1. Overview:

JDSB Solutions has been assigned to assist DFCS (Department of Family & Children Services) in a project. Our job is to design and implement add-on features to a already-in-place chat engine called jChatBox^TM to make it more functional. According to Brad, our client contact, DFCS hosts Internet chat sessions among the division director and her frontline staff on a regular basis.

jChatBox^TM is a chat engine that uses a JSP (Java Server Pages) server called the TomCat server. This TomCat server uses an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) front end (client) with elements written in Javascripts. DFCS has access to the API (Application Programming Interface), and it would like us (JDSB Solutions) to develop, either in HTML with JavaScripts, or preferrably Java, a customized front end to provide necessary functionalities to DFCS.

The client also mentioned that the add-ons should be user-friendly. According to him, most of the users of the chat engine will be frontline staff, whose computer knowledge goes "perpendicular to technology". Therefore, to accommodate these novice computer users, our add-ons should be as simple as possible. Furthermore, most of these chat sessions will be loosely structured yet formal. Each session will have an administrator to moderate the session and most of all to ensure proper chat etiquette.

2. Organization:

This whole project is divided into different sections, namely Process Plan, Organization Plan, Test Plan, Change Management Plan, Documentation Plan, Training Plan, Review and Reporting Plan, Installation and Operation Plan, and finally Resources and Deliverables Plan.