Deliverables for Part 2 – Observation (12%) Solution

Background: To gain a greater understanding of the existing system, you are required to focus your observation on one customer type (target persona) at the Montreal Central Station located at 895 Rue de la Gauchetière Ouest in Montreal.
 

Member Contributions: Each team member must contribute to each project deliverable. A team member who does not contribute to a project deliverable receives a mark of 0 (zero) for that deliverable. A team member may optionally email a confidential statement of work to the instructor before the due date of the project deliverable. A statement of work lists in point form how team members contributed to the project deliverables. In addition, the statement of work also describes whether the workload was distributed fairly evenly among the team members. A statement of work may be used to adjust the mark of a team member who is not contributing sufficiently to the project deliverable. It is not necessary to email a statement of work, if a team distributed the work for the project deliverable fairly evenly and each team member contributed sufficiently.

    1 Target Persona

Ideally, the recommended target persona is one from the personas described in the deliverable for Part 1 of the Project as the required details of the persona are then already available. If this is not the case, a description of the target persona similar to the one in the deliverable for Part 1 must be provided in the email sent to the CEO and CTO. The CEO and CTO will confirm your selection, i.e., it is possible that you may be required to observe a different persona. Note that a persona describing a common customer type will be preferred over a persona describing a special case.

    2 Observation Time Slot

Choose your 2hr observation time slot wisely as it must be consistent with your choice of target persona, i.e., it must be likely to observe the target persona at that time. Furthermore, choose an observation time slot where the Montreal Central Station is busy (i.e., in the morning when commuters arrive, during lunch hour, or in the late afternoon/early evening when commuters leave). The CEO and CTO will confirm your selection, i.e., it is possible that you may be required to conduct your observation at a different observation time slot.

    3 Observation

All team members must be present for the observation of the target persona. However, you may split your team into two groups with the first group observing during the first hour and the second group observing during the second hour of your observation time slot. As a result of the observation, your


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Project: Deliverables for Part 2    ECSE326 / Fall 2018



consulting company will produce an elicitation document. The following ground rules apply to the observation:

    • The goal is to observe the behavior (processes) of your target persona, i.e., anything that happens from the point the target persona walks into the Montreal Central Station until the target persona leaves. Since it may be difficult to identify your target persona, you have to position yourself strategically at one or more locations in the Montreal Central Station. While the focus of your observation is your target persona, you still need to take note of other customers as they may interact or even compete with your target persona. Consequently, your elicitation document will talk about all your observations, not just your target persona.

    • The observation period is limited to two hours per consulting company.

    • You will play the role of a “secret customer”, i.e., you may not reveal to the employees or other customers that you are observing them. You are only allowed to interact with them as a regular customer. This is to ensure that everyone acts as naturally as possible.

    • You are not allowed to make any kind of recordings (e.g., audio or video) during your observations.

    • You are not allowed to disrupt the business in any way.

    4 Elicitation Document

The elicitation document describes your observations in as much detail as possible. The goal is to make the implicit explicit, i.e., every small detail may be important. Be as comprehensive as possible. The elicitation document must contain the following sections:

    • Title page (see below for details – this page must be a separate page)

    • Date, time, and location of observation (including justification for chosen observation time slot)

    • One paragraph description of observed target persona (may be taken from the deliverable of Part 1 of the Project)

    • List of all other personas observed in addition to the target persona

    • List of observed processes (with a focus on your target persona but not necessarily only on your target persona; hence indicate the involved persona(s) for each listed process)

    • Detailed description of your observations (several pages)

Clearly state the course name and number, term, group number, optionally the name of your consulting company, and team members on the title page of your elicitation document. The elicitation document is to be formatted with single line spacing, Calibri or Times New Roman 11pt font, and normal margins (2.54cm all around) . If you are using an application other than MSWord for your report, convert your report first to either a PDF file or a DOC(X) file.

A good example of an elicitation document for last year’s project is provided in the Project folder of myCourses. The document describes the observation at the Five Guys Restaurant and was compiled by a consulting company with four members. The goal of the observation was to better understand the ordering process from the moment a customer enters the restaurant until the customer leaves the restaurant. The goal of the project was to improve business at the restaurant’s Montreal location. Note that the required structure of the elicitation document slightly changed compared to last year.

    5 Peer-Review

After the submission of the elicitation document, each team member will be required to review the submission of another group. Give constructive feedback, pointing out areas of the elicitation document



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that are well done and those that need improvement. Give concrete advice on how to improve the document. A rubric will be provided to you after the submission of the elicitation document. More information about the peer-review platform will be made available closer to the submission deadline. After the end of the peer-review period, the elicitation documents of all groups will be shared among all groups.


Submission

Your team is required to hand in the elicitation document as a single doc(x) or pdf file in myCourses as well as the peer review system. In myCourses, the elicitation document needs to have a title page. The submission to the peer review system must be anonymous, i.e., the title page must not be submitted. Make sure that the remaining pages do not contain any information that could identify your consulting company. Furthermore, each team member is required to submit her/his peer-review in the peer review system. The exact details on how to submit these deliverables to the peer review system will be provided closer to the submission deadline.


Marking Scheme



Deliverables for Part 2 of Project
Marks





Justification for chosen observation time slot
6


Description of target persona
2


List of other personas that were observed
6


List of processes that were observed (including involved personas)
6


Detailed description of your observations
50


Appearance of elicitation document as well as grammar/spelling mistakes
5


Peer-review (individual part)
25






Total Marks:
100

The total mark may be adjusted based on the actual contributions of a team member to the deliverables.



























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