E-COMMERCE SYSTEM ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

171 Pages·2012·9.58 MB·English

by  Mr Skinner

Liverpool John Moores University
School of Computing Mathematical Sciences

E-COMMERCE SYSTEM
ANALYSIS, DESIGN
AND DEVELOPMENT

By
Chris Nwaigwe Jr
22 April, 2010

1
Abstract: E-Commerce has become a necessity for businesses, especially small
businesses looking to maximize profit by using cost effective online marketing
strategies. Adequate system analysis and design methods are required to achieve fully
functioning user-friendly and re-scalable e-Commerce systems. This study covers the
review of current e-commerce system analysis, design and implementation
methodologies. The role of e-Commerce in businesses, the legal and security issues
involved in developing e-Commerce systems, e-Commerce system architecture, design
and development strategies are critically evaluated and the most suitable methods
applied in the development of Divine Foods e-Commerce system.

Keywords: e-Commerce system, e-Commerce Architecture, Systems Development
Life Cycle, Database Design, System Security
2
Acknowledgements

In writing this report, I have to thank the management of Divine Foods, especially
Mrs. Rachel Davidson, Mr. T Ladipo and Richard Bola. Despite their busy schedule
they took the time to comprehensively specify the requirements of the Divine Foods
E-commerce system. My gratitude also goes to the other staff/personnel at DFs who
also helped by completing the questionnaire with great pace.
During the period of project research, I was guided and encouraged by my supervisor,
Mike Baskett of Liverpool John Moores University. His guidance and assistance were
great factors that facilitated the completion of this report. He always had a clear idea
about what to do and gave me extremely helpful suggestions when I was in need of
them.

I would like to say thanks to all the academic staff that taught and guided me
throughout my ICT and Multimedia Computing course at Liverpool John Moores
University. I would want to thank my sister, mum, friends and family for supporting
me throughout my studies.

Chris Nwaigwe
April, 2010

3
Table
 of
 Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
 ...........................................................................................................
 8

Subjects to be studied
 ..........................................................................................................
 8

Background
 ......................................................................................................................
 8

Target Audience
 ..............................................................................................................
 9

Problems to be addressed
 ...............................................................................................
 9

Aims, milestones and initial ideas.
 .....................................................................................
 9

Initial Ideas
 ....................................................................................................................
 10

Software and hardware constraints.
 ............................................................................
 10

An outline plan of action and a time table.
 ..................................................................
 11

Milestones
 .......................................................................................................................
 11

Conclusion
 ......................................................................................................................
 12

Chapter 2: Literature Review
 ..............................................................................................
 13

Introduction to e-Commerce Systems
 ..............................................................................
 13

Information and communication technology and business
 ............................................
 14

EDI
 ..................................................................................................................................
 15

EFT
 ..................................................................................................................................
 15

Enterprise
 resource
 planning
 (ERP)
 ........................................................................
 15

e-­‐Commerce
 Systems:
 Case
 Studies
 .................................................................................
 18

ASDA
 ...............................................................................................................................
 18

Tesco
 ..............................................................................................................................
 19

e-­‐Commerce
 Success
 and
 Failure
 .................................................................................
 20

Requirements
 of
 an
 e-­‐commerce
 system
 ....................................................................
 20

e-Commerce
 Advantages
 and
 Disavdantages
 .............................................................
 21

Advantages
 ....................................................................................................................
 21

Disadvantages
 ..............................................................................................................
 22

E-­‐Commerce
 System
 Security
 ........................................................................................
 23

Risk
 Analysis
 ................................................................................................................
 23

Types
 of
 e-­‐commerce
 system
 attack
 ........................................................................
 23

Securing
 E-­‐Commerce
 Systems
 .....................................................................................
 25

Legal
 and
 Ethical
 Issues
 involved
 in
 e-­‐Commerce
 .....................................................
 26

Electronic
 Transactions
 .............................................................................................
 27

Privacy
 &
 Security
 .......................................................................................................
 28

Copyright
 &
 Trademark
 .............................................................................................
 29

4
Conforming
 to
 e-­‐Commerce
 Legal
 and
 Ethical
 Issues
 ...............................................
 29

Contracting
 online
 .......................................................................................................
 29

Advertising
 ...................................................................................................................
 30

Compliance
 with
 the
 Data
 protection
 Act
 ...............................................................
 30

Distance
 Selling
 Regulations
 .....................................................................................
 30

E-­‐Commerce
 Marketing
 Strategies
 ...............................................................................
 31

Internet
 Marketing
 ..........................................................................................................
 31

Branding
 ........................................................................................................................
 32

Literature
 Review
 Conclusion
 .......................................................................................
 33

Research
 methodology
 ...................................................................................................
 34

Qualitative
 Research
 ...................................................................................................
 34

Quantitative
 research
 .................................................................................................
 35

Chosen
 Research
 Method
 and
 Justification
 ................................................................
 37

Systems
 Development
 Life
 Cycle
 ..................................................................................
 39

SPIRAL
 LIFECYCLE
 .......................................................................................................
 39

RAPID
 APPLICATION
 DEVELOPMENT
 (RAD)
 /
 PROTOTYPING
 LIFECYCLE
 .......
 40

V-­‐Shaped
 SDLC
 .............................................................................................................
 41

Chosen
 SDLC
 Method:
 The
 Waterfall
 Model
 ...........................................................
 42

Work
 breakdown
 structure
 .......................................................................................
 43

System Development Life Cycle flowchart for Divine Foods
 ...........................................
 46

Chapter
 3:
 Requirement
 Analysis
 .....................................................................................
 47

Background
 on
 DFs
 .........................................................................................................
 47

Review
 of
 company
 current
 systems
 of
 business
 operations
 .................................
 48

Problem
 identification
 ...................................................................................................
 50

Project
 specification
 and
 outline
 ..................................................................................
 52

Project
 objectives
 of
 E-­‐commerce
 On-­‐line
 ordering
 system
 ...............................
 52

End-­‐User
 Requirements
 .................................................................................................
 54

Benefits
 of
 the
 Proposed
 System
 ..................................................................................
 57

System
 Analysis
 and
 Design
 Methodologies
 ...............................................................
 58

SSADM
 ............................................................................................................................
 58

Data
 Flow
 Diagrams
 ............................................................................................................
 60

Chapter
 4:
 Design
 ................................................................................................................
 62

System
 Functional
 Requirements
 ................................................................................
 62

System
 Technical
 Specification
 .....................................................................................
 63

5
Database
 Design
 Models
 ................................................................................................
 66

Object
 Oriented
 Databases.
 .......................................................................................
 66

Relational
 DBMS
 (RDBMS)
 .........................................................................................
 67

Object-­‐Relational
 DBMS
 (ORDBMS)
 .........................................................................
 69

The
 differences
 between
 the
 three
 Database
 Design
 approaches
 .....................
 70

Justification
 of
 Selected
 Database
 Model
 ................................................................
 72

Justification
 of
 Chosen
 Implementation
 tools
 ...........................................................
 73

PHP
 vs
 ASP.NET
 ............................................................................................................
 73

MySQL
 vs
 Microsoft
 SQL
 server,
 Oracle,
 Access
 and
 DB2
 .....................................
 74

Platform comparison
 .........................................................................................................
 74

FrontPage
 Vs
 Dreamweaver
 ......................................................................................
 75

AJAX
 ................................................................................................................................
 76

Justification of Use
 ............................................................................................................
 77

Data
 Modelling
 .................................................................................................................
 78

Entities
 and
 Attributes
 ...............................................................................................
 78

Normalisation
 ..................................................................................................................
 79

The Normal Forms
 ........................................................................................................
 79

First Normal Form (1NF)
 .............................................................................................
 79

Second Normal Form (2NF)
 .........................................................................................
 79

Third Normal Form (3NF)
 ...........................................................................................
 80

Fourth Normal Form (4NF)
 .........................................................................................
 80

Applying
 Normalisation
 to
 DFs
 e-­‐Commerce
 system
 ............................................
 80

Entity
 Relationship
 Diagrams
 .......................................................................................
 82

Entity
 Types
 ..................................................................................................................
 83

UML
 Diagrams
 ..................................................................................................................
 85

UML
 Class
 Diagram
 ......................................................................................................
 85

UML:
 Use
 Case
 Diagram
 ..................................................................................................
 86

UML
 Activity
 Diagrams
 ...............................................................................................
 88

Database
 Data
 Definition
 ...........................................................................................
 89

Website
 Design
 ................................................................................................................
 94

Page
 Layout
 ...................................................................................................................
 94

Web
 Design
 Issues
 .......................................................................................................
 95

Flow
 Chart
 Diagrams
 ...................................................................................................
 97

Web
 Story
 Board
 ..........................................................................................................
 97

6
Chapter
 5:
 Implementation
 .............................................................................................
 102

Creating
 the
 Database
 ...................................................................................................
 102

Website
 Design
 ..............................................................................................................
 103

Web
 Design
 in
 Photoshop
 ........................................................................................
 103

Slicing
 in
 Adobe
 Fireworks
 ......................................................................................
 106

Coding
 in
 Dreamweaver
 ...........................................................................................
 107

The
 Final
 Web
 Page
 Preview
 in
 Browser
 ..............................................................
 110

Chapter
 6:
 Evaluation
 and
 Testing
 .................................................................................
 114

Further
 Work
 .................................................................................................................
 116

Chapter
 5:
 References
 &
 Bibliography
 ..........................................................................
 117

References
 ......................................................................................................................
 117

Bibliography
 ...................................................................................................................
 121

Useful
 Websites
 ..........................................................................................................
 122

Chapter
 7:
 Appendix
 .........................................................................................................
 124

The Login Page 2
 .............................................................................................................
 143

Appendix
 D
 .....................................................................................................................
 168

DFs
 user questionnaire/survey questions
 ......................................................................
 168

Appendix
 E
 ......................................................................................................................
 171

Log
 Book
 ......................................................................................................................
 171

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Chapter 1 Introduction
Subjects to be studied
e-Commerce System Analysis, Design and Implementation
This study covers the analysis, design and implementation of an e-Commerce system
using common web practices, system analysis and design methodologies. The main
subject areas of interest are database design and web development; these subject areas
encapsulate the different database development strategies, web 2.0 development
methods and standards, e-Commerce systems architecture, design and implementation
as well as other subject areas studied during the school academic year which are
relevant to this project.
Background
The aim of this project is to develop an e-Commerce system which will enable sales
and marketing of products and services online. This system must be reliable, secure,
re-scalable, and user friendly. The stakeholder of the proposed e-Commerce system:
Divine Foods (herein known as DFs) is a local, family run food manufacturing
company based in South East London. Established in 2004, its main purpose is the
production, sales and distribution of traditional African food products.
The company is primarily controlled by Ms Rachel Davidson, she is supported by
two of her daughters and six fulltime employees; they operate from a small corner
shop, handling over 50 orders every week. The company has grown reasonably since
its conception four years ago and is still growing exponentially with customers now
scattered across the UK. This local company now operates both on a Business-to-
Business (B2B) and Business-to-Customer (B2C) basis where other businesses can
make wholesale purchases and private customers can place individual orders.
There are currently twelve fulltime and several part-time employees. There are about
7 major product lines and 67 products offered by DFs, they have several suppliers in
Africa, Europe and North America that provide the raw resources needed to
manufacture their products.
DFs have over 700 customers around UK, carrying out an average of 50 in-store
transactions and 7 telephone orders daily.
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Target Audience
This system is aimed at the current and potential customers of DFs. Current customers
will be advised and encouraged to use the online ordering system, while online
marketing strategies will be utilised for the acquisition new users and retention of
existing users of the system. The website is intended for users around the UK, though
users from other countries can register and access the website, orders can only be
accepted by management once they are certain products can be delivered without
violating any international trade laws.
Problems to be addressed
DFs is growing continuously, with more customers, products and orders. All records
are currently held on a manual filing system; as a result of this expansion this system
of operation is becoming ineffective. Data retrieval is difficult, sometimes impossible
Customers are usually left waiting for orders due to delays in order processing and
payment arrangements; the consequence being decreased income from sales revenue.
There is a lack of competitive edge as major competitors have already taken
advantage of the online environment, using some sort of e-Business and/or ordering
systems. Since DFs operate a traditional “brick and mortar” business, they are limited
to certain geographical areas of the UK. This system of operation makes targeting a
larger geographical area and competition with major rivals almost impossible.
This growth has brought on many problems as the workload on the owner and
employees has increased tremendously in the last year. In some cases, customers are
left waiting for their orders due to delays and/or errors stemming from manual data
entry and paper based filing system. In other cases orders have had to be declined as
the company cannot guarantee they can meet these orders; due to shortage in staff and
the costs of hiring more staff.
Aims, milestones and initial ideas.
Given the problems faced by DFs the aim of this project is to develop an e-Commerce
system that will automate several processes and provide around-the-clock availability
of products and services to customers; enabling customers to place orders online,
providing efficient communication channels as well as marketing and advertising
techniques (e.g. Emails, newsletters, banner ads etc). This system will store detailed
9
information of products, customers and orders and also offer more flexible and easier
methods of payment.
The website will provide a form of interaction with users; i.e
i. By incorporating a recipe blog into the website where users can post or view
recipe posts by other users
ii. By integrating with social networking websites such as facebook or twitter

Initial Ideas
The e-Commerce system can be built using either one of the following database
management systems; Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle 11g, IBM
DB2 MYSQL along with either of the following web scripting languages: PHP,
ASP.NET, HTML, PEARL.
Whichever one of these methods is used, the website will incorporate a very unique
and professional design that makes it distinct from that of DFs’ competitors. The
system will offer both the customers and DFs more convenient alternative payment
options other than cash on delivery method. The system will create advertising
avenues by;
i. creating a mailing list (with user permission), which will email monthly offers
to registered users
ii. Using clear headers to optimize search engine indexing

Software and hardware constraints.
No specialist hardware or software system will be required in the implementation of
this project. Readily available Database Management programs such as Microsoft
Access and/or SQL Server, MYSQL etc will be used; Web developments programs
such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, PHP, and ASP.NET may also be
used for implementation. The database and website will be developed on a local
network using the Apache server, and then a username and password will be required
10