Case Study:
Auctions, Inc.
Auctions, Inc. runs fund-raising auctions for non-profit organizations like schools, community centers, churches, and charities. They want to automate or eliminate manual auction activities and raise the average amount of proceeds from the auctions.
Currently, members of the non-profit will solicit businesses to donate products and services --like coupons for dinners, home decorating items, gardening supplies, pies or cakes - generally anything a business has that someone might bid to ge. Most often these are silent auctions, where each item is displayed with a bid sheet showing details about the item. Bidders write down how much they are willing to pay on the sheet. Sometimes there are live auctions with an auctioneer, showcasing fewer (but more expensive) items.
The non-profit then sends out invitations to the auction event. Invitees buy tickets/reservations in advance. A few people wait until the last minute and buy tickets at the door. When they arrive at the event, bidders must check in and get a paddle with a unique bidder number tied to their name. They use the number to write their bids on the bid sheets or to signal the auctioneer. At the end of the auction, the successful bids need to be collected, sorted and totaled by bidder number. There is then a collection process for people to pay for the items they "won".
Often, there is additional fund raising by selling drink tickets or game tickets (think carnival games and dunking booths) which is done by recording bidder numbers with the number of tickets, and then adding these sales in with the winning item bids.
So far, Auctions, Inc. logs the business donations, prints bid sheets or booklets with "live" item details, and sets up the item displays, tables and the bar or games. They also arrange for bar tenders, hors d'oeuvres or a buffet, and music. The non-profit is responsible for arranging the venue.
The things that Auction, Inc. wants to automate include allowing the non-profits or donor businesses to log the donation details on a website or app. On auction day, they want to automatically generate and print the bid sheets and/or booklets. They want to be able to use spreadsheet lists provided by the non-profit to print invitation envelops for mailing. They want to speed up the payment processing at the end of the night. This is especially important because it takes a long time and many people using calculators to sort and add up the winning bids and drink ticket totals. There is also the issue of taking payments - few people carry cash or checks these days, and confusion results when the non-profit can't process a credit card at the event. Auction, Inc. would also like to be able to provide statements in the form of ‘Thank You' letters to donors and bidders that will document tax deductibility for the items after an auction is over.
1. Create a scope statement in the form of a list of deliverables and the high-level functional requirements for each.
2. Create a WBS for the work needed to create the deliverables in your scope. Use the verb-object naming convention at the lowest level of decomposition. Identify whether you are using deliverables, phases, or something else as the basis for organizing your WBS. Describe the technique (bottom-up, top-down, mind mapping, etc.) you used to develop your WBS.