Instructions for the Thompson Case

1. Assume that Thompson has been recently taken over by a large Pet Food Chain - Elgins.
Elgins has retained Mr. Thompson as the Chief Executive.
2. Elgins wants to use the Thomson facilities for a major expansion of its activities in this
region. Towards this end they have instructed Mr. Thompson to undertake a mojor
overhaul of the information systems in the company. Financing is not a major problem,
however, IS projects will be evaluated and approved after assessing the alternatives and
feasibility.
3. Elgin wants Thompson's systems and procedures to be streamlined in line with the best
practices in the industry. They also also want to create a web presence and look into the e-
commerce technologies. For this purpose Thompson has invited major consulting vendors
to study their environment and submit proposals. Your team is one of the few consultants
invited to submit a proposal.
4. Besides problems mentioned in the case, Thompson's auditors have listed several areas of
concern in their report. These include:
a. Delays in returning rejected materials to vendors.
b. Lack of proper systems to deal with materials returned by customers for damage and
other reasons.
c. Mix up of accepted and defective materials in the warehouse.
d. Significant delays in fulfilling customer orders.
e. Lack of standardization in the choice of packing boxes and lack of a proper systems
to identify suitable box size for each order.
f. Problems in materials accounting, materials planning, inventory control, and
purchasing areas.

Main Milestones in the Systems Design Case

1. Project Proposal
2. Systems Analysis and Requirements Definition
3. E-R Modelling
4. Detailed System Proposal
5. System Outputs
6. Systems Inputs and User Interface
7. Systems Procedures, Controls & Coding Schemes
8. Program Design and Structured Walkthrough
9. Training and Documentation
10. Implementation Plan
11. Testing
12. Final Design Reports and Systems Demo

Main Milestones in the Systems Design Case

1. Project Proposal (10-12 excluding resumes) Memorandum
✓ Executive summary
✓ Provide an overview of the main problem/Problem definition
 ✓ How IS/overall systems design can be helpful in providing a solution
✓ What does your company recommend - what would you do - how much would it cost,
deliverables, milestones, time schedule
✓ Preliminary feasibility
✓ Summary of project team qualifications and experience
✓ Project team – resumes
2. Systems Analysis and Requirements Definition
✓ Summary of problem definition, identify scope
✓ Critical success factors and procesing requirements for each area
✓ Detailed functional and process decomposition for each area, including batch, online,
and manual processes
✓ Context diagram showing system boundary, external entities and data flows
representing their interfaces with the system
✓ Event Process Chain (EPC) for selected processes
✓ Describe business policies and procedures for the information system
✓ Processing requirements and business constraints
✓ Enterprise model, list of entities (objects and events)
✓ Preliminary entity to elementary process matrix
✓ Preliminary entity to (all) process matrix
3. E-R Modeling
✓ Detailed E-R model consisting of a normalized set of relations
✓ User views, indexes
✓ Data dictionary documenting data elements and data structures
✓ Updated process decomposition
✓ Updated matrices
4. Detailed System Proposal
The system proposal must include:
✓ Cover letter
✓ Executive summary
✓ A section describing existing major problems, needs and opportunities associated with
the current information processing situation
✓ A section describing the proposed systems solutions, presenting general logical
approaches and comparing several alternative physical implementations of these
approaches
✓ A section devoted to your recommendation for a course of action addressing and
comparing the feasibility of alternative solutions
Also provide:
✓ Hierarchy chart and EPCs for the proposed system
✓ Normalized E-R Model
✓ Hardware/software specification and location
✓ Database design
✓ Data dictionary with data validation rules
✓ Business rules
5. Systems Outputs
 Includes:
✓ Identify data flows appearing on your DFDs that must be designed as computer
outputs
✓ Define output technical design requirements in an expanded project dictionary
✓ Document the format for the system's display and printed outputs
✓ Generate samples of outputs using realistic or reasonable data for verification by users.
6. Systems Inputs and User Interface
Inputs:
✓ Identify data flows appearing on your DFDs that must be designed as computer inputs
✓ Define input design requirements and record these in an expanded project dictionary
✓ Design source documents that are simple for users to complete when capturing input
data
✓ Document the format for batch and on-line computer inputs
✓ Generate samples of source documents and input screens using realistic or reasonable
data for verification by users
Interface:
✓ Sketch a template that ensures that all screens are designed to appear consistent and
familiar to users
✓ Plan and coordinate the sequencing and variations of terminal dialogue screens to be
viewed by users
✓ Design the format of the terminal dialogue screens for your on-line system
✓ Generate sample screens of your system's terminal dialog
7. System Procedures, Controls and Coding Schemes Includes:
✓ Document the sequence and flow of computer processing for your system
✓ Include internal control methods for data capture, editing and correction
✓ Processing Controls
✓ Include interval control methods for backup and recovery of files and data bases
✓ Include programs for file maintenance
✓ Design appropriate codes for classifying various products and transactions
8. Programs Design and Structured Walkthrough
Includes:
✓ Identify programs requiring detailed packaging
✓ Factor your programs into manageable modules
✓ Develop processing specifications for each program module
✓ Assemble the input, output, file, terminal dialogue and processing specifications of
each program for presentation to computer programmers for implementation
9. User Documentation and Training
✓ User documentation: user manuals, procedure manuals and training module
documentation
✓ Develop a training program which will include pretraining analysis, training delivery
and post-training evaluation
✓ Manpower needed for the system
✓ Education, experience and training needs for each user
✓ Office layout and office automation
 10. Implementation Plan
Includes:
✓ Impact study
✓ Software conversion and conversion methods
✓ System review and evaluation (technical audit, user critique and management review)
✓ For system support
✓ Analyze change requirements (identify changes, develop work plan and analyze costs
and benefits)
✓ Modify system (review details and changes, prepare program changes, test changes,
revise program documentation and manuals
✓ Implement changes (review for acceptance, train personnel, introduce modifications)
✓ Users' resistance to change - impact study and suggested recommendations to deal
with it
11. Testing
✓ Test from the bottom up
✓ Module or "stub" testing
✓ Program testing
✓ Link testing
✓ System testing
✓ Acceptance testing
✓ Develop test data
✓ Make it work
✓ Make it fail
✓ Questionnaire for User Satisfaction Summary
12. Final Project Report
✓ Write a formal technical professional report that organizes your system documentation
✓ Update DFDs if needed
✓ Include final DFDs
✓ Include, in appendices, all outputs from the previous stages (e.g., E-R Model, input
design, output design, etc.)
✓ Discuss benefits, future directions for the system
✓ Review needs for the system
✓ Position your systems design in the context of overall business/system design for this
organization
✓ Provide an outline of MIS plan for this organization
✓ Discuss how "re-engineering" should be applied in this organization. Identify critical
success factors, key processes, and important IS projects to help guide the future re-
engineering efforts

Report should be submitted on 29/01/2021 09:00