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CSIS-116: Lab 1 Handout
Each Project Group should submit one handout at the end of lab. You should download and save this document in a safe place, then edit it, print it, and submit it at the end of lab.
How to Build an E-commerce Website Part 1
The pieces you need:
- Human Resources
- Organizational Capabilities
- Hardware
- Software
- Telecommunications
- Site Design Read about the pieces you need, answer the questions, and then we’ll have a discussion about your answers. 1. Human Resources This is the most expensive and fundamental piece. Organizations pay enormous costs for staff and consultants with expertise. One of the course goals is to improve your level of expertise. However, instead of concentrating on developing technologies; we will concentrate on how to use existing technologies. Briefly describe any relevant expertise within your group. This may not necessarily be technological expertise but any kind of knowledge that could help make a technology-driven business successful:
2. Organizational Capabilities The success of an e-commerce project depends heavily on how well your human resources are organized, and the decisions you make through-out the project. You need people who are good managers, good planners, good researchers, and good task masters. Using your human resources in the right way is a fundamental key to success. Good strategic decisions (i.e., what do we want to do?) can help simply you tactical and operational decisions (i.e., how are we going to do it?). Try to identify your group member’s strengths and weaknesses. Here you want to try to identify the best fit for a planner (a team leader), the best fit for a researcher (someone who is good at finding information), and the person with the most technological expertise (someone who is good at using technology and figuring out how software works). As you discuss these issues, have someone write down some notes in the space below. This will help you get started on your proposal. 3. Hardware An e-commerce website needs computer hardware to operate. While we have such hardware available at Siena, we are going to outsource it for this project, so that the project is real. Nowadays, hardware is perhaps the cheapest component needed to run a successful e-commerce website. Do a little Google research and try to identify some hardware components that you need to run a website? Don’t spend too much time researching; you may only need one or two pieces of hardware.
6. Site Design Designing a website requires not only technical expertise but fundamental knowledge about design, information organization, ergonomics, marketing, etc. It’s very easy to make a bad website; it’s very hard to make a good website. Websites (by their nature) are public and open source. This means anyone can access the underlying “code” of a website and duplicate it. Thus, it’s possible to steal a good web design and use it for your own website. While there are some minor legal issues to worry about, most web designs are not copyrighted. The words on the website and the images may be copyrighted, but it’s almost impossible to legally restrict the usage of things like menus, frames, or layouts. You can’t copyright or patent abstract things like designs or layouts. In the web design world, it’s quite common to copy and modify an existing web design rather than build on from scratch. Even if you know how to copy and modify a design to meet your needs, you still need to recognize a good website, why it’s good, and if it’s a good fit for your needs. a. Try to find a website that your group agrees is a bad design. Identify the website below and write down some of your notes on why you think it’s bad. Be prepared to present it to the class and explain why you think it’s bad. b. Then try to find a website that your group agrees is a good design. Identify the website below and write down some of your notes on why you think it’s good. Be prepared to present it to the class and explain why you think it’s good.
Use the remainder of lab time to meet with your group and start developing your proposal. Here are the proposal requirements: The proposal itself depends heavily on the kind of e-commerce website that you would like to develop. At a minimum, the proposal should: Describe the online business and e-commerce website in some detail. New company? Existing company? For existing businesses, how will this website help improve their business? Identify similar businesses and/or websites that already exist. Describe how your business, website, or ideas are different/better. Describe some of the skills and expertise that your group already has that will help in the development of this business/website. Describe some of the skills and expertise that your group may be lacking that will be needed in the development of this business/website. Ideally, you should start writing your proposal. A good way to share the document is to email it to your group members at the end of lab.
