As college students in the 1970s, Bob and Thelma Mellankamp often dreamed of starting their own business. While on their way to an economics class, Bob and Thelma drove by Myrtle’s Family Restaurant and noticed a “for sale” sign in the window. Bob and Thelma quickly made arrangements to purchase the business, and Hoosier Burger Restaurant was born. The restaurant is moderately sized, consisting of a kitchen, dining room, counter, storage area, and office. Currently, all paperwork is done by hand. Thelma and Bob have discussed the benefits of purchasing a computer system; however, Bob wants to investigate alternatives and hire a consultant to help them.

Perishable food items, such as beef patties, buns, and vegetables, are delivered daily to the restaurant. Other items, such as napkins, straws, and cups, are ordered and delivered as needed. Bob Mellankamp receives deliveries at the restaurant’s back door and then updates a stock log form, which Bob uses to help track inventory items. Bob updates the stock log form when deliveries are received and also nightly after daily sales have been tallied.

Customers place their orders at the counter and are called when their orders are ready. The orders are written on an order ticket, totaled on the cash register, and then passed to the kitchen where the orders are prepared. The cash register is not capable of capturing point-of-sale information. Once an order is prepared and delivered, the order ticket is placed in the order ticket box. Bob reviews these order tickets nightly and makes adjustments to inventory.

In the past several months, Bob has noticed several problems with Hoosier Burger’s current information systems, especially with the inventory control, customer ordering, and management reporting systems. Because the inventory control and customer ordering systems are paper based, errors occur frequently. These errors often affect delivery orders received from suppliers as well as customer orders. Bob has often wanted to have electronic access to forecasting information, inventory usage, and basic sales information. This access is impossible because of the paper- based system.

a. Apply the SDLC approach to Hoosier Burger.

b. Using the Hoosier Burger scenario, identify an example of each system characteristic.

c. Decompose Hoosier Burger into its major subsystems.

d. Briefly summarize the approaches to systems development. Which approach do you feel should be used by Hoosier Burger?