Personal Trainer, Inc., owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities....

Personal Trainer, Inc., owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new “supercenter” in the Toronto area. Personal Trainer’s president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation.

Background

During data and process modeling, Susan Park developed a logical model of the proposed system. She drew an entity-relationship diagram and constructed a set of leveled and balanced DFDs. Now Susan is ready to consider various development strategies for the new system. She will investigate traditional and Web-based approaches and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of in-house development versus other alternatives. As she moves ahead to the systems design phase, she will review design guidelines, consider the use of prototypes, and analyze the possible use of codes.

Before You Begin . . .

Review the facts presented in the Personal Trainer case study in Chapters 2, 4, and 5. Use that information to complete the following tasks.

Assignments

1. Should the new system be designed as a Web-based system? Why or why not? What are some specific issues and options that Susan should consider in making a decision?

2. Assume that Cassia Umi, Personal Trainer’s president, has asked Susan to prepare a system requirements document and deliver a presentation to the management team. What should be the main elements of the system requirements document? Also, based on the suggestions in Part A of the Systems Analyst’s Toolkit, what visual aids should Susan use during her presentation?

3. Should Susan use a prototype during systems design? What options does she have, and how would you advise her?

4. Susan wants to prepare a presentation that will calculate the total cost of ownership for the system. What financial analysis tools are available to her, and what are the advantages (and possible disadvantages) of each tool?