The document outlines a project to evaluate and improve the University of Memphis' learning management system. It describes using the waterfall method, including planning, analysis, design, and implementation phases. In the planning phase, the team developed requirements like allowing online access and collaboration. Analysis involved use cases, data flow diagrams, and an entity relationship diagram. The design considers outsourcing development, a client-server architecture, and interfaces. It also addresses data storage formats.
3. Industry
3
Learning management systems (LMS) are widely used
throughout most universities offering an online
learning program for degree-seeking students
The Desire2Learn (D2L) Learning Environment (aka
eCourseware) is the official LMS offered by the University
of Memphis
The university has plans to highly adapt to the
advancing needs of students
Most curriculum courses incorporate the use of LMS at varying
degrees
4. Organization
4
The University of Memphis has contracted with EC2,
a local IT consulting firm, to evaluate its current LMS
Recent surveys indicate a general dissatisfaction from
users– mostly due to major limitations with
collaboration
Long-term goals for the university includes growing
the online learning program and increasing the
retention rates for enrollment
5. Waterfall Method
5
To accomplish the business goals defined by the
university, we utilized the waterfall method of the
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Our approach consisted of several phases to be
followed in sequential order:
Planning
Analysis
Design
Implementation
6. Planning
6
The planning phase of the project included major
tasks and deliverables:
Developing the scope statement
Select the project team members and assign roles
Identify necessary deliverables
Create the work breakdown structure
Define the tasks needed to complete deliverables while abiding
by the determined schedule
Determine the budget and prepare a cost analysis
7. Requirement Determination:7
Functional Requirements:•
The Students and Faculty must be able to access courseware
with the features like accessing the mail ,hangout with class,
participate in the virtual class
Non-Functional Requirements:•
•
The system must be able to access from any Operating system,
from any mobile device with good accessing speed and
response time
The system must have a secure authentication system and the
information displayed should be user specific.
8. Requirement Gathering Techniques
8
Interviews:• To gather the necessary requirements in improving the current
system, the following people can be interviewed: students,
faculty, and support staff.
Joint Application Development:• JAD Sessions also helps in identifying difficulties with the
existing system and also the new features for the existing
system.
Questionnaires:• Questionnaires also helps in identifying difficulties with the
existing system and also the new features for the existing
system.
18. Design Acquisition Strategy
18
• EC2 must evaluate two options for improving
Ecourseware student interfacing applications: Custom
Development or outsourcing to a third party.
• EC2 has determined that the biggest disadvantage to
building the applications in house is that the University’s
team of in-house developers may lack the knowledge and
expertise to create sophisticated student interfacing
applications capable of handling all the tasks it will
require.
• EC2 recommends outsourcing the software, we believe
University of Memphis can streamline tasks, reduce
errors, integrate the data, and make everyone’s (most
importantly students) life a lot easier for years to come.
19. Alternative Matrix
19
Alternative Matrix suggests that outsourcing is more beneficial than
custom development (355 total score vs. 330 total score for Custom
Development).
20. Architecture design
20
• Architecture design plans for how the system will be
distributed across computers and what the hardware
and software will be used for each computer.
• EC2 has recommended a Client Server Architecture.
• In the Memphis network, the client/server model
provides a convenient way to interconnect programs
that are distributed efficiently across different
locations. This is especially crucial to the online MBA
students where the University is trying to improve
the interfacing platform.
27. Data Storage Design
27
EC2 recommends multiple data storage formats
Application: Transaction Process System
Relational Database: best for simple data
texts
dates
numbers
Object databases: best for complex data
Audio
Video
Images