Reference Model on Video Rental Store

 Introduction to Reference Modeling  (OPERA Video Rentals)

Reference Model is like a template of something that specifies the fundamental goals or theme of something. Thus, it acts as a reference for various information systems to deal with problem domain.

Reference Model is a main theme of information systems and it has its own importance in every phase of information system life cycle. It is like as base or foundation for development of information system.

Business Reference Modeling is quite popular in ERP software industry. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is simply business management software which assists business organizations to use various software of related applications to control the business and enhance services, human resources and information technology. The main goal of designing and constructing reference model is to boost efficiency on engineering of information system or particular problem domain. Reference models are designed and constructed in such a configurative manner. Thus, various models for specific business solutions meet individual business needs.

Some of the suitable features or characteristics of Reference Models are given below:

ü  Reference Models supplies best experiences and practices for organizing business.

ü  Reference Model does not illustrate to a specific company or enterprise because it has wide range of domains.

ü  Since, Reference Model is a template of something .So, it can be drawn to other type of information system or projects.

Here are some of the aspects termed during the creation of Reference Modeling.

ü  Construction Phase

Here, in this process developers busy on designing and constructing reference models. This phase involves following steps for the development. They are:

v  Allocating Problem

v  Developmental Phase

v  Evaluation and Implementation

v  Maintenance and Support

ü  Application  Process

Reusability concept of reference model for the construction of particular model is the main goal of application process. Here are the main activities carried out in application process. They are as follows:

v  Selection of appropriate model

v  Adaptation to the original model

v  Integration           

v  Utilization

Introduction to Video Rental Shop

A Video Rental Shop is a physical business that mostly deals with various Home Videos, TV shows, and Video Games disc, prerecorded Movies, Films, Cartoons and Animation. Under various rental agreement and contract, a rental store conducts its business operation with their customers. 

About Opera Video Rentals

Opera Video Rental Stores is a famous retailing rental store of town Pokhara, Nepal.  Opera Video Rental Store has notified their customer on their advancements to Computerized Video Rental Store. Thus, I am hired as information technology Consultant of ‘Opera Video Rental’ to their upgrade in digital Video Rental System.

In this age of Internet, most people do not visit to the physical Video Rental Stores personally to get their DVDs, Video Games or Movies. Besides, they just browse on the Internet, download it and watch whatever and whenever they like. So Opera Video Rentals is served on the Internet to facilitate user to browse on the store about latest movies, video games, music etc. In order to browse on Opera Video Rentals user need to register and input their personal information along with their credit account to shop the Galleries Likewise, the user search and get their usual needs and order the product or videos. Also buyers can visit to the physical Opera Rentals if they insist. If it looks boring, user or customer can just login and buy online and watch videos online.

 

There are distinct reference model in different reference model. Within various theory, features and practices numerous reference models are produced. The belonging key aspects of reference model are given below:

Domain

Reference Model should feature to adapt in multiple domains for instance: retail industry and manufacturing enterprises .Domain is the term by which software engineer or developer gets the background information. The word ‘Domain’  in this scenario refers to the casual area of business or information technology in which customer can access through the software .Some kind of domain may be very broad like airline reservation, finance providers etc.

            To evaluate domain, analyst should gather data from any source that are available. He /She can use various fact finding technique and available informational resources.

Here in Opera Video Rentals, there are numerous of domains which assist and related to each other. Following are the domains in Opera Video Rental Store.

1.      Customers

2.      Administrator

3.      Price

4.      Store

5.      Product

6.      Date and Time

7.      Shipping

·         Customers

Here, in Opera Video Rental customers’ needs to register first and then login to start their purchase so they can access and order various videos and galleries that are available in the store.

·         Administrator

Administrator is the central workflow template of Opera Video Rentals. Administrator has full control on receiving orders and servicing the customers accordingly. The administrator manages, updates the product details and its pricing terms. Administrator   controls the financial transactions of overall Video Rental Store and supplies the product via Home Delivery.

·         Product

In Video Rental Shop, products are like Video Games, Movies, TV’s Shows, Anime and Cartoons. The details of the product or the item should be noted so customer can access the product. Information on Video’s Product   like Release Date, Trial Period, Activation key, Order Placement Date, Account Number etc. need to be managed and stored.

·         Price

The pricing terms of the product is mentioned by the Administrator. Customer has to pay specific amount on the basis of the product or the service he/she has retrieved. Customer should mention his/her account number or bank details  for payment procedure.

·         Date and Time

Date and Time is compulsion because all order placement dates, rent intervals and product delivery date should be noted to service the customer. If, the customer does not pay for the rent certain fine and charges are applied accordingly.

·         Shipping

If the customer place an order via Internet then customer need to specify his/her address for delivering the Product. Thus, certain shipping charges are applied accordingly.

·         Store

Here in Store, all the available products along with their descriptions are displayed. Customer can generate choices and select the product for purchase.

Size

Size of Reference Model might be changed but it should have munificent processes and multiple data entities for specific problem domain. In comparison some reference model have thousands of data entities and processes like Airline Reservation, Finance Providers, Banking Software etc. whereas some model might be small like Video Rental Shop.

Starting the construction of the software, size need to be consider first. Smaller model do not contain all those higher and standard securities, features and functionalities like a larger model does. Determining the size of model or system that has never been constructed is much complex. Having a larger system or model suffers from complexity. For instance; adopting larger model need higher and standard  security , secured processes and functionalities . So, we should select specific models  of specific size according to the requirements.

Similarly, size of Opera Video Rentals cannot be mentioned because it is developmental stage. Hence, various requirements could change time and often. Developmental phase and size can be lengthen because it depends on the model or a system that you are constructing .E.g. Airline Reservation is of  larger size and complex than simple Video Rental Shop. By identifying the numbers of methods, functions, classes and attributes of a particular domain we can assume approximate size. Also multiple classes might be further increased in future which make changes to the system. So, size of a model is negotiable and dynamic.

Reuse and Customization

The main purpose of constructing reference model can be only be gained by reusing its models. Main theme of reference model is to generate various information models as reference which boosts efficiency and effectiveness in modeling period. Reuse oriented concept is generally considered for reference modeling. Reusability can be implemented by producing components of one or more original models and adapting the reference as a resulting model. Reference Models are simply reused by copying them and using it into the original models.

Reusability of reference model consumes lesser timer and lesser capital since the developers has to apply the pre-build systems models as a reference and edit it thoroughly. Editing, updating and introducing new variants or codes in the reference model to make the final system or generate the final output according to the system requirements is termed as Customization. Nowadays, every developers and Software Incorporation has the wide concept of reusing the reference models and customizing them in their software life cycle.

Likewise, Opera Video Rental Shop can  be  customized with the help of other Reference Models like Bike Rental Shop,  Lorry Rental System , Apartment Rental System  etc.  Various class, functions and attributes of different domains have some kind of similarities to Opera Video Rental Shop. So, it is after designer and developer hand to design and formulate the code lines into suitable output. Thus, other   Rental System   can be adopted as reference for Video Rental Shop .So, you can add more functionalities and features in the model.

Hence, I had also used existing Lorry Rental Shop as a Reference Model to design , customize and develop this  Opera Video Rental Shop . Some of the fruitful advantage that I had avail here are as follows:

·         Lessen the time to develop the software.

·         Lessen the manpower or human resource for the job.

·         Lessen the Cost as less manpower is required.

·         Lessens the Maintenance Cost.

·         Final Software can be released with better and added functionalities.

·         Lessen the error because reference models are almost error free.

·         Lessens the outdated   risk.

·         Application of COTS generates transparency which enables to select best framework.

Evaluation

Evaluation of reference model is not a compulsion. Neither an acceptable evaluation scheme nor evaluation processes are determined yet. Thus, general research design can be adopted to evaluate models. Evaluation is a general comparison of reference model to other with certain norms, rules or condition. Evaluation describes about how nice the system is designed, performance ability, security standards, size and complexity of a system. Simple case study , document sampling and experience reports and guides are used to evaluate reference models. Evaluation process consumes time and requires better skills and experiences to judge the system correctly. Here are some of the analysis framework under system is evaluated. They are:

·         Syntactic Analysis: targets on reference model’s structure, relations and compositions.

·         Semantic Analysis: targets on meaningfulness, efficiency, completeness of the Reference Model.

·         Pragmatic Analysis: targets on model, flexibility, cost, popularity and supportiveness of Reference Analysis.

Simply, analyst needs to focus on these facts for evaluating a system or model. We cannot randomly evaluate and analyze the system   correctly. Also, in Opera Video Rentals we can use the following analysis framework to evaluate and understand the system. We can determine the size, structure and relations of model with their various class, attributes and method of a domain. Likewise, flexibility and cost can be determined through efficiency of the output and results of the system.

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