Our group, JDSB Solutions, has been assigned to work on the completion of a chat engine. Our client, Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS), requires us to implement add-ons (functionalities) to make the chat engine more functional. According to Brad Pasto, our contact, DFCS hosts Internet chat sessions among the division director and the frontline staff on a regular basis. This chat engine is a JSP server that uses an HTML front end (Client) with elements written in JavaScript. DFCS has access to the API and would like us (JDSB Solutions) to develop, either in HTML with JavaScript or preferably with 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.

     Since the project is still in the analysis phase, further assessment of the requirements and functionalities may lead to revisions.