Description
The IcFIN project we described in assignment 2 is now estimated at 140 person-days.
This estimate has 2 components: 40 person-days in product definition, marketing, and
project management overhead, and 100 person-days in software development (design,
coding, testing).
But the venture capital company would like to know what reduced product could be put
to market with a lesser budget.
You will use Karl Wiegers spreadsheet to come up with proposals of what can be
accomplished with only 80 and 70 days of software development effort.
The attached table gives the result of the costing round, as well as some indication of
the perceived value by potential users of the various features. You will have however to
use your best judgment as to what benefit, penalty, cost and risk will be.
Note that our original use cases #1, 4, 13, 15, and 17 have been split in 2, with an
optional part b, that can be built on top of the first part a. Note also that use case 14
depends on use case 13 being built. There may be other dependencies….
Produce “Feature lists” for an 80 person-days (or less) development and for a 70
person-days (or less) in the form of a table, or two. List your assumptions. Make sure
your product is complete and coherent (i.e., no feature depending on something no
implemented).
Submit you assignment in PDF via Connect by Wednesday, March 5th at 2:00pm and
place a printed copy in the mailbox located in McLeod 4th floor, between rooms
MCLD422 and 426. This is an individual assignment.
# Actor Name Description UV Effort
UC1 Partner Display current asset and
history of contribution
For a partner, display current ownership, and history of
contributions with level of ownership over time
1 4 (ownership)
+3 (history)
UC2 Partner Display current ownership Show on a table the list of partners, and their current level
(%) of ownership
1 5
UC3 Partner Display current portfolio Show the current composition of the portfolio, including the
cash component
1 5
UC4 Partner Display net unit value history Show with table and graph the evolution of the investment
club net unit value
1 3 (table)
+5 (graph)
UC5 Treasurer Enter partner contributions How much cash are the partners contributing in the current
cycle (period)
2 3
UC6 Treasurer Close cycle Recompute the value of the unit, based on contribu-tions,
withdrawals, portfolio value, and revenues
1 8
UC7 Treasurer Admit new partner Add a new partner on the roster 2 2
UC8 Treasurer Remove a departing partner Liquidate the share of a partner 3 3
UC9 Treasurer Enter income and expenses Based on monthly brokerage statement, enter interests,
capital gains, dividends, and financial charges
2 3
UC10 Trader Enter trades Add and remove entries in the portfolio of securities as
decided by the club
2 4
UC11 Trader Enter securities value Manually enter securities value (and exchange rates) 2 2
UC12 System Compute portfolio valuation Everyday, the system computes automatically the value of
the securities part of the portfolio, using online services
2 9
UC13 Treasurer Produce taxation data For a fiscal year, generate data to fulfill personal tax filing,
such as T5 slips in Canada
2 12 (data)
+2 (slip)
UC14 Partner Access taxation data After UC13, individuals can access their own data for tax
filing purposes
2 +1
UC15 Admin Install and set up Create the server and the database 3 5 (manually)
+ 4 (script)
UC16 Admin Maintain user and role Create, maintain, delete: user login, password, and assign
roles
3 6
UC17 All Login/logout/time-out Abstract use case that wraps all others 3 4 (login/out)
+ 1 (time out)
UC18 Admin Backup Backup and restore all data 3 3
UC19 Admin Configure Personalize the site (name, logo etc) 2 4
IseeFin
An Investment Club (IC) Financial Management tool
We envisage building and launching in the market a software tool to support Investment
Clubs. An investment club is a group of persons who pool their financial resources (i.e.,
cash) in order to acquire and manage collectively a portfolio of securities (such as stocks,
or bonds, or other publicly traded financial instruments)..
Features
The feature of the tool (codename: IseeFin) that you plan to market are:
• Variables contribution, based on the concept of IC “unit”, similar to that of a mutual
fund
• Members can join and leave at any time
• Members use the tool over the internet: club holding and members’ valuation published
on web, but restricted to members
• Automated valuation of portfolio
• Support for tax reporting, adjustable by country (e.g., T5 form in Canada, Form 1065
in the USA) as usually clubs are limited partnerships, hence “flow through” entities
from a tax perspective
• Extensible and configurable
• Multiple currency USD & CAD, or GBP & EUR…
Market data
There are 4,700 active IC in the USA and 390 in Canada. Estimates are harder to derive
for Europe due to market fragmentation: probably only about 1,200. The concept is
starting to develop in Asia, China in particular. No data is available for other parts of the
world.
One program sold by the US federation of IC, for $270 (US). Antiquated U.I. (DOS like),
rigid set up, very hard to use. Sold to 20-25% of the clubs. No easy support for tax
reporting; US-specific. No multiple currencies. No concept of “unit”.
A small US tool is $119, but has too limited functionality: investmentclubaccounting.com
Another one is $119.99 per member.
Other clubs do it “manually” (from a paper register to some flat files: Excel etc.). A few
big ones use a professional accountant and its software.
In the UK, ShareScope costs £79.95 per member plus £14 per month subscription.
Features
• Variables contribution, based on the concept of IC “unit”
• Members can join and leave at any time
• Valuation of portfolio automated
• Support for tax reporting, US and Canada (e.g., T5)
• Club holding and members’ valuation published on web
• Extensible and configurable
Proof-of-concept Prototype
There exist already a proof-of-c0ncept prototype. It is a combination of
• Microsoft Excel Workbook (multiple sheets)
• Half a dozen Visual Basic Macro
And was used on a real club with 11 members for 3 years.
Overall requirements
Based on this prototype, and from analysis of other existing tools an initial use-case
model was created, involving
Appendix A list the use cases, and appendix B the
Other Requirements or architectural considerations
– security (authentication, encryption of data, timeout on sessions, traces)
– multi-language, multi-language with Asian languages
– thin/think client on web
– choice of database
– choice of web server
– accuracy of results (implement invariant checking)
– valuation of the portfolio from some other web service
– downloading portfolio value from the bank (use Quicken format)
– ease of installation by non software gurus
– portability (to various type of ISP server…)
– backup of data and recovery, duplication of database
IseeFIN Database
There are 5 main tables of data in IseeFin’s database:
1. Users: login name and password + roles + history of access
2. Partners: name, address, taxpayer ID number (e.g., SIN or SSN), date of entry
3. Contributions: For each partner: List of contributions/withdrawal (with dates);
ownership level at each cycle end.
4. Portfolio: composition in terms of securities, ticker, amount, currency, etc.
5. Activities: income, expenses, trades, deposits, withdrawal (in each currency)
