Example Analysis Whitborough Rowing Club

Whitborough Rowing Club is a thriving club which operates out of the harbour in the Yorkshire town of Whitborough. The club itself has a membership of around 50 rowers and over 50 supporters. They operate regattas throughout the season and practise every Thursday evening, weather and tides permitting, in the North Sea. Every Saturday they operate a social club for the supporters and the rowers and this is used to raise money for the club.

You have been asked by the Secretary of the Club (CLIENT) who is having a problem with searching for individual members of the club as well as producing lists of rowers for each of the teams. She also needs to be able to send out letters to members of the committees explaining to them when the next committee meeting is as well as produce a list of committee members and their photographs. Both the secretary (CLIENT) and the team
captain (USER) have access to the computer and can add and delete data.
Following the initial request for the solution to the problem you would have to find other information about the club and the problems that they are facing.

• We can do this by collecting documentation that is used by the rowing club and analysing each piece in order to get an idea of how the system works.

• We could also do this by carrying out an interview with the client. This will give an idea of what the client wants from the solution and how they solve problems like this at the moment. This is the best way of getting
the results needed.

• We could also produce questionnaires; this gives a more informal way of finding out information rather than interviewing the client. It also allows the client to answer the questions when they want to do as opposed to
setting up a formal interview.

• We could also observe processes carried out now; this allows us to see the problems occurring and how they can be solved.

• The final method, which will not be used here, is to observe a similar business in operation and then gain ideas for the solution of this problem.

Now we have collected all the information we need to look closely at what was said or what was seen so that we can get a clear picture of what the client actually wants from the solution to the problem. These are some of the
requirements that the secretary wants a new system to do.
In our example the secretary of the club wants to be able to store data on all of the members of the group so that information on particular members can be found; this means that a database must be created and that a search facility needs to be added.

The secretary of the club wants to produce a list of the rowing teams for each of the boats and list these. This means that a search is needed with the criteria typed in and then an output produced. This output will be in printed form.
The secretary also needs a quick way of contacting the members of the committee to inform them of the next meeting. Criteria again used to search the database and then a mail merge produced to send a standard letter to all.
The secretary wants to produce a list of the committee members, together with personal details and a photograph of each of them Occasionally the rower’s club is used for private functions and the secretary wants to be able to create a system that can deal with the invoices that have to be sent out to the borrowers of the hall. This is a separate system to the one above but as you do
not have to produce the actual solution to the problem then this could be included.
Any system produced must be simple to use therefore the user interface must be simple to use and easy to navigate. The screen layout must reflect the house style and as the secretary is a novice at using computers must be quick to learn.
All data on the system is confidential, therefore security must be in place so that only authorised personnel can gain access to the data.

Inputs, processing and outputs

Finally, and something that has been looked at previously, are the inputs, processing and outputs. Taking each of the client’s requirements we need to break them down so that we can produce the inputs, processing and outputs
needed to solve each of them.

For example if we look at the requirements we can draw up some ideas.
Information needs to be found on certain members, therefore we need to ask ourselves and the client: what information is needed and how will it be produced? The client needs to have a database set up of different types of
information. They will need to search for types of member, for example junior members (INPUT); this will search for all the junior members in the database (PROCESSING) in order to produce a list of junior members and their addresses in a grid (OUTPUT).
In order to produce a list of the rowers for the weekly teams, the criteria for the search must be specified: the level of the rower, their availability and the team of which they are a member (INPUT). The database is then searched
for this information (PROCESSING) and a list is produced showing the names, grouped as teams (OUTPUT).
We need to look at the other requirement which is a way of contacting the committee members with the information about the next meeting. The database needs to be searched using the criteria of type of committee
(INPUT); the database is searched (PROCESSING) and a list of committee members and addresses are then available (OUTPUT). This is then used as the INPUT to a template which is then mail merged with this information (PROCESSING) in order to produce letters for the committee members containing their names and addresses, etc. and pre-written envelopes with names and addresses (OUTPUT).

The list of committee members the database needs to be searched (PROCESSING). These are then printed out in the form of a document (OUTPUT) and photos added (INPUT). The document is then printed (OUTPUT).
Added to this we can look at the production of the photos. The photos are taken using a digital camera (INPUT) and then cropped, edited to resize and brighten, etc. (PROCESSING); they are then saved as a small file size (OUTPUT).

The extra problem regarding the production of the invoices is not as simple as the previous ones as it does not include the same database and could be part of another system entirely. This is a classic problem that could be
broken down into smaller parts so that it is more manageable.

The secretary gets a new invoice from the pile of blank invoices. INPUT
She then adds the client’s details to the invoice taken from the booking book. INPUT
She then adds any extra charges to the invoice, like electricity used, etc. INPUT
She checks that the data is correctly added to the invoice. PROCESSING
Then the invoice is totalled. PROCESSING A copy is made of the invoice. PROCESSING
This copy is stored in the filing cabinet. STORAGE
An envelope is taken from the pile of envelopes. INPUT
The original invoice is placed in an envelope. OUTPUT
The name and address of the client is written on the envelope. OUTPUT
and then sent off.
This is another way of writing out the requirements of the system that you are trying to solve.
Remember that the inputs, processing and outputs should be described clearly and concisely so they help the developer move onto the design of the solutions.
This completes the analysis required for the examination; the documentation for the examination should not exceed 20 pages, (this includes analysis and the testing elements).

Sample Questions
For each of the following questions either use your own work as the example or the Whitborough Rowing Club.
1(a) Identify the client that you are producing the solution for.
1(b) Identify the user(s) who will be operating your solution.
1(c) Explain what is meant by a client and a user.
1(d) Explain the difference between a user of the solution and an audience for the solution.
(4 marks)
2(a) Identify where you have stated your client’s requirements.
2(b) Describe one of your client’s main requirements.
2(c) What, in detail, does your ICT solution need to produce for your client’s main requirement?
(9 marks)