FACULTY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Individual assignment 1 - Case study analysis
HS2061 Information Systems Project Management
Trimester 1 2017
Date Due: Friday Week 8, 2017 by 5:00 PM
Marks: Weighting 10%
Student Name (Block letters) Student Number:
___________________________ _____________
HOLMES
INSTITUTE
FACULTY OF
HIGHER
EDUCATIONHC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 1
1. Develop a Project scope document
Using the Signed, Sealed, Delivered Case Study provided,
develop a system scope document. This document must include a
section for each of the following:
• the business problem,
• a statement of purpose,
• the benefits of a new system
• the system capabilities and what it must achieve as a
minimum
• exclusions – what the proposed system will NOT
include
Ensure you use business language and write in the third person
(avoid the use of I or we). This section should comprise four or
more paragraphs but should be no longer than a page in length.
All bullet lists must be introduced with at least one sentence that
provides context for the reader.HC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 2
Signed Sealed Delivered Case Study
Notes from an interview with Richard Turpin Managing
Director, Company Founder:
As an employee of a large international courier and shipping
service, I met almost every day with many companies that shipped
and received packages. I was frequently asked if the company I
worked for could deliver local packages on the same day. Over
several months, I observed that there appeared to be a substantial
need for courier services in the city I lived in so I decided I would
form my own courier delivery company called Signed, Sealed,
Delivered to fill this gap in the market.
I began by listing my mobile telephone number in the Yellow
Pages and sending letters to all those companies that had
requested same-day courier service that my previous employer
had not been able to serve. I hoped that, through good service and
word-of-mouth advertising, my own business would grow. I also
began other advertising and marketing activities to promote my
new services.
At first, I received delivery requests on his business mobile phone.
However, it was not long before my customers were asking if I had
a Web site where they could place orders for shipments. I knew
that if I could get a Web presence I could increase exposure and
help the business grow.
After I had been in business only a few short months, I discovered
I needed to have additional help. I hired another person to help
with the delivery and pickup of packages. It was good to see the
business grow, but another person added to the complexity of
coordinating pickups and deliveries. With the addition of a new
person, I could no longer "warehouse" the packages out of his
delivery van. I now needed a central warehouse where I could
organize and distribute packages for delivery. I thought that if his
business grew enough to add one more delivery person I would
also need someone at the warehouse to coordinate the arrival and
distribution of all the packages.
.HC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 3
The details of the package pickup and delivery process are
described on the following pages:
When I got an order, at first, only on my phone, I recorded when I
received the call and when the shipment would be ready for
pickup. Sometimes, customers wanted immediate pickup;
sometimes, they were calling to schedule a later time in the day for
pickup.
Once I arrived at the pickup location, I collected the packages. It
was not uncommon for the customer to have several packages for
delivery. In addition to the name and address of the delivery
location, I also recorded the time of pickup. I noted the desired
delivery time, the location of the delivery, and the weight of the
package to determine the courier cost. When I picked up the
package, I printed out a label with his portable printer that I kept in
the delivery van.
At first, I required customers to pay at the time of pickup, but I
soon discovered that there were some regular customers who
preferred to receive a monthly bill for all their shipments. I wanted
to be able to accommodate those customers. Bills were due and
payable upon receipt.
To help keep track of all the packages,I decided that I needed to
scan each package as it was sorted in the warehouse. This would
enable me to keep good control of his packages and avoid loss or
delays.
The delivery of a package was fairly simple. Upon delivery, I would
record information about when the delivery was made and who
received it. Because some of the packages were valuable, it was
necessary in those instances to have someone sign for the
package.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered courier services grew and changed over
the years. At first, I received requests for package pickups on my
mobile phone, recorded that information in a log, and would then
drive around to retrieve all the packages later in the day.HC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 4
However, I soon discovered that with another driver, it was difficult
to coordinate pickups between the two of us from the van. It was
not long before I reorganized the business and turned the
warehouse employee into a driver. Then, I stayed in. the
warehouse myself, and my two employees made all the pickups
and deliveries.
This worked well because I could control and coordinate the
pickups and deliveries better. It was also easiest for me to receive
pickup requests working at a desk rather than trying to do it while
driving a delivery van.
As I thought about how the business was growing and the services
I provided to my customers, I began to itemize the kinds of
information I would need to maintain. Of course, I needed to
maintain information about customers. Some customers were
businesses; some were individuals. I needed to have basic
address and contact information for every customer.
Also, for corporate customers, I needed to identify a primary
contact person. It was mostly corporate customers who wanted to
receive monthly statements listing all their shipments during the
month and the total cost. I needed to distinguish which customers
paid cash and which wanted monthly statements. In fact, for those
that paid monthly, I needed to keep a running account of such
things as when they were last billed, when they paid, and any
outstanding balances.
Finally, when payments were received, either for individual
shipments or from monthly invoices, I needed to record information
about the payment: type of payment, date, and amount. Although
this was not a sophisticated billing and payment system, I thought
it would suffice for our needs.
Next, I started thinking about his packages and shipments. At the
time that a request for a pickup came in, I needed to keep track of
it as some type of delivery request or delivery ·order. At that point
in time, I mostly needed to know who the customer was, where the
pickup location was, and what date and time the package(s) would
be ready for pickup. I also recorded the date and time that I
received the order. A delivery order was considered "open" until
the delivery van arrived at the pickup location and the packages
were all retrieved. At that point, the delivery order was satisfied.HC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 5
Once the packages were retrieved, each package needed to be
uniquely identified; I needed to know when it was picked up and
which delivery person picked it up. Other important information
was the "deliver to" entity name and the address. I also needed to
identify the type of delivery. Some packages were high priority,
requiring same-day delivery, others were overnight. Of course, the
weight and cost were recorded so the customer could either pay or
have it added to the monthly invoice.
In the courier and delivery business, one of the most important
information requirements is the date and time stamp. For each
package, it is important to know when it was picked up, when it
arrived at the warehouse, when it went back out on the delivery
run, and when it was delivered. When possible, it is also important
to have names associated with each of these events.
As Signed, Sealed, Delivered Courier Services continues to grow, I
anticipate that I can provide much better services to our customers
if I utilize some of the technology that is currently available. For
example, it will allow us to maintain frequent communication with
the delivery trucks, which could save transportation and labour
costs by making the pickup and delivery operations more efficient.
This would allow us to serve our customers better. Of course, a
more sophisticated system will be needed, but a development
consultant has assured me that a straightforward and not toocomplex solution can be developed.
This is how I would like the business to operate. Each truck will
have a morning and afternoon delivery and pickup run. Each driver
will have a portable digital device with a touch screen. The driver
will be able to view his or her scheduled pickups and deliveries for
that run. However, because the trucks will maintain frequent
contact with the home office via telephony Internet access, the
pickup/delivery schedule can be updated in real time-even during a
run. Rather than maintain constant contact, I believe it will be
sufficient if the digital device synchronizes with the home office
whenever a pickup or delivery is made. At those points in time, the
route schedule can be updated with appropriate information.
With the current system, customers have been able to either call
the company and request a package pickup or visit the company's
Web site to schedule a pickup. Once customers log in, they can go
to a Web page that allows them to enter information about eachHC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 6
package, including "deliver to" addresses, size and weight
category information, and type of service requested. Signed,
Sealed, Delivered provided "three hour," "same day" and
"overnight" services. To facilitate customer self-service, Signed,
Sealed, Delivered haven’t required exact weights and sizes, but
there are predefined size and weight categories from which the
customer can choose.
Once the customer has entered the information for all the
packages, the system would calculate the cost and then print
mailing labels and receipts. Depending on the type of service
requested and the proximity of a delivery truck, the system would
schedule an immediate pickup or one for later that day. It would
display this information so the customer would immediately know
when to expect the pickup.
Picking up packages is a fairly straightforward process, but there
was some variation in what would happen depending on what
information was in the system and whether the packages were
already labelled. Upon arriving at the scheduled pickup location,
the driver would have the system display any package information
available for this customer. If the system already had information
on the packages, the driver would simply verify that the correct
information was already in the system for the packages. The driver
could also make such changes as correcting the address, deleting
packages, or adding new packages. If this were a cash customer,
the driver would collect any money and enter that into the system.
Using a portable printer from the van, the driver could print a
receipt for the customer as necessary. If there were new packages
that weren't in the system, the driver would enter the required
information and also print mailing labels with his portable printer.
One other service that customers have required was to be able to
track the delivery status of their packages. The system needed to
track the status of a package from the first time it "knew" about the
package until it was delivered. Such statuses as "ready for pickup,"
"picked up," "arrived at warehouse," "out for delivery," and
"delivered" were important. Usually, a package would follow
through all the statuses, but due to the sophistication of the
scheduling and delivery algorithm, a package would sometimes be
picked up and delivered on the same delivery run. We also
decided to add a status of "cancelled" for those packages that
were scheduled to be picked up but ended up not being sent.HC2061 Information Systems Project Management Assignment 1 T1 2017
Individual assignment - Case study analysis 7
Marking Criteria
ASSESSMENT 1 CRITERIA
N/A Poor Fair Good Very
Good Excellent
Scope
Document Statement of Purpose (1)
Business problem (2)
Business Benefits (2)
System capabilities (2)
Exclusions (1)
Document
Format
Document Presentation Good layout,
grammar & spelling (2).
Deduction for late, copied, or plagiarised
work (up to total marks earned)
Total out of 10