System analysis and design/ draw State Machine Diagram for this Scenario.

Williams Bros. Appliances

Current Sales System

Interview Notes

January 29, 2017

When a customer enters the store (see store layout in Figure 1), they usually browse among the appliances and either Will or Ted will meet them and ask if they can help the customer find something. If the customer is interested in, for example, a stove, Will or Ted will walk them to that area of the store, show them what they have available, and ask if they had something particular in mind. They will answer any questions the customer may have, and then hopefully will "close the sale". At that point, the customer is asked to follow one of the owners to the Sales Counter. Will or Ted then gets a pad of two-part carbonless Sales Orders (see example in Figure 2) and begins to write down all the necessary information. Each manufacturer has a different coding scheme for the serial number and product number. For example, some manufactures use all numbers whereas other manufacturers use a combination of numbers and letters, such as 18X-Y28Z. Ted and Will have to be very careful when writing down this information so they won't accidentally transpose the characters.

If the customer purchases any parts with the appliance, such as hoses for a washing machine, the information for each part is also recorded on the sales order. When they thought about it, the owners agreed that writing up the sale was the most time consuming aspect of the entire process. Ted and Will then use a calculator that is (usually!) on the Sales counter to add up the subtotal of all the items purchased. Unless the customer is tax exempt, such as a school, church, or charitable organization, they then refer to a sales tax table that is taped to the Sales counter to calculate sales tax. If the customer is located more than 20 miles away and if their purchase is less than $350.00, then there is also a $15.00 delivery charge added to the sale. The person writing up the sale uses the calculator again to calculate the total amount due from the customer. After a quick check that everything was written correctly, the customer is asked how they would like to pay for the purchase. If the customer pays by cash, Ted or Will recounts the cash, uses the calculator to determine the amount of change due, and remits the change to the customer. If the customer pays by check, they will be asked for their driver's license number unless one of the owners knows the customer personally. If the customer pays by credit card, whoever is handling the sale will "swipe" the card, enter the appropriate information, wait for an approval code, and write this code on the top of the sales form. They will confirm with the customer the delivery date and time, and write this at the top of the sales form, also. The top copy of the Sales Order form is given to the customer, and the second copy is filed in a "to-be-delivered" manila folder.

Since the day was getting late, the students asked if they could schedule another interview early the next week. On Monday afternoon, the students met with Ted and Will again to talk about the process of receiving new inventory and keeping track of what was in stock. Building on what they learned in the previous interview, each student took their own notes and then met later to summarize and verify that each was consistent. The following is a summary of their collective interview notes.