Assignment title: Management
BCO2041 Systems Analysis and Design
Preliminary System Specification Document Format
1. Front Page (Title, Stakeholders version, etc... )
2. Contents
3. Recommended System Acquisition Strategy
3.1 System Acquisition Weighted Alternative Matrix
4. Architectural Design
5. Hardware and Software Specification
6. Interface Design
6.1 Interface Structure Diagram
6.2 User Interface Flow
6.3 Wireframe diagrams (3 per group)
7. Program Design
7.1 Structure Chart
7.2 Program Specifications (3 per group)Marking Criteria
Criteria Maximum
available
Marks
Allocated
Marks
Exceeds
Expectat
ions
Meets
Expectatio
ns
Approaches
Expectations
Does Not
Meet
Expectation
s
Presentation 5
Executive Summary 5
Acquisition Strategy 10
Architectural Design 5
Hardware and
Software
Specification
5
Interface Design
Interface Structure
Diagram User
Interface Flow
Wireframe diagrams
(3)
10
10
10
Program Design
Structure Chart
Program
Specifications (3)
10
10
Total out of 80
Allocated Marks out
of 20
BCO2041 Systems Analysis and Design
Case Study
(For Assignments)
Note: The case study below may not provide all of the information necessary to complete the assignment.
Students will have to use their personal experiences to complete some aspects of the assignment. Students
may also seek clarification from their tutor during tutorials or office hours.
Allure Investments Pty. Ltd.
Allure Investments Pty Ltd is an investment company that manages portfolios and actively invests on the
Australian Stock Exchange on behalf of their clients. It currently has over 150 clients who rely on Allure
Investments to manage their Stock Portfolios. The wealth of Allure clients vary considerably and their needs
will also vary, but Allure does not handle property or any other types of investments other than equity
investments. Their client list is growing and Allure now needs software to help the portfolio managers
maintain records and keep track of all investments for their clients.
Extracts from interviews with relevant persons:
Don Turner, Executive Manager
…
We have called you in to prepare a document specifying the requirements for the development of a Portfolio
Management System. We intend to put the development of this system up for tender in November, if the project
seems feasible. There is no existing computer based system, and this seems to be limiting the rate of our expansion
and the workload that our portfolios managers can handle. One of the main difficulties that customers have
expressed is the difficulty they have in quickly obtaining an update estimate of their portfolio value. We feel that
providing customers with up-to-date information on their portfolios will enable them to react more quickly in a
volatile market and foster better communication between them and their portfolio managers. In fact I envisage
being able to allow customers to hook-in to our new software System to view their portfolio. We could provide
this service by a Web-interface or Android app, or other comparable interface.
Currently, each customer is assigned a portfolio manager, which is selected according to the customers needs and
the portfolio managers expertise. Each portfolio manager will manage the portfolio of a number of customer by
buying and selling equities according to stock market prices and predetermined buying and selling levels.
Currently, without a software system to help keep track of all this, a portfolio manager can only handle a certain
number of customers. We currently only assign a maximum of 12 portfolios to a portfolio manager, but I believe
we can increase this number when the software system is in place allowing Allure Investments to expand more
rapidly.
Jennifer Lee, Portfolio Manager
As a portfolio manager I spend most of my day reviewing the portfolios of my clients and deciding what stocks I
should buy and what stocks to sell. Each client contributes a certain amount of money per month, this is determined
by the client and the Accounts manager when the client first signs on with us, and is reviewed each year. The
money is maintained in the clients personal account and is used together with the sale of their existing equities to
by new shares. In this way, we increase the clients wealth from year to year. It is important that we keep theequities of each client in a separate portfolio as many of our clients will have a lot of the same equities in
common, and we must maintain separation or portfolios.
When I purchase a particular equity, I will place a stop-loss on the equity as well as a sell price and a further trigger
for further purchases. When these events occur I need to quickly sell the stocks I have a stop-loss against or have
placed a sell price against. If the trigger for further purchases occurs I need to check the clients available funds and
see if there is enough funds for further purchases. If there is then the purchases are made on behalf of the clients.
Additionally I need to document all sells and buys and send the information to the Funds manager so that records
can be maintained as to a clients portfolio equity levels as well as which parcel the sell orders are set against.
Jason Little, Account Manager
My tasks are to interview new clients and maintain the relationship with clients on a day to day basis, or as needed.
When new clients are signed on, I hold an interview with them to determine a number of things such as their risk
profile and this will lead to what types of equities may suit them best. We try and determine if they have a
preference for income equities or capital growth stocks, this will help determine the portfolio manager I assign to
them. I also determine with the clients a suitable funding level for the coming year, that is, how much money on a
monthly basis they will deposit into their portfolio account. I review this with them on a yearly basis. After the
Interview I assign an appropriate portfolio manager to them who then begins to analyze their portfolio and take it
into account in their daily analysis and buy-sell ordering.
I also review the performance of the portfolio managers by examining on a weekly basis the percentage growth of
their individual portfolios and overall the growth or otherwise of the combined portfolios of each of the portfolio
managers. We use this as an alert to quickly review specific portfolios of individual clients in times of volatile
activity on the stock market. If one specific portfolio begins to show underperformance, or one portfolio
managers overall levels shows underperformance we quickly analyze the holding to see if this is an individual
case that needs immediate correction or just a market-place trend.
All sell orders are placed through our special account with the Australian stock exchange as the the buy orders.
Dividends are received through the various companies and we must report or client positions to the Australian
Taxation Office on a half yearly basis.
It is assumed that the Software to be developed will be able to automatically trigger alerts on a much smaller
timeframe to enable us to manage the client portfolios much more effectively
Julie Song, Funds Manager
As the Funds Manager, my role is to maintain all the records of the buy and sells for each client and to maintain the
information on the different parcels as well as dividends for each of a clients equities. This is a very time
consuming activity, especially during times of high market volatility thus I manage a small team to undertake
these activities.
Each Buy request created a parcel of shares, different to every other parcel. Records need to be maintained about
each parcel, the number of shares in a parcel and the date the parcel was bought. This is because of the tax
implications, capital gains tax is payable on all sell orders and the amount will depend on the age of the parcel.
When a sell order is executed, we deduct the shares from the older parcel first, and if more were sold than were in
the parcel, we then deduct of the next oldest parcel etc. This limits the Capital Gains tax payable. Thus a sell order
may effect one or more parcels, but a buy always creates a new parcel.
A clients equity holdings will contain a number of parcels for each equity they hold. Each clients holding, parcels
etc will need to be kept in isolation from each other clients holding.
When dividends are paid by a company, we need to determine how many shares of the company are held by each
client and proportion the overall dividend accordingly. The dividend received for each client is debited to theirportfolio account, which will be used by the portfolio manager when purchasing new equities in the future.
Additionally, records of each dividend per client need to be maintained so a complete tax report can be compiled
for the client at the end of the financial year.
The new system will greatly reduce the time involved in maintaining the records of each clients portfolio as well
are reduce the time needed to produce reports on a daily, weekly and yearly basis.
Anonymous, Client
Working with Allure Investments is usually very good, however there are some bottlenecks due to the lack of a
Software system. One of the biggest problems is responding quickly to market movements. As a client I
sometimes ring to enquire as the balance of my portfolio and this can take some time to get a response as it needs to
be collated. Additionally, if the market has some cheap shares I can quickly deposit some more funds into my
account so my portfolio manager can use these and take advantage of the value in the market. If the system was
computerized then as a client I could get information more quickly to take advantage of the situations.
At tax time I get all the reports I need from Allure Investments, however, again these can take sometime to collate
due to the nature of their current system. I anticipate quicker responses once the system is implemented, and I
would additionally like to be able to log into their system to view my account details and status as I like to keep a
close eye on my investments.