Natural Lee is a certified organic farm producing vegetables and fruits within their backyard. However, the company now requires a farm management information system so that resource planning and customer management could be automated. Hence, data gathering activities are needed to analyze the current system. Data collection offers an explanation for what system needs by applying the methodology and analytical approach, respectively (Paradis et al. 2016). Therefore, based on this current issue, a new and innovative system will be designed for Kevin Lee’s organic farm.

The interview process was used to identify issues in the current system of Natural Lee. This method documents participants’ perceptions and attitudes towards pickup, produce, and services, and resource management (Paradis et al. 2016). In this technique, participants were employees working as well as old customers to understand the system needs. With employees’ face-to-face questions were asked; while customers were interviewed on the phone. Additionally, a closed-form interview questionnaire was created, providing an entire set of predefined ten questions due to knowledge and expertise in management information systems (Broshenka & Castro n.d.). Hence, the fact-finding document was done by asking questions and recording responses through notes.

Fact-Finding Interview Questionnaire

The fact-finding interview questions contribute to each work process that occurs under Natural Lee Farm.

Customer Telephonic Interview

The telephonic customer interview was taken to identify the services of the farm in the current scenario. Customer orders their produce for vegetables and fruits as per phone call to Lee’s staff members. Customer services are managed by Kevin’s wife, Betty, due to being experienced in management. However, sometimes the list of items is not available, which makes order selection difficult for customers. Additionally, communication between customers and staff members is through phone only. Hence, customer order and its management will care needed for the new scenario.

System Requirements	Interview Questions	Response
Order Entry	How does the Natural Lee Farm take orders? Do you call them every time for new products of fruits and vegetables? Do they allocate some Order ID at the time of issuing the items?	“By making telephone calls at the farm.” “Very rarely, we call them for new products.” “No order ID is allocated due to lack of computerization.”
Availability	Is the item always available whenever you order? What kinds of list offerings are provided, and how?	“Insufficient information on availability.” “Verbally list of offerings are given. But, some of them are missed.”
Customer Care	Does management staff pickup phone every time? How do you reach customer care service when the pickup is delayed? Do you get a proper receipt for buying products? Is any form of communication present like email, phone, or social media presence?	“Sometimes, it is unreachable.” “The drop by to farm location. Congestion delays and waste time.” “Handwritten Receipt is given.” “Mobile is the only point of contact.”

Employee Face-to-Face Interview

The employee face-to-face interview was taken so that their point of view for the current scenario is understood. Four aspects were analyzed, such as customer book, accounting, marketing, as well as production and harvesting. The customer book is a rough notebook that keeps track of personal details for customers. Additionally, accounting is provided through the offline way, which brings confusion among Lee’s owner. Furthermore, no marketing for produce is done through digital space such as social media, email, and other online marketing techniques. Kevin Lee looks the production and harvesting for machinery, and gardening processes. Thus, the new scenario will offer a systematic approach for resource planning and overall management of information.

System Requirements	Interview Questions	Response
Customer Book	How is the customer book managed? Is there an online excel system to store personal details like name, phone, as well as addresses? What is “The Regulars” and how are they arranged?	“We keep in a small diary.” “No, an only diary where everything is handwritten.” “The Regulars require preselected items only and arranged through the rough tracklist.”
Accounting	Is the report and documentation for accounts are kept? Is inventory management organized or not?	“James and I keep accounting tracks and Inform to Betty.” “Yes, for machinery and gardening process.”
Marketing	What is done for the marketing of produce?	“No marketing is launched yet.”
Production and Harvesting	Is track for gardening is kept or not? How is machinery equipment availability checked?	“Gardening is done.” “Machinery is installed, and work is done.”
Pickup	How are pickup order boxes managed? Is there a home delivery option for orders?	“Difficult to keep customer’s order boxes properly due to mix up.” “Home delivery option is considered in the future.”

Conceptual Farm Information Management System

In the current system, Kevin and Betty do not have a proper information system so that customer and resource management could be done in a systematic and organized manner. The below figure 1 demonstrate the weakness of the current scenario, which is lack of customer management, marketing, as well as resource planning, and management for production and harvesting. A farm management information system (FMIS) includes simpler user interface, automatic processing, computer system integration, and scalable lower costing application (Sørensen et al. 2011). Hence, a proposed farm information management system is implemented for Betty and Kevin to get automatic management for customer services and production & harvesting department effectively.

Figure 1 Natural-Lee Current Scenario

Source (Sørensen et al. 2010)

Use Cases Descriptions and Diagram

The modeling of the use case diagram is essential to understand the basic requirements of the project. The use case is a form of description that represents situations for the workflow process of business for software system requirements (Bhuiyan 2018). The following diagram demonstrates the collective Farm Management Information System as per Natural Lee’s system requirements. Additionally, each actor’s work processes are identified with separate use cases below.

Use Case Diagram

Figure 2 Farm Information Management System UC_1.0

Description for Use Case

Name of Use Case:	Farm Information Management System
Created By:	Natural Lee Farm		Last Updated By:	System Designer
Date Created:	04/02/2020		Last Revision Date:	04/02/2020

Description:		Natural Lee creates an online system for customer relationships, harvesting, and production as well as accounting management so that organic produce operations and maintains could run properly.
Actors:		Customer, Admin, Employee, Production Manager and CRM Manager
Preconditions:		1. The customer could create an account and order products online. 2. The production manager could check the harvesting and machinery equipment availability. 3. Produce being ordered online is sent for the home delivery process.
Postconditions:		1. The customer could buy and receive a receipt after payment. 2. Production managers could make products available online. 3. CRM manager generates a receipt, generate a report, and keep a record for customers. 4. Admin could manage information for customer book and the regulars separately through database management integration.
Flow:		1. The customer logs in and selects products as per choice. 2. Customer buys online and check for a status update and receive payment slip. 3. Admin could manage a database system for overall work processes. 4. The employee will update everyday tasks and the requirement for new work. 5. The CRM manager will generate a report and offer it to other departments. 6. The production manager keeps accounting, harvesting, and inventory management in control.
Alternative Flows:		In step 2 of the normal flow, if the customer does not have to produce available CRM manager places an order in a hold status and notify the production manager. The vendor provides updates and an estimated timeframe of material receipt. Once produce material arrives, the Use Case resumes at step 3 of the normal flow.
Requirements:		The following requirements must be met before the execution of the use case Funding availability must be verified prior to submitting any material purchases All material orders must comply with internal Natural Lee ordering guidelines and procedures

UC_1 Customer Use Case

In this business workflow, the customer is an important actor who will create an account in the system. They could select the products online by choosing from a list of offerings and buy produce. Once the order is placed, the customer can make the payment from credit cards, cash, and wallet. The automatic receipt will be generated so that payment status could be checked. After signup, personal information is filled or changed as per the requirements of an actor. The customer care option is also available so that issues are resolved for produce, availability, and feedback.

Figure 3 UC_1 Customer Use Case

UC_02 Admin Use Case

In this business workflow, admin is another important actor whose work is to manage the entire farm system. He will allocate ID and Password to the customer, employee, and managers. Admin regulates the report generation for marketing, harvesting, machinery design, inventory management, customer book, and the regulars. Further, admin also works as a database administrator for the maintenance of the information system.

Figure 4 UC_02 Admin Use Case

UC_03 Employee Use Case

The next business workflow process is for an employee who will track processes and report to managers. The list of available items is inserted by employees at the time of harvesting. The order ID is generated for each product package to avoid confusion at the time of delivery. Whereas, the delivery process for the customer will be tracked online through employee inspection. Furthermore, the status of gardening equipment, weeds, and pesticides, as well as machinery failure, will be reported by employees online.

Figure 5 UC_03 Employee Use Case

UC_04 Production Manager Use Case

Kevin Lee is the production manager who looks into the harvesting and production of organic products such as fruits, vegetables, honey, and eggs. Hence, the role of the production manager will be given to him online. In this business workflow process, the manager will fill the produce list for each month so that confusion for availability is nullified easily. Additionally, harvesting inventory for weeds, soil, gardening, water supply, and pesticide control is also filled. The accounting management process for payments, status, and material supply is also calculated with the automatic report generation process. As the company is going for digital marketing, the need for analytics tools will be integrated online.

Figure 6 UC_04 Production Manager Use Case

UC_05 CRM Manager Use Case

Betty Lee looks into the customer services and its management due to her prior experience for the same. Thus, the role of the CRM manager will be allocated to her in an online farm system for the customer base network. Further, she will manage customer books by creating and adding new members with their personalized information such as phone number, address, and identification proofs. The produce records of customers will be checked for analyzing new demands in the market area. She can also email the customers for any issues and queries regarding quality, quantity, and home delivery availability. While receipt generation for making another copy is also going to be the CRM manager’s work.

Figure 7 UC_05 CRM Manager Use Case

Activity Diagram

There is one single activity flow for the customer who makes a purchase order for the organic produce. The activity diagram explains the activities and actions flow process inside the system (Sulaiman et al. 2019). Customers will be logged in first and then select and buy the product as well as place order effectively. Furthermore, the employee section will take order ID if yes and no will cancel the transaction. Next, if the order ID is produced, the credit card number is stored in the system. Next, the order will be processed, and billing generation will take place. The CRM manager will confirm through email and automatically generate the receipt to the customer. Lastly, produce items will be packed, shipped, and deliver with order ID to the customers through home delivery services.

Figure 8 Customer Produce Order Activity

Entity Relationship Diagram

Figure 9 ERD Diagram

Domain-Specific Class Diagram

Figure 10 Class Diagram

System Sequence Diagram

The sequence diagram is used, so that the object’s interaction is defined for specific functionality through message passing from above to below (Sellami et al. 2015). It is a form of the unified modeling language to show the business workflow process. In the below sequence diagrams, two processes are developed and shown. First, customer and CRM manager interactions are shown to understand the purchase order for the production of organic fruits and vegetables. Second, admin interaction is defined with two processes, such as harvesting and production, as well as customer service management. Hence, a sequence diagram shows the message passing for actors interacting within a system and doing some work effectively.

Figure 11 Customer Order Sequence Diagram

Figure 12 Admin Sequence Flow

Conclusion and Recommendation

To conclude, Natural Lee requires a system for management of their organic farm business for customer services as well as for farm resource planning processes. Hence, the report proposed an integrated system on which customers could make online produce purchase for fruits, eggs, honey, and vegetables. Further, Betty could manage customer side services through an online platform effectively. Additionally, Kevin is also able to manage accounting, list of offerings, production, and harvesting for crops with medical assistance in a simpler manner.

The Farm information system will work as an effective solution to manage resources, home delivery processes, online purchasing, and receipt generation. The system design and analysis include unified modeling language diagrams to understand a new and innovative online system better. Furthermore, UML diagrams such as class, sequence, activity, and ERD were used for the system work process. Use case diagram and description showcase different actors involved as well as their operations involved.

From system analysis report, it is clear that customer is the most useful resource for the organization. Organic farming is complex and requires a systematic approach to development and growth. The computerized system is recommended for farm management, so that customer service is implied through online purchasing. Additionally, documentation with the report generation feature will reduce the maintenance of the regulars and customer book effectively as the system analyst’s objective was to remove key issues in the current system for Kevin and his organic farm. Hence, the new system will reduce customer pickup issues as well as billing and interaction management. To summarize, proposed information system is valuable and offer a wide customer base with effective management opportunity.

References

Bhuiyan, M 2018, “Integration of Organisational Models and UML Use Case,” Journal of Computers, vol. 13, pp. 1-17.

Broshenka, D & Castro, A n.d., 4. Methods of fact-finding, Fao.org, viewed 4 February 2020, <http://www.fao.org/3/Q1085E/q1085e07.htm#2.6%20questionnaires>.

Paradis, E et al. 2016, “Design: Selection of Data Collection Methods”, Journal of Graduate Medical Education, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 263-264, <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4857496/>.

Sellami A et al. 2015, “A measurement method for sizing the structure of UML sequence diagrams,” Information and Software Technology, vol. 59, pp. 222-232.

Sørensen, C et al. 2010, “Conceptual model of a future farm management information system,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 37-47.

Sørensen, C et al. 2011, “Functional requirements for a future farm management information system”, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 266-276.

Sulaiman, N, Syed Ahmad, S & Ahmad, S 2019, “Logical Approach: Consistency Rules between Activity Diagram and Class Diagram,” International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, vol. 9, no. 2, p. 552.

Part B: Systems Requirement Report

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Data Gathering Activities