplines with different skills
who come together to perform the project development tasks. The team may include; a system
analyst, a programmer, a network technician and a designer.
The development of the project is divided into sprints. Sprints are periods of specified time
through which certain tasks of the project development need to be completed (Mahnic, 2011). A
scrum development methodology sprint can take two to four weeks. Before a sprint starts, the
development team meets to do sprint planning where tasks of great priority are recorded first in
the backlog whereas tasks of less priority are placed last in the backlog. Every day there has to
be a stand up meeting of the development team where the progress of tasks assigned is discussed;
what was accomplished the previous day is discussed, what should be accomplished that day is
set and the obstacles facing progress are highlighted.
At the end of every sprint there is a sprint review where the tasks and activities that were set for
the particular sprint are reviewed. The accuracy and completeness of the tasks are cross-checked
against a score-card that was set during the sprint planning session. During sprint review the
stakeholders represented by the product owner can either reject the sprint result or accept it.
After the sprint is accepted by the product owner, the development team and the scrum master
now meet for the sprint retrospective where they identify the challenges they faced during the
last sprint and strategize on improving the next sprint they face.
Advantages of scrum with reference to (Mahalakshmi & Sundararajan, 2013)
Flexibility – the incremental aspect of scrum makes it able to accommodate new project
requirements in the system. The sprints ensure that changes are taken care of.
It fastens the project development process. With each member of the development team allocated
a task of their own, the development of the project is fastened. Every member of the
development team is responsible for his or her own task progress.

Product owner satisfaction. The stakeholders of the project get satisfied. After a sprint is done,
the development team needs to get an okay from the stakeholders before they move to the next
sprint. Scrum methodology values the feedback from the stakeholders and ensures they are
satisfied (Tirumala, Ali, and Babu, 2016).
Error propagation is avoided because each of the module task is allocated to one person. The
module is then checked for errors at the end of the sprint before it is released to the stakeholders.
Transparency and accountability within the members of the development team. The daily stand
up meetings ensure that each and every development team member performs his or her assigned
duties does a report on them.
Disadvantages of Scrum
There is no definite scope defined by the stakeholders or the development team (Taibi et.al;
2017). You find sometimes the project becomes so complex because of the ever increasing
changes and feedback from the stakeholders.
Expected outcome
Each of the business processes of Opal Woodwork company will be allocated its own sprint for
accuracy.
The implementation of the project through scrum methodology will ensure that all the
stakeholder requirement specification is realized. This will be realized through the sprint releases
where the stakeholders give their feedback to the development team. This is also achieved by
dealing with the implementation of every business process as a sprint.
Little or no error propagation throughout the project development process. Errors will hardly
propagate from one sprint to the other because of the daily stand up meetings and sprint
retrospectives where errors are corrected.

Project Planning and Management
The project plan is divided into seven faces; the requirement specification, the sprint planning,
sprint 1, sprint 2, sprint 3, sprint 4, and sprint 5. The requirement specification phase is where the
stakeholders give the development team the specific system requirements which are recorded in
the order of the most prioritized in the product backlog. In sprint planning is where the product
owner, the scrum master, and the development team come meet to lay a plan on the division of
sprints, activities and tasks. Each sprint has its own time period of two weeks to four weeks.

Tasks
Tasks are the smallest activities that contribute to the development of a module. Tasks are
usually done by one person. Experts may also come together to perform their individual tasks
collaboratively as a group.
Approaches
Sprints
The diagram above shows the various tasks that are undertaken during sprint one. There is
designing of the web pages which is allocated to a system designer, there is connection of the
web pages to the database which is assigned to a server-side programmer and there is the testing
of the system which is also assigned to a different person.

The implementation of the tasks above will be done through sprints where by the tasks are
categorized or classified into scrum sprints.
Deliverables
The deliverables of Opal Woodwork information system according to the above work breakdown
structure are as follows; Registration and login system in sprint one, order placement system in
sprint two, invoice system in sprint three, payment system in sprint four, and stock management
system in sprint five. In sprint one the user registration and login pages should be able to register
and authenticate users respectively. In sprint two the order placement system should be able to
enable customers to place their orders. The invoice system in sprint three should enable Opal
Business information system to receive and sent invoices with accurate data. The payment
system should be able to capture the payments made by a customer and the customer details.
The stock management system should be able to notify the administrator when certain furniture
is out of stock, record the quantity of furniture in stock, and produce inventory reports.
Information system design
The development team will utilize the graphical user interface where the users of the system will
interact with the system through graphics like forms, tables and graphs (Gouy, Guindon, and

Gascuel, 2009). This is a very user friendly and appealing design approach which will be
advantageous to Opal Woodwork business when it comes to attracting customers. The scrum
methodology applies three system design approaches; prototyping design approach, object
oriented design approach and the service design approach. Prototyping design approach is where
the development team designs a simple system in a sprint and make it more complex in the next
sprint by adding more features to it.
Object oriented design identifies the objects required to develop a system to its completion and
utilizes them whereas service design approach breaks down the whole business information
system into business processes that Opal Woodwork does on a daily basis. The design of the
system is then done based on these business processes. These business processes which are
termed as services are then integrated as the development continues to completion.
System implementation
Services and SOA
Opal Woodwork information system implements the service oriented architecture. It decomposes
the business information systems into business processes which are services. This is called the
top down approach where business processes are decomposed to form services (Granell, Díaz,
and Gould, 2010). A service is the basic unit of the service oriented architecture. In the Opal
Woodwork information system, the following business processes are decomposed to services:
customer registration, customer login, supplier registration, supplier login, invoice inquiry, order
placement, payment process, furniture delivery tracking, stock tracking, and management, and
payroll processing.
The choice of platform
The business information system will be implemented through a website platform where
customers can access it anytime, anywhere using any device as long as they have bundles. A
website will enable customers to create accounts, login, order furniture and pay for them. They
can also be able to track the delivery progress of the furniture they have ordered and played for.
Opal Woodwork would also be able to track the trends in the customer buying behaviors. The
tools for the implementation of this website would be through utilizing a text editor and web
programming languages.

Text editors to be utilized; PHP Storm or Sublime. Front-end web programming languages;
HTML, JavaScript, and CSS (Pop, & Altar 2014). Back-end web programming languages; PHP
and MySQL. The website will have both client-side and server side.
Adoption of a delivery method.
Cloud computing as a delivery method or platform
Cloud computing is a computing infrastructure that provides computer resources without the
actual physical management of the resources. Cloud computing is the fastest way of
implementing a business information system incurring less cost.
Features that make cloud computing a perfect choice for the delivery method
Wide network access. A user can access the business information system from anywhere in the
world as long as he or she is connected to the internet (Marston et.al; 2011).
Cross-platform nature. The business information system for Opal Woodwork company can be
accessed from any device whether a mobile phone, a tablet, a desktop computer or a laptop as
long as the device is connected to the internet (Avram, 2014).
Security. Cloud service providers are responsible for providing proper security mechanisms on
the company’s data and information (Zissis, and Lekkas, 2012). Cloud service providers are in
business and compete each other. They therefore have to provide enough security to be in
business.
Automatic upgrade and maintenance for the business information system. Opal Woodwork
company will not incur the cost of upgrading and maintaining the business information system
because the cloud service providers cater for that.
Disadvantage of cloud computing
When the cloud service provider’s server fails, Opal business operations become halted until
these servers resume work (Grossman, 2009). This is because all the data, information and
information systems of the company are located on the cloud servers.

Recommendation
There are more advantages of choosing cloud computing as compared to the disadvantages. The
advantages outweigh the disadvantages with the security of data and information and reduced
cost of implementation coming into play, cloud computing is the best choice of delivery method.
Failure of the cloud service provider’s server is a rare thing to occur because cloud service
providers are always on toes making them work as expected.
Results Analysis and Conclusion
The new business information system for Opal Woodwork will improve business for Opal
Woodwork. Through the customer relationship management system, Opal Woodwork will be
able to identify customer trends in buying their furniture products. They will be able to know
what products are on demand and what furniture products are not. Customers of Opal Woodwork
can now be able to accurately place their furniture orders and track the delivery of their furniture.
This will in return enable them to retain their customers and also gain more customers.
Opal Woodwork will be able to manage their stock on a timely basis and accurately through the
use of the inventory management system that alerts the admin when furniture products are low in
stock. They will also be able to trace and manage all the payments they receive and send through
the use of the invoice management system. Through the payment and payroll system the
company is now able to track payments to suppliers and to its employees enhancing
accountability in the company.
Retaining customers, having a constant supply of timber, timely restocking, and proper
management of payments. These aspects are what justify the worth of the new business
information system for Opal Woodwork.
User documentation
Inputs and outputs
Opal Woodwork business information system has the following interactive pages where users
interact with the system through inputs and outputs. The registration page, login page, order
placement page, and the inventory management page. The registration page takes the customer
details like customer name, email address, phone number, account username, and password as

inputs. The login page takes two inputs customer username and password. The order placement
page takes order details like type and quantity as inputs. The inventory management page takes
stock details like furniture product type and quantity as inputs.
The output in the customer registration page is the registration success or failure message that the
system displays for the user during the registration page. In the login page, the output is wrong
credentials message. Error placing order message, order placement successful message, invoice
display, and out of stock messages are outputs to expect from the system. out of stock is also an
output to expect for the admins managing the stock or inventory.
Input and output data formats
Variable characters – this applies for the username, password, and email inputs and outputs.
Emails should be in the format [e-mail] or [e-mail] or
[e-mail]. Passwords should be in the format Dyz34%.
Integers for phone numbers and quantity specification. Phone number should be in the following
format +country code…455666677.
System environment
If Opal Woodwork business information system is not delivered through cloud computing
method, then the system would work under a computer with the following specifications
Windows 7 operating system and versions above it.
500 GB Hard disk
2GB Random Access Memory

References
Avram, M.G., 2014. Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise
perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, pp.529-534. Elsevier, Cuza.
Bass, J.M., 2014, August. Scrum master activities: process tailoring in large enterprise projects.
In 2014 IEEE 9th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (pp. 6-15). IEEE,
Shanghai
Chanda, J., Kanjilal, A., Sengupta, S. and Bhattacharya, S., 2009, December. Traceability of
requirements and consistency verification of UML use case, activity and Class diagram: A
Formal approach. In 2009 Proceeding of International Conference on Methods and Models in
Computer Science (ICM2CS) (pp. 1-4). IEEE, Delhi.
Chinosi, M. and Trombetta, A., 2012. BPMN: An introduction to the standard. Computer
Standards & Interfaces, 34(1), pp.124-134. Elsevier, USA.
Del Nuevo, E., Piattini, M. and Pino, F.J., 2011, August. Scrum-based methodology for
distributed software development. In 2011 IEEE Sixth International Conference on Global
Software Engineering (pp. 66-74). IEEE, Helsinki.
Fosdick, L.D. and Osterweil, L.J., 2011. Data flow analysis in software reliability.
In Engineering of Software (pp. 49-85). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Gouy, M., Guindon, S. and Gascuel, O., 2009. SeaView version 4: a multiplatform graphical
user interface for sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree building. Molecular biology and
evolution, 27(2), pp.221-224. Oxford University, USA.
Granell, C., Díaz, L. and Gould, M., 2010. Service-oriented applications for environmental
models: Reusable geospatial services. Environmental Modeling & Software, 25(2), pp.182-198.
Elsevier, Spain.
Grossman, R.L., 2009. The case for cloud computing. IT professional, 11(2), pp.23-27. IEEE,
USA.
Mahalakshmi, M. and Sundararajan, M., 2013. Traditional SDLC Vs Scrum Methodology–A
Comparative Study. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced
Engineering, 3(6), pp.192-196. IEEE, Helsinki.
Mahnic, V., 2011. A capstone course on agile software development using Scrum. IEEE
Transactions on Education, 55(1), pp.99-106.
Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J. and Ghalsasi, A., 2011. Cloud computing—
The business perspective. Decision support systems, 51(1), pp.176-189. University of Florida,
USA.

Pop, D.P. and Altar, A., 2014. Designing an MVC model for rapid web application
development. Procedia Engineering, 69, pp.1172-1179. Romanian-American University,
Romania.
Raengkla, M. and Suwannasart, T., 2013. A Test Case Selection from Using Use Case
Description Changes. In Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and
Computer Scientists (Vol. 1, pp. 13-15). IMECS, Hong Kong.
Sverrisdottir, H.S., Ingason, H.T. and Jonasson, H.I., 2014. The role of the product owner in
scrum-comparison between theory and practices. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119,
pp.257-267.Elsevier, Iceland.
Swain, S.K., Mohapatra, D.P. and Mall, R., 2010. Test case generation based on use case and
sequence diagram. International Journal of Software Engineering, 3(2), pp.21-52. KIIT
University, India.
Taibi, D., Lenarduzzi, V., Pahl, C. and Janes, A., 2017, May. Microservices in agile software
development: a workshop-based study into issues, advantages, and disadvantages.
In Proceedings of the XP2017 Scientific Workshops (p. 23). ACM, USA.
Tirumala, S., Ali, S. and Babu, A., 2016. A Hybrid Agile model using SCRUM and Feature
Driven Development. International Journal of Computer Applications, 156(5), pp.1-5. Unitec
Institute of Technology, Auckland.
Thakur, J.S. and Gupta, A., 2014, February. Automatic generation of sequence diagram from use
case specification. In Proceedings of the 7th India Software Engineering Conference (p. 20).
ACM, India.
Yeoh, W. and Koronios, A., 2010. Critical success factors for business intelligence
systems. Journal of computer information systems, 50(3), pp.23-32. University of South
Australia, Australia.
Yoo, Y., Henfridsson, O. and Lyytinen, K., 2010. Research commentary—the new organizing
logic of digital innovation: an agenda for information systems research. Information systems
research, 21(4), pp.724-735. Cartonsville, USA.
Zhao, Y., Si, H., Ni, Y. and Qi, H., 2009, December. A service-oriented analysis and design
approach based on data flow diagram. In 2009 International Conference on Computational
Intelligence and Software Engineering (pp. 1-5). IEEE, Wuhan.
Zissis, D. and Lekkas, D., 2012. Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation
computer systems, 28(3), pp.583-592. University of the Aegean, Greece.