Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 1

Information Technology Inventory System (I.T.I.S)

Cody Dill & Jared Hubbard

California State University Monterey Bay

CST: 499 Capstone

Allan Hancock College IT Department

Dr. Tao, Professor Robertson, Cassandra Humphrey

May 9, 2019
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Executive Summary

The Information Technology System Inventory is a simple concept that will relieve stress
from the information technology departments that do not have a proper inventory system. The
goals for this project are to allow colleges and small businesses access to an inventory web
application. It will allow users to insert their own data and use to report functionality to see the
equipment. Our primary target is a local community college that we have been in contact with.
They have given us the data to build this project.
The purpose of this project is to upgrade a community colleges inventory system. They
are currently using an excel spreadsheet to process their inventory, but it has flaws. It does not
always have the most current data after equipment gets replaced, and people forget to update the
spreadsheet. A few complaints about the spreadsheet is that some of the technicians have copied
the original and only update theirs. Therefore, the inventory spreadsheet is not always up to date.
This project will eliminate the issues of multiple copies of a spreadsheet by giving everyone
access to this website. The technicians will be able to update the inventory wherever they are
located on campus.
This project will mainly be affecting the information technology department since they
will need to understand how to operate the website. However, it will be designed so that it is
straight forward and user-friendly. The only training that will be needed is how to use the
administrator features on the database side. Once the techs feel comfortable using the website it
will be very beneficial when it comes to ordering new equipment and determining when
classrooms need an upgrade.
The outcome of this project is to assist the information technology department with its
inventory process. It should help reduce the costs of having to pay techs overtime to redo the
inventory every year since they will be able to update it throughout the year without any issues.
Also, it will aid the supervisor to plan projects throughout the year based upon the age of
equipment in the classrooms. During the test period of this application, we will be able to get
feedback on the project and create additional features to benefit the college even more.
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Table of Contents

Part I

Introduction 5

Project Name and Description 5

Problem and/or Issue in Technology 5

Solution to the Problem and/or Issue in Technology 6

Project Goals and Objectives 6

Community and Stakeholders 8

Evidence that the Project is Needed 9

Feasibility Discussion 10

Part II

Design Requirements 12

Functional Decomposition of the Project 12

Selection of Design Criterion 12

Final Deliverables 13

Approach/Methodology 13

Legal Considerations 14

Copyright Act 15

Domain Name 15

Trademark Concerns 15

Linking and Framing 15

Ethical Considerations 16

Underprivileged Groups 17
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Short Term and Long-Term Danger 17

Mitigating Ethical Concerns 17

Part III

Timeline/Budget 18

Usability Testing/Evaluation 19

Final Implementation 21

Conclusion 20

References 21

Appendix 22
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Introduction

Our project is called Information Technology Inventory System or I.T.I.S for short. The

idea behind this project was to develop a web application for a community college whose current

inventory system needs an upgrade. Due to limited funds, old methods of processing inventory

are still in place. This includes using standard spreadsheets with multiple sheets across various

department computers. Our web application has improved the functionality of their current

inventory process and has also reduced costs.

Our client is the Information Technology Department at Allan Hancock College, and we

upgraded their inventory process to allow them to be agile with their work processes. Our

application allows the department to better project when equipment is reaching its end of life.

They are then able to order new components prior to the equipment failing reducing downtime in

the classrooms. This also benefits the technicians by having a platform to update the inventory in

real time when maintenance has been performed in classrooms. In addition, it also assists with

alerting which rooms need their equipment upgraded.

The main reason for the project was to reduce issues associated with the manual entry

and multiple copies of the inventory system. Since everything was inventoried manually, they

had issues with keeping an original file with all the updates. Due to poor communication, the

files would not always get combined into one or moved to a networked folder to allow those who

plan projects inadequate information. Therefore, certain pieces of equipment that are needed to

keep a classroom afloat could not be ordered in a timely fashion which makes the technology not

functional. This application helps eliminate that problem and keeps the classrooms always

functioning correctly. It also gives the supervisor the tools needed to project the number of

computers that need to be upgraded that year and determine how many can get upgraded with the
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current funds available. Since I (Cody) currently work at this establishment, I saw these issues

happen in real time and tried to stay on top of it. However, with the old ways of performing the

inventory, there is no way to be efficient with staying on top of the equipment on campus. Due to

the campus being large in size, it is quite difficult and time-consuming to have accurate data all

the time. With our application, we were able to keep the data that is currently stored in an excel

spreadsheet and migrate it to the database. This allowed the IT Manager a better advantage for

allocating device funds.

Project Goals and Objectives

High-level goals were set at the beginning of the project after establishing the client’s needs.

The I.T.I.S. team synthesized these needs into the following achievable goals:

 Migrate the current spreadsheet-based inventory system to a database backed web

application. This allowed for equipment information to accessed and stored in real-time

instead of a static spreadsheet system.

 Architect the application in such a way that it can grow and change with the I.T.

department. Part of this assumes some technical ability, however the software

framework we chose was mostly based on ease of use.

 Provide useful tools to enable the department to project when equipment needs

repaired and or replaced. This benefits the end user by having properly functioning

equipment, as well as the college by making the department more efficient with their

time and budgets.

The I.T.I.S. team was able to achieve the above stated goals by putting together a plan of

attack that spanned six weeks. The following are concrete objectives that helped achieved said

goals:
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 Converted an existing spreadsheet system into an equivalent database schema.

The I.T.I.S. team was given access to a copy of the clients existing spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet was setup over multiple sheets which turned out to be

straightforward to extrapolate into a database schema. This also had a positive

side effect of being familiar to the client.

 Used the Ruby on Rails web framework for its rich ecosystem and ease of use

with its natural language semantics for those with some technical ability. The

application takes advantage of the Ruby on Rails conventions and makes

onboarding easy for someone who is learning the framework.

 Created a dashboard landing page for the application that serves as the central

information hub. The I.T.I.S. team integrated useful metrics on the dashboard

including equipment that should be replaced soon, and projectors that need

lamp replacements. These features enabled our client to be more efficient with

their time and budget.

 Implemented a maintenance ticket system that I.T. technicians can input into the

system while they are making observations in the field. This feature has enabled

the client to respond to issues in a timely manner and better serve the student’s

needs.

Stakeholders and Community

There are four main groups of stakeholders that the I.T.I.S team has identified. They are

the following: information technology departments, faculty, students, and the broader

community.
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All of the stakeholders benefitted in some way although different for each group. The

information technology departments benefitted by having a central hub to work from to manage

and deploy resources. Once the application is fully deployed, faculty will notice better

maintained equipment and faster response times. The students will observe that they experience

fewer issues since the equipment will be up to date. The broader community will also notice that

the equipment has fewer problems and the latest software available.

To bring the stakeholders up to speed, a demo was shown to give them an understanding

as to how the functionality works and the potential it has as the need is required. The technicians

in the department were comfortable with the application after the demonstration was presented.

They were able to see the usefulness of the applications and noticed how well it will aid the team

with predicting when projects need to happen throughout the year. The supervisor even found the

report portion of the website to be excellent because he will be able to allocate funds for the year

and determine which equipment needs to be purchased.

Along with the training for the stakeholders on how the functionality worked, we also

went in-depth with the coding portion of the project. This gives them an understanding of the

MVC concept and how we implemented it. With this knowledge, they are able to perform

maintenance on the website if need be or add additional functionality if it suits the team. A

member of the programming team was a part of the demonstration to assist the information

technology team with the programming language and concepts. He also is assisting with

maintenance if the technicians are unable to figure out the issue at hand or need another set of

eyes on the application.

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Evidence that the Project is Needed

As I (Cody) currently work at Allan Hancock College within their Information

Technology Department, I saw the need for our application. Not only did it help with reducing

costs, but it also kept the equipment functioning without having any downtime. Since the

inventory is run by excel spreadsheets, the supervisor was not always in the know of how old the

equipment is within classrooms. This required the technicians to do monthly surveys on the

equipment and determine the age of the equipment. The process takes a while to complete due to

the vast number of classrooms on campus and since there are classes going on throughout the

day there is not always an ideal window to check classrooms. Therefore, additional hours were

required to work on the weekend in order to complete this task. With the application, this

eliminated the need for working weekends or staying late because all the data would be up to

date. This allowed the supervisor to be in the know of which classrooms need upgrades and the

equipment that is being used in those rooms. Another reason why this application was needed

had to do with summertime preventative maintenance being in full swing. Since the items that

were checked and almost identical per classroom, certain items could get missed due to human

error. However, with this application, all the information was presented to help eliminate the

human error of forgetting to check a component in the classrooms.

Feasibility Discussion

The project that we created has been implemented in other community colleges that have

run into the same problem. When older methods are still being used with new technology that is

available today, the question gets asked: “Is there a smarter way to complete this task?” The

answer to that question is usually yes because someone else has already developed an application

or website to make that problem easier. Many community colleges and smaller businesses have
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developed a way to keep track of their information technology inventory. In the case of small

businesses, there is no reason to purchase a high-end product that keeps track of inventory

because the monthly rates would be too high. Many of these businesses decide to use excel

spreadsheets and manually import the data. There is nothing wrong with the method of inventory

other than the fact that if it is stored on one PC then it can’t be accessed another workstation.

Therefore, a database comes in handy because the information can be turned into a web

application and the data can be presented in different reports. This could inform the business of

what items are selling better than others and if prices have been reduced or raised to see how

sales are doing. The concept is quite similar to a community college information technology

department because they run into a problem where they are limited to a certain amount of funds

for the year. Usually, the funds have already been divided into certain projects based upon the

age of equipment. However, with the inventory application, it allows the information technology

users the ability to predict which pieces of equipment are getting towards the end of life and need

to be replaced. Thus, it allows the supervisor the knowledge to purchase replacement equipment

prior to the old equipment failing.

Having the experience of working for our client I have seen firsthand where the features

we have created will be beneficial. I have spoken to the technicians in the department talking

about an application that would keep the data in one area and allow all the techs access. They all

believed that this application would not only keep the data organized but improve efficiency.

When I was first brought on board with the client, I could tell there was something that needed to

be done with their inventory processes. After having a few conversations with the supervisor, I

realized that having a tool to organize the data would be useful but there were no funds for such

an application. Since most of the inventory-based application charge a monthly fee for using
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 11

their product I decided that there must be a better option. Thus, brings the I.T.I.S project that has

delivered upon the requests from the technicians and supervisor by creating a tool that was free

and has great functionality. The features that were requested the most were reports that

determined with equipment was approaching the end of life and obsolete. That way projects can

be planning months in advanced and funds can be allocated for the replacement equipment.

Which allows the instructors that use the technology in the classroom the benefit of it always

working. When the team was using the spreadsheets for their inventory there was a lot of

miscommunications regarding the age of technology in each classroom. There was not a great

understanding of which rooms needed to be upgraded and which ones did not. The application

allows for this to happen due to the reports that were developed. It shows which rooms are

outdated and which equipment in the room needs an upgrade. As the technicians become more

familiar with this application and use it every day it will become second nature. When equipment

gets worked on it will get updated in the application and then it will be clear to all techs what

equipment has had maintenance performed on it.

The design that we have developed is a simplistic one that allows the user ease of use.

There is no questioning what each function does because it is clearing labeled what each action

does. We wanted our users a placed to quickly see the data they wanted to or review a report and

determine what rooms needed upgrades. We also developed the application to allow the techs the

functionality to add more features if they would be useful.

Design Requirements

The I.T.I.S project allowed our client to help eliminate costs and become more efficient.

It gave them the opportunity to see all their data in one collective website. Also, with the built-in

metrics it allowed the IT department to see which equipment needs to be upgraded. This project
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assisted with the issues of their current inventory process. It also aided the technicians on site

because they have a tool to quickly input information when maintenance is performed in the

classrooms. The website was designed around the concept of efficiently and ease of use. There

should be no question as to how the website works or what it does. It is a straightforward concept

that allows our client to increase project management efficiency and help reduce inventory

confusion.

Functional Decomposition of the Project

In our project we wanted the main function of it to be about improving inventory

efficiency. When reviewing the old methods of taking inventory it seemed that there was a better

way to go about completing the task. Therefore, the I.T.I.S project was developed. Our project

enabled the users to quickly view the data stored in the database and make changes when needed.

It also provided metrics of equipment approaching end of life or has passed it. This assists with

planning projects for upgrades or purchasing additional equipment as a backup.

Selection of Design Criterion

For the design of our project we wanted our design to be as user friendly as possible.

Since we developed this project for an Information Technology department, we prematurely

assumed certain aspects would not need to be explained due to their background. However, after

much consideration we modified the design so that anyone who decides to use this application

will be able to use it with ease. Therefore, it not only benefitted our client, but it also gave

anyone the opportunity that decides use the application and modify it to their liking.

Final Deliverables

The I.T.I.S. project allowed our client to review all their classroom equipment used on

campus. Our home page presented the user with some brief metrics to review which items need
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 13

to be reviewed for upgrades and plan for those projects. Users were given the option to click on

these metrics to review more items than those that are listed. In addition to the metrics, we

provided a maintenance page that gave the technicians easy access to update information in a

classroom. It also allowed them to create data for each classroom. Another feature we developed

was an equipment tab that listed every item that is being used in the classroom along with a price

associated to that item and a location as to where it can be purchased. Since our client is a

community college, they get a discount when purchasing components.

Approach/Methodology

Prior to picking this project my team member and I enjoyed a previous class assignment

that required us to create a website with a database. We both enjoyed the concept and wanted to

create something similar for our capstone. During that time, I joined the IT department at Allan

Hancock College and noticed their inventory process needed an update. However, everyone else

was content with how it was, but I saw a moment to develop a website with a database to store

the data. From that moment on I told my supervisor the plan I had and the features to benefit the

department. From this point forward I collaborated with my teammate and discussed how we

would develop the features and how the design should look. We were given a copy of their

current inventory on an excel spreadsheet and saw patterns that would make for a database

schema. After that, we talked about key features that need to be developed in order for the

project to be successful and efficient for the IT department. A few of those features consisted of

reports that could be viewed at a moment’s notice by pressing a button on the website. From that

report the user would be able to search the database or filter it to find a certain piece of

equipment. This would eliminate the time it would take to locate the excel document and check

to see if it is the current spreadsheet. Another feature was to assist the technicians when they are
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 14

performing maintenance or replacing components in classrooms. Once they fix the issue, they

will be able to update the new equipment in the classroom or determine if the equipment that is

having issues is obsolete. If the equipment needs to be replaced or checked to see if it is under

warranty all the equipment information will be in the database. This will remove the headache of

searching for the spreadsheet for the information or manually detaching the computer from the

podium to grab the information.

Legal Considerations

When coming up with our project the legal considerations weren’t a topic we thought about,

however, as we have done research on the topic, we realized there is much to consider. After

doing research on the main points we have found that the following topics will affect our I.T.I.S

project:

 Copyright Concerns

 Domain Name Concerns

 Trademark Concerns

 Linking and Framing Concerns

The Copyright Act grants five rights to a copyright owner and they are the right to reproduce

the copyrighted work, the right to prepare derivative works based upon the work, the right to

distribute copies of the work to the public, the right to perform the copy righted work publicly,

and the right to display the copy righted work publicly (Bolin, "BitLaw", 2018). Since copyright

act is important, we wanted to make sure that anything we are going to use we will create. Unless

we received permission from the original creator, we did not be using anything that may fall into

that category.
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The next concern was the domain name which consists of the selection and protection

process. Since everyone has similar ideas, names may be taken when projects get developed.

Therefore, the domain name should be protected to avoid losing the name under the InterNIC

domain name dispute policy, a domain name owner should obtain a trademark registration on

their domain name (Bolin, "BitLaw", 2018).

A trademark is a word, image, slogan, or other device designed to identify the goods or

services of a particular party. Trademark infringement occurs when one party utilizes the mark of

another in such a way as to create a likelihood of confusion, mistake and/or deception with the

consuming public (Bolin, "BitLaw", 2018). Although we worked with the college directly, we

determined it was not necessary to make use of their logo since the application was deployed

internally and not public facing.

The next concern was linking and framing of a website. Links between pages are the raison

d’etre for the world wide web. Without widespread linking, the web as we know it would not

exist (Bolin, "BitLaw", 2018). In order to prevent this issue from happening we made it known

as to which link goes to which page. We also had additional information that was linked to

outside sources. In order to keep the users informed of these links they were clearly labeled and

displayed the destination.

Ethical Considerations

When developing this project or any project for that matter the conversation usually hits a

point where members ask if there are any ethical lines that are being crossed. The members of

the I.T.I.S. created an inventory system to benefit small businesses and community colleges by

giving them the chance to move away from manual entry systems. In today’s world everything

comes with a price and sometimes those prices are not practical to the average business or
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 16

college. This project gave those who need a platform to store their data the chance to improve

their current methods and adapt. Our targeted community college was Allan Hancock College

where we were given data regarding their equipment that is used in the classroom setting. Since

this data is private it will not be shared as an example to other institutions. Instead the data will

be removed but the skeleton of the project will stay in place. This will allow other institutions

that decided to use this project the benefit of having all the features we developed but will be

limited to the categories we will be using. Some ethical concerns that were presented during the

creation of this project and the maintenance afterwards are the following:

 Will the application be free to the public or will there be a service charge?

 Will there be ads on the website?

 What will be the best way to build the skeleton to allow users to make quick edits to

tailor it to their needs?

 How will we make it secure, so data doesn’t get stolen?

Along with the concerns listed above, the I.T.I.S group was determined to figure out which

underprivileged groups might be negatively impacted by our capstone project. This affected a

few different types of groups. If a community college or small business comes across this project

and decides to take the skeleton, then they will have to understand the Ruby language. This could

affect businesses that develop and maintain inventory websites because they would be losing out

on business. It might also lead the users that are less experienced to accidently delete data due to

a poor understanding as to how the application works. To help prevent mistakes from being

made and to assist those who decide to use our application, helpful notes were for each page.

This will give the user an understanding as to what the page does and how it effects the website.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 17

The next concern we faced was what will be the short term and long-term danger, social

injustice, and environmental impact for the project. A short and/or long-term danger that could

be presented is if a college or business decided to use this for private data and it was not as

secured as it should be. Information related to computers, especially the model, name, operating

system, etc. can provide hackers with enough information to exploit a system. Another long-term

danger is the possibility that a user’s application deployment becomes stagnant and the proper

Ruby patches, operating system updates, etc. are not applied. This also leaves the data vulnerable

to outside parties.

Lastly, we came across the question as to how will plan to eliminate or mitigate these ethical

concerns that have been presented. The project that we developed will be free to the public once

it is complete. The data that we added will get removed and comments will be placed throughout

the project to aid those who want to take this and make it their own. We did not collaborate with

any companies to place ads on any of the pages. This allowed a clean skeleton to be passed off to

anyone who will benefit from this project. We did our best to make it secure by requiring users

to create login information to allow those who are not supposed to have access not get any. In

order to assist those underprivileged groups that may get impacted by this capstone, we provided

links to great resources that were used to help understand the ruby language.
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Timeline/Budget

Name Description QTY Price

Amazon AWS Platform to create project 1 Free
Heroku Post project to server 1 Free

The roadmap we created above gave an overview of our development path over the eight

weeks. We were able to stay on target each week with the items we had scheduled and added

additional features as we progressed. The milestones that we put in place were met this was due

to our scheduling. As we moved into week three to four, we did run into some problems with the

database entries, but we were able to wipe the data and start over. This was not a major problem

in the large scheme of tasks, but it did case us to stop our tasks and fix the issue. The projected

costs listed above showed that we weren’t going to have any costs for this project. We will be

passing this web application off to our client and they will implement it within their system.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 19

Usability Testing/Evaluation

Initial Usability Testing Plan

Phase 1 (Website Testing) (See Appendix A for User View)

When we developed our project, we wanted to test our application through different web

browsers to verify it would be functionality correctly regardless of what browser was used. After

we were satisfied with our website running correctly, we moved towards testing the features that

we developed to verify we were getting the same results on all browsers. The application was

tested for the functionality that we created and redesigning a simplistic user interface. This

allowed our client to operate the application with ease of use. The features that were tested are

the ones that are listed below:

 Ability to search though the database

 Ability to manually add equipment into the database

 Ability to show, edit, or delete items in the database

 Ability to navigate throughout all pages of the website

 Ability to log in using user authentication

 Ability to view reports

 Ability to view equipment metrics

 Ability to view equipment prices

 Ability to access equipment quick links

 Ability to use maintenance features

 Ability to enter an information technology ticket

 Ability to ascend or descend specific header topics

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Phase 2 (Client Testing)

The client had full access to our application when we passed it off to them. We set up a

web conference with them to show the application off and watch them use it. They were overall

satisfied with our website because of all the features we developed. It will be an easy process for

them to migrate this application into their system and start using it. Below are features that our

client ended up testing.

 Ability to search though the database

 Ability to manually add equipment into the database

 Ability to navigate throughout all pages of the website

 Ability to log in using user authentication

 Ability to view reports

 Ability to view equipment metrics

 Ability to view equipment prices

 Ability to access equipment quick links

 Ability to use maintenance features

 Ability to add information technology tickets

 Ability to ascend or descend specific header topics

Phase 3 (Client Suggestions added and tested)

When we showed off our product to the client during our web conference, they had a

positive outlook on all our features we developed. The only suggestion they had regarding the

features we developed was to change the metrics to be more actuate. After the conversation was
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 21

over, we made it a priority to update our metrics to show off better data and make it more actuate

to what they wanted to see.

Final Implementation

When Jared and I talked about possible capstone projects we had many ideas for what we

believed would be a grand project. However, one idea really stuck out to us that correlated back

to an assignment we developed in CST 363 regarding an inventory system. We enjoyed the

concept of creating an inventory website that allowed us to store data and present it in a way that

would best suit our client. Therefore, when we were searching for a client, we came across Allan

Hancock College and saw issues with their inventory system. After meeting with the client we

discussed an application that would benefit them the most and that became the information

technology inventory system project.

Developing a website from scratch can be difficult because there’s a lot of thought that

goes into the design. We wanted our website to be user friendly and present the data in a way

that would best suit our user’s needs. When creating the home page, we thought about what type

of data should our client be greeted to ensure efficiently. After much consideration that believed

that displaying metrics regarding the equip would be excellent. The reports we developed show

when certain pieces of equipment need to be reviewed regarding their age or replaced depending

on being past the end of life date. This would help our client with planning projects to upgrade

certain classes that have equipment that needs improvement. It would also help with removing

surprises regarding equipment entering end of life or being end of life for a while. The user can

click into one of these reports and view all the equipment that fits the criteria. They can cross

reference the equipment to the classroom it is installed in to see which rooms are getting the

most traffic. This would allow the information technology department to focus their efforts in
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upgrading the classrooms that see the most traffic and verify that the equipment always stays up

to date. Show below is a visual of our home page. The user can click on the tables to reach out to

another page to show all the items in that category. We didn’t want to fill our homepage with

lists of metrics because we felt it wouldn’t be effective to our client. Therefore, we limited our

display list to three items.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 23

As shown in the visual above we created a navigation bar to allow our client easy access

to certain items that are used in the classrooms. This will make it easy to navigate to the

equipment in question and make updates. If the client clicks on computers page for example,

they will have the features shown below.

In this page they are able to use the search bar shown above the table to quickly locate a

computer in a specific classroom. The search looks for similar characters in any of the headers

shown and displays the most similar items. We believed this feature would help improve

efficiency when our client has to make updates to the items stored in the database. Along with

the search feature they are also able to click on the three links that are in blue font. The show

button goes to a new page that only all the header information in a simplistic list. Due to the

number of headers we created not all of them are shown. Therefore, additional information can

be presented if the user clicks on the show button. As for the edit feature it will allow the client

to make edits to the information that’s being displayed for the current item that is selected. This
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 24

page that is opened during the select is quite similar to the new function that will be shown

below. The destroy function simply deletes the entry from the database.

The new feature allows our client to manually add new items into the database. We gave

our client the option to select common items that are being used in the classroom and also the

ability to insert new items. This would allow for speedy entries since there is a lot of similar

items used at the college.

Another feature we developed is an information technology ticketing system that allows

the users to quickly insert data when they are out in the classrooms. Instead of having our users
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 25

having to search for a certain piece of equipment we wanted them to be to create a quick ticket

detailing the issue. That way, if they don’t have time while they are working on the problem then

it can be updated once they are back to their desk. A visual of the information ticketing system is

shown below. This screenshot shows how the user can enter a ticket into the database.

Our last feature that we developed is our equipment prices and location. We wanted our

users to have a page that would allow them quick access to equipment and where they are able to

purchase it. Having seen this as a real problem within the information technology department of
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 26

locating equipment online this will assist and is easily updated to allow the users to change the

destination.

Conclusion

When developing the project, we wanted to create an application that would benefit our

users and assist them with everyday activities. The application should feel like a resourceful tool

not something that is weighing them down. Therefore, when we showed off our application to

our client, they were ecstatic to see the functionality. We wanted to solve their problem of using

excel spreadsheet to improve efficiency and keep the data in one central location. With this

application all users can view this data at the same time and add, edit, or remote data from the

database. They can entry information technology tickets to show which classroom’s equipment is

having issues. We wanted the users to become agile with this tool in the sense of keeping the

instructors capable of using the technology in the classrooms and never having equipment fail.

The metrics we developed will assist with project planning and determining when equipment

needs to be refreshed. This will keep the classroom technology from going down and having the

instructors of the classroom to either have to cancel their class or try to find another room to use.

Jared and I learned about project management and professional communication between

the client. Due to the limited amount of time we had to develop this application we had to create

a schedule from day one to keep us motivated to see this project to the end. We created bullet

points of features that thought would be useful and then divided the work between the two of us.

In order to stay on track, we would meet anywhere from three to five times a week depending on

the difficulties presented that week. There would be sometime when we would need to

brainstorm to come up with an effective solution to the problem we ran into. However, overall
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 27

the project development portion went quite smoothly with few major issues. We had a great time

creating this project and are looking forward to working on the next one together.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY 28

References

Bolin, B. (n.d.). BitLaw. Retrieved April 16, 2019, from

https://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/scope.html
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Appendix

Appendix A

I.T.I.S User Class Diagram

Team Members

Jared Hubbard

 Generate Models, Views, and Controllers.

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 Set up Database Schema.

 Develop User Authentication.

 Metrics on Dashboard

 Create backend feature for Importing Data.

 Create tests.

 Help debug new features.

Along with the tasks Jared has listed above he will also take part in code reviews every week

to update this partner. Also, he will assist with additional features the client may request when

the project gets tested by the client.

Cody Dill

 Create view layouts and features.

 Develop user interface with bootstrap.

 Create connectivity throughout the pages.

 Create useable form to allow data to be visually seen.

 Change UI based upon client feedback.

 Help debug new features.

Along with the tasks Cody has listed above he will also take part in code reviews every week

to update this partner. Also, he will assist with additional features the client may request when

the project gets tested by the client.