Town-Guide Android Application
Student Name
Submission Date
Cover Letter
This project involved design and requirements gathering for an Android application called Town-guide application. The following is the list of people who engaged in the requirements gathering and the design study:
The Study Team Members
Name
Organization
Role
Asker Jones
City Guide Inc.
Database administrator
Peter Smith
City Guide Inc.
Mobile App Developer
Miss. Jayne Wang
City Guide Inc.
Requirements analyst
Alex Sigh
City Guide Inc.
System Designer
Study Objectives
The general objective of the study is to introduce a new android application for visitors at the end of next month to help lower their travelling costs by 50% and reduce the time for finding places and services to one minute. The project also aims to help visitors find category of services in a region by one click with details such as directions, ratings, costs and security. Through this study, the major deliverables are to gain understanding of the Town-guide system’s requirements and design through analysis of the market and the existing application in the same market.
Executive Summary
The Town-Guide Android app is intended to help users who are majorly visitors in a city to find locations, services and other products. The major objective of the project is to help people adopt to new places. Though there are various applications in the market with a near same purpose, the design and inclusion of features will allow the Town-Guide app have the desired breakthrough in the market. O understand the design and user requirements, it is essential to gather data on the available similar applications, their features and aspects that their users find challenging.
The study team will conduct a system analysis process where the mobile app developers will identify similar applications in the market. Specifically, the team will identify the application that help international visitors find their directions in the local places (Koutroumanis, 2011). The business analysist will identify all the business requirements of these systems and the way the requirements are implemented.
The analysis of the existing system will take one week where the analyst and the application developers will document the existing systems, issues in the current market and possible solutions or system alternatives that will solve the issues. This major method of analysis of the current system will be through peer reviews on the play store. The researchers will develop a list of questions that will help them go through the application reviews of existing customers. These questions and guidelines include the rating of the current applications, security challenges, application features, and application limitations, design of the application and ease-of-use of the application.
The recommendation of the system analysis is that the system is to integrate several functionalities from other system to enhance efficiency and solve the identified pro ...
1. Town-Guide Android Application
Student Name
Submission Date
Cover Letter
This project involved design and requirements gathering for an
Android application called Town-guide application. The
following is the list of people who engaged in the requirements
gathering and the design study:
The Study Team Members
Name
Organization
Role
Asker Jones
City Guide Inc.
Database administrator
Peter Smith
City Guide Inc.
Mobile App Developer
Miss. Jayne Wang
City Guide Inc.
Requirements analyst
Alex Sigh
City Guide Inc.
System Designer
Study Objectives
The general objective of the study is to introduce a new android
application for visitors at the end of next month to help lower
2. their travelling costs by 50% and reduce the time for finding
places and services to one minute. The project also aims to help
visitors find category of services in a region by one click with
details such as directions, ratings, costs and security. Through
this study, the major deliverables are to gain understanding of
the Town-guide system’s requirements and design through
analysis of the market and the existing application in the same
market.
Executive Summary
The Town-Guide Android app is intended to help users who are
majorly visitors in a city to find locations, services and other
products. The major objective of the project is to help people
adopt to new places. Though there are various applications in
the market with a near same purpose, the design and inclusion
of features will allow the Town-Guide app have the desired
breakthrough in the market. O understand the design and user
requirements, it is essential to gather data on the available
similar applications, their features and aspects that their users
find challenging.
The study team will conduct a system analysis process where
the mobile app developers will identify similar applications in
the market. Specifically, the team will identify the application
that help international visitors find their directions in the local
places (Koutroumanis, 2011). The business analysist will
identify all the business requirements of these systems and the
way the requirements are implemented.
The analysis of the existing system will take one week where
the analyst and the application developers will document the
existing systems, issues in the current market and possible
solutions or system alternatives that will solve the issues. This
major method of analysis of the current system will be through
peer reviews on the play store. The researchers will develop a
list of questions that will help them go through the application
reviews of existing customers. These questions and guidelines
include the rating of the current applications, security
3. challenges, application features, and application limitations,
design of the application and ease-of-use of the application.
The recommendation of the system analysis is that the system is
to integrate several functionalities from other system to enhance
efficiency and solve the identified problems. The system is also
to avoid complex designs in terms of user experience design
because visitors need to arrive at the information they are
looking for within a short time.
System Study
The system analysts and business requirement analyst used an
action research methodology to arrive at the study
recommendations, gather data and make conclusions. In this
type of research, the study team engaged in the project by
joining the other teams in the community to solve the problem
that guests had. The methodology involve an iterative process
that involve five major steps; planning, action, results and
reflection. For every iteration, the team will plan, take action,
obtain results and then reflect on the implementation of the
iteration. The iterations will be requirements gathering and
development of the system design.
During requirements gathering, the team used
questionnaires to collect data from the users. The team sent a
link to a questionnaire developed on Google forms and then
received the data in a common email. Thereafter, the team fed
the data into a data analysis tool called MS Excel where the
system requirements were prioritized and recommendations
made.
System Study Results
Existing Systems: Google Maps is one of the popular
applications that users know. This application is however,
limited in functionality when it comes to helping users adopt to
new location. Google Maps is both an Android and a web
application that provides users with locations and directions of
places based on a global positional system. The application
allows the users to find places, locate buildings and view the
available routes in a given region (Koutroumanis, 2011).
4. AroundMe android app is also another application that allows
users to locate gas stations, bars, guest rooms, restaurants,
hospitals and other regions that the users may need. Similar to
this app is Places Android app and Near Me applications. These
Near Me and AroundMe app help users locate places around
them and regions.
System requirements: the study also revealed that there is need
to have a system that covers comprehensive requirements to
help the visitors become comfortable in their new places.
Therefore, the following system requirements were found
necessary:
· System Requirements: System availability is 24 hours a day, 7
days a week and 365 days a year (99.9% uptime).
· Reporting Requirements: Weekly traffic report should be auto-
generated and sent to the business owner of the application.
· Data requirements: interfacing the system with geolocation
data, and other regional databases in terms infrastructure,
security and services.
· Business requirements: after approval of the system’s database
requirements, there should be five weeks of implementation of
the project.
· Security requirements: need to secure the system through two
level user authentication.
The problem with the current systems revealed include poor
security as evident in the lack of authentication, complexity in
design, lack of awareness, inadequate features, unreliable, and
unavailable.
System Alternatives
Combination of all possible features in one application: The
first alternative solution is that the new android application will
be unique through combining variety of features across the
current applications. However, unique features will include real
time chats with receptionists at hotels and various destinations,
comparison of prices price range for services, integration with
weather monitoring subsystem, booking of taxicabs and mobile
payment for advance booking through the app (Koutroumanis,
5. 2011). The cost implication of the alternative are as follows:
Component
Item
Estimated cost
Software costs
Additional APIs for system development (e.g. Google maps
API, Yahoo weather, Payment gateways, and SMS gateways for
notifications)
$3000
Human Resource
Additional need for Google developers, Mobile money
specialists, and system security experts
$2000
Cost Benefits
Addition of mobile payment to the system
The benefits include:
· Increase efficiency to facilitate payment
· Reduced transaction costs for smaller expenses like taxicab
payment.
Expected savings:
· About $2 for every service booked.
Selecting only a few important feature and using third party
services: this alterbative involves changing the application
features of similar apps and integrating the other features with
external parties like google, ATMs, PayPal among others. I will
change the design of Town-Guide application to include some
features from the Google Maps, AroundMe and Near Me
applications. This will help develop the application in a way
that users will find the app easier to use due to familiarity of
the design hence eliminating sharp learning curves.
Component
Item
Estimated cost
Software costs
Third party licenses
6. $500
Human Resource
Subscription to system support
$200
Cost Benefits
Integrated external systems
The benefits include:
· Reduced cost of maintenance and software update.
Possible risks include:
· Loss of information privacy and security.
Expected savings:
· About $3000 during the design and development of the app.
Possible financial loss:
· Loss of Millions of dollar if the attackers got hold of sensitive
information through external service providers like PayPal.
System Analyst Recommendation
The most efficient and cost effective alternative is to have an
in-built comprehensive features in the system and avoid links to
external services. the system will have maximum security and
avoid loss of information and confidentiality due to
unauthorized sharing of information through third party
providers. The new android application will be unique through
combining variety of features across the current applications.
However, unique features will include real time chats with
receptionists at hotels and various destinations, comparison of
prices price range for services, integration with weather
monitoring subsystem, booking of taxicabs and mobile payment
for advance booking through the app (Koutroumanis, 2011). All
of these feature will be designed by the project team members.
Though the costs may be higher, the solution eliminates huge
financial losses that the owners may encounter when attackers
exploit the system’s vulnerability through external systems.
Summary
In conclusion, the study revealed that the optimum solution is to
7. combine a variety os features in the Town-guide application by
outsourcing and insourcing the human resoruces at additional
costs to create the features as part of the system. this solution
will reduce the unseen losses due to attacks at the application
layer. The general objective of the study is to introduce a new
android application for visitors at the end of next month to help
lower their travelling costs by 50% and reduce the time for
finding places and services to one minute. The project also aims
to help visitors find category of services in a region by one
click with details such as directions, ratings, costs and security.
Therefore, this project is important as it helps reduce the costs
of adopting in a new environment.
References
Koutroumanis, D. a. (2011). Technology’s Effect on Hotels and
Restaurants: Building a Strategic Competitive Advantage. The
Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 12(2001), 72–80.
Appendices
The graph below shows the current issues identified from the
study on the current applications with similar functionality:
Current Issues versus Number of Respondents
number of respondents
Low availability Inadequate features Poor security Lack
user revie ws No mobile payment poor UI design incomplete
features slow loading missing advance search 5 12 9
2 11 3 1 2 6
8. Town
-
Guide Android Application
Student Name
Submission Date
Town-Guide Android Application
Student Name
Submission Date
Structured Walkthrough
Design a structured walkthrough as part of the quality assurance
measures for the following:
· your scenario application project
Discuss
· the format
· how a structured walkthrough would be initiated
· participants and their respective roles
· what form the output would have and how it would be utilized
INSTRUCTIONS:
9. Please submit it on time
APA format
Structured
Walkthrough
Design a structured walkthrough as part of the quali
ty assurance measures for
the
following:
·
your
scenario
ap
plica
tion project
Discuss
·
the format
·
how a structured walkthrough would be initiated
·
10. participants and their respec
tive roles
·
what form the output would have and how it would be utilized
INSTRUCTIONS:
P
lease
submit it on time
APA format
Structured Walkthrough
Design a structured walkthrough as part of the quality assurance
measures for the
following:
plication project
Discuss
utilized
INSTRUCTIONS:
Please submit it on time
APA format