Question: ACCT-361: Systems Development Project
Application of Business Processes and Embedded Internal Controls
Scope: This is an individual project that requires the development of an event-driven IT application prototype for a business process in your assigned industry. The project will conclude in a demonstration of your working database. The objective of the project is to:
• Apply the cumulative instruction provided in this course to a final project that integrates your understanding of the course material and the relational database management skills presented throughout the semester;
• Increase understanding of how technology affects organizations and the varying information needs of different industries; and
• Increase understanding of how the use of technology and the knowledge of business processes and internal controls can help accounting professionals produce and deliver more valuable information.
Organization of the Project: Individuals within each industry group will be assigned the responsibility of modeling and developing an event-driven information system. Each member will be responsible for different events within the three basic business processes: Payment/acquisition process; conversion process; and sales/collection process. The nature and scope of these processes will vary, depending on your industry. You should make sure that your business process incorporates some of the unique information aspects of the
industry you have studied (e.g., for the health care industry - patient management). While each member of the industry group will be assigned different business process events, the database components designed by other members of the team need not interface. Note that the HR process cannot be chosen for this assignment.
1. In Step One, you will create an REA model with cardinalities for the process you have chosen. The REA model will describe the entire process. The database you develop, however, will include only two related business events in the process.
2. In Step Two, you will create any needed tables, complete with key attributes (primary keys), foreign keys, and non-key attributes for each of the two business events you have chosen within your business process (including resources, agents, and locations) using Microsoft Access.
3. Identify potential business rules and business risks associated with each event you have modeled, and invoke real-time information risk controls.
4. Complete your prototype. You should have an information process to record the event; a maintenance process for each resource, agent, and location data store; and a reporting process for each document and report produced by the system.
Specifically, you systems project will include:
• At least one table for each object related to the two events you are prototyping. Additional tables will be needed for *:* maximum cardinality relationships and some 1:* relationships as required.
• One form for each recording and maintenance process. This includes the agents and resources, as well as the operating events.
• At least two reports, one of which will be a response or notification confirming the business event took place (i.e., an invoice for a sale event or a profitability analysis for a sale event). This will require complex queries.
• A main menu form and submenu forms that will help organize your system and allow access restrictions. The various users of your system must be able to access all forms and reports using menus. Users will not use the database objects window in MS Access.
6. Populate your database and test the accuracy of your prototype. This will require you to add new records to your event and maintenance tables using the forms you developed, printing the reports and verifying their accuracy, and navigating your system using the menus created.
7. Prior to the turning in your project, test your application with another member of your class to iron out any problems ex ante.
Required at Time of Completion (all requirements are to be uploaded to Blackboard):
1. Documentation of the tables (i.e, the data dictionary and documenter) of your event-driven IT prototype.
2. An entity-relationship diagram (computer-drawn) of your prototype. This can simply be a screen print of the relationships in your database.
3. A computer-drawn REA model with cardinalities of your entire business process, as in Step One, and not just the two sequential events you prototyped.
4. Upload your completed and populated prototype (Access database) to Bb.
5. A three- to five-minute video presentation of your system using the Kaltura tool on Blackboard (instruction video is available in the Project folder on Blackboard). This video will be uploaded to the Media Gallery of our Blackboard course.
Note that all projects should use "accy" as the password for system access and any additional passwords that are created in your system. This will allow your professor to test your system.