Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new supercenter in the Toronto area. Personal Trainers president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation. Background During data and process modeling, Susan Park developed a logical model of the proposed system. She drew an entity-relationship diagram and constructed a set of leveled and balanced DFDs. Now Susan is ready to consider various development strategies for the new system. She will investigate traditional and Web-based approaches and weigh the pros and cons of in-house development versus other alternatives. Before you begin, you should review the background information and facts contained in Chapters 2, 4, and 5 of the case study.

Tasks

1. What options does Personal Trainer have for developing a new system? What are some specific issues and options that Susan should consider in making a decision?

2. Susan has been asked to prepare a system requirements document and deliver a presentation to the management team. What should be the main elements of the system requirements document?

3. Based on the suggestions in Part A of the Systems Analysts Toolkit, what visual aids should Susan use during her presentation?

4. Susan wants to prepare a presentation that will calculate the total cost of ownership for the system. What financial analysis tools are available to her, and what are the advantages (and possible disadvantages) of each tool?