Cas

e
stud
y
rep
ort
Web
develop
ment
case for
Univers
ity of
Notre
Dame

Rabia
Muzaffar
Ali BEIT
II

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Table of content

1. Summery of case … 03
2. Problem identification and analysis. … 04
3. Major problem … 05
4. Questions. … 05
5. Implementation … 08

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Summary of case

This case study is of university of Notre Dame .where they needed a simple and
inexpensive way to enable facility and staff to handle the web content of their own
departments. The office of information technology (OIT) didn’t have means to
centrally manage the university web contents and web site which had grown up to
300 different web sites and 270,000 web pages. And was costing them a huge
amount of money about $100,000 yearly .Some departments had the capability to
handle their web content but the others don’t. Due to this the website went stale
and the web traffic reduced.
The solution that the OIT found for this was the macromedia contribute and
Dreamweaver MX. Due to this they earned a lot of benefits .the software was low
cost, easy to purchase, implement and use. The web content was kept current and
web traffic rose
Thus the solution proved beneficial for the university of Notre Dame the facility
and staff and the web developers.

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Problem identification and analysis
There were many problems that were faced by the university OIT they are as
following
1. The web site was grownup to 300 separate websites and up to 270,000 web
pages
• No doubt handling it was a very difficult task
1. It was costing the university administration about 100,000$ per year
• It was a very big amount that can be saved and used some where else in
university.
1. Some departments can handle their own web content but most of them
couldn’t.
• As handling web content is not an easy task and skills and money is required
to do so.
1. Many departments’ websites went languished, and information went old.
• This causes the students and website visitors to feel unsatisfactory. The web
traffic also decreased.
1. The professional web developers spent too much time in editing and posting
content which they could have been used creating visually appealing and
effective web site
• As it was a web site related to education in university departments so the
content was dull and a sort of reading material.
1. A system needed was such that which is cheap, easy to implement and use
and do not require very sharp skills or trainings to users.
• Because at first devolving a software and than its implementation and usage
is not so easy .proper training is given to the users which cost time and
money.

KEY
#:- problem
• :-
analysis

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Major problem
In spite of the above mentioned problems .the major problem of the case is as
following.

1. The major problem was of budgeting. Developing and managing the

university of Notre Dame web site centrally was very difficult. A lot of
money was spent and was spending on it. An approx estimate of it was
100,000$ per year.

• Indeed the amount spent on it was very big and by using some other
technique or method this amount could be saved or used some where else in
university development program.

Questions
Some of the case study questions are:-
Q.no1. State the type of the Client's Business. What were the
challenges faced by the Business? How you will overcome these
challenges?
Ans.
• Type of business;
The type of client business was of university website
management. And also management of web content on daily bases.
• Challenges:
The challenges faced by the business was that the university office of
information technology(OIT), didn’t have the means to centrally manage the

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university website .which was grown up to 270,000 web pages and 300 separate
websites, the professional web developers were also unable to manage the web
content as a result the university web site went static and stagnant. another
challenge faced was to self equip the departments so that they can manage their
own web content on daily bases , so that the visitors can receive proper
communication and are encouraged to return.
• Over comes the challenge:
In my opinion to over come these challenges we
must
• split and divide the website management among the respective group, to
whom the web content belong to
• Peer to peer linked software could be developed and installed with equal
rights to the groups and an access password. Where they can manage their
content by accessing the domain easily.
• A group of people from every department should be chosen and trained them
in the software management so that they can perform the management task.
• A group of professional web developers could be hire for every department
to manage their own web content.

Q.no2. what were the steps taken by development team for building
solution? What results were obtained? Discuss each solution with your
own recommendation.
Ans.
• Steps by Development team:
The development team led the effort to find a
centrally managed web publishing system, they looked at their peers, industry,
buying a system, but they considered building their own system.

• Result:
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 In reward of their struggle they suddenly came across to the beta test
macromedia contribute a new content publishing tool that covered most of what
was offered in the system they nearly implemented but it was much simple way
and much lower cost. The website traffic rose 15%year over year.
• Recommendation:
In my point of view the solution they found was very good .but a little amendments
can also create a great difference
• Instead of dream viewer software, another software called CMS (content
management system.)Could be used .it help the user to manage the content
dynamically. Which dream viewer cannot handle
• A group of web developers could be hire for each department and they can
manage their web on instant bases.

Q.no4.Keeping in view the 4P's of Marketing (Product, Place, Price

Promotion), what will be your plan under each heading (P's) for
Business discussed here in the case study for effective Web Design &
Development.
Ans. keeping the 4P’s in mind my plan will be for
1. PRODUCT:-
• The quality of the web content should be increased.
• The informational value of the site should be arranged from its target public
point of view
• It should be more pictorial or visual instead of reading material.
1. PLACE:-
• The content should be managed in such a way that the visibility of the site
on the internet particularly within the major search engine should be clear.
1. PRICE:-
• As such the price factor is not involved in this case.
1. PROMOTION:-

The promotion of the university website could be like

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 • If a separate web site is created with a database and user registration system
in which the regular users & university students were registered with an
account & every user was also registered with a specific department so that
when ever their was a new uploaded file or article an email could be sent to
them. This could increase the user trust and web traffic. Investment of once
and profit of long run.

Implementation

In my recommendation the solution discussed in above paragraphs is better enough

to be implemented.
• The CMS content management system is a good and easy way to manage
content dynamically. It will be costing only for once but it can be used for
long term.

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