BANGALORE UNIVERSITY

CENTRAL COLLEGE CAMPUS

MCA PROGRAMME

FIFTH SEMESTER
5MCA6 - SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT LAB
CASE 1:
MusicStore is a successful vendor of audio CDs in Hyderabad. It sells a wide variety of audio CDs
that includes all kinds of music like classical, Western, Pop and Disco. It has a collection of CDs in
English, Hindi and many other regional languages. It has various sections categorized as film and non-film
music, classical and semi-classical, etc. The proprietor of MusicStore, Ravi Chadda (Ravi), wanted to find
out if there are any innovative techniques that can be used to enhance business and develop new product
ideas. To discuss this, he called his marketing manager, Uday Kumar (Uday).
"Uday, I am happy with the way the marketing team is working. We have a reasonably good sales volume
and also a customer base of considerable size. But do you think we can use better ways of attracting
customers apart from the traditional methods? Can we make our marketing more innovative? Apart from
advertising through hoardings and TV commercials, what are the other marketing channels we can use?"
asked Ravi.
"Weare right now using both mass marketing as well as direct marketing strategies to reach people. We use
broadcast media like TV and radio to air our commercials and also the print media to reach out to a large
group of people. We also use direct
marketing strategies like postal messages and mailers to reach a targeted segment of people. We use
promotional CDs for marketing too. These strategies have led to about a 34% increase in sales," said Uday.

"And many of our customers revisit us because of the quality of services offered," he continued.
"Can you think of some other channel through which to reach the customers? We need strategies that are
more dynamic in nature because we operate in a highly competitive market. We need to be more innovative
in our approach," said Ravi.
"How about going online?" suggested Uday. "That will not only target a new segment of customers but also
enable interactivity with the customer."
"Though the web can help us reach a large group of people, how can it be done? How will it be useful to
us?" asked Ravi.
"We can do it very easily. We can design a website through which customers can place online purchase
orders and also give online feedback about our services, quality, pricing, etc. They can do it at their
convenience. Online purchase orders will save the customers time and give them the convenience of buying
from home. Online feedback will make them active participants in improving our business process," said
Uday.
"Can we provide all the services to online customers that we provide to our other customers?" asked Ravi.
"Yes. We can give the customers the option of downloading select songs online at discounted prices as we
will not incur inventory and recording costs. We can also provide online users an option of customized
CDs. We will have to tie up with some audio agencies for this purpose. Users can select songs of their
choice and we will record those songs on a CD and deliver it to the customer within three days. We can
also give the customers the option of customizing the CD further by choosing the cover, signature, name to
be printed, etc. The customers have the benefit of paying cash on delivery, though there might be some
hassles," said Uday.
"Providing the customization option to online customers is a good idea," said Ravi.
"What are the additional benefits that interactive marketing can bring to us?" asked
Ravi.
"We can involve the customers in product development by asking them to respond to online questionnaires
that will capture their requirements. We can" keep those requirements in mind when we are developing new
products," said Uday.

1
"This will also help us in strengthening our customer relations as a customer feels elated that his/her
opinion is being sought and considered," agreed Ravi.
"I am sure that going online is going to increase our sales reasonably. Uday, you give the specifications to
the web designer and ask him to complete the job quickly," said Ravi.

Questions for Discussion:

1. What are the changes that integration of technology and marketing can bring to
MusicStore with reference to the case study?
2. Do you think there will be any limitations of interactive marketing at MusicStore?

CASE 2:
InfoSol is an IT training and certification institute which offers training in various IT areas. For
students who enroll in certification programs, it provides 25 hours of Internet time for research on
subject areas.
The Area Manager of InfoSol received several complaints from the students that the time allotted for
research could not be used productively because the Internet connectivity was too slow. The sites too
did not open up immediately. Even if the site.s opened after some time, a lot of time was wasted in
trying to reach the relevant content on the net. This issue had been brought to the notice of the
management by previous batches as well.
The Area Manager, Rohit Rawal (Rohit), wanted to find a solution to this problem. He called his
system administrator, Ajay Ahuja, ( Ajay) to discuss the issue.
"Ajay, the students say they have difficulty in accessing the Net and gathering information during
research hours in the lab. They say that the Internet connectivity is very slow and that they are not able
to gather the necessary information in the time allotted. Can we do something to enhance the speed of
the Internet?" asked Rohit.
"We are right now using a 56 kbps modem to connect to the Internet, which is quite slow. Other factors
such as an increase in the number of clients, the system configuration, etc., also playa role in the speed
of the Internet access" said Ajay.
"Shall we go in for ISDN lines and upgrade the server configuration?" asked Rohit. "We can do
that. But, there is also another issue," replied Ajay.
"What is it Ajay?" asked Rohit.

"Though speed is one of the problems, there are several other inconveniences that a student faces while
searching the Net. For example, the keyword search usually results in retrieving about 50-60 matches. To
find the information, a student scans through all the sites till he finds a site that really meets his
requirements. So to find information about a single topic, a student has to spend about 2-3 hours on an
average browsing through different sites." said Ajay.
"But we cannot help that. To keep himself updated, a student needs to access the latest information. Do we
have an alternative for it?" asked Rohit.
"I was just thinking that if we can do that scanning through the sites for our students and provide topic wise
information on our intranet, students will not have to go through the time consuming process of searching
for the relevant sites. They can find the necessary information about a topic through direct links from our
intranet" said Ajay.
"But the Internet is very, very vast. Do you think we will be able to provide information about all the topics
on our intranet?" asked Rohit.
"We can design a full fledged knowledge management system on our intranet. We will have basic
information on the latest topics on the site. We will provide relevant links for further information. We can
make the site interactive and give the students an option to seek information on a topic which is not

2
available on our intranet site. We can scan the Internet for the information on the requested topic and
provide the links
to the Internet sites which contain the information about the topic within six hours of the request." said
Ajay.
"What else will the knowledge management system focus on?" asked Rohit.
"We can also have an expert-replies section in which the students can ask technical queries which will be
answered by subject experts. We can have a post-ur-messages section as well, where a student can invite
responses on particular topics from fellow students," said Ajay.
"Since you are talking about a knowledge management system, I would like to know if we can conduct our
weekly tests online," interrupted Rohit.
"That should not be a problem. We can have a database of questions from which the questions can be
picked up at random. The students can take an exam and submit the answers electronically. The student
will be able to check his performance online, as the results will be displayed immediately on the screen.
Each time a student completes an online test, a report can be displayed which shows the student his
performance in all the tests taken so far along with the performance feedback. This will help a student
know which topics he needs to improve in," replied Ajay.
"Will it be possible to display the correct answers to all the questions answered incorrect?" asked Rohit.
"That can also be done easily," assured Ajay.
"We can also have a Frequently Asked Questions section that will answer all the FAQs topic wise. If the
students have more queries, they can post their questions on expert-replies or refer to technical papers
available in the knowledge management system," added Ajay.
"But we can still provide Internet facilities to students who want to access the Net. Since our network is
already connected, we need not invest additionally for intranet connectivity. Since most of the data
transmission in the knowledge management system is on the intranet, we can have speeds of up to ten
Mbps," said Ajay.
"That is really good. A knowledge management system seems to be a very innovative way of distributing
information. It will solve our problem. But you should also provide tools for measuring its utilization," said
Rohit.

Questions for Discussion:

1. What do you think are the major steps involved in building the knowledge
management system at InfoSol?
2. If you were asked to design the knowledge management system at InfoSol, what
utilities would you suggest for measuring the utilization of the site?

CASE 3:
Ayurved Health Care manufactures herbal skin care and health care products. It manufactures a
variety of skin care products like soaps and herbal creams, and its health care products include general
tonics and medicines.
Ayurved Health Care has over 700 employees working for it. The HR department performs the payroll
tasks manually. People in the payroll section calculate the employees' pay, print pay slips and update
corresponding records at multiple locations. The manager of the HR department, Rita Jaiswal (Rita) is not
able to
generate the payroll on time as it involves a lot of data collection and preparation of statements.
Rita called the system administrator of Ayurved Health Care, Ajit Wadia (Ajit), for automation of the
payroll process after convincing the CEO about the need for payroll automation.
"Ajit, you know that payrolls are often not generated on time and employees' salaries are delayed. We,
therefore, need to automate the payroll process. Weare also expanding faster now," said Rita.
"Can you please explain the payroll process?" asked Ajit.
"The entire payroll process can be divided into a few stages like calculating monthly gross income,
monthly deductions and monthly net income, generating pay slips, and updating employee information,"

3
said Rita.
"Can you provide me more details about the processes involved?" asked Ajit.
"Sure," said Rita and started explaining the process, "The first step involves gathering information for pay
calculations from departments. The attendance details of the
employee like the number of days worked, number of casual leave availed, number of
earned leave availed, leave without pay, and number of overtime hours worked, is available in the HR
department. If the number of leave exceeds authorized leave, deductions are made from the salary. The
finance department calculates Income Tax deductions for all the employees depending on the latest tax
laws. We get these deductions from the finance department. We calculate the PF deductions for all the
employees as per the government rules."
Rita continued, "The next step involves calculating the gross salary. HRA and DA are calculated for all
employees. The information about the basic pay, the HRA rate and the DA rate is also available in the HR
department. The gross salary is calculated as BASIC+HRA+DA. "
"Then we go on to calculate the net pay. People are eligible for certain allowances. We get information
about them from the HR department itself and they also become part of the salary. The net salary is
calculated by adding overtime pay and allowances and deducting leave without pay, income tax, and
provident fund from the gross salary. Once we arrive at the net salary, pay slips are printed. The salary
details are then sent to the finance department for records," explained Rita.
"Apart form the pay slips what are the other reports that you need?" asked Ajit.
"We prepare a department wise total gross salary report and an employee-wise salary
break up report," replied Rita.
"The entire application will take about a week's time," said Ajit.
"That's fine with me. The pay slips for this month should be automatically generated," said Rita.
Questions for Discussion:
1. What are the inputs and the outputs of the payroll system? Can you suggest a
better mechanism for receiving inputs?
2. Rakesh Ahuja VP, Personnel at Ayurved Health Care wants to see the impact of
changing the basic salaries of the employees on the total income. What additional
facilities should be provided in the application to enable this?

CASE 4:
TeleVentures manufactures mobile handsets, landline phones, and other telecom equipment. It has
a wide customer base spread across the country. Of late, the marketing managers at TeleVentures have
been encountering some problems. They have not been able to achieve sales goals. They need a lot of
information about customers, salespersons, and sales territories to take decisions. The current system
implemented at TeleVentures does not meet the information requirements of marketing managers. The data
is manually maintained in registers. It is scattered and not available at a single accessible location. The
marketing manager does not have enough information to exercise proper control over sales activities and
individual sales personnel productivity. The strategic marketing managers were not able to analyze the
increasing customer preference for the mobile handsets over the landline instruments and TeleVentures was
spending huge amounts on manufacturing, advertising and promoting landline phones.
To overcome all its limitations, TeleVentures has recently implemented a Sales Management System,
which consists of various information systems that provide required information to the marketing
managers. The sales management system stores all the data at a single location. Relevant data is collected
from all internal sources and fed into a data warehouse. Although this activity is difficult and time
consuming as TeleVentures does not have proper information storage, it is necessary to store all the sales
related information of the organization at one location. Marketing mangers can access the data warehouse
that stores information about customers, salespersons, territories, products, and market segments, derived
from the internal sources of the organization.
The data warehouse provides marketing managers significant insights from the analysis of past data. This
can be used for developing marketing and sales strategies. For example, data showed that customers in the
age group 15-30 chose handsets that were trendy and sleek, customers in the age group 30-45 gave
importance to price

4
while selecting the handsets, and women chose handsets which weighed less. Marketing managers can now
change their promotional strategies and advertising media to reach the narrowly defined segments.
Managers can monitor the sales progress of salespersons to arrive at their productivity in terms of reaching
the sales target and sales per day, which can be used while designing the sales forecasts. Managers are able
to get periodic reports about the performance of each of the sales person and also the averages for all the
sales persons. Sales of each salesperson can now be classified on the basis of market segment, products etc.
Marketing managers are able to decide the number of sales personnel required to achieve the sales goals set
by the top management based on the salesperson productivity report. Sales management systems also
monitor several parameters of the sales force like the number of orders and number of phone calls made to
achieve an order.
Spreadsheets are used as information system tools for analysis, and query languages are used to access
information nom the data warehouse.
The systems management solution at TeleVentures has given the managers all the necessary information to
formulate the promotional strategies according to the customer preferences in the various market segments.
It has also given the managers greater control over the performance of sales personnel. "

Questions for Discussion:

1. What edge did the sales management system at TeleVentures provide to the
marketing managers?
2. What are the other utilities of sales management systems?

CASE 5:
CareerTrack is a placement consultancy in Hyderabad offering placement services to candidates
registered with it. It has tie-ups with a few corporate clients who repeatedly recruit candidates sourced by
CareerTrack. It conducts screening tests before it registers candidates for placements. It has a reputation of
providing worthy candidates to its clients.
Careerl'rack also periodically conducts job fairs and campus interviews in collaboration with a few
companies.
The CEO of CareerTrack, Maria Joseph (Maria), wanted to enter into new markets" to expand business
operations. She discussed her plans of starting a branch in other cities with Jai Mehta (Jai), who is the in-
house systems administrator.
"Jai, I have plans for expanding our business and entering new markets. I want to be an active player in
Chennai and Mumbai. I am planning to open branches in both these places. What do you think?" asked
Maria.
"We don't actually have to open branches to capture new markets. From this office itself, we can register
applicants and provide placement to them. Yes, we have to be in touch with the job requirements of
different companies in Chennai and Mumbai," said Jai.
"But, how can we do it without opening a branch in those cities?" asked Maria.
"We will go online. We will provide our services online by creating a website. We will register candidates
online and get job requirements the same way. But, for the first time, one of us must visit the companies
personally to tie up with them for job openings. To collect the job openings, our placement executives can
be in touch with these companies either through phone or e-mail. We can also visit the local branches of
these companies to get more information about requirements/openings in all branches. We can also get
information on skills required for future needs nom these branches and conduct orientation sessions for our
candidates," said Jai.

"The site will provide a user ID and password for candidates registered with us. For registration, they will
have to fill an online fonn. The form will capture the personal as well as academic and experience-related
information in a standardized format, which can be transferred to a database that will store details of all
candidates. After
registering with us, the candidates will have an option to specify things like field of interest, post sought,
skill sets, job location, salary specifications etc. which will be considered while short-listing candidates,"
Jai added.

5
"That is like a resume in a standard format, is it not?" asked Maria.
"Yes. We will be in touch with the companies for job openings through e-mail. Whenever there are job
openings in an organization, we can search our database for candidates whose fields of interest match the
requirement," Jai continued.
"We can forward these resumes to the companies electronically. Once the company shortlists candidates
from these resumes, we can convey the information along with the interview dates to the candidates. Do we
have to communicate the details over the phone?" asked Maria.
"We can use e-mail for correspondence," replied Jai.
"But how do we know that the message has reached the candidate?" Maria raised a doubt.
"We will ask the candidates to confirm that they are attending the interview," replied Jai. "We can also
create several reports for analyses," he added.
"Yes. We need reports to monitor our performance and take necessary action. We also need reports which
will be used for identifying candidates with different skill sets," said Maria.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Do you agree with Jai's opinion that going online is better than opening branches
in Chennai and Mumbai? Justify your opinion.
2. What are the other features that can be added to enhance the services provided on
the website?

CASE 6:
ShipDock Ltd. is in the business of making warships, submarines, cargo vessels and tankers. For
its manufacturing process, it requires a variety of raw material, which it procures from different suppliers.
ShipDock is doing quite well in its business.
Of late, the suppliers of ShipDock have been complaining of delayed payments and have expressed their
displeasure to the CEO, Manoj Malhotra (Manoj). Manoj called his Accounts Manager, Anil Ahuja (Anil) ,
to sort out the problem of delayed payments.
"Anil, is there a problem in our Accounts Payable department? The suppliers told me that they are not
receiving payments even after 30-45 days of invoicing. What is the problem?" asked Manoj.
"Manoj, our ordering and receiving processes are time-consuming. The Purchase department places orders
with the suppliers. When the suppliers deliver the goods, the Receiving department crosschecks the goods
delivered with the purchase order. The Receiving department accepts the goods even if they do not match
the goods in the purchase order. When the invoice is sent by the supplier, the Accounts Payable department
tallies it with the purchase order and the delivery challan. Since they do not match in many cases, the
executive in the Accounts Payable section calls up the Receiving department and the Purchase departments
to verify the authenticity of the invoice. This entire process takes time. Recently, we have placed orders for
huge supplies. Because of the time-consuming nature of the process, we are not able to make immediate
payments as validation of invoices is taking up most of the time," said Anil.
"Our inventory management process does not seem to be effective. You must be aware that we had to halt
our production in the last week for about six hours as there was no inventory available in the Inventory
department. And I don't think I have to tell you the loss we have incurred because of the delayed
production. We need to have a better inventory control system," said Manoj.
"The entire ordering, receiving and the payment process needs to be reengineered. I am not convinced
about the current system. Weare working as if we are in the Stone Age. We need to take the help of
technology to make our process efficient," he added.
"Can't we integrate the Ordering and Receiving departments' functionality to streamline the process?" asked
Manoj.
"I think we can use a database which will be accessed by the Purchase, Receiving and the Accounts

6
departments. The purchase order can be stored in the database. At the time of receiving the goods, the
Receiving department can verify the goods delivered with the purchase order available in the database. If
they match, a receipt entry, including the amount, can be made in the database, and, if they don't match, the
goods should be returned to the supplier. If an entry is made for receipt of goods, the Accounts Payable
section will make the payment without even waiting for the invoice from the supplier," replied Anil.
"We can have an arrangement with the suppliers so that the payments can be made online. We can also link
the replenishment of the inventory with the supplier by
allowing him to create a link with our inventory database so that the problem of
mismatched inventory orders and supplies can be overcome. This will also eliminate the stock-out
inventory situations. The inventory ordering and procurement costs will also be reduced. Inventory carrying
costs can also be reduced as the suppliers will constantly monitor our database and replenish the inventory
as and when needed," added Anil.
"That is a better alternative as we can focus more on our core areas of improving production instead of
bothering about inventory replenishment and accounts payable. Let us make the entire process, right from
placing purchase orders to inventory replenishment, online. Give specifications to our IT team and get the
application designed." said Manoj.

Questions for Discussion:

1. What do you think is the major difference between the currently implemented and
proposed accounts payable systems at ShipDock Ltd?
2. What should be the other utilities of the proposed accounts payable system that
will be useful to the Finance Manager at ShipDock Ltd?

CASE 7:
Look-'n'-buy offers customers a wide variety of traditional as well as designer fashion jewelry. It
mainly caters to customers in and around Hyderabad. Look-'n'-buy is very famous for its wide range of
pearl jewelry. Customers can buy either readymade jewelry or order customized jewelry. When customers
place an order for customized ornaments, Look-'n'-buy takes about a week's time to design the jewelry. The
customers provide details like their name, address and time of availability so that they can be kept informed
about the progress of the order. Customers are given the invoice at the time of purchase itself. For
customers who get the jewelry designed by order, a number of details, like order specifications and
invoices, are documented. During festive and wedding seasons, Look-'n'-buy receives bulk customized
orders from customers.
The owner of Look-'n'-buy, Payal Abichandani (Payal), wants to expand the jewelry business. She wants to
reach customers outside Hyderabad, in other Indian states as well as abroad, as Hyderabadi pearls are
famous worldwide. She wants to make the business process online so that she can reach customers
globally.
Payal has appointed a system consultant, Rahul Khanna (Rahul), to provide the solution.
"Rahul, I have explained to you how my business gets on. We maintain a lot of specifications and
documents for customized orders. I have plans of business expansion and want to automate the business. I
want you to suggest a suitable strategy that can be adopted to reach the global market," said Payal.
"To reach customers worldwide, we can go online and create a website that will be an online jewelry
shopping mall. Making the business process o'lline will enable you to expand your reach, overcoming
geographical limitations. The site can have an online catalog of all your jewelry designs, their prices and
other specifications required. The customer can go through the catalog and place online orders for jewelry,"
suggested Rahul.
"But we also make jewelry which is not included in the catalog" interrupted Payal.
"We can provide a 'customize your jewelry' option in the order form, where the customers can enter
specifications like the stone or pearl color, size, shape or any other instructions. The prevailing gold rate on
each day can also be displayed." said Rahul. .
"Once an online order is received, we can e-mail the customer, welcoming him to the world of Look-'n'-
Buy. The e-mail will also include the order number, approximate date of delivery and other shipment
details. The order number can be used by the customer for all future queries and references. We can also

7
attach the design or the model selected by accommodating the customer specifications in the e-mail. A
customer can also be given the choice of changing the specifications within 24 hours of the order. Once the
jewelry is dispatched, an e-mail communicating the dispatch and the likely delivery date can be sent to the
customer. A few online shopping malls also offer refunds in certain cases if the customers return the
jewelry within some stipulated time," continued Rahul.
"All the order details along with customer details can be stored in a database as soon as an online order is
placed. The information sent through e-mail to the customer should also be added to the database. On the
date of shipment, a reminder containing the order number and the destination can be communicated to the
customer," explained Rahul.
"Would it be possible to provide an option for customers to write in their queries?" asked Payal.
"We can provide a query form on the site itself or post a message that says queries can be sent through e-
mail and the e-mail ID can be provided on the website," replied Rahu!.
"How will payments be received?" asked Paya!.
"Online payments can be accepted by asking customers to provide their credit card information at the time
of ordering. You can tie up with a few banks and make use of Electronic Funds Transfer that uses multiple
technologies to capture and process transfer of money from customers. The security and authenticity of the
site can be assured by posting a digital certificate from any of the certification authorities," Rahul clarified.
"OK. That seems convincing. I will give you my system specifications. You can start the process of going
online right away," said Paya!.

Questions for Discussion:

1. What differences would the online jewelry mall make to the customers and
employees of Look-'n'-Buy?
2. What are the reports that can be generated for Look-'n'-Buy that will help Payal in
having greater control over her business?

CASE 8:
CompSol is a computer manufacturer which assembles computer components
procured from different component vendors. CompSol supplies computers to many of the computer
training institutes in the twin cities at discount. CompSol gets its monitors and CD drives from Samsung,
Mother boards from Mercury, processors from Intel and other components like hard disks, buses, mice etc.
from local suppliers. It has been doing quite well in the business and has plans of business expansion.
It was noticed that the number of orders had started declining. CompSol's regular customers were shifting
to other computer sellers. On analyzing the reasons, it was found that CompSol was not able to dispatch the
computers on time. The orderdelivery time was taking about 15 days. The General Manager, Jatin Dalrnia
(Jatin), wanted to sort out this issue and called the Head of the Assembling unit, R'ljan Kumar (Rajan).
"Rajan, I think you are aware that our sales have been steadily declining and that our customers who have
been buying from us for the last few years have started buying from our competitors. Weare planning to
expand business on the one hand and we are losing customers on the other hand. Weare taking almost 15
days to deliver the systems as against 2-3 days in which our competitors do. Why is that all of a sudden we
are taking so much of a time to fulfill an order?" asked Jatin.
"Jatin, we are dependent on the Inventory department. Unless the Inventory department gives us the
necessary components, we cannot start assembling. There is
delay in the supply of hard disks by one of the local vendors, as there is shortage of hard disks in the
market. Unless we have hard disks, we cannot complete the assembling process," replied Rajan.
"Is the Inventory department not placing purchase orders on time?" questioned Jatin.
"We had a bulk order for about 500 computers from SisNet Technologies which started a training center
recently. Before we could replenish our inventory, we had got another order for 200 computers from Mars
Infotech. The local vendor did not have the stock and we had to get it from another vendor," said Rajan.

8
"There are several suppliers and we are not able to place orders on time considering the lead time taken to
supply the components. Different vendors have different lead times. On many occasions, we have had
problems of untimely supplies. The suppliers are also not very happy because we take about three months
to pay the invoice amount. There are a lot of documents that are to be verified before the payment is
made." added Rajan.
"As we regularly supply an average of 800 computers per month, sufficient stock should be maintained in
the inventory. There is a need to streamline the inventory process. Let us automate the entire process of
inventory right from placing orders to making payments. What do you say Rajan?" Jatin looked at Rajan.
"We can go in for automation of placing purchase orders. If all the procurement processes like placing
purchase orders, payments, inventory and account updates are to be automated, we can go in for Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI), a technology used to exchange documents between the suppliers and businesses.
An EDI is an inforrnation system that links a firm to its suppliers or customers. An organization and its
suppliers can create links to databases to exchange information related to sales and purchases between
them electronically. EDI shifts the burden of placing purchase orders to the supplier. The supplier monitors
the organization's inventory database on a continuous basis to determine when the inventory is to be
replenished. At this level, the supplier's system invokes a purchase order on the buyer's system. EDI sends
invoices electronically and also updates the inventory and the accounts databases of the buyer," explained
Rajan.
"EDI software is used to convert a document format into a standard format that can be sent over the
Internet. The formatted document is then sent over the Internet, eliminating the need for physical purchase
orders and invoices. EDI software provides an electronic mailbox to store the EDI documents that we
receive from the suppliers," added Rajan.
"What is the software that is required to implement EDI?" asked Jatin.
"We can use either GE Information Services or IBM Advantis. They also offer
security to data transmitted over the Net" said Rajan.
"How about online payments?" queried Jatin.
"We can tie up with a few banks and make use of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
EFTs make use of multiple technologies to capture and process transfer of money from the customers. We
can use EFT to make online payments to the supplier instead of issuing checks. Since we are planning
business expansion, EDI will handle the increased demand for inventory control and payments to the
suppliers," said Rajan.
"That would be very nice. You take up the task of implementing EDI and send a note to all our suppliers
asking them to implement ED! within some time period to be able to electronically link with our
databases," said Jatin.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Do you think EDI is going to enhance the business opportunities of CompSol?
Justify your answer.
2. What should be the system architecture adopted by CompSol if it expands its
business to other cities?

CASE 9:
St. Peters is a post-graduate college, which offers PG courses in Arts, Science and Management. It
has a collection of about 20,000 books in its library. The director of the PG centre wants to automate library
transactions, which have been operated manually so far.
The current procedure is -- as soon as a book arrives, the details are entered into the stock registers and a
manual book ID is attached to identify the books. Separate stock registers are maintained for different
streams.
The books issued to students are entered into an issue register, along with the book ID and the date of
return. Separate registers are maintained for arts, science and management books.
The director, Padma Rao (Padma) called the librarian, Sunil Joshi (Sunil), to discuss the automation

9
process with the system administrator, Suraj Khanna (Suraj).
"Suraj, currently we are maintaining book in our library manually. There are about 20,000 books in the
library. The details of all books are stored in about 30 stock registers. Whenever new books are procured,
the books are sorted according to categories and entries are made into the respective registers. This process
takes almost two days. The book IDs are also generated manually," said Sunil.
"Details of books that are issued are entered in the issue register manually. This is time consuming and
sometimes students have to stand in long queues to get books issued. It is becoming difficult for me to
monitor book returns, as I have to go through each page in the issue register to see whether the students
have returned the books on time. Some students do not return the books even after 2 to 3 months,"
continued Sunil. "I want an application, which will make these tasks easier," added Sunil.
"We will have a stock database that can be used to store the stock details. We can generate book ids for all
the books that are entered into the stock database. Other details about the books can be stored in the
database," said Suraj.
Suraj continued "We can have an issue or transaction database to store the issue details. I will also give you
an option, which will raise a query about books that are due on a particular day."
"Do you want a provision of fines for late returns as well?" he asked.
"I am currently calculating it manually. You can include fines for late returns at t rate of Rs.3 per day. I
also want a few reports. A summary of all the books in t
library, a listing of all the books on issue, a category-wise books report and a repc showing books that are
due on a particular day. I also want to store details of supplie and publishers from whom we regularly
order books," replied Sunil.
"What are the details that you would like to store in the supplier database?" aske Suraj.
"The supplier and invoice details," responded Sunil.
"Allright. I will get back to you with the data and information flow diagrams and tht form designs
tomorrow. Once we discuss it, I need a couple of days to get the application ready," said Suraj.
Questions for Discussion:
l. Design an issue form that can be used by the librarian for issue of books
2. What should be the fields in the databases and the reports required for the St.
Peters post-graduate centre?

CASE 10:
VanCo, a Mumbai-based textile company, has branches in the four metropolitan cities ofIndia.
VanCo has about 200 employees in each branch. The financial results for the year 2003-04 were announced
recently and it was noted that the Mumbai branch achieved its target for the year. The CEO of the
company, Anoop Agarwal (Anoop), organized an informal get-together to celebrate the achievement.
Anoop realized during the get-together that the employees did not look happy or motivated.
The next day, Anoop called the HR Manager, Anita Mahajan (Anita), and asked her to find out why there
was employee dissatisfaction.
Anita hesitantly responded, "The employees are not very happy with our payroll system. Mostly, they
complain of a pay mismatch arising because of non-payment of
overtime, bonus, etc. These problems come up because we are still maintaining records manually in the HR
department. One entry has to be recorded in multiple registers, which increases the chances of committing
errors. Despite my best efforts, discrepancies creep in."
She continued, "As you know, we promoted 12 employees last month. One of them received the old salary
because his records in the payroll register were not updated. Similarly, one employee who joined last
month did not get his pay for similar reasons. Anita added, "Our employees also complain of lower pay
compared to other companies in the industry. This happens as the company is not implementing
compensation analysis, which involves comparing and revising employees pay to meet industry standards.
"
"How has the performance of employees been over the years?" queried Anoop.

10
Anoop listened while Anita continued to speak. "There is no proper mechanism to manually track
individual employee performance. This makes it difficult to identify training needs. The organization is not
able to meet the training needs of all employees."
She concluded, "It is difficult to maintain records of 200 employees manually. A Human Resource
Information System will solve these problems."
Anoop expressed a doubt, "Do you think a standard HR Information System package will cater to all our
requirements?"
"We can go in for a customized package to suit the needs of the organization," Anita suggested.
"Can you elaborate the functionalities you would like to have in the HR Information System?"
asked Anoop.
Anita replied, "An HR Information System should basically be able to solve all our HR related problems.
First, it must be able to solve the problem of pay mismatches and add payments for overtime, bonus and
ensure that an employee gets what he is owed. It should also ensure that an employee gets his updated
salary after considering reassignments, including promotions. The system must record and track human
resources within the organization."
Anita added, "The system should help us compare our pay scales with standards prevailing in the industry
and accordingly plan for revision of compensation packages so that the complaints of less pay can be
addressed."
"The system must help us track individual employee performance. Employees will appreciate an objective
performance management system. This will also make it easier for the HR manager to identify training
needs. The system must also allow us to plan and monitor employee recruitment, training and development
programmes. It must give information. that will be used by the HR department for planning periodic
performance appraisals. Additionally, an option that would help the ranking of suitable employees based on
position requirements will be handy in cases of internal recruitment. This will help HR personnel in
classifying employees according to their skill sets, which can be used to find suitable candidates for
vacancies within the organization. I am very confident that a Human Resource Information System will
address all the problems related to HR Management at VanCo," Anita concluded.
Anoop suggested, "We can adopt a centralized HR system with a decentralized payroll across different
branches of VanCo. We can eliminate the need to maintain compensation and leave details, which are
branch specific, on the central server. The respective branches can be asked to maintain their employee
compensation, leave etc." Anoop then called for the IT manager to design an in-house HR Information
System.
Questions for Discussion:
1. A Human Resource Information System should focus on a few core modules.
What according to you should be the core modules and their functions in such a system?
2. What are the benefits that VanCo will derive by automating its HR Process?

11
 SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT LAB

The students are required to take any case studies(any one of the 10 case studies
supplied) or the software projects which they have developed during their III or IV semester
projects. Apply theoretical concepts to various business situations, by analyzing apply the
software engineering principles to wide variety of business situations and come up with
innovative solutions and prepare the documentation in the following format.
The documentation must contain:
1. Abstract
2. Literature survey
- Initial investigation
- Problem definition
- Evaluation of existing system
- Software selection
3. H/W and S/W Requirements
4. SRS
- Software scope
- Product perspective
- User classes and Characteristics
- Features of proposed systems
- Non functional requirements & constraints.
5. System Definition
- System Architecture
Architectural representation
Architectural Description
- Use Case Analysis
- Activity Diagrams
- Sequence Diagrams
- DFD
6. Detailed Design
- ER Diagrams
- Data Base Design
- Object Design
- Screen Design
7. Implementation
- System Implementation
8. Testing & Results
- Test cases needs to be prepared.
9. Conclusion
10. Future Enhancements
11. User Manual.

Evaluation scheme:
1. Explanation of the project – 30 marks
2. Execution of the case study – 30 marks
3. Viva - 20 marks

The Examiner may ask for any one of the ten case studies during the examination.

12