E-commerce web application for Osbro Cash and Carry, SA
Website is a portrait of the company profile. Objective, to implement e-commerce as a module. Product showcase displaying all products submitted by customer through a retail management web application. Receive orders from customers and along with contact requests. Payment gateway as a proposed addon in second phase.
Initial project understanding, discussion and team building:
Techno Alliance assessed project as a shopping cart website with core functionality to e-commerce followed by discussion on technology and team. Discussed on most easy way to implement product showcasing that displays all products submitted by customer through a retail management web application.
Selection of Technology:
A CMS was essential for clients to manage website. Assessing the level of client’s technical knowledge a not so complicated technology was selected.
Joomla CMS with MySQL db considering the time frame and to cut down the development effort, and to improve user experience.
Project complexity and Risk analysis:
Discussion with chief technical officer on project implementation, technologies and risk involved. Proposed dependency on remote team for data. Decided on the most effective way of receiving data from the application.
Initial step / procedures prior to start of development process:
After initial process of project discussion, scope document was prepared with detailed description of project, functional components, module diagram, technology description and
proposed delivery date.
Discussion on strategies for customer satisfaction, goals to be achieved and delivered:
- Good beginning : a well begun project is halfway through. achieved this with the help of project scope document, and initial mails from POC (point of contact)
- POC : alongside development team, a point of contact was decided who is good at customer relationship.
- Customer is king : initial follow up and regular customer feedback/reply a priority.
- Daily reporting : daily reports to project manager
- Weekly reports : detailed weekly reports to project manager
- Weekly discussion with team members : progress and delivery date comparison
Process / Implementation:
Product information and image files are received from Posibolt (retail management software). Data is received in the form of xml files. Data extraction program is run to insert data into the database.
The image files along with data is worked upon by a query to display on website.
Alternate way or backup plan for implementation:
Receive data by implementing webservice way of communication. Implementation had increased complexity and external dependence, therefore made sure the first method is done.
Challenges and how we overcame it:
Receiving data from Posibolt required working along with a different team remotely. Proper communication through phone and email ensured easy project discussion and work outs.
Responsibility assigned to POC to ensure data is received for testing and production.
Development phase:
Steady development process and regular client discussion was carried out. Work in progress demo was strictly ensured. This helped to progress steadily and achieve final objectives.
Testing phase:
Testing was carried out with data received from posibolt a week before delivery. Including browser compatibility
Delivery:
Delivered project to client at proposed time. Work in progress demos helped to ensure client satisfaction in final stage.
Bug squashing:
Continued testing helped to figure out minor bugs and apply proper fixing.
