The case study: Weddings, Parties, Everything Catering Services System Just about every event these days is expected to
Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 3:49 pm
The case study: Weddings, Parties, Everything Catering
Services System
Just about every event these days is expected to have a
professionally catered menu to accompany it. Weddings, conferences,
corporate events, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and parties
are just some of the different types of events where people want to
have that special food and drink experience.
Weddings, Parties, Everything is a rapidly-growing online
business that links together customers who need a caterer for their
event with businesses that provide catering. Customers input their
location and requirements, and are presented with a shortlist of
potential caterers who may be able to provide what they
need.
WPE has been partly manual for the first few months of their
operation, but now needs a new system to automate their business of
putting together the right customer with the right caterer. They
intend to roll the system out nationally, from their original base
in WA. Edison Guacamole, the owner/manager of WPE, has contacted
you for help.
The two sides to the system are, of course, the caterers and the
customers. Caterers register on the WPE system by
providing their business name, description, types of services they
provide (selected from a list), their location (city and postcode),
link to their own website, and contact email. ‘Verified’ caterers
are those that have provided their ABN, business name, logo, and
proof of current Public Liability or Professional Indemnity
insurance to the system. Using a verified caterer provides
additional confidence to customers that they are using a legitimate
business.
If they choose, the caterer can also advertise themselves as
having an ‘On-Time Guarantee’. This means that they guarantee to
provide the service on time, and if they are more than half an hour
after the scheduled time will reimburse the customer $100. Caterers
can also use reviews from previous satisfied customers in their
profile, and their average rating by customers.
Caterers pay to use the WPE system: this is done through
purchasing a number of ‘credits’ when they register. Payment for
credits is done through PayPal outside of the WPE system, although
WPE also keeps a record of the transactions. Credits are used for
preparing quotes for customers, with every quote costing the same
number of credits. Credits expire after three months, and the
system will notify the caterer that they need to purchase more
credits in order to be able to quote. The system also notifies the
caterer if they have run out of credit.
Customers do not need to pay in order to use the WPE
system. When a customer requires a quote for a catering job, they
submit their requirements through an online form. They supply their
postcode location and a list of requirements, including type of
event (buffet, dinner party, food truck, cocktail party, etc);
broad type of cuisine (Australian, French, Chinese, Mexican,
Indian, etc); number of people to be catered for; budget per
person; service required (delivery only, wait staff, bar staff,
etc), date of event, and any further instructions. They also supply
an email address they can be contacted through. This email address
also provides them with access to their account where they can see
the status of all their job requests. The account is created when
they submit their first job request.
Once the customer request for a catering job has been submitted,
the WPE system matches the request with the catering services that
are registered with it, and determines the three caterers that
could best meet the customer’s requirements. These caterers are
then notified via email that there is an open request for
quotation.
The caterers then respond to the customer with a detailed quote.
The quote includes the cost estimate, a flag indicating whether
further information is required for a complete quote, and any
comments. This information is provided in an online form that the
caterer completes and the system sends to the customer.
The customer receives an email including the same information
that the caterer has provided in the quote form. The caterer and
the customer may then discuss the job directly (outside the WPE
system) in order to arrive at a final decision. To help make up
their mind, the customer may also read more about the caterer in
the profile they have provided to WPE, the caterer’s own website,
and in the reviews that have been posted to WPE.
Once the customer has decided on a caterer, they return to their
account on the WPE site and choose the ‘hired’ option against the
relevant caterer’s quote for the job request. When this has been
done, the other caterers who quoted are automatically notified that
their quote was unsuccessful. If none of the quotes suits the
customer, they may choose to enter ‘unsuccessful’ directly against
the quotes.
If no quotes are received within 48 hours of posting the job
request the customer is notified and the request is closed. A
customer may also decide that they wish to cancel the job request
any time before making a booking, and record this against the job
request in their account.
Customers are encouraged to provide feedback on the service that
their caterer has provided. After the job is completed, the
customer can log in to their account and leave a 5-star rating and
associated comment against the job. To prevent spurious reviews, it
is only possible to post a review for a service that is recorded as
being booked by that customer. When the review is posted, the
feedback recorded against the caterer is updated for other
potential customers to browse through on the WPE site.
Obviously, the success of WPE depends on its ability to provide
the best caterers for a customer so that they can be confident in
using it. Various summary reports are provided each month so that
Edison can monitor the health of the business. These include the
percentage of quotes that were successful in obtaining a booking
for a catering job; and the average satisfaction rating of
completed catering jobs. The revenue to WPE in terms of payments
for credit is also reported, broken down for each capital city.
TO DO:
Answer questions below. Note the following points:
Q1.
Develop a list of use cases for the WPE.
Present your list in a table that includes the participating
actors, use case name and a brief use case description. For those
identified via Event Decomposition technique, you
need to include the event and type of event. (Note that some use
cases are already identified below. Include these in your
lists.)
Hint: you may use CRUD to double-check if there is any missing
one.
Q2. Create a
domain model class diagram for the WPE, including
all classes, attributes, associations, and multiplicity. Show
association classes and generalization hierarchies where
appropriate.
Q3.
Create a fully-developed use case description for
the use case Find caterer. Follow the
template provided at the end of this handout.
Q4. Draw an
activity diagram to represent the flow of
activities for the use case Generate credit payments
report.
Q5. Draw
a system sequence diagram for the use case
Provide feedback.
Q6. Draw
a state machine diagram to show the possible
states and transitions for a Catering
Job object. Label each state with the state
name. Label each transition with the appropriate transition
name, guard condition (if appropriate) and action expression (if
appropriate).
Services System
Just about every event these days is expected to have a
professionally catered menu to accompany it. Weddings, conferences,
corporate events, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and parties
are just some of the different types of events where people want to
have that special food and drink experience.
Weddings, Parties, Everything is a rapidly-growing online
business that links together customers who need a caterer for their
event with businesses that provide catering. Customers input their
location and requirements, and are presented with a shortlist of
potential caterers who may be able to provide what they
need.
WPE has been partly manual for the first few months of their
operation, but now needs a new system to automate their business of
putting together the right customer with the right caterer. They
intend to roll the system out nationally, from their original base
in WA. Edison Guacamole, the owner/manager of WPE, has contacted
you for help.
The two sides to the system are, of course, the caterers and the
customers. Caterers register on the WPE system by
providing their business name, description, types of services they
provide (selected from a list), their location (city and postcode),
link to their own website, and contact email. ‘Verified’ caterers
are those that have provided their ABN, business name, logo, and
proof of current Public Liability or Professional Indemnity
insurance to the system. Using a verified caterer provides
additional confidence to customers that they are using a legitimate
business.
If they choose, the caterer can also advertise themselves as
having an ‘On-Time Guarantee’. This means that they guarantee to
provide the service on time, and if they are more than half an hour
after the scheduled time will reimburse the customer $100. Caterers
can also use reviews from previous satisfied customers in their
profile, and their average rating by customers.
Caterers pay to use the WPE system: this is done through
purchasing a number of ‘credits’ when they register. Payment for
credits is done through PayPal outside of the WPE system, although
WPE also keeps a record of the transactions. Credits are used for
preparing quotes for customers, with every quote costing the same
number of credits. Credits expire after three months, and the
system will notify the caterer that they need to purchase more
credits in order to be able to quote. The system also notifies the
caterer if they have run out of credit.
Customers do not need to pay in order to use the WPE
system. When a customer requires a quote for a catering job, they
submit their requirements through an online form. They supply their
postcode location and a list of requirements, including type of
event (buffet, dinner party, food truck, cocktail party, etc);
broad type of cuisine (Australian, French, Chinese, Mexican,
Indian, etc); number of people to be catered for; budget per
person; service required (delivery only, wait staff, bar staff,
etc), date of event, and any further instructions. They also supply
an email address they can be contacted through. This email address
also provides them with access to their account where they can see
the status of all their job requests. The account is created when
they submit their first job request.
Once the customer request for a catering job has been submitted,
the WPE system matches the request with the catering services that
are registered with it, and determines the three caterers that
could best meet the customer’s requirements. These caterers are
then notified via email that there is an open request for
quotation.
The caterers then respond to the customer with a detailed quote.
The quote includes the cost estimate, a flag indicating whether
further information is required for a complete quote, and any
comments. This information is provided in an online form that the
caterer completes and the system sends to the customer.
The customer receives an email including the same information
that the caterer has provided in the quote form. The caterer and
the customer may then discuss the job directly (outside the WPE
system) in order to arrive at a final decision. To help make up
their mind, the customer may also read more about the caterer in
the profile they have provided to WPE, the caterer’s own website,
and in the reviews that have been posted to WPE.
Once the customer has decided on a caterer, they return to their
account on the WPE site and choose the ‘hired’ option against the
relevant caterer’s quote for the job request. When this has been
done, the other caterers who quoted are automatically notified that
their quote was unsuccessful. If none of the quotes suits the
customer, they may choose to enter ‘unsuccessful’ directly against
the quotes.
If no quotes are received within 48 hours of posting the job
request the customer is notified and the request is closed. A
customer may also decide that they wish to cancel the job request
any time before making a booking, and record this against the job
request in their account.
Customers are encouraged to provide feedback on the service that
their caterer has provided. After the job is completed, the
customer can log in to their account and leave a 5-star rating and
associated comment against the job. To prevent spurious reviews, it
is only possible to post a review for a service that is recorded as
being booked by that customer. When the review is posted, the
feedback recorded against the caterer is updated for other
potential customers to browse through on the WPE site.
Obviously, the success of WPE depends on its ability to provide
the best caterers for a customer so that they can be confident in
using it. Various summary reports are provided each month so that
Edison can monitor the health of the business. These include the
percentage of quotes that were successful in obtaining a booking
for a catering job; and the average satisfaction rating of
completed catering jobs. The revenue to WPE in terms of payments
for credit is also reported, broken down for each capital city.
TO DO:
Answer questions below. Note the following points:
Q1.
Develop a list of use cases for the WPE.
Present your list in a table that includes the participating
actors, use case name and a brief use case description. For those
identified via Event Decomposition technique, you
need to include the event and type of event. (Note that some use
cases are already identified below. Include these in your
lists.)
Hint: you may use CRUD to double-check if there is any missing
one.
Q2. Create a
domain model class diagram for the WPE, including
all classes, attributes, associations, and multiplicity. Show
association classes and generalization hierarchies where
appropriate.
Q3.
Create a fully-developed use case description for
the use case Find caterer. Follow the
template provided at the end of this handout.
Q4. Draw an
activity diagram to represent the flow of
activities for the use case Generate credit payments
report.
Q5. Draw
a system sequence diagram for the use case
Provide feedback.
Q6. Draw
a state machine diagram to show the possible
states and transitions for a Catering
Job object. Label each state with the state
name. Label each transition with the appropriate transition
name, guard condition (if appropriate) and action expression (if
appropriate).