Customer Comments on Overall Design Document

As we started our review of the document, we were disappointed to find that the Overall Design Document was not complete and ready for us to examine. At the time of our review, the entire document was not available to us. This greatly disrupted our review process of the document. We would appreciate reports being submitted on time.

The version we finally received was still missing:

• a summary for the overall system
• a management plan outlining your strategy for creating the system
• a description of the physical equipment required (e.g. the computers required)
• a description of the system to be delivered
• possible future enhancements to the system
• responses to our questions about the functional specification
• a glossary of terms you use (we do not understand the computer jargon)

From the portion we were able to review, we have the following comments:

• Book Operations:

  Add a Book: There are duplicate procedures for confirming user actions. We would like this simplified.

  Remove a Book:

  • We should be able to input call number as one of the user inputs. You are inconsistent in your description. A screen snapshot might have clarified this.
  • What happens when multiple copies of books match a search?
  • Again, there are duplicate procedures for confirming user action. Please simplify this.
  • Error messages are confusing and repetitive. Can you use messages that are more descriptive?

  Report on Status:

  • Overdue information is inappropriate. We should have more than yes/no data for an overdue book. We should know when the book was due and who has it out.
  • Your document made reference to screen snapshots that were missing at the time of review.

  Search for a Book: We would like all book information available for viewing after a successful search.

  Lend a Book:

  • The librarian should be informed when a user has outstanding fines. Furthermore, the system should not allow a borrower with outstanding fines to take out a book.
  • Error messages are extremely confusing and misleading. Please simplify these messages.

  Recall a Book: Again, there is duplicate confirmation of operations. This is confusing. Please eliminate this problem.

• Borrower Operations:

  Add and Remove operations for borrower accounts were not available at our review time.

  Update Borrower:

  • Borrower identification numbers should be assigned automatically by the system.
  • Confusing and repetitive error messages. Please simplify.

• Transaction Functions:

  Report on Fines: This section is extremely confusing. We are not sure what the functions do. We would like a report on all books overdue and the borrowers who have them out. Is that what these functions do? If so, it seems "Report on Status" already does this.

At the time of review, there was no facility for updating book information. We would like some means of doing this.

We expected a professional report from Nexus Corporation. Instead, we received a poorly written document with numerous inconsistencies and errors. Improvement will be required for our business relationship to continue.