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CIT-376System Design

AndAnalysis

Get Off Your DimeInformation System

By: Tacey Lenyard

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary……………………………………………….Page 3-5

Assumptions……………………………………………………….Page 5-6

Dependencies………………………………………………………Page 6

Twelve Use Cases………………………………………………….Page 7

Description of Design Elements………………………………….Page 8

Appendix 1 (Event Registration UI)……………………………..Page 9

Appendix 2 (Apply Payment UI)………………………………..Page 10

Appendix 3 (Add/Modify Attendee Contact UI)……………….Page 11

Appendix 4 (Create Event Postcard UI)……………………......Page 12

Appendix 5 (Add/Modify Vendor Contact UI)…………………Page 13

Appendix 6 (Select Venue UI)……………………………………Page 14

Appendix 7 (Schedule Volunteers UI)…………………………..Page 15

Appendix 8 (Generate Report UI)………………………………Page 16

Appendix 9 (Analyze Event UI)…………………………………Page 17

Appendix 10 (Import Contacts UI)……………………………Page 18

Appendix 11 (Test Usability UI)……………………………….Page 19

Appendix 12 (Train Staff UI)…………………………………..Page 20

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Company Overview

Get Off Your Dime (GOYD) services provides training events for financial and small

business education for the past 5 years. These events are held in a wide variety of locations

throughout the United States and throughout the year. Up until this point, all of the services have

been managed with manual processes. Over the course of the last few years attendance and the

scope of events has grown over 30%, year over year, with the projected attendance numbers to

be three times as many as there are in the current year. This is why GOYD has been prompted to

move the management of these events over to a database application to increase the efficiency of

the events, the people, and the processes used to support the business.

Mission

Get Off Your Dime’s mission is to provide training and education to financial and small

business through events, that are effectively managed through the utilization of a database

application.

Operations

GOYD events are sponsored by public and private funders. Attendees register for these

events by filling out a form and submitting a payment. That information (contact information and

receipt of payment) is recorded for future reference. The event coordinator coordinates the event

by acquiring catering services for the attendee’s lunch, and managing vendors, volunteers, and

exhibitors. Once the event is finished, staff, and volunteers are debriefed, and event analysis

should ensue, to make the next event better. All information should be migrated to the new

database system for future use, and modification.

The Competition

Almost every organization provides some form of educational services to individuals and

businesses, some of which charge also charge a fee associated with membership or an event fee.

Some of those companies are funded by funds generated by revenue of the company, and others

are sponsored by public and private funders as well.

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Objectives

To allow an increase in volume of attendees, vendors, and exhibitors to be managed more

efficiently.

To allow for future expansion in capability for event management.

To allow for easier analysis of past event activity for new event forecasting.

To make volunteers, vendors, attendees, venue contacts, exhibitors and caterers all

reusable relationships.

An organized structure and database of pre-existing files and contacts.

To implement more effective course scheduling.

To create advanced registration process.

To be able to use the system for automated mailings.

Strategies

The program will initially run on one computer.

Creating usage scenarios that are simple and straight forward to use.

Making the user interface easy to use

Test usability before go-live date.

Implementation of the new solution will be done in stages, and analysis of results will

take place to ensure accuracy.

Accurately determine which pre-existing records need to be imported into the new

database solution.

Vision

The Event Management Database System is a database combined with reporting

capabilities that provide complete management of events, attendees, and courses allowing for an

integrated system of information, stored in one local area, which can be accessed by event

providers who require a more efficient way to manage and analyze events.

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Financials

The attendance has increased 30% consecutively over the past few years, increasing the

amount of revenue generated by these events. GOYD has been looking for ways to target

funding support from both private and grant sources. It is the assumption that the new Event

Management Database System will allow GOYD to effectively manage the current and future

increase in attendance and payment, as well as assist in targeting the public and private funding

through the new automated mailing capability.

The initial cost of this project is higher in dollars than manpower by current standards,

but the return on investment will be greater once the initial release is tested and subsequent

releases go live.

Scope

The Event Management database will increase efficiency in the management of events by

integrating pre-existing information and new information modifications into one localized are

which can be accessed by anyone with knowledge of the system. Event providers will now be

able to successfully analyze previous events for forecasting as well. The initial scope will be to

have a complete design of the event management database system which will include all

previous statements in regards to the scope, as well as tables, forms and queries for contacts,

event, and seminar capabilities. The scope of subsequent releases will include to add funding

capabilities as well as potential new data.

Assumptions

The user will have a functional power connection.

The user will have a functional internet connection.

The user will be accessing the event management database system by computer.

The database management system will be supported by technical support and financial

resources, to install updates to the system and support patches that may need to be

installed, as well as expansion and upgrade to the system as necessary.

User acceptance will be high because the usage scenarios are straight forward.

The event management database system will reduce costs in manpower and quality of

events assuming that staff is trained properly.

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All seminars will start on time.

Dependencies

Operational reports will be dependent on the closing of registration.

The ability to access the event management database system will be dependent on a

functional internet connection.

Access to the pages within the event management database system will be dependent on

the user entering in the correct login on the home page.

Credit card machines must be connected to a phone/data line in order for payments to be

processed.

Attendees must register by submitting form and payment before they can attend a class.

A venue must be acquired before a class can be held.

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Use Cases

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Reasoning for Choices behind the Design

As stated in the executive summary, GOYD’s end goal is to have a newly implemented

event management database that allows some automation, increasing the productivity and

decreasing the amount of errors surrounding the facilitation of an event and client relationship

management. The design that I chose to implement was a healthy integration of menu interaction

and form interaction as well as command language interaction.

Command language interaction is established in the reports section of the database

system. This requires the user to be very specific when writing a report, since the information

will be used for strategic planning, this right has been reserved for the event manager since they

will be a more advanced user by training.

Menu interaction was used to provide some consistency throughout the database system.

The menu provides hyperlink to all pages within the site. The menu shows up at the bottom of

the page on each page, letting the user know that they are on the same site.

Form interaction was integrated into most of the pages, since the user would have to input

information into the system. This was the best way to integrate the need for the system to receive

information from the user, provide easy navigation throughout the page, and provide feedback

and error catch statements.

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Appendix 1 (Event Registration)Primary Actor: Attendee

Supporting Actor: Registrar/Event Management Database System

Case: The form needs to be completed by the Attendee and submitted to the registrar, the

registrar will then enter the information into the system.

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*In future updates of the system, we may be able to create an end-user side that would allow end-

users to submit registration forms online, and create a notification that would notify the registrar

that a new user has registered for the event.

Appendix 2 (Apply Payment)Primary Actor: Attendee

Supporting Actor/s: Registrar and Event Management Database System

Case: The attendee needs to choose a payment method. That payment needs to be given to the

registrar and applied to the event. At that time the attendee will get the wrist-band for entry into

the event.

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*In future updates of the Event Management Database System, we can set up an end-user

functionality that would allow the attendee to apply their own payment to an event on the site,

and notification would be sent to the registrar in regards to the payment applied. At that time a

automatic confirmation could be sent to the attendee based on information held within the

contact ID associated with the attendee.

Appendix 3 (Add/Modify Attendee Contact)Primary Actor: Attendee (notifies GOYD of contact change or need)

Supporting Actor: GOYD customer support and Event Management Database System

Case: The attendee notifies GOYD of a contact change, the GOYD customer support rep would

then enter the information into the Event Management Database System.

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*Once submit is pressed the customer support representative will be re-directed to a screen letting them know that

the contact has been modified. Please see Appendix 1 for adding a brand new Attendee Contact.

Appendix 4 (Create Event Postcard)Primary Actor: GOYD customer support representative

Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System

Case: The GOYD customer support representative will select the type of contacts that they want

to send the event postcard to, input a title into the subject area, and a message that will appear on

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the postcard, they hit submit and the system will compile the email addresses of the selected

contacts, and send an email-blast (postcard).

*In future updates, we can enhance the options and templates available for the postcards. The customer support representative will be able to not only choose the type of contacts that they would like to send the postcard to, but they would be able to change the design of the postcard.

Appendix 5 (Add/Modify a Vendor Contact)

Primary Actor: GOYD support representative

Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System

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Case: The GOYD support representative will receive information from the vendor in regards to

their contact information. It could be a change in contact information or it could be a new

addition as a vendor contact.

*Pre-existing contacts can be modified by entering text into any of the fields and navigating to the specific vendor contact for modification, or the customer support representative can complete the blank form and the contact will be added and a similar pop-up message will be presented letting the support representative know that the contact has been saved successfully.

Appendix 6 (Select Venue)

Primary Actor: Event Coordinator

Secondary Actor: Venue Contacts

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Case: The event coordinator will submit a Request for Quote (RFQ) to each venue and select the

correct venue based on the business and financial feasibility.

Get Off Your Dime

Venue Contact:____________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________________

City:_______________________ State:________ Zip:__________________

Phone:______________________________________

Email Address:_______________________________

What kind of events do you hold?

Can I hire my own vendors? Do you have a list of recommended vendors?__________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Is there parking on-site?________________________________________________________

What overnight accomodations do you provide?_______________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

How much is the deposit and when is it due?__________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Venue Contact Signature:_________________________________________________________

Date:_____________________

Appendix 7 (Schedule Volunteers)Primary Actor: GOYD event coordinator

Supporting Actor: volunteers and Event Management Database System

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Case: Based on volunteers showing a want and availability to volunteer for an event, the event

coordinator will schedule volunteers based on the needs of the event. Once the volunteer is

scheduled, he/she will know exactly what they need to do at the event and what time to be there

and who they will be working with.

Appendix 8 (Generate Report)Primary Actor: GOYD event manager

Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System

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Case: The event manager need to run reports that give raw data in regards to events as well as the

system itself. These reports will be customizable based on the need.

Entities Design Area for the Report

Attendee

Vendor

Volunteer

Payments

Event

Postcard

Fields

Attendee_ContactID

Name

Email_Address

Attendee_PaymentAmount

Attendee_PaymentID

Results Pane

*This area will have each

field label and all of the

results from the event

management database,

allowing for analysis and

forecasting.

*Tables with columns will be present in the database. Each column will have a primary key that

allows the event manager to link information from various tables into one report.

Appendix 9 (Analyze Event)Primary Actor: GOYD event manager

Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System

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Case: The GOYD event manager will analyze an event once the registration is closed, to assist in

forecasting future events.

*The event manager can utilize any field on this page to search for an event. Once the search

results come back, it will display the event ID, attendees, vendors used, venue used, exhibitors

used, total attendance and some information in regards to how people would rate it on a scale,

created by the event manager.

Appendix 10 (Import Contacts)Primary Actor: GOYD event manager

Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System

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Case: The GOYD event manager will need to import pre-existing contact information into the

event management database system. That information will be formatted in excel, with the

headers to match the fields in the system. The document will be saved as a .csv file and imported

into the system.

*Once the information has been imported successfully, the event manager can either run a report

to make sure the contacts have come through properly or check for different contact IDs within

the system. The system will let the event manager know how many contacts have went through

successfully and how many have failed once the import is complete through a series of IO

exceptions that will be written into the report as an error/warning mechanism.

Appendix 11 (Test Usability)Primary Actor: GOYD event manager, GOYD staff

Supporting Actor: Event Management Database System, and System technical support

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Case: The event manager and the GOYD staff will test all of their processes within the system,

they will also provide feedback in regards to the look and feel of the system. This feedback will

be integrated into future updates and system enhancements. The usability tests will provide a

sunny day scenario and hopefully several iterations that deviate from the sunny day scenario.

This information will be corrected before implementation of the event management database

system.

During this use case, the system will be tested based on speed, accuracy, and satisfaction. All of

the user interfaces have built-in feedback that catches errors. All of the user interfaces have been

created based on the needs vocalized by the business. In an event to make sure that the system is

an accurate display of the manual processes, accuracy will be tested.

Appendix 12 (Train Staff)Primary Actor: GOYD event manager, Event Management Database System technical support

Supporting Actor: GOYD staff

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Case: The staff of GOYD will need to be trained on how to enter different contact types, how to

search for data, and how to generate reports and postcards.

*Each group of GOYD staff will be separated based on job roles established. For example,

registrars, customer support, event coordination, event management. Each of these groups will be

trained on the functionality of the system as it applies to their job. The users will be trained on

not only use of the system, but also:

Basic computer concepts for increased productivity

System management (Event Management)

System Installation (Event Management)

Reporting errors in process or response of the system