Document Delivery Pilot Project

Part 1 - Case Problem Information

The Big Store (hereafter referred to as TBS) is a small Canadian print shop, based in Niagara, Ontario, with more than 20 stores nationwide, in all Canadian provinces, and two territories, employing more than 200 people overall.

The company has been very innovative in their business practices, and now they covertly considering even a newer concept delivering document and store items using a specialty third party bicycle company.

The concept is not new a small firm named DroneExperts in Toronto, Ontario, (hereafter referred to as DE) announced the concept in 2019 and they are looking to develop a relationship with a partner to launch the concept into reality. TBS may be the big break they are looking for.

Mike the president of TBS wants to develop a pilot project to get something moving and see how it works. Mike will provide the funds and will oversee all aspect of this initiative. Mary is the project lead on the business operations side who will manage the project for TBS. Mike has made an agreement with the CEO and founder of DE, Kevin, to prototype this project in Toronto Ontario, the home location for the DE organization where it developed the system. DE will customize its systems, interfaces and business processes to conform to TBS project requirements.

Your Team, who works at TBS internal IT Department, has been assigned by the companys CIO, to lead the project in terms of the information systems that will be needed to support the initiative. Peter is the project manager at DE, who will work with your team. Generally, from the IT perspective, the project will likely have to accomplish the following:

Develop TBS online order entry system modification that will allow customers in Toronto, Ontario, to register their willingness to have a bicycle courier, deliver their orders by means of online entry or smartphone entry. There will be significant restrictions on the approval of customers for this service, so there will be need for a segment of the system to allow TBS management to approve the customer, send a confirmation to the customer, and so on.

Create reports for TBSs management, regarding sales information, customer reactions, and key project performance indicators, as defined by senior management.

Create electronic messages for the customers through email, online notifications, or mobile alerts as the customer prefers.

Interface to the DE Corporation for its order entry, delivery confirmation and mobile application software. Ali is the point of contact on the information systems side with DE and will be overseeing the team on their side. A price for this customization is not yet determined, and the development of this proposal will be part of your project plan.

Develop security options for all systems that will safeguard the data as it is stored within your company, and as it is exchanged with DE. You will work with TBSs information security management team to achieve this, and Bill is the project lead on that team for this project.

You will need to identify basic requirements and then determine your team members from the list of people given in this document as you move towards final project planning.

It has been determined that only four (4) TBS stores in the Toronto Ontario area will participate in the prototype delivery system. The are in a relatively close geographic area to one another, and they are in a non-urban environment, consisting mainly of suburban homes, and small businesses. Consumers in apartment buildings will not be permitted in the prototype project due to delivery issues.

TBS will not be required to purchases any new hardware, servers, workstations, or other network infrastructure for this project, as all of that is only on DE side, and they will be including it in their proposal and a separate project plan that they will give you as a part of their contract. TBS can accommodate this prototype system within their existing infrastructure that handles customer orders. Ongoing system maintenance scheduling or planning after the prototype is implemented will not be part of the project schedule or plans you will be developing that plan separately once the system design is known.

TBS has allocated a maximum of $500,000 for this prototype project. You have been asked by your CIO to ensure that your project does not go over this figure, and if possible, that the total project cost is under that amount. The two companies agreed that they would like to begin the project on the on next February 5, and their first customer delivery flight should take place no later than December 30 to avoid harsh weather in Ontario.

Of course, you also need to include specific steps and processes for:

Regular meetings with the team, stakeholders, and the cross-impacted areas of the company

Approval points as needed through the project sequence

Points at which you refine cost and staffing requirements (you should not need to calculate costs or total staffing at this point)

Points at which you will produce the various project documentation deliverables (discussed in class)

Testing, quality control, and provision for issues that may develop

User training and other preparations for system implementation. The TBS change management team, headed by Shirley, will assist you in this effort.

Summary of personnel involved in the project

DroneExperts Corporation Staff:

Kevin, CIO and founder

Peter, Project Manager - main point of contact

Stephanie, Senior Business Analyst

Gerald, Senior System Engineer

Ali, Project Lead IT Systems

The Big Store Staff:

Geoff, Operations VP

James, CIO

Mary, Project Lead, Business Operations Team

Bill, Project Lead, Security Team

Julie, TBS Manager, West Toronto

Jamal, TBS Manager, East Toronto

Steve, TBS Manager, North Toronto

Wilma, TBS Manager, South Toronto

Your Group, Project Manager

Marianne, Business System Analyst

Johnny, Programmer

William, Senior Programmer

Cherry, Database Administrator

Linda, Reports System Programmer/Analyst

Gerald, Testing Specialist

Elizabeth, Senior Testing Specialist

Shirley, Change Management Coordinator