A New Information System for the North Coast Dragon Boating Association

Business Information

Executive Summary

There is such a water sport as Dragon Boating, and many people enjoy practicing it. Dragon Boating involves group activities and intense cooperation between people, so they unite in sports clubs. These sports clubs organize both regattas and one-time racing events between each other. They are autonomous and independent in organizational and financial management; however, they are all united in several associations throughout Australia. One of these is the North Coast Dragon Boating Association, which helps and organizes various sports clubs within Northern New South Wales. Organizational and managerial independence is very convenient for these clubs. Still, it creates some difficulties for the North Coast Dragon Boating Association with information systems and the adequate provision of insurance to athletes. The leaders of the Association believe that the implementation of a unified information system in the clubs will solve these growing management problems. Consequently, Rose Chen turned to NextProj and its IT experts to develop one.

Details on the Business Activities of the North Coast Dragon Boating Association and Its Future Information System

To be more specific, the North Coast Dragon Boating Association is responsible for compiling general guidelines and codes of practice for its affiliated clubs. They also manage insurance issues for club members and offer professional certifications to clubs’ coaches and sportspersons, namely sweeps. Their central goal is similar to that of other competent associations; these are “improving the athlete’s health and reducing injuries” (Maestro, Rodriguez-Alonso and Pipa, 2020, p. 779). The Association wants to transfer all these aforementioned macro- and micro-management, monetary, organizational, and legal operations to their new information system. They also expect the future digital program from NextProj to unify and standardize all ongoing processes between clubs and between clubs and the Association.

Tables and Charts

Table of Project Tasks, Their Durations, and Associated Dependencies

Gantt Chart

PERT Chart

The critical path of this branchy yet straightforward PETR chart for an information system project for the North Coast Dragon Boating Association is A B D E G. Therefore, one can safely say that the total duration of this project will be 23 days. The planned activities within this mini-project will take a little over three weeks, which is standard for this category of upgrade projects.

System Vision Document

A new information system for the North Coast Dragon Boating Association aims to unify communication between members of Dragon Boating clubs and standardize financial and legal transactions. It will also provide members with a convenient and feature-rich chat system and a friendly and understandable interface for all categories present in affiliated clubs. Moreover, it will give club executives, managers, and IT specialists the modern and multipurpose digital tools they need to collect and manipulate critical data.

Initial Project Feasibility Analysis

Significant Risks

1. Unclear requirements regarding software.
2. Mitigation strategy: consulting with NextProj experts and Association IT professionals.
3. Unclear project financial planning.
4. Mitigation strategy: consulting with NextProj experts and association financial professionals.
5. Very abstract ideas of the executives of the Association regarding the primary and additional functions of the future new information system.
6. Mitigation strategy: consulting with NextProj experts and Association IT professionals.

Minor Risks

1. Rough start of a new information application.
2. Security loopholes.
3. Uncertainty in choosing a proper operating system for the future information system.
4. Club management and Secretaries will not agree to switch to the new system.
5. Club members will not want to switch to the new system.
6. Overcomplicated and unfriendly interface.
7. Inability to convert and transfer old data to the new information system.

Expected Costs

1. Purchase of licensed software.
2. Purchase of licensed security software.
3. Further consultation with NextProj experts.
4. Constant updating and improvement of the new information system.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Calculations show that developing a new information system is feasible and should continue.

Fact-Finding Documents

Additional Fact-Finding Techniques

1. Questionnaires;
2. Joint requirements planning.

Responsible Person

1. Luke Parsons, Association Secretary.
2. Asking and managing clubs about the methods of recording and storing financial and organizational data.

Additional Interview Questions and Duration

1. What information systems do you prefer and use?
2. What are your and your Dragon Boating club members’ favorite social media applications?
3. Advantages and disadvantages of your Dragon Boating club’s current information systems?

Use Cases

Functions

1. Processing, storing and transferring financial, organizational, and legal data.
2. Communication between club members and the association workers.

Roles

Members of clubs, employees of the Association, executives of the Association, and clubs.

Use Case Diagram

Short Descriptions

1. A member of the club logs in to make a membership payment; the transaction is recorded and then analyzed by the employees of the Association.
2. A member of the club logs in to apply for coach certification; the application is recorded and then analyzed by the employees of the Association.
3. The executive head logs in to report the number of club members; the report is recorded and then analyzed by the employees of the Association.
4. A club member logs in to receive data on the next regatta; the report is sent to and then answered by the employees of the Association.

Full Description

A Dragon Boating club member wants to make a membership payment. They log in and make an online payment. The financial information is transferred to the Association staff, collecting, analyzing, and storing it.

Activity Diagram

Software Packages

A Dragon Boating club might use two alternative suppliers of commercial software packaging for financial information supply. On the one hand, VBA Software supplies a concrete visual basic application (VBA) solution for concrete business. The cloud system enables the company to effectively communicate with clients and develop the most individualized applications. As a result, the Association will receive a premium solution for a significant price that would perfectly work throughout an unlimited period so that it might be amortized for many years. On the other hand, Alpha Software provides already developed solutions that should fit some businesses’ demands. In this case, there exists an application that would cost 30% less one-time capital investments compared to the VBA solutions’ offer. At the same time, the application does not certainly fit the business demands, and the Alpha team will not help the Association to modify the application to make it more individualized and efficient.

System Options

1. In-house development. Cheap but inappropriate way of organizing a long-term operation, such as reporting. In case of disruptions, the Association will experience a significant problem.
2. VBA Software. The most expensive but profitable solution. Individualized templates that might be modified by the team in case of application problems. The costs might be amortized throughout a significant time period, such as 20 years.
3. Alpha Software. Feasible but unreliable solution. The company does not provide ‘individualization’ and bug-fixing in case of customers’ issues with their reporting standards. Similar to the first possibility, in case of reporting disruptions, the Association will have to spend additional financial resources that might not be found immediately.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In this case, it is recommended to enter into the contract with VBA Software company under long-term financing conditions. The new system should be more frequently teste for information misalignments at the beginning of the functioning since the vast majority of the tasks will be executed by the software packaging that is not absolutely individualized to the Association’s reporting particularities. Data storage is not already a significant problem, so the Association should find the cheapest long-term contract with a big-tech company, such as Google or Microsoft, to have a numerical ‘space’ for data storage.

Reference List

Maestro, A., Rodriguez-Alonso, M. and Pipa, I. (2020). ‘Tips and tricks for sports clubs and sports associations’, Injury and Health Risk Management in Sports, pp. 779-785. Web.