BTECH Project 2004
The project I am involved with this year is to improve and implement features for Farmers' website.
Pretty simple, eh? I'm sure our group will change that, though!
Take me to the executive summary already!
Further information to be added as they become available.
It is finished!!! More to come. =)
Final documentation has started for me. Since development has yet to be finished it is imperative that documentation be started as soon as possible so that things are finished in time. This is my speciality anyways ;)
As for the User documentation, since we have some source material from vendor (with regards to the Contribute 2 Content Management System) it is expected to be rushed off later.
In terms of functionality development we are well on target to accomplishing the priority 1 and 2 functionalities, as well as the priority 3 and 4's. And perhaps some extra functionalities, but that is still pending how fast we nail our final presentation which is due next Saturday.
The website .NET redevelopment is a joint project between the Farmers IT department and Marketing department - the project arose out of the need to align the website closer to the Farmers web strategy, which is to support the shoppers who are in the homework stage at their purchasing decisions & provide them with timely and accurate information, and to drive sales in-store to the 55 physical Farmers stores located throughout New Zealand.
The current architecture involving the Axon hosting company is obviously flawed, incurring unnecessary costs in terms of maintenance and bandwidth and inflexible in terms of development, as there are often external development delays and costs before Farmers specific functionalities are improved and implemented on the Axon's Content management system CADE.
By bringing the website hosting in-house and leveraging the .NET technology of XML and web services, there is less cost in maintenance, increased information control, as well as greater flexibility of development and the building of a solid foundation to exploit future .NET technologies. The separation of content and presentation using a trialed and proven Content Management system (which we will research, trial, and recommend) will empower content contribution from non-technical personnel such as marketing staff.
Testing, documentation, and training will allow future developers to understand the situation and take the website to the next level using new technology!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Deadlines
The team I worked with consisted of : Me, Sharad Patel, and William Ariawan.
Our supervisor is Ian Howard
The people from Farmers :
Project manager : Ryan Winter and Project sponsor : Peter Burggraaff
The Farmers website has recently been redeveloped from a look feel perspective. It is currently built on Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and SQL Server 2000 technologies. We want to continue the site redevelopment by migrating the website to the .net platform in order to leverage the benefits of this technology. The goal of this project is to implement the migration, going live with the .net platform.
This project will include the following tasks:
Review, identify improvements to and redevelop the dynamic aspects of the Farmers site, including :
The website .NET redevelopment portion of the project involves the porting of current website functionalities (some of which will require improvement), and our analysis focus reflects that; below are some of the present functionalities of the website:
Ø Login – this will allow a customer to sign in. A successful sign-in leads to the product categories page where the customer can browse the catalogues for available products.
Ø Forgotten Login/Password - Allows a customer to retrieve their login and/or password when forgotten. Customers provide their email address and the system will look up the corresponding details and email it to the customer at that address. A confirmation message should be displayed when the email has been sent. Also it should indicate if an email address entered does not exist in their records.
Ø Registration - Allows a customer to create an online account with Farmers to enable purchasing from the website.
Ø Event Register – This a service provided by Farmers that allows a customer to create events that they can be reminded of, events such as birthdays, anniversaries, father’s day, mother’s day and the likes of those. Two weeks before the event, a reminder email is sent to the customer including a personalized reminder message.
Ø Shopping Cart - With a shopping basket, a customer can select several items that he/she wishes to purchase and keep track of their total purchase. They can add, remove or modify the quantity of the contents of the basket
Ø Contact – This page allows a customer to make enquiries/suggestions. It will accept customer information, have the customer select the subject of the enquiry/suggestion, and then an email is automatically created and sent to the relevant party depending on the subject selected. The user is then redirected to a confirmation page.
Ø Administration Module – Currently provided by the BizDesk module of Microsoft Commerce Server 2000, this module provides administration options such as setting promotional periods and product mailer configuration options.
The functionalities listed are the major functionalities that will be implemented in the new website – a more complete picture is provided in the use case models and the data flow diagrams, as we explore the possible actions of the customer and the website administrator.
Through the website .NET redevelopment project Farmers will reap the following benefits:
1. In-house development
Moving from an external architecture to an in-house architecture offers greater flexibility in terms of maintenance and feature development cycle reduced.
2. Reduced cost
Moving to an in-house architecture means there are no more outsourcing and bandwidth costs, as images and materials can be accessed locally without encryption and uploading to a remote server.
3. Scalability
Utilizing the .NET technologies, in particular C#.NET and ASP.NET, the new website’s scalability will only be limited by the developer’s skillsets and infrastructure constraints.
4. Increasing sales
Aligning the website with the Farmers web strategy means we will aid in driving in-store sales by providing key information for shoppers who are in the homework stage of their purchasing decision, and through moving traditionally store-based services such as application processing to the online environment, the store staff will have more time to focus on customer service – both of which are key factors in increasing sales!
Deadlines
Some intermediate milestones :
May - ASP .NET training finished
June - SDLC training - pace is slowed for the exam period
July - Coding starts!
August - Finish first 3 modules of development
September - Documentation wrap-up and exhibition preparation