Earhart Aviation operates a multi-service aviation business, including fuel, aircraft maintenance, charter flights, aircraft rentals, and flight instruction. The company has a major systems development project underway, with a comprehensive system being developed to permit online entry of all work performed in the maintenance shop, fuel purchases, online scheduling of charter flights, flight instruction, and aircraft rentals, and automated billing for the above activities.

Due to the wide range of personnel who will be interacting with the system (from shop personnel to line personnel to office personnel to flight instructors and students), the design of the user interface is important. Not only should the user interface be thoroughly tested, there must be sufficient user documentation available to help the users work with the system.

a. Because of the importance of the user interface to the ultimate success of this system, discuss the user interface testing that you believe should be conducted for this project.

b. The project sponsor once mentioned to the project manager that he envisioned that a procedures manual would be developed and printed and placed next to each computer station throughout the organization. That way, any user of the system could simply look up how to perform whatever function was needed. Do you agree that a printed procedures manual is the best way to provide user documentation for this system? Why or why not? Discuss the best type of user documentation that you believe should be developed for this system.