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IS480 Team wiki: 2010T1 Veritaz

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Team Veritaz

Veritaz

"***VERITAZ***!"[Goddess of Light & Truth]

[To be updated]

Members (Roles and Responsibilities)

Role Name Email
Project Manager Ernest Cai Kunrong ernest.cai.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
System Developing Director Cheong Wei Hsien whcheong.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
Subject Matter Expert(Operations) Elizabeth Chin Yun Wen eliz.chin.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
Subject Matter Expert(Ailiasing & Communication) Reena Chin Yun wen reena.chin.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
Subject Matter Expert(Technology) Jolene Chia Shi Ming jolene.chia.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
System Analyst Loh Wei Yi weiyi.loh.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg

Stakeholder

Role Company Name Position Email
Faculty Supervisor Singapore Management University ZHENG Baihua Assistant Professor of School of Information Systems bhzheng@smu.edu.sg
Platinum Business Sponsor The Shipping Solution Pte Ltd (Management Team) Barry Lim Managing Director barry@theshippingsolutions.com
Platinum Business Sponsor The Shipping Solution Pte Ltd (Management Team) Jason Goh Sales Director jason@thshippingsolutions.com

Company Background and Formation

Overview of Company Detail (Client/Sponsor)

The Shipping Solutions is a new Electronic-Solutions and Media organization with an extensive background in logistics.

The core of our business is to aid the Singapore shipping industry to excel in terms of improved efficiency, and productivity, through the provision and advertisement of vital information of the services that these companies provide, to the public.

The Shipping Solutions understands the demanding process faced by Shipping Lines (Carriers) when they handle their service lanes enquiries from their logistics partners (Co-Loaders, Forwarders, Direct Shippers). In the current globally competitive logistics market, there is a constant need to make necessary changes and strategically plan for vessels' sailing schedules in order to cater to the ever changing, fast-paced, and dynamic market's needs. Hence, the operations or sales department have dedicated a lot of time to the answering and clarification of their clients' enquiries.

www.TheShippingSolutions.com was designed and developed especially for the sole purpose of compiling and streamlining your service lanes and sailing schedules. These data will be distributed and shared with the relevant members of the portal, to provide a one stop solution centre to cater to all your clients' needs, as well as to answer all their queries as to the details of the services you provide.

Project Overview

Project Description

We are proposing to develop a one-stop logistics platform,a Freight Management Portal .In order to understand the reasons and motivations behind our choice of project,we would provide you a brief introduction of the background of the shipping industry in Singapore

Background

There are 3 main groups in the shipping industry and they are the Carriers,Direct Shippers and Forwarders.Below is a brief and simplified description of each group.

Carriers.png

Root Cause Issues and Problems

1) Lack of Auto-Mated process & Real Life Information

Operation Flow between Forwarder and Direct Shipper

Problem Description: Currently,a lot of manual labours are required when placing a request.Firstly,the direct shipper will make his logistical request via the forwarder.The forwarded will then match the direct shipper's logistical request with the sailing schedule of the carrier.If the carrier is unable to accede to his request,he will then have to check with several carriers until he finds a match and then place a booking.

Solution: The Shipping Solutions is our client and they have proposed a idea on resolving this huge inefficiency by developing a portal that provides a fast and efficient means of searching for the most appropriate schedule and we have chosen the development of this portal to be our project

Business Impact: Reduce the tedious manual process time, Reduce probability of human error propagation which will in turn increase the efficient level.

Objectives

As mentioned earlier,our main purpose is to deliver the Freight Management Portal which is deployed on a web server to the sponsor.Beside the main functionalities that the client has proposed,we have also proposed several additional functionalities which we strongly believe will strengthen the usability and attractiveness of the portal.

Scope

Our Scope comprises of a development of a one-stop logistics portal.It constitutes the following functionalities:

Function.png

More details can be found hereFunctionalities

Project Milestone

Timelines.png

Assumptions

Risks/Assumptions Mitigation Plan
We will be using the server provided by the client that uses PLESK - the server control panel, we assume that PLESK has the appropriate Tomcat and MySQL software that we intend to use for the portal. If PLESK does not have the required software,we would have to upgrade to the latest PLESK or we will decide to bypass the panel(worst case scenario)
None of us have prior knowledge in using AJAX and we assume it will be easy to learn through resources available on the Internet and reference materials from the library. If AJAX proves to be difficult to learn via online resources alone,we will be contacting friends who have prior experience with AJAX and they are willing to spend some effort to guide us in using AJAX
We assume the learning curve for RTC(Rational Team Concert)is not steep. If the learning curve for RTC is too steep,we might drop the idea of using it to aid the development process and use a simpler tool such as Microsoft Live Small Business
We assume that all change of requirements by our supervisor and project sponsor will not hamper our project schedule If the change of requirements is too huge,we will re-evaluate our current situation.If we are unable to accommodate to the change in schedule,we may reject it completely.However,if the change is critical to the client then we may drop an existing functionality in the place of the new change.

Resource and reference

1) Web resources in using RTC,AJAX

2) A Web server to host and deploy our portal

Project Management

Ground Rules

1 .Identify training requirements for all team members and ensure everyone possesses the know- how to use all software and programs involved in the portal development.

2. Confidential information must not be disclosed to anyone and must be kept within our team. The information includes all non-public information concerning our client, its clients and/or its shippers, that might be of use to competitors or harmful to its business partners.

3. Meeting must be held at least once a week. Minutes to be done and uploaded within 24 hours after every meeting to keep everyone updated.

4. To keep our client updated on our progress, we will need to submit a report on the modules that we have completed every fortnightly.

5. Team would have to follow closely and track the timeline as per scheduled so as to deliver our work promptly.

6. .It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that he/she is committed to complete tasks assigned on time.

7. Punctuality should be observed for supervisor, client, and group meetings at all times.

Objectives

1. Develop a portal which fits the requirements of the company and implement solutions to improve the portal based on feedback received.

2. Facilitating easy access and locating resources on the portal for our client, ensuring that it is sustainable in the long run.

3. Working with an external client would gear us with better knowledge and determination to not only complete our tasks, but to produce quality deliverables.

4. Fostering strong bonds among our team would allow us to learn from one another, and be receptive to opinions and advises as a team.

5. We should not only apply what we have learnt in our course work. It is essential for each of us to learn something new in the midst of developing the portal as a takeaway in order to enhance our skill set.

6. Learning to establish healthy working relationship within our team and most importantly with our client.

Team Roles and Responsibilities

A. Project Manager

1. Ensures Project Team completes the project.

2. Develops the Project Plan with team.

3. Manages team’s performance of project tasks.

4. Secure acceptance and approval of deliverables from Project Sponsor and Stakeholders.

5. Responsible for communication, including status reporting, risk management, escalation of issues that cannot be resolved in the team, and in general, making sure the project is delivered in budget, on schedule, and within scope.

B. Design Analyst

1. Creates detailed interaction and UI designs based on User Centered Design techniques and logical processes.

2. Deliver user testing data, use case scenarios and feature research.

3. Creates “developer ready” detailed functional design specifications for new product features based on defined business requirements.

4. Assists in the visual design of graphical user interfaces.

5. Offers solutions to complex design issues during all phases of product development cycle.

C. System Analyst

1. Prepare detailed process flow charts and diagrams outlining systems capabilities.

2. Data collection from client side to analyze and evaluate existing or proposed systems.

3. Troubleshoot and resolve hardware, software and connectivity problems.

4. Spearhead the UAT testings.

5. Record and maintain hardware and software inventories.

6. Write and maintain system documentation.

7. Document systems problems and resolutions for future reference.

D. Programmer

1. Code, debug, test and document routine application programs.

2. Assist with design, analysis, maintenance, documentation, and testing of software.

3. Install and test routine software packages.

4. Assist with procedural or minor technical problems.

5. Determine source data (input), processing requirements (output), output formats, timing and cost estimates.

6. Verify that system meets performance criteria.

Preliminary Storyboard

Functionalities

Search Function:

  • Appear at different tabs for different purposes. Several search capabilities for different user tiers - Carriers, Forwarders and Lane Management.'
  • Different categories of search, returns different fields.
  • This search allows one to search from Port of Loading and Port of Discharge and returns a Carrier/Forwarder which have such a service lane.
  • Individual Carrier/Forwarder which holds an account in this portal, to perform a search of current lanes they have for administration purposes.
Search Function


  • There are 3 different searches:
  • Forwarder search - a simplified search with just the POL and POD returning the Forwarder that provides this service lane. This action can be performed without logging in.
  • Carrier search - a search with just the POL and POD with keyword search and day search returning the Carrier that provides this service lane. This action cannot be performed without logging in.
  • Lane administration - this search allows registered users be it Carrier/Forwarder to search for their sailing schedule entries.

Member’s Self-Admin:

Profile Management:

  • Members will be allowed to update the various fields within the profile such as company address, telephone number and fax number. They can also add, delete or update the contact person details. These information will be then put up on the company profile page.
Company Profile


Lane Management:

  • Members will be allowed to update existing lanes schedule if there is a change. Delete existing lane schedule if there is a mistake or even add new lane schedules.
Lane Management


Password Management:

  • A tool necessary for members to change their password for confidentiality purposes.
Password Management


News Broadcast Submission:

  • Members will be allowed to broadcast news via the portal news tab, but this is still subjected to the approval of the administrator if there is any breech of conflict of interest or any other matters.
News Broadcast


Administrative Function (Client Side):

Members:

  • Add new members that carry the company’s information and the different profile types and member types.
  • Administrator will be allowed to deleted any members if they post up any false information.

User Creation:

  • Once a member is created, then can users for that particular company be created.
  • Administrator will then be able to assign new user accounts. He can also be able to deleted or update the password if one has forgotten the password.

Member/Profile Type (CRUD):

  • Creation of new profile/member type with ability to assign specific access rights.

Lane Management:

  • Ability to make changes to any lanes if client is unable to log into the system

News Broadcast:

  • Ability to create/approve news broadcast on the portal.
News Broadcast (Dated)


User Tracking Function:

  • It is an important function to track users movement. If someone intentionally deleted all the information pertaining to the company’s schedule, we would be able to track them out without any hassel. All the actions will be recorded and overwritten. 7 days of actions will be tracked and in it is more than enough reaction.

Transshipment Function:

  • This functions allows us to allow suggestions of traveling from various ports. For instance, if there isn’t any existing lanes from Singapore - Dubai. The search results will show our various alternatives how can the shipment goes from Singapore - Dubai. Results may be in the form of such possibility: Singapore - Thailand - Dubai or Singapore - Indonesia - Philippines - Dubai.
Main Search Results


File Upload Function:

  • Allow the members to upload different excel formats of schedule to be input into the system without keying each and everyone in.
FileUpload


Roll-Back Function:

  • In any case of failure to backup the information in the system, in any event that crashes.

Quotation Function** (newly added):

  • When a Carrier/Forwarder searches for particular sailing schedule that he has a shipment, he can express interest by raising a quote.
  • Carrier/Forwarder will then be able to view the progress of the different users.
Quotations
RequestQuotation
SummaryofQuotes
ViewQuotation

Statistical Report Function:

  • Statistical reports on the frequency of searches from various ports of loading to port of discharge. This information will let companies have a easier time for planning their following sailing routes.

Revised Search Engine:

  • As per previous search engine, we have added 2 new fields - From Date and To Date to allow a more dynamic search to be performed.
RevisedSearchEngine