Learning Activity

Scenario:

A small enterprise in the form of a medical clinic know as “Medi-Scene Pvt. Ltd” has outsourced the development of a software product that will maintain, manage and develop a good base of patient and medical doctors.

The system functions in the lines of a CRM by keeping track of the medical history of patients. It also has the features of incorporating consultation from some well known doctors both in and out of Sri Lanka. Other additional features may be required and presented by the clients.

Background of the enterprise:

The enterprise has six branches located in and around the city of Colombo. Some of these branches function as research and development units. All branches have pharmacies and test centers while a few of them have clinics.

Exercise:

You will be divided into four teams as illustrated in the following page. These teams will be assigned tasks by the module lecturer. You are required to present the views of your team members in the angles demonstrated in page 2:

Learning Outcomes of the activity:

1. To understand the conflicting needs of the client and the vendor in a practical situation

2. To be able to understand the roles of various entities involved in a software development project

3. To think critically in terms of evaluation rather than development of software

4. To enhance team working and leadership skills

Business Analysts (BA): Team leads, documentation analysts quality analysts etc.	Software developers (SD): Team leads, software architects etc:
You are required to: Come up with a requirement specification for “Med-Scene” Communicate ideas and convince both the development team and the client of one another’s views. Always play the part of the client to the SW Developers You are to safeguard the quality of software at all times as well as build people’s confidence in it (BAs create the interface between SDs and the client.)	You are required to Come up with software specs (features of the software) Client and BAs must be convinced that your product will provide opportunity for expansion. You must be well aware of the product feature, limitations and future developments. You will provide the best system with all possible functionality, with high performance expectations and 100% reliability (SD tend to be over optimistic on what they can deliver!)
Client: personnel; from the medical clinic	Steering committee (SC): directors and managers from both the client’s and the vendor’s end.
You are not convinced that the system will give you opportunity for expansion. You are required to: Develop a good business case Clearly outline and communicate software requirements make inquiries about the product request for changes be concerned about quality arrange for any information that may be required about the enterprise Convince the software company that the product is not worth the trouble of implementation. Try to get as much features as you want. (speech recognition, face recognition, etc.) (the clients want as much functionality as possible with the least amount of time and money)	You are required to: Play the role of a judge Make decisions based on the scope of the software product Gather any required relevant information such as schedule, finance etc. Provide the green light and take off signals and come to conclusions and agreements. Eg: to stop project if it seems like its failing, provide additional resources, approve deadline extensions, etc… if the project status requires) Approve or reject Change Requests (the steering committee has to keep in mind the interest of the client at all times and at the same time should ensure that a feasible and successful implementation takes place)