September 16, 2013

Week Two Assignment How was the Hoosier Burger project identified and selected? What focus will the new system have? Hoosier Burger is a small restaurant that currently has no digital information capabilities. The new owners, Bob and Thelma, have just finished up product identification and selection. Now that Hoosier Burger has been open for a little while, they have a good feel for what works – and what does not – in the current system. With a solid approach to identification and selection this project will be well on the way towards an efficient execution. This project was identified as most are, which is, unfortunately, the painful way. In daily operations Bob and Thelma discovered shortcomings in inventory control, customer ordering and management reporting. These inadequacies culminate in food shortages, customer wait time and a general lack of ability to run the business smoothly. Because their business is growing, the old way of managing information by hand is insufficient. Project selection is also simple in this case, as the system simply has to be upgraded, and there are no other projects pending to choose from. In many situations there are multiple teams competing for limited resources and so projects might be evaluated based on cost-benefit analysis or any other manner of comparing the feasibility of a project, but in this case the selection is clear: Upgrade the system and keep customers coming back! Identify the Hoosier Burger project’s scope The scope of the project on the provider (internal) side is figured out by asking questions. Recommended topics include which problems and opportunities the project can address, the quantified and agreed upon desired results, a path between these two states must be discovered (what needs to be done), how will the results be measured, and finally, definition of the finish line (Valacich, George, and Hoffer, 2009). The Hoosier Burger project’s scope is to implement new systems in inventory control, customer ordering, and management reporting systems. This project is set up to increase the overall effectiveness by introducing new and improved systems. Alternatively, a new point-of-sale system may be within the scope of this project as well. Using the six feasibility factors presented in the chapter, assess the Hoosier Burger project’s feasibility Six feasibility factors would include: 1) Economic Feasibility With proper inventory strategy and good customer service, the Hoosier Burger can benefit in terms of increased sales and profit. Besides that, the Hoosier Burger would definitely have regular customers like any other restaurants. Therefore, they should improve its management system to assure the regular visits.
2) Operational Feasibility Better operating system leads to more efficient time management as it seems to be an issue here. Implementations of a good system enable better schedule handling and customer service. By applying a new and improved system, problems can be solved and the use of time would be proper during business.
3) Technical Feasibility With the help of the project team and owners Bob and Thelma, Hoosier Burger should have no problem executing this proposed system. The issues that they have are very fixable and can be done quite quickly with the proper organization.

4) Schedule Feasibility While there is no time frame mentioned in the case, it is assumed that Hoosier Burger will take action promptly to assure continued success of the business. They want to keep their loyal customers and must act quickly in order to do so. 5) Legal and Contractual Feasibility There seem to be few legal risks in this case. This is a small but established business that will not have copyright or nondisclosure issues. The only risk may be in retrieving information about the customer base.
6) Political Feasibility Possibly, Since Hoosier Burger used to use a paper-based system, the application of a new information system is likely to redistribute the information within the firm and therefore, redistributing the power of the shareholders. Using Figure 3-8 as a guide, develop a Project Scope Statement for the Hoosier Burger Project Project Overview: This project will implement a new system for the shortcomings in inventory control, customer ordering and management reporting. Its purpose will be to have new software that will keep track of and control all inventory. It will also provide a new system for customer’s orders to be taken so that orders are fulfilled in a quick manner. Objectives: * Minimize inventory errors * Provide faster customer ordering time * Minimize food shortages * Allow business to flow more smoothly Key Assumptions: * Software will be purchased from a third party * Interface will be compatible with different operating systems * System will provide first in first out for customer orders

References
Valacich, J., George, J., Hoffer, J. (2009). Essentials of Systems Analysis and Design (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.