Projects

CASE STUDY 1: NEWAGE GORP

Background
Edward Norton established NewAge Corp 15 years ago in Houston. Initially, the
organization used to manufacture LAN cards, keyboards, and sound cards. The company’s
strength was around 50. Over the years, the business of NewAge Corp grew tremendously.
Today, the organization has three manufacturing plants and several sales offices across the
United States. It manufactures motherboards and Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) in addition to their
existing product range. The organization currently employs more than 5000 personnel.

Existing System
In the existing system, the three manufacturing units and the various sales offices use
different software applications to manage the details of the employees. This results in different
formats of the Management Information System (MIS) reports being used, which in turn leads
to inconsistency in data. The management of the organization finds it cumbersome to maintain
the employees’ details. The employees’ records are maintained as flat files on local computers.
There are no search, filter, and sort functionalities available. This results in delay in preparing
the various types of reports needed by the management as well as errors in report generation. In
addition, the same data is stored in multiple files, leading to data redundancy and wastage of
storage space. Data can be lost or be tampered with because there are no security and data
backup mechanisms available.

Envisioned System
After studying the shortcomings of the existing system, the senior management of
NewAge Corp decides to develop an Online Employees Management System. The
management of employees’ records will be automated and data will be stored in a Web-
supported format by using XML. This will ensure consistency across the organization. The
management wants the details of the employees working at the various locations to be
available on a central database at the head office for easy accessibility. To update the
centralized database, all branches will send data in the XML format. A filter criterion will
ensure that only the authorized employees of the organization can access the data. At times, the
MIS department of the organization will need to sort the employee data records by the
employee ID, employee name, or designation. The application will also facilitate users to sort
and filter the employees’ records.
The system administrator will update the centralized SQL Server 2000 database at the head
office with the XML document sent by all branches. The system administrator will also be
able to retrieve the employees’ details from the SQL Server 2000 database in the Internet
Explorer.

To provide the envisioned functions, the new system should have the following features:
1. The system should have a mechanism to allow only authorized users to access it.
2. The system should maintain the details of the employees in a Web-based
transportable database. The details of the employees to be stored include employee
name, employee ID, designation, address (street, apartment, city, state, zip code), date
of birth, and the department.

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3. The system should have a mechanism to validate the format of the employees’
records.
4. The system should have a mechanism to sort the details of the employees on the
basis of employee ID, employee name, and designation.
5. The system should have a mechanism to filter the details of the employees on the
basis of their name and ID.
6. The system administrator should be able to update SQL database with XML data and
retrieve data from SQL server in XML format.

The following components can be used to perform the various operations in the application:
• XML: To store the details of the employees.
• XSD: To validate the XML document containing the employees’ details.
• XSL: To format XML documents containing details of the employees and to provide a
method for sorting and filtering the records.
• XPath Queries and XML SQL Server 2000 supported methods:
o To process the data in XML documents with SQL Server 2000 and to update the
SQL Server 2000 database from the XML documents.
o To display the records from the SQL Server 2000 database in the XML format.
• JavaScript: To display the details of the employees. It consists of the methods required
for sorting and filtering the records.
• HTML: To design the Web pages, call the methods of JavaScript, and display the
retrieved data to the users.

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CASE STUDY 2: BLUEMOON RECRUITMENT AGENCY

Background
BlueMoon is a renowned manpower recruitment agency that has a Web site to facilitate
online search for jobs. The organization has branches all over the world. The branches contact
various organizations to collect information about job vacancies and recommend resumes that
match the requirements of these organizations.

Existing System
The various branches of BlueMoon update a centralized data repository with the
resumes of the job seekers. In addition, the branches also update the centralized repository with
the information about vacancies at various organizations.
To update the centralized repository, all the branches send their data to the head office where
the resumes of the job seekers are scrutinized. The selected resumes are added to the database.
The Web site also facilitates the online functions of job search, resume generation, and job
vacancy generation.
However, BlueMoon has been facing problems in maintaining consistency in the resume
formats sent by the job seekers. In addition, the efficiency of the Web site reduces significantly
during search operations. An analysis revealed that the job seekers perform location- and
category-based search to view the list of available jobs.
To facilitate these search operations, the Web server frequently interacts with the database.

Envisioned System
In the current implementation of the Web site, there is an existing data storage solution
deployed on SQL Server 2000. The Web site is hosted using IIS 4.0.
To solve the problems, BlueMoon decides to use XML to ensure the consistency of resume
formats. In addition, it plans to use XML as the base for developing a search engine.
The system administrator will update the centralized SQL Server 2000 database at the head
office with the XML documents containing resume details of the job seekers sent by all
branches. In addition, the system administrator will be able to retrieve the resume details from
the SQL Server 2000 database in the Internet Explorer.

To provide the envisioned functions, the new system should have following features:
1. The system should have a mechanism to allow only authorized executives to access
the resumes of the job seekers.
2. The system should maintain the details of the resumes sent by the job seekers in a
Web-based transportable database. The details of the job seekers to be stored will be:
• Personal details, such as name, age, gender, address, telephone number,
and e-mail ID.
• Educational details, such as graduation details, post-graduation details,
and additional qualifications, if any.
• Professional details, such as experience, nature of the current job,
current employer, tenure, designation, and skill set.
• Miscellaneous details, such as location preference and achievements.
3. The system should also maintain the details of the current openings in the Web-
based transportable database. The details of the current openings to be stored include

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the organization name, organization profile, designation, qualification, job description,

category, salary, location of vacancy, and contact information.
4. The system should have a mechanism to display a list of the resumes of the job
seekers.
5. The system should have a mechanism to approve or reject the specified resume.
6. The users should be able to find the currently available opportunities by specifying
the desired location and the job category.

The following components can be used to perform different operations in the application:
• XML: To store details of the job seekers and the currently available opportunities.
• XSD: To use the schema definition for XML documents that contain the resume details.
All XML documents can be validated against this schema by using the XML Schema
Validator.
• XSL: To format the XML documents that contain details about job categories,
• resume, and locations. The XML documents are generated when a user performs a
search based on job category or location.
• XPath Queries and XML SQL Server 2000 supported methods:
• To process the data in XML documents with SQL Server 2000 and to update the SQL
Server 2000 database from the XML documents.
• To display the records from the SQL Server 2000 database in the XML format.
• JavaScript: To display the resume of job seekers. It consists of the methods required for
approving and rejecting the specified resume.
• HTML: To design the Web pages, call the methods of JavaScript, and display the
retrieved data to the users.

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CASE STUDY 3: SIMPLESOFT SOLUTION LABS

Background
SimpleSoft Solution Labs started out as a solution provider for maintaining small Web
sites in 1992. In the year 2000, it also started developing application software. Today the
organization has several design and development divisions and several distribution centers
spread across the United States.

Existing System
The design and development divisions of the organization are finding it difficult to
manage the increasing number of projects. The organization is outsourcing projects to 500
vendors across the country. The organization is finding it difficult to maintain such a large
number of vendors. Currently, the organization maintains the following vendor-specific
information:
• The vendor details, such as vendor name, profile, address, phone number, Web
site, and e-mail ID.
• The skill set of the vendor.
• The projects successfully executed by the vendor.
• The financial information, such as bills payable and account status.
In the current system, SimpleSoft Solution Labs maintains this information in Excel
sheets locally at each branch. This makes it difficult for the organization to manage data. In
addition, searching for an appropriate vendor whenever the organization needs to outsource a
project is time-consuming. At times, a project is awarded to a vendor who does not possess the
required set of skills.

Envisioned System
The management of SimpleSoft Solution Labs wants to implement time- and cost-
saving measures to improve their processes and increase business profits. It plans to transfer
the vendor details in a Web-supported format from the branch offices to the head office to
ensure data consistency. The management has decided to automate the processes of selecting
vendors and awarding projects so that employees do not need to manually search the list of
vendors to allocate a project.
The system administrator will update the centralized SQL Server 2000 database at the head
office with the XML document containing the vendor details sent by the branches. In addition,
the system administrator will be able to retrieve the vendors’ details from the SQL Server 2000
database in the Internet Explorer.

To provide the envisioned functions, the vendor information system should have the
following features:
1. The system should have a mechanism to allow only authorized users to view the
vendor information.
2. The system should maintain the details of the vendors in a Web-based transportable
database. The details of the vendors to be stored include vendor name, profile, address,
phone number, Web site, and e-mail ID. The database should also store the skill set of
the vendor, the details of the projects successfully executed by the vendor, and the
financial information, such as bills payable and account status.

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3. The system should have a mechanism to view and update the vendor details.
4. The system should have a mechanism for creating a new vendor or a new project.
5. The system should have a mechanism to display all running projects and provide
status of each project, such as completed, ongoing, or cancelled.
The following technologies can be used to perform different operations in the application:
• XML: To store details of the vendors.
• XSD: To use the schema definition for XML documents containing vendor details. All
XML documents can be validated against this schema by using the XML Schema
Validator.
• XSL: To format XML documents containing details about vendors and to provide a
method for selecting a vendor.
• XPath Queries and XML SQL Server 2000 supported methods:
• To process the data in XML documents with SQL Server 2000 and to update the SQL
Server 2000 database from the XML documents.
• To display the records from the SQL Server 2000 database in the XML format.
• JavaScript: To display the list of vendors. It consists of the methods required for
searching and updating a vendor, assigning a project to the vendor, and displaying the
project details.