SCEA II, assigment, needs some clarification on requirements

[Ashish Jain]

As mostly are working on same type of assigment of FBN systems. I am going through their requirement document.
Most of people in this grp,talks abt java applet implementation for travel agents and web interface for customers.

I am not getting, why we hav this requirement of java-applet for agents? It's not clearly specified in requirement docs that we may need java client.

Or is it obvious to use applet for agents for lower response time? or it's functional requirement somewhere in doc?

As per my understanding, they want to move customer and agents to nice web interface (for all purposes..) then why we write separate app for agents? They can be given screens on web-interface with functional requirement of 5secs response.

Please comment.

Thanks
Ashish Jain

[Theodore Casser]

Well, if you read the requirements, it states:

In addition to FBN travel agents, they want to make it easier for consumers to book travel, so they would like a web site for booking airfare. FBN would like to make the user interface more appealing for their travel agents by replacing the 3270 terminal with one that can support a graphical user interface.

How you implement the travel agent side is probably subject to your interpretation, so long as you can explain your choice adequately in the documents. There is more than one way to co about theproblem - the only issue is whether the scorer agrees with you.

Good luck!

[Ashish Jain]

Exactly...
Scorer agreement is all matters. (for me scorer is client who needs to approve my proposal )

One more hint is in req doc
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Interviewer: Speaking of the Frequent Flyer system, why are you not replacing it with this rewrite?

FBN CEO: Let me handle this. We spent a half million dollars 6 months ago to get this system in place. I for one am not ready to throw it away and spend another half million to replace it. You will have to interface with what is there and if this project goes smoothly and the J2EE application servers prove to work, then we can talk about rewriting it. Our travel agents Java application must be able to access the system and we want our customers to have access through the Internet.
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Practically, i won't approach spending time/resources building new java-app just for agents unless there is any existing app or any requirememt enforces it. At present, i don't see response time <5 secs is good enough for need of applet.

[Theodore Casser]

Though, if you want to be literal (using the quote you last used), the CEO does mention an apparently-discrete app for the travel agents. (I'm not trying to make your life difficult or be intentionally unclear, but I feel this is one of those areas where the way the assignment is handled can be biased beyond simple discussions of theory.) There is an existing app - the 3270 terminal app - if that's a factor in your decision-making process.