Mamma Mia is a well-known pasta company producing dry pasta products and distributing it to supermarkets and other food outlets nationwide.

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MIS350 -- Portfolio Project Description

Company Background (both Options, #1 and #2)

Mamma Mia is a well-known pasta company producing dry pasta products and distributing it to supermarkets and other food outlets nationwide.  Mamma Mia has 20 plants and distribution centers throughout the country, with the company’s headquarters located in Denver, Colorado (where the oldest plant/distribution center is located.)

Mamma Mia currently uses a reasonably complete and modern integrated home-developed information system, except for the Purchasing and the Accounts Payable systems, which due to complicated historical reasons, were never implemented by the IT department and were instead developed and implemented with user-built MS Access database apps.  The integrated system used in most other areas of the organization uses a client-server-server architecture based on large HP-UX servers running an Oracle database. All servers are hosted in the company headquarters in Denver and all other plants and distribution centers connect to this centralized server farm through redundant and highly efficient communication links.  Uptime of the network has historically averaged 99.8%, with an average downtime duration of 33.5 minutes. The company is happy with these numbers and will not consider using cloud-based services for the time being due to information security concerns and also due to having a very conservative executive management team.

 

The company has decided, however, that to adjust both the Purchasing and the Accounts Payable information systems’ functionality to the current business needs, it has become necessary to upgrade and modernize both.  As such, the Steering Committee –comprised of all executive-level managers of Mamma Mia-- has decided to request from IT two project proposals aimed at replacing both systems, with “Option 1” being the Purchasing system and “Option 2” the Accounts Payable system. The scope of both project options will comprise the noted information system as a stand-alone, independent system; later, in a second phase of the project (not covered in MIS350), the new system will be integrated with the other information systems already used in Mamma Mia.

 

Deliverables (both Options, #1 and #2)

You are asked to analyze the specifications and produce an information system design that complies with the operational procedures and data requirements described below.  As the description is purposely kept brief, you may have to use your imagination to supply some of the missing pieces in it – also please consult with your instructor to clarify any possible doubt about these operational procedures and the data requirements.

 

The deliverables for both options of this Portfolio Project of the course are as follows:

 

Phase 1 (due on Week 4) - Planning and User Requirements:

• Brief description of the company and the system’s environment – not more than 100 words.
• Detailed requirement lists.
• Feasibility analysis.
• Structure of the project using SCRUM:
  1. Structure of the project.
  2. Initialization activities.
  3. Proposed Mamma Mia intermediate deliverables.

Phase 2 (due on Week 5) - Data Flow Analysis:

• Data requirements:
  1. DFD diagrams (context, level 0, and multiple level 1s.)

Phase 3 (due on Week 6) - Entity-Relationship Model & Database Design:

• Data relationships:
  1. ERD diagrams (complete data model.)
  2. Physical database design (complete database.)

Phase 4 (due on Week 8) - Implementation:

• Test plan.
• Training plan.
• DevOps
• Implementation strategy and plan using DevOps.

Requirements

Purchasing (Option #1)

The purchasing information system handles the purchasing operations of the organization for the acquisition of good and services. In general, a purchase requisition is issued by the requesting department and sent to the purchasing department. Purchasing then determines if the request is acceptable based on company policy and procedures (for example, if requestor’s purchasing limits cover the purchase if the goods requested already exist in inventory, if the item will be arriving soon through a previous purchase, etc.) If the requisition is approved, then the purchasing department proceeds to select one or more vendors, optionally request an RFQ (request for quotation) from at least three vendors, analyze the offers, select a vendor, and then prepare a purchase order.

The purchase order is sent to the vendor for processing and it signifies the formal request to purchase the good or services, with a promise to pay once delivered and accepted -- the payment terms are specified within the purchase order. Copies (physical or electronic) of the purchase order are sent to Receiving (for reviewing the delivery from the vendor) and to Accounts Payable (for payment to the vendor.)

Receiving receives the items and checks them for quantity and quality against the specifications in the Purchase Order. If they do not match, then the items will be rejected, and Purchasing is notified of the discrepancy. If the items are acceptable, then a receiving note is prepared, and copies distributed to Purchasing, Warehouse, and Accounts Payable. The items are sent to the warehouse for storage and distribution.

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