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Redesigning Berkeley Academics' information systems to enhance efficiency and facilitate growth. Addressing email and information management challenges with a web-based application. Lessons learned in business requirements and database and UI design testing.
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Berkeley Academics Information Redesign Andrew Iskandar Lulu Guo Advisor: Ray Larson
Project Goal • The goal of this project is to redesign the current information systems of Berkeley Academics to facilitate the growth and expansion of the company making administrative and communicative tasks easier and more efficient.
Background • Berkeley Academics is a non-profit tutoring company in Alameda, CA. Est. 2003 • 3 full time administrative staff • 8-10 college tutors • 30-40 students • Tutoring/Classes/Scholarships • Growing and Expanding • New Location: San Ramon, CA • 4-5 full time staff • 10-15 tutors • 50-60 student
Problem: E-mail • Synopsis of E-mail • Characters • Admin Staff: Sue, Jeannie • Tutors: Jenny Kim, Esther • Story: E-mail from Jeannie • Sue is sick, Jeannie asks Esther to cover her tutoring duties • Jenny’s student doesn’t come in, did not know about it • Sue scheduled a make-up session for a student, but didn’t tell anyone • Two new sign-ups show up for session, no one knew about it. Asked to be tutored in subject no one could tutor
Problem: Problem Areas • People-Based Information Systems • Admin staff hold information in head • Forgot to propagate/communicate information • Processes are manual • Paper-Based Information Systems • Ad-hoc • Transient/easily lost • Inefficient, slow • Hard to communicate with
Implementation • Web-Based Application • PHP/MySql • PHP Objects • Abstraction layer between DB and application • Eclipse/CVS/PHPEclipse Plugin • CSS/Javascript
Lessons Learned • Lessons Learned • Importance of gathering business requirements • Database design • UI iterative design testing