1. Timeline (Schedule)

[Based on the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) listed below, complete the schedule by completing the missing tasks in the table below. A task is defined as a work item or activity with a specific purpose related to a larger goal.

For each task, estimate the duration required to complete the task (in business days) and the role responsible for completing the task. ONLY use roles from the list below. You are not required to use all roles for your schedule.

Project Manager Business Analyst Business User Systems Analyst Security Analyst Network Analyst

Database Administrator Data Analyst Data Scientist Software Developer/Engineer Quality Assurance Tester

Use the 3-point estimating technique discussed in the lab to develop the estimates. Remember, estimating is an educated guess. Use the durations given as a basis for your estimates.]

Phase	Task	Duration	Role Responsible
Planning	[task]	[days]	[Role]
	[task]	[days]	[Role]
Analysis	Requirements Document Complete	60 days	Business Analyst
	Requirements Document Approved	1 days	Project Manager
Design	ERD Diagram Complete	20 days	Data Analyst
	ERD Diagram Approved	1 days	Project Manager
Development	[task]	[days]	[Role]
	[task]	[days]	[Role]
Testing	User Acceptance Testing	45 days	Tester
	[task]	[days]	[Role]
Implementation	[task]	[days]	[Role]
	[task]	[days]	[Role]
Maintenance	[task]	[days]	[Role]
	[task]	[days]	[Role]

Sunshine Candy Shop (SCS) Case Study

SCS has been serving candy lovers, both wholesale and retail, from its Burnaby, British Columbia location since 1977. Originally, Bill Bellows specialized in providing hard candies and mints to restaurants, but recently, Bill and his daughter Miranda (recently graduated from school) expanded SCS to carry many confection types, specifically piece-candy, bar-candy, chocolates, jellies and fancies. Although not as large as competing shops in the B.C. lower mainland, they have developed a growing customer base due to their confections' freshness and appeal and their expertise in marketing to senior citizens and holiday gift-givers.

Over the past few years, SCS has expanded from its three Vancouver-area sales outlets to include one new retail store in each of Victoria B.C., Whistler B.C., Banff, Alberta and Jasper, Alberta. Over the years, SCS has seen a steady increase in the costs required to manage its candy-making operations.This increase includes inventory and retail, but also includes the entire candy-making process (i.e. manufacturing - heating, rolling, shaping, cooling - packaging, transporting, marketing, etc) SCS is known for. Miranda is championing a digital transformation of the business that will cover everything from their branding and marketing to their facilities, people, assets, and technologies.She hopes that this refresh will give SCS the boost they need to remain competitive and increase sales. SCS hopes to stay one of the leading independent candy-maker and supplier in Western Canada by providing sustainable manufacturing operations while using technology to streamline their customer's experience.

Miranda's plan to move to a customized computer sales system built, to serve her base of 2900 current customers. is a first step in her vision for the digital transformation, but there are many more to take. Miranda is also planning to overhaul the infrastructure of the candy-making operations to ensure that it meets the highest environmental standards. She also wants to update the online store to ensure that SCS can reach and serve potential customers that not are locally located near the candy facility. These plans are intended to create a frictionless candy-making experience and promote the highest spending on SCS products at retail. Finally, Miranda is also planning an overhaul of SCS's inventory management technologies. Together, with these initiatives, Miranda hopes that the digital transformation will position SCS as an innovative but far-reaching, candy-maker that is ready to serve customers across Canada and the US.

Miranda sees data driven decisions in all areas of the SCS and has made it a priority in her strategic plan to establish a culture of data driven decision-making in its employees at all levels of the business. Today, the data the growing system provides will be the foundation of this new culture and will be implemented through a business analytics technology refresh project.

Miranda has asked you to lead the Business Analytics Technology Refresh for SCS. "As you are aware, SCS has a number of on-going strategic initiatives. I want you to focus on the design of a business analytics technology solution based on the data provided by the proposed sales system."

"Currently, we use a number of paper- and spreadsheet-based data but the new sales system will provide much more digital data. I have some ideas, but I'm not exactly sure what SCS needs. First and foremost, I would like a business analytics solution that supports the data from our future strategic initiatives. It must be able to grow with SCS," As a business analyst at SCS, you assure Miranda that you will help her to clarify SCS's needs for the Business Analytics Technology Refresh by delivering a detailed Requirements Document that describes the project's requirements.

The next day you meet with Miranda and ask her to describe some high level needs she has identified internally at SCS for a business analytics solution. She begins by saying, "We had a lot of problems with the manual paper-based sales-tracking system, which is prompting the move to the computer-based sales management system. As paper logbooks were used and discarded, it was difficult to get any valuable data from our customer-tracking. It is difficult to build a relationship with individual customers. Who is happy, who should we market to, and when is it appropriate to follow-up with a future sale."

"The new computer-based sales management system has the potential to change all that. We are going to collect all this new data - a huge volume of it every day. SCS needs to make sure that we are tracking the right information. Right now, we are getting data from when a customer makes a purchase and shares their personal contact informaton but I see this data collection expanding into many other areas through the implementation of the future strategic initiatives. Of course, we still have more traditional sources of data (many are paper records) about our marketing, retail, and customer services. We need to make sure that any data we collect is clean, correct, and useable across the organization."

You agree, saying, "Of course, with such a large amount of data, you need to make sure that it's valuable to the the operations of SCS. That it's worth tracking. Especially with new technology, sometimes it's not recording correctly, or the data gets corrupt. You also run the risk of tracking too much or the wrong things. We can definitely take a look at the data as part of the project and make sure that everything looks good."

"Excellent! Once we are sure that we can trust the data, we need to make sure that our employees can use that data. I've often heard our people say the most difficult part of their job is understanding the data we currently have. We do have employees turning out various "ad-hoc" reports, but people in senior management, operations, marketing, and sales, for example, don't have time to read those reports. They need to be able to see the data and immediately understand what it means." Miranda pauses and then says, "I think some way to create visual layouts or dashboard would be very useful.Something that offers a visual experience but can be used to "drill down" to more in-depth information for our power users."

"You are describing current Business Analytics or Business Intelligence tools," you suggest. "They are more robust than the traditional static spreadsheets that are difficult to update once they are shared with other people."

"Yes! I've heard of some of these tools, but I'm not sure what would be the best fit for our needs. I've heard some of my employees talk about Microsoft PowerBI and Tableau. If you could tell me a bit about these tools, that would really help us make a decision," Miranda says.

"Of course. I can give you a list of pros and cons of Microsoft PowerBI and Tableau for you as part of the document. I'll also look into any alternatives to see if there is something that would fit SCS's needs better," you say, making a note. "When refreshing any technology and choosing new software, it's important to understand the kinds of networks and systems we are using. Can you tell me a bit about that?"

Miranda nods, "Like most businesses, we mostly use Windows computers. We have embraced a hybrid work model, we give employees the flexibility to work in the office or at home. We do have some permanent remote users though. I'm not sure what they use at home." She pauses to think, "You'll want to talk to someone in each of the departments if you want to really understand what they need. The Sales Manager is Jan Knop, and I know he has really been complaining about how complicated the current sales reporting spreadsheets are to use, so the visuals are going to be important for him. The planned move to a computer-based inventory and sales system cannot come fast enough for him. Stewart Burns is the Operations Manager, and he needs to provide detailed reports regarding our plants to both our internal and external stakeholders. Shuang Chen is our Customer Services Manager. She's been talking about how she'd love to be able to understand things like what our customers think about our secondary products such as tours, tastings, and events, so SCS can be proactive in its offerings. This could help us offer a personalized experience which customers appreciate."

"Sounds good. I'll get in touch with each of them and see what ideas they have. I'm looking forward to getting started, thank you for the opportunity," you say as you stand to leave.

Miranda gets up to shake your hand. "To approve this project, I am going to need a schedule with some major project objectives and milestones, and an estimate of the cost. If you could include those for me as part of the requirements document, we can get this Business Analytics Technology Refresh project rolling." She smiles and says, "I am excited to see what you put together for us."