Final assignment in INFO361: Systems Analysis and Design. Received an "A" grade. Basic project design of a basic computer system for a fictional pawn shop.

1. Pete’s Pawn
Shop – System
Proposal
Thomas Haymes
Systems Analysis and Design – Info 361
Albert Wynne
By

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Summery…1
 Systems Request and Case Scenario…1
 Business Case…2
 Gantt Chart…4
 Use Case Diagram…6
 Class Diagram…6
 Sequence Diagram…6
 State Machine Diagram…7
 User Interface Prototype…8
 Usability Test Report…9
 Executive Summery…10
SUMMERY
Less than six months ago, the staff and management of Pete’s Pawn Shop
approached our staff with a systems request – a computer system that would allow them,
to better manage their transactions, customer information, inventory, and item status. The
proposed system would allow staff to register and identify customers, update the
inventory with sales, pawns, purchases, and item details, including photographs, file
police reports, receive updates on loans, and standardize the information available to
them. As such, this report contains business cases, a Gantt chart, a use case diagram, a
class diagram, a sequence diagram, a state machine diagram, a prototype of the user
interface and a usability test report.
CASE SCENARIO AND SYSTEMS REQUEST
Project Name: Pete's Pawn Shop
Project Sponsor: Peter "Pete" Forthright, owner and chief operating officer
Business Need: Pete's Pawn Shop has been in the pawning business for 30+ years.
The business specializes in jewelry, electronics, furniture and
antiques, but other items may be accepted on occasion. Though Pete
has been using a computer for simple tasks such as word processing,
and managing inventory in simple spreadsheets, he has a difficult
time keeping up with the record keeping and the legal requirements,
and many accounting errors have resulted in substantial losses. Pete
believes that his business operations could be made more efficient
and effective with the proper information systems support.
Functionality: The expected functionality includes transaction support for sales,
purchases, and pawning, as well as managing inventory and repeat-
customers, provide financial and legal reporting [stolen property,
etc.], and marketing.

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Expected Value: Reduce losses due to book keeping errors, reduce cost for clerical
support, better decision-making in offering loans and appraising
items, and improve relationships with customers (new and repeat).
Special Issues or
Constraints: Limited funds for equipment upgrades and software development;
limited information systems expertise; many one-time customers;
reporting requirements to identify stolen goods; need for outside
appraisers for some items; two workstations with Internet access;
one external mass storage device; no website, Facebook or other
social media identity.
BUISNESS CASE
Scope Statement:
The proposal received requests a computer system to better manage Pete’s Pawn
Shop’s inventory and profits. The purpose of this document is to analyze the feasibility of
this proposal in regards to cost, function, and organization. We will be analyzing the
potential effectiveness, risks, reasoning, challenges, and impact on the business.
Organizational Feasibility:
This would actually aid the company’s needs of an improved method of keeping
track of merchandise and sales. The use of a computer system and database would have a
substantial impact on the functioning business, reducing the human error present thus far,
allowing a more streamlined approach that would possibly save time in certain
operational areas and increase profits. This would allow better management of inventory
and stronger loss-prevention. It would mark an improvement in communication among
employees and reduce the time and difficulty of these transactions.
The only issues would be training Pete and his staff in the use of this software and the
determining and licensing of the type of software to be used. One must consider the user
experience of the staff. It would have to be a fairly simple system given this is a small
business and there are only two computers.
Economic Feasibility:
This idea is sensible from a business perspective. The computer system would
allow better communication among employees and management, better knowledge of
inventory, debts, pricing, and other important details. Affordability would be based on
system features - complexity and ability, and should be chosen to suit the business’
needs. There will likely be a subscription fee as a recurring cost.
Risks would include system failure and data loss, which would certainly have a major
negative impact upon the business, perhaps crippling it, but can be prevented by regular

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backups and redundancies. This system would also have to be secure or protected by
passwords and an inexpensive firewall, for another risk would be data vulnerability and
manipulation, which, left unperfected, would leave the door open to data theft or
alterations, both also highly damaging to the company. However, the greatest risk, at the
moment, seems to be simple errors or failure to use the system, which would only prove
this venture to be a waste of money. One must remember that this is a small business and
there is only so much money that can be put into this project.
Technical Feasibility:
There are many technical issues regarding implementing a system in the pawn shop. One
technical issue will be converting old information to a new system. This includes
converting and uploading information from 30 years of business, including pawns, sales,
purchases, police reports, and inventory. This will require us to create a database for
each activity, then need to specify what each program will do. For example, we need to
create a program that will handle sales, purchases and keep track of inventory.
There are a number of risks associated in implementing a new system. One of the risk
will be misunderstanding the requirements and failing to manage the change. This
includes poor estimation of the project size and the project structure. This can cause a
project failure due to inadequate planning. This will be a low risk because we will spend
a lot of time planning on how to implement a system, which programs will handle what
activities.
Another risk to implementation will be not properly explaining to Pete and his employees
on how to use his new system. This will be a low risk because we will spend a
significant amount of time showing Pete and his employees on how to properly use the
system, which will have a relatively simple design.
The biggest risk to implementation of this new system will be hacker finding a way of
getting sensitive data from Pete’s new system. Hackers have been known to breaking
into security and taking sensitive data such as financial data. The way to counter this
measure will be to encrypt all his data. This will prevent hackers from getting sensitive
data.
Cost Benefit Analysis:

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GANTT CHART

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USE CASE DIAGRAM
CASE DIAGRAM
SEQUENCE DIAGRAM
sd Make Pawn Use Case

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STATE MACHINE DIAGRAM

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USER INTERFACE PROTOTYPE

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USABILITY TESTING REPORT
The web page for Pete’s Pawn Shop, for purposes of simplicity, now links directly to the
employee web page, accessible through username and password. From there, store staff
can manage the inventory and customer accounts, as well as handle the selling and
pawning of items. The pawn page in particular allows details and images of the pawn to
be directly uploaded to the database. The goal of this design is to increase the ease with
which pawns are handled and recorded. To this end, the initial design of the web pages
was made to be utilitarian yet relaxing.
When performing the tests, areas of major concern were as follows:
 Layout
 Minimal User Effort
 Aesthetics
 Consistency
 Content Awareness
 User Experience
The results of the usability test were surprisingly minimal. While consistency and layout
were a concern, the first test indicated a lack of clarity in the Pawn Item page of the
website. It wasn’t apparent that this was the place to input pawn details, rather it seemed
that it would only display the information. As such, minor cosmetic details were added in
to this page, as well as the rest of the website. Links were colored in blue and underlined,
while places to add text had underscores added. In addition, given the suggestion, an
additional option, to add a second item to pawn was added to the Pawn an Item screen in
the event of a customer pawning multiple items.

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The second usability test was likewise minor. This test brought forth an issue regarding
grammar. Originally the Pawn an Item Page was titled the Make a Pawn page based on
the sequence diagram for this project. As such, the page was renamed the more
grammatically appropriate Pawn Item page. The second test also indicated distaste with
the coloring of the web pages. The text was initially black and grey with a beige
backdrop. While meant to be relaxing, the tester found this design to be dull. As such,
after some experimentation, the backdrop was changed to a soft blue, and the text a
gentle purple, to promote the same relaxing utilitarian motif originally intended, thus
enhancing user experience.
Other than these comments, and their subsequent adjustments, no other issues were
indicated. It would seem that the web pages, at the moment, are consistent, easy to use,
clearly present their content, have a good layout, and present a pleasing experience for
the user. Further testing may be required for further enhancement, or better understanding
of the potential problems with the page.
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
The preceding information is centered on the use case of a clerk or manager
using the system to pawn an item. As in After analyzing the benefits and issues of
purchasing and implementing a system to manage transactions and inventory, a use case
involving the pawning of an item was implemented, indicating who would do what and
the order of events that would transpire. The case diagram indicating the behavior of the
system was prepared, demonstrating the movement of objects in the system and what
traits and actions they would be capable of, including the actions included when the loan
period concludes. The sequence diagram was subsequently prepared, followed by a state
machine diagram. Finally, the user interface prototype was prepared in PowerPoint, and
tested on a minimum of two people, with the testers focusing on issues of consistency,
user awareness, minimal user effort, user experience, aesthetics, and layout. The feedback
was collected and the design changes implemented as indicated in the testing report
above.
At this point, the following design suggestions and changes are advised. First of
all, there is the likelihood of a customer wishing to make multiple transactions – sales,
pawns, and purchases – in the same visit. The system would have to be adjusted to handle
multiple elements such as this. While the current system proposal would be capable of
handling these transactions, it would be relatively slow, and possibly confusing to the
user. A system upgrade or feature allowing the user to select multiple actions for a single
transaction, perhaps using a checkbox list, allowing the computer to keep track of what
needs to be done, would be advisable to ease the burden of the user. In addition, a system
for credit card and bank account transactions would be advisable. As the store may not
consistently have the amount of money needed for a transaction, it may be necessary to
transfer the money into the bank account of the customer. Thus, the system would have to
be able to contact the customer’s bank to make the transfer. It should be cautioned that
this particular use case may turn out to be too complicated to enact in real life, so some

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time should be spent on planning to determine feasibility. On a potentially more realistic
note, a function for store credit would be advisable for customers unable or willing to
make a cash or credit transaction. This is in a similar vein to other businesses with
buy/sell functions such as GameStop of FYE: For Your Entertainment. The information
on how much store credit a customer has earned can simply be linked to their customer
information. Credit can be included for sales or loyalty rewards.
The following actions remain before project completion and implementation.
Several use-cases remain, most notably the ones for sales and purchases. Their
subsequent diagrams will have to be linked back to those indicated in this report, which
will possibly require revision based on future development. Further additions to the
system, such as those previously suggested, will have to be considered and, once again,
use-cases, diagrams, and revisions made. The records system will have to have a degree
of normalization considered in order to have the effect of organization desired by the
pawnshop management that began this project. On this note, experimentation with the
records in Microsoft Access would be advised in order to find the normalization most
appropriate and effective for the data presented. Finally, there is the matter of the system
development. For a small business such as this, it would be advisable that a system be
pre-purchased. Further adjustments will have to be made to the planned system, the make
and capabilities of the computers in the store – in a worst case scenario, the computers
would have to be upgraded. The final step of the program would be the training the staff
in using the program.
To include a final thought, specific care and focus will have to be given to the
budget. As stated in the economic feasibility section of the use case, this is a small
business and there is a risk of too much money being invested in this project. The issues
of potential scope creep should be kept in mind throughout development. Only so much
of the profits can be put towards this new system before one can see a serious drain on
the store. If nothing else, one may have to do simply with Microsoft Access. It may lack
some of the desired features discussed above, but if it were to be installed on the store’s
server, it would have the desired effect initially sought.