business

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COURSE PROJECT OVERVIEW

The course project consists of a series of interconnected weekly assignments that culminates in a final project submission (Unit 7) and a presentation (Unit 8). Students will use the business case scenario below to complete the project and follow the deliverable schedule included at the end of this document.

BUSINESS CASE

A healthy lifestyle advocacy group is aiming to build a bike sharing system within a medium size metropolitan area. The group has signed a contract with a company to provide the bike sharing technology and hardware (bike stations, bikes, network equipment, a server, and bike sharing software that automates the process of checking out and returning bicycles, and billing customers).

DOCKING STATIONS & BIKES

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The docking station provides a limited number of bike parking spots, and is characterized by its location, bike capacity, and by real time number of bikes parked. Docking stations have computers running on them, credit card reader, and a networking module which allows it to be connected to the Internet. The fleet of bikes has also been purchased.

FUNCTIONING OF THE SYSTEM

There are two ways a user can get access to the system: 1) Using her annual subscription ($70) 2) Buying day pass ($5)

Every ride under 30 minutes is free. User is charged $1 dollar for a ride between 30 and 1 hour, 3 dollars for rides between 1 hour and 2 hours and a flat rate of 7 dollars for any ride over 2 hours. The users who haven’t returned a bike within 10 hours are billed with a $50 fine.

REGISTRATION PROCESS

A user can register online or purchase a day pass at the station.

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SCHEDULE

Unit Title Introduction Description Points

Unit 1 The summary of the business processes with the rationale for the new system development

The advocacy group as hired an IS developer company to develop an information system to support operations of the bike sharing system.

See the business case for detailed description. First the developer company analyzed operational business processes of the bike sharing systems (bike renting, user management and billing) to produce a summary of those processes, and describe how the information system will be able to automate them.

Submit a two-page summary with the description of each business process, which will include:

1) brief description of what or who (hardware or user) will initiate it;

2) what the process should do. 3) Explain what would be the role of the

information system to support this process.

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Unit 2 The description of the IS architecture, the list of the software and database components, and hardware architecture

The IS designed for the case should connect docking stations, manage user registrations and billing. We learned about different architecture models (e.g. centralized, distributed, and cloud).

In a Word document:

1. Propose the IS architecture for the IS for the bike sharing system. Explain the rationale behind the choice (between half of a page and a page);

2. list all the software, and database, and hardware components;

3. draw a architecture of the system showing the components using Word shapes, use arrows to show business process and major data flow between

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them.

Unit 3 Security risks summary

Any IS functions under security risks. These risks are especially critical when a system is distributed and connected to public networks.

Provide a one page security risks summary for proposed IS which should include:

1. main security risks and the potential consequences;

2. methods or design strategies to minimize each of those risks.

Recommend a brief (one paragraph) structure of information security management that would include personnel roles with their core duties to manage information security.

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Unit 4 Designing and implementing the software component

Designing and coding the entire software system for the given case is a complex task. For this project, you will be asked to design and implement a small component of the information system functionality.

Submit a Word document that would include:

1) Flow chart of the billing schema after completion of the ride, which will include including the subscription status check, and the price policy provided in the case description.

2) Assuming that subscription_status == 1 is an annual subscriber and subscription_status == 2 is a daily subscriber for the day stored in the variable day_subscribed and the current day stored in a variable now, pickup_time and drop_off_time are the times in minutes, write a Python code to describe subscription check and the

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price calculation for a single ride.

Unit 5 Business data architecture / data models

Any IS system operates with data. Data can have different types

Design data structures (variables, lists, objects) that will describe the registration and billing processes.

Submit a Word document with the data structures IS will need to have in order to support those processes. For example, one of the structures should describe a list of registered users with their statuses and other parameters that you will find important.

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Unit 6 Design of the relational database structure

Data in IS can be stored in the database. Relational databases are the most commonly used type of databases.

In a Word document:

1) create a table(s) to describe current and historical rides;

2) write SQL statements that would allow: a. to compute the average ride

duration for a given user; b. number of bikes check out at

the given bike station; c. retrieve the list of all currently

active users.

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Unit 7 Development and implementation plan

In this unit, you will finalize your course project by creating a development and implementation plan.

Final submission:

Create a development and implementation plan by gathering key information from each of the project components you developed this term and summarizing it in the format outlined

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below. Note that you should incorporate faculty feedback when developing your plan.

Submit a 1-2 page plan describing your system and the development and implementation steps that the company will need to take to in order to successfully complete the project. Your summary should include the following elements:

 System Overview—Description of the system and the process(es) it supports

 System Organization—Summary of the system's structure and components (software and hardware)

 Security—Summary of system security requirements and/or features

 Major Tasks—Annotated list of each major task or step required for the implementation of the system

Unit 8 Course project presentation

This week, you will share your Course Project with the class by presenting it within the discussion forum.

Project presentation

1. Record a video of yourself briefly explaining the steps you have taken in this project; and why did you chose the solutions you did; and what are the steps that will needed to be taken to complete the IS development. The video should be between 7-10 minutes long.

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2. Upload your video on YouTube with enabled closed captions (CC)).

3. Write one to three sentences for each component of the project to explain the key points presented in your video.

Post the link to the video you have created along with the written summary.

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