Mr Big is the manager of a hobby shop selling scale models of trains, cars, boats, and aircraft to transport model enthusiasts. Mr Big would like a database information system to support his cataloging, stock control, and order processing activities. Initially, this system should support his current, single user, single site requirements, but Mr Big has also plans to expand his operations and would like a system capable of supporting his anticipated future requirements. He would ideally like a client-server solution that will support multiple-users on the computers at his current shop. As he plans to open new shops, would like to have access to this information system available from these shops too, and eventually have provision for customers to access his online catalogue via the internet.
After initial discussions with Mr Big about the proposed information system for his shop, the following requirements were identified.
All of Mr Big records are currently held on paper media in card indexes and filing cabinets, and apart from his calculator, fax, phone, and photocopier and his operations are not automated in any way. The sorts of information he keeps and feels important are principally customer records, including their interests, model records and their suppliers, model sales, and his club newsletter and its circulation. Mr Big has his unique customer number for all customer who have ever supplied information about themselves. He records their name, address, telephone number, credit-line and current balance if they have one, their club member status including date of joining, and for recent customers their email address. Customers can identify a number of particular interests in either subject area (trains, cars, boats, aircraft, other) and/or model type (display, static, working).
Mr Big keeps a records of every model item he has ever sold in his shops, and he has allocated his own unique item number to each record. Each model item record contains details about the name of the model, the model type and subject area, the number currently in stock, the current retail price, the date when the item first went into stock, the location of the item in his shop, a general description of the item, and the item's availability. Any single model item could be supplied to Mr Big by a number of different suppliers and each supplier supplies many different model items. Mr Big chooses a particular supplier to reorder from when a model item is low or out of stock. Mr Big only keeps records for items he sells, and for suppliers he currently or previously used. There is a lot more information contained in the supplier's catalogues, and Mr Big has an extensive collection of catalogues going back many years. Mr Big has a credit line with some suppliers, and in addition to names and addresses, he records delivery details and contact persons for each supplier. The cost to Mr Big of each model item varies depending on who supplies it, also many items are no longer available. For sales of models, Mr Big records the date and customer of each sale, the total value, and any discount he has given (usually only to club members). A sale may contain a number of different items. Sometimes the customer information is missing, or it is a sale to a customer not known in Mr Big’s records. Then Mr. Big needs to put the customer’s information into his records.
Every 3 months Mr Big produces a newsletter that he circulates to his current club members containing details of any model items being specially promoted. For each newsletter, Mr Big keeps a circulation list of all members sent a copy of that newsletter.
As previously mentioned, Mr Big has plans to expand, and he hopes to open several new hobby shops. He realises that his current record keeping practices may not be adequate when his operations are automated and expanded. Mr Big reckons it's important to get his records organised so they can be stored in a database, but he's not very knowledgeable about these things. He would like to get involved in the internet because his customers keep talking about it, and he believes that when he takes on extra staff to support the new shops, he must be looking for some staff with expertise in information technology. Most of Mr big's current ideas about databases, information systems, client- servers, and internets have come from a Hobby Shop club member, but this club member has gone overseas and he won't be around for the next few months.
Mr Big has provided some sample forms that he uses to record his business data. He has provided four blank forms for recording information about model items, sales, customers, and suppliers. He has also provided a copy of each form containing sample data.
The object of this assignment is to use Rational Rose to manage your design of this system.
Your submission should include the following: