eJAM

Sometime back, John and Mary realized they had accumulated a number of “collectable” items that they no longer had a passion for.  Mary decided the time had come to clean up the house and just toss most of these things since she and John really hadn’t paid a lot of money for any single item.  John, who liked to spend time on the internet, suggested to Mary they list a couple of the items on eBay.  They did, and the results were great.  Two items that Mary had originally paid $5.00 for (each) went for $12.00 and $18.00 respectively.  “Wow,” remarked John, “That’s a 140 and 260 percent return!  And the buyer paid the shipping!  Why don’t we list ALL these items on eBay?”Well, they did, and that was the beginning of John and Mary’s new hobby/business “eJAM” (John And Mary Internet Sales Company). 

Over time, eJAM grew and began to take more and more of John and Mary’s time.  But they loved what they did and really didn’t consider it work.  After having sold most of the knick-knacks that were just sitting around the house, they began going to estate auctions and flea markets buying small items at low prices that they thought would sell for higher amounts on eBay.  Their results were excellent.  They now have a small warehouse full of various items just waiting to be listed on eBay.  Mary seems to have a knack for being able to decide on what items to buy and when they should be listed.  Christmas ornaments, for example, seem to sell well in October and November.  Anything with a heart on it sells quickly just before Valentine’s Day.  John has taken the responsibility for maintaining the eJAM financial books and making sure they do everything correctly.  He’s even negotiated arrangements with UPS for special consideration for the many boxes they ship each week.

Both John and Mary believe the time has come for them to turn their attention full time to this prosperous venture and have set a target date by the end of the year to quit their day-time jobs and work full time on eJAM.  John has realized, though, that to meet this goal, they need to automate many of the business processes they are currently doing manually.  For example:

• John keeps a record of all their sales in a 3-ring notebook.  Most information anyone would want is there, but not in any kind of order or format.  Once a lady that had made a purchase sent an email to tell him the item she received was not what she bid on.  It took John several hours to find the record of the sale.  He also tracks how much an item sells for, but doesn’t have a record of what eJAM paid for it.  Thus, he really doesn’t know what the percentage of profit (or loss) is per item.  He does know that at end of the year they are making money. “I really need to find a way to automate the records of all my transactions and to be able to pull up reports when I need specific information,” John told Mary when they were having dinner.

• The inventory has no organization to it.  It’s just a group of shelves holding items that Mary purchased while going to the auctions a flea markets.  They really don’t know for sure how much they have or how long it’s been in the warehouse.  Mary does know, though, where everything is, or almost.  One time while going though the shelves looking for a specific item, she found a very expensive Buckeye Football Team picture that, had it been listed on eBay near the National Championship would have sold very well.  Now, the market has gone back to normal and the selling price would be much less. “I could kick myself,” Mary said.  “Some young football fan would love to have this picture and we could have made a handsome profit.  If only I’d have realized we still had this in the warehouse.  We need a good inventory system.”

• Sold items are normally shipped via UPS to buyers.  However, eJAM doesn’t track when items were shipped or if they were received.  Up until now, they have waited until an email came from their customers informing them that the item was either lost or broken.  From that point John would contact UPS.  One time he spend almost 4 hours trying to solve a problem only to finally realize that he had actually shipped the item though the US Postal Service and not United Parcel Service.  “We need to know the status of all our shipped items and make sure our customers are getting good service.  After all,” John said, “it’s our reputation that is at stake.”

• Mary recently acquired a number of “Cat’s Meow” houses that sell well on the internet.  She also remembered that there were a couple of customers that had sent her an email looking for specific houses and asked to be notified first before the item was listed on eBay.  However, she didn’t record the names or email addresses of the potential buyers and thus missed an opportunity to sell the houses without having to list them on the internet. “We are missing sales opportunities because we don’t KNOW our customers and we don’t keep records of who they are or what they want,” Mary told John. “We need a customer information file to help me provide better service to our customers.”

John and Mary have decided they don’t have time to work on the details of a computerized system that would help them with their automation needs, so they have turned to you for your help. They have hired you to design an integrated system that will help their company grow.  You are to develop an object-oriented solution and then turn it over to a software development company that will take your specifications and build the various applications. 

You need to do the following:

1.      Determine the major components that will be needed in the eJam system and list the functional and nonfunctional requirements.  You may use a table if you desire.

2.      Identify and list the tasks that are involved in the design, build, and testing of the system. Show these in a Gantt chart format

3.      Develop a list of use cases and develop a use case diagram; develop a list of classes and a class diagram

4.      Document the detailed work flow of each use case listed above by developing a flow chart

5.      Design the database structure (schema) for eJam.

General information:

• You will be graded on how well you solve John& Mary’s system problem and how well you meet all the requirements. 
• Your documentation should be clear and easy to follow.  Each of the five components should be SHOWN SEPARATELY AND PROPERTLY IDENTIFED.
• Develop your solution in such a way that it could be given to eJAM for their approval.