Vision and Scope

of
Online Registration System

Version 1.0 Approved

Prepared
by
Team One Consulting
Team Leader Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4

September 23, 2007

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Assignment 1-3-2: Vision and Scope of Online Registration System

Table of Contents

1. Business Requirements.......................................................................................................................................4
1.1. Background..................................................................................................................................................4
1.2. Business Opportunity...................................................................................................................................4
1.3. Business Objectives and Success Criteria...................................................................................................5
1.4. Customer or Market Needs..........................................................................................................................5
1.5. Business Risks..............................................................................................................................................6

2. Vision of the Solution..........................................................................................................................................6

2.1. Vision Statement...........................................................................................................................................6
2.2. Major Features............................................................................................................................................7
2.3. Assumptions and Dependencies...................................................................................................................7

3. Scope and Limitations.........................................................................................................................................7

3.1. Scope of Initial Release...............................................................................................................................8
3.2. Scope of Subsequent Releases.....................................................................................................................9
3.3. Limitations and Exclusions..........................................................................................................................9

4. Business Context..................................................................................................................................................9
4.1. Stakeholder Profiles...................................................................................................................................10
4.2. Project Priorities.......................................................................................................................................11
4.3. Operating Environment.............................................................................................................................11

5. Human Resources..............................................................................................................................................12
5.1. Team Charter.............................................................................................................................................12
5.2. Technical Skills and Attributes...................................................................................................................13
5.3. Roles and Responsibilities.........................................................................................................................13
5.4. Communication Strategies.........................................................................................................................14

6. Project Management.........................................................................................................................................14
6.1. Deliverables...............................................................................................................................................14
6.2. Dependencies.............................................................................................................................................15
6.3. Schedule.....................................................................................................................................................15

7. Educational/Program Outcomes......................................................................................................................16
7.1. General Education.....................................................................................................................................16
7.2. Information Technology.............................................................................................................................16

8. Annotated Bibliography......................................................................................................................................18
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Revision History

Name Date Reason For Changes Version

Student 1 9/21/07 Sections 5 & 8 Created 0.1
Student 1 9/21/07 Sections 3 & 4 Created 0.2
Student 2 9/21/07 Sections 1 & 2 Created 0.3
Student 3 9/21/07 Sections 6 & 7 Created 0.4
Student 4 9/21/07 Created 0.5
Student 1 9/22/07 Revision 0.6
Student 2 9/22/07 Revision 0.7
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Assignment 1-3-2: Vision and Scope of Online Registration System

1. Business Requirements
Research Today is a non-profit organization that needs to automate its conference

registration business process to better serve its customers and staff, and better manage and

safeguard its information system resources.

1.1. Background
Research Today holds two annual conferences that attract participants from across the

country. The conferences, held in the spring and fall each year, focus on educating researchers

involved in human research studies. These conferences form the main income generating activity

for Research Today. The events draw quite a large number of participants and all participants

must pay a fee upon registration for each event that they attend. These conferences consist of the

main morning session and an optional afternoon session with two breakout sessions. Participants

must attend the morning session but they may choose to skip the afternoon session or select

breakout sessions, more to their interest.

1.2. Business Opportunity

Research Today has the opportunity to improve its reputation and increase attendance at

its conferences by making changes to its registration process. Currently, all participants must

download and print a PDF registration form from the Research Today’s Web site, print it, fill it

in, and mail it to the office for registration. This is a cumbersome process due to the turnaround

time from when a registrant mails their registration form to the receipt of a confirmation or

response. All non-affiliated participants must provide their bank account information, credit card,

or debit card numbers on this form to pay the registration fees. This does not comply with the

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) that sets financial data security

guidelines, necessitating changing some of the organization’s business functions. This would
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ensure better customer data security. All the data of past and present conferences is currently

stored in Excel spreadsheets on employees’ computers. This method is difficult to manage and

analyze scattered across multiple employees’ computers and it is not sufficiently secure.

1.3. Business Objectives and Success Criteria

The primary business objectives are improvement of responsiveness to conference

registrants and ensuring the security of registrants’ personal information. A secondary business

objective is improving Research Today’s ability to analyze registration information so that it can

schedule conferences on subjects that have generated good attendance in the past. With the

automation of the Research Today’s registration process, participants will receive confirmation

concerning their registration in a timely manner rather than weeks of delay. This will achieve

improved relations between the organization and the participants. With credit card data handled

in a secured environment such as PayPal, compliance with PCIDSS, participants will trust the

organization, assured of the secured handling of their financial data. As customer confidence

increases in the Research Today’s handling of the registration fee process, attendance will

increase. Success for this project will essentially be measured in three basic ways:

 Comparison of the numbers of conference participants during the manual

process with the number of registrants in the more secure automated system.

 Comparison of the amount of revenue collected through the new system with

past revenue amounts.

 Comparison of the network downtime and uptime, as a measure of effectiveness.

1.4. Customer or Market Needs

With the current manual process of conference registration, participants usually do not

receive confirmation of their registration from the Research Today staff for six weeks on
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average. This is a major inconvenience to the participants since they are unable to plan for the

event in the absence of the registration confirmation. Most participants are skeptical about

putting credit card numbers on the registration, as they do not know whose hands those forms

will pass through. This results in some prospective participants not registering for the

conferences.

1.5. Business Risks

The organization has been doing this manual process for a long time and the introduction

of the new automated system will change many business functions. It is obvious some employees

will not initially embrace the new system due to various reasons. As with any new system, a

learning curve will compensate for employees who have never worked in a database

environment. The organization should be prepared to handle all employee challenges through

continuous training. As with any networked environment, there will be a higher security risk with

the new system and Research Today must raise its information system security benchmark to

handle the new challenge.

Risk Severity Mitigation

Different web browsers may HIGH By maintaining development using
not be able to display website open standards, avoiding vendor-
properly. specific software packages, and
extensive testing across multiple
platforms.

Older or light-weight HIGH Developing the software to run

computer platforms may not entirely on the server.
be able to run software
developed.

Users may have difficulty HIGH Develop the software to present

inputting correct information validation pages before submission.
Add in data verification to the
program.

Users may become confused Medium Ensure that the form is intuitive
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using the program. through extensive testing. Give

feedback after incorrect submissions.

Software developed may not HIGH Use open-source development

run on client’s servers packages that can be used on the
majority of platforms.

Small businesses may not Medium Ensure that users of the program can
receive recognition. submit any single entity in the
community that they desire.

2. Vision of the Solution

The new system will achieve easy and secure information management in an environment

that is both conducive and supportive of the organization’s business and customer needs thereby

improving customer relations and increasing revenue.

2.1. Vision Statement

Our vision is Research Today will have the best registration system in its field. This

system will drive company revenue and allow the company to plan successful conferences. The

system will delight the Research Today’s customers by allowing the company to provide topical

conferences and rapid confirmation of registrations. With the incorporation of an online

registration form, a database management system, a secure online payment system, a secure

internal network, and a Web portal for administrators, the new system will enable Research

Today achieve its business goals and encourage future growth.

2.2. Major Features

The new online registration system will have the following features:

 A Web form for conference registration

 A database to store all conference data and receive updates from the online store

 Secure online payment to process registration fees for all participants

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 E-commerce setup with backend automated and manual management reports

 Revamped internal network for hosting and processing information

 E-mail confirmation upon registration and payment

 Web portal for administrators to manage conference data features

2.3. Assumptions and Dependencies

 Assumption: The current paper registration form is the basis of design of the new online

registration.

o Dependency: When the online registration is in place, the paper form is a

secondary option for registration.

 Assumption: The new system, using a third-party vendor like PayPal, puts the

responsibility of the security of registrant data on the vendor rather than Research

Today.

o Dependency: This should achieve greater information security and customer

confidence, thereby improving attendance and revenues.

 Assumption: The nature of the online application requires client/server architecture,

network hardware and software, server hardware and software, database software,

development software, and server technology such as ASP.NET.

o Dependency: Establishing relations with various software and hardware vendors

will fulfill the hardware and software requirements of the project.

 Assumption: Additional training of staff is foreseen for staff to handle new protocols,

hardware, and software.

o Dependency: Additional training time allowed for staff.

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Assignment 1-3-2: Vision and Scope of Online Registration System

3. Scope and Limitations

The new system will incorporate an online registration form, a backend database to store

and process registration information, an administrators’ portal, a secure internal network, and a

secure payment processing system. Initially the system will not offer teleconference capabilities,

though it may be a future option. The organization already has a Web site where participants may

access an upcoming conference, past conference, or other relevant information, so this project

does not involve Web site development other than the online form, the administrators’ portal, and

a payment-processing portal.

3.1. Scope of Initial Release

The initial release of the new system will include an online registration form, an online

payment form, a backend database to process and store registration information, a secure internal

network, and an administrators’ portal. This initial release will also include installation,

configuration, and configuration and support documentation. Since this initial release will be

fully functional, it is critical and essential to include user and technical support documentation as

well as to install and configure the application so it is usable in the new environment.

3.2. Scope of Subsequent Releases

Future releases will include:

 Teleconferencing

o Future events attended and/or presented via teleconference technology.

 Online cancellation capability

o Cancellation and rescheduling capability for better customer service.

 Online viewing of registration information

 Online registrant contact information update capability

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Assignment 1-3-2: Vision and Scope of Online Registration System

o View and update information online for better recordkeeping by customer and

Research Today staff.

o Allows Research Today capability to analyze customer input and feedback,

attendance patterns, including geographic information.

o Future conference scheduling of presenters and backup staff

3.3. Limitations and Exclusions

This product will provide participants a secure way to register for conferences. The

product will not include online video or voice conferences. Participants will initially be unable to

cancel registration or view registration information online. To cancel registration, participants

either must notify the staff by phone, e-mail, or in writing and staff will cancel registration via

the administrators’ portal.

4. Business Context
The major customer for this project is Research Today’s nationwide conference

participants. The project team is responsible to meet project priorities and stakeholder profiles.

The operation environment must support an audience from all over the country.

4.1. Stakeholder Profiles

Table 4.1

Stakeholder Major Value Attitudes Major Interests Constraints

Organization Increased Increase Better data for New system
executive productivity, participants participants and update expensive
number of number for any conference
participants, conferences
revenue
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Assignment 1-3-2: Vision and Scope of Online Registration System

Conference Lower Faster turnaround Keep all the System requires

executives workload time, improved participants data secure maintenance and
communication and online update, Learning
and relations curve

Conference Quick access to Better time Fast and secure Unable to watch or
participants conference management, registration and listen to past
information increased payment options conferences online
and receive confidence in
updates organization,
assured of data
security.

Project team Build a system A good working A fully functional and Unable to meet face
that satisfies and supportive usable system that to face due to
organization’s environment for meets users’ and geographical
and customer all team members organization’s needs boundaries
needs
4.2. Project Priorities
Table 4.2
Dimension Driver Constraint Degree of Freedom
(state objective) (state limits) (state allowable range)
Schedule release 1.0 to be available Any unscheduled issue Web server will be running
by 11/16, release 1.1 by could cause delay 100% in release 1.0
11/23,
release 1.2 by 11/30,
release 1.3 by 12/07
Features  Secure online Software bugs and 70-80% of high priority
registration hackers features must be included in
 Administrators’ portal release 1.0
online
 Online secure payment
 Internal network
Quality System will increase Registration could be 90-95% of user acceptance
customer satisfaction and hard during server tests must pass for release 1.0,
save time during down time. 95-98% for release 1.1
registration
Staff Lead/Database developer Team size limited to 5 Staffs knowledge covers
Application developer people. Number could 100% of requirements need
Documenter not be increased. for this project.
System administrator
Network administrator
Cost $10,000.00 Any price changes on Budget overrun up to 15%
hardware, software and acceptable without executive
new software needed review
could increase the cost

4.3. Operating Environment

Participants from all over the country will be able to register for conferences online. The

new system will achieve a speedy registration and payment process and allow Research Today’s

administrators to manage conference information online. The system will be available to all

stakeholders online at all time, compensating for time differences in various time zones. Every

participant who registers for a conference will receive e-mail notification of each event for which

he or she has registered. If system fails for any reason, participants may use telephone or paper

registration instead. All the data and payment information will be secure and protected.
5. Human Resources
The human resources required for completion of this project includes the organizational

structure of the project team and identifies the individuals and their skills and attributes each

brings to the project. In addition, details of the roles and responsibilities of each individual are

clarified. Finally, the strategies required for successful communication among the team members

are identified and acknowledged.

5.1. Team Charter

The team assembled and organized per the requirements of the project, chose a project

leader, Student 2, to guide and assist all members, ensuring the completion of their portion of the

project. Each individual of the project team will be responsible for a particular section of the

project including having an alternate for assistance if needed. All final parts of project must be

reported to the team as a whole, within stated time parameters for acceptance, amendment,

and/or rejection.

Decisions will be made based on team consensus. If a consensus is not attained, Student

2, Team Leader, will make the final determination. Any team member conflicts, irresolvable by

those involved, may be mitigated by the Team Leader. Any member who fails completion of his

or her section of the project maybe removed with a majority team vote and per instructions of the

project owner, Professor Smith.

Team meetings, held Thursday, 8:30 to 9:30 PM Eastern Time, in the FranklinLive forum,

are for positive production of weekly goals and discussion of upcoming assignments and goals.
5.2. Technical Skills and Attributes
Table 5.2.lists the members of the team and their skills and attributes.

Table 5.2
Name Skills Attributes
Student 2 Database designing, mentoring, Willingness to see the project
and leading through, guidance, and
leadership.
Kenneth Beard Programming, developing, and Comprehensive, detailed oriented
project analysis and designing and experienced developer.
Student 4 Editing, technical writing, and Detail oriented, very
testing applications comprehensive, and expert
linguist.
Student 1 Server administration with Self-motivated, very experienced
maintenance and configuration administrator, Microsoft
including SQL Server and Internet certified.
Information Server
Student 3 Network administration including Team oriented and mechanically
configuration and troubleshooting inclined; Cisco certified.

5.3. Roles and Responsibilities

Table 5.3 lists each team member and their roles and responsibilities within the scope of

the project.

Table 5.3
Name Role Responsibilities
Student 2 Team leader, Lead Mentor team development, directs
developer, Database application development.
developer
Kenneth Beard Application developer Develops the project’s applications.
Student 4 Documenter Documents all team development,
application manuals including user manuals
and technical documents.
Student 1 Systems Administrator Installs, configures and addresses any issues
in regards to the servers handling SQL as
well as IIS.
Student 3 Network Plans, installs and arranges the appropriate
Administrator network associated with project along with
all required security measures.
5.4. Communication Strategies
The project team communicates using various tools. These tools include e-mail, forums,

chat rooms, Franklin Live, and telephone. Communication will exist synchronously in addition

to asynchronously. All team members must attend the weekly team meeting. Absence or

tardiness is permissible with prior notice to the Team Leader, Student 2. All asynchronous

communication must be responded to within an appropriate time, typically less than 24 hours.

6. Project Management
The project management section will provide a list of resources and requirements needed

for successful completion of the project. Project management will also encompass the actual

deliverables to the customer as well as the proposed schedule date for development and

completion for the customer. This section will also cover the format and requirements of the

delivery so the final products are transferable in a working format for both the development team

and the customers.

6.1. Deliverables
Upon completion of the project, the customer’s legacy network will be completely

revamped and upgraded to 100 megabit per second with the proper security measures in place to

prevent unauthorized access. Multiple servers will be installed to host the Web server and

database server to handle all of the third party online payment service transactions (e.g. PayPal),

subscriptions, and account aspects of the Web site. The Web site will be a turnkey operation upon

delivery with schedulable reports and notifications of different system milestones.

A working demo Web site will be sent to the customer for up-to-date information on the

progress of the project. The final product will be measured by the security of the sensitive data
being processed and ease of use by the customer and intended users of the Web site through trial

groups. Ultimate success and signoff is dependent upon signoff from previous quality

checks. Multiple team members can utilize a quality control system such as Subversion

(subversion.tigris.org) for revision control of code.

6.2. Dependencies
The project will depend on the network first being revamped and upgraded, then the Web

server and database server will be installed. Coding and testing will not start until the database

and Web servers have been installed and configured. Testing of the developed application will

first be done on the development server and later be placed on the testing server for final

debugging and live demo.

6.3. Schedule
Table 6.3
09/21 09/28 10/05 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/02 11/09 11/16 11/23 11/30
Current Week to to to to to to to to to to to
09/28 10/05 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/02 11/09 11/16 11/23 11/30 12/07

Network Design

Application Design

Network Implementation

Server Implementation &

Configuration

Application Development

Application Implementation and

Testing
Customer Demo and Feature
Request Session
Development of Secondary
Features
Secondary Review of Requested
Features

Customer Signoff of Work

09/21 09/28 10/05 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/02 11/09 11/16 11/23 11/30
Tasks
to to to to to to to to to to to
Weeks 09/28 10/05 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/02 11/09 11/16 11/23 11/30 12/07
7. Educational/Program Outcomes
The outcome of this program is to first upgrade Research Today’s network infrastructure

to achieve a secure, easily manageable, and accessible information system. The end product will

be a user-friendly Web application with the ability to process online registration, online payment

transactions, and conference information.

7.1. General Education

1. This project contains a large range of different deliverables that are highly sought after in

a business environment. This will allow our team to demonstrate a wide range of useful

technologies and concepts to our audience. Success will be measured by the outcome of

the project and audience acceptance.

2. Problems stated in the proposed scenario are commonplace in today’s businesses

attempting to streamline and build e-Commerce sites. Conquering these problems will

give our team a better understanding of how these problems are tracked from the cradle

to the grave.

7.2. Information Technology

1. The project requires complete network redesign and implementation to handle

transactional data securely. Restructuring the organization’s internal network will

integrate two guidelines by applying network design to small and medium-scale networks

as well as the foundations of management information systems to redesign and reshape

organizations through the information systems that support them. Success will be

measured by comparing downtime and uptime for network connectivity between all

required devices and security of the network.

2. Research Today, reshaped by handling real-time conference reservations with secure

data, will allow it to operate more efficiently and reduce overhead. An e-commerce setup

with backend automated and manual management reports will ensure effective systems

administration and automation techniques. Success will be measured by comparing the

number of past registrants who used the manual process with the number of registrants in

the automated system.

3. The Web site contains a management interface allowing automatically generated backend

reports and new order confirmations sent to the defined administrators and accountants.

An e-commerce setup with backend automated and manual management reports will also

ensure effective systems administration and automation techniques by the implementation

of the administrators’ portal used for data management. Also, success will be measured

by comparing the number of past registrants who used the manual process with the

number of registrants in the more secure automated system.

8. Annotated Bibliography
Beauchemin, B., & Sullivan, D (2006). A Developer's Guide to SQL Server 2005.Boston,

MA: Addison Wesley Professional.

This book was used as a reference in developing SQL Server databases for use

with this project. It provided useful samples of relevant code as well as good

explanations of database design.

Cisco. (2007). Network Systems. Retrieved September 21, 2007, from Cisco Systems

Web site: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns726/networking_solutions_

solution_ segment_home.html

This Web site imparted information relevant to the project’s networking

requirements, including routers, switches, and VPN equipment.

Dell, (2007). Servers, Storage and Networking. Retrieved September 21, 2007, from Find

a Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at Dell

Web site:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/enterprise ?

c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

This Web site, used to research servers, desktops, and notebooks, is geared

towards project team and users. All pricing, specifications, and information used

by the project documentation was accessed through this Web site.

Liberty, J., & Hurwitz, D. (2006). Programming ASP.NET, Third Edition. Sebastopol,

CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc.

 This book provides a comprehensive resource for C# Internet development and

research on developing Internet applications using Active Server Pages (ASP) and

the Microsoft .NET framework.

Litwin, P. (2004, September). Stop SQL Injection Attacks Before They Stop You. MSDN

Magazine, 19(9).

This peer-reviewed article was used to ensure the Internet application developed

within the project was not accessible to SQL injection attacks. This article

provided relevant sample code used by the development team.

Lundquist, E. (2005). Why Projects Fail. EWeek.

This article was used to exemplify further why even high end, high dollar projects

can fail. The article gives advice as to what questions one must ask in regards to a

successful completion of a project.

O'Connell, F. (2001). How To Run Successful Projects III: The Silver Bullet. London,

Great Britain: Addison Wesley Professional.

This book was used for research on starting, running, and completing a successful

project. This project gained valuable information relevant to its development from

this particular article.

Queensland, (2001). 10 Tips for Creating A Network Security Policy. EWeek.

Though this article was older, it gave the project team goals to accomplish when

developing the project’s network design. These tips included developing a

security first attitude and approach including appointing a security chief

responsible for all security measures.