CSPS Vision


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Collegiate Sports Paging System
Vision

Version 1.0
 

Revision History




Date


Version


Description


Author



October 6, 1999
1.0
Initial version
Context Integration


 Table of Contents

Introduction
Positioning
Stakeholder and User
Descriptions
Product Overview
Product Features
Constraints
Quality ranges
Precedence and Priority
Other Product Requirements
Documentation Requirements

Introduction
The purpose of this document is to collect, analyze and define high-level
needs and features of the Collegiate Sports Paging System.
It focuses on the capabilities needed by the stakeholders, and the target users, and why these needs exist.
The details of how the Collegiate Sports Paging System satisfies these needs are detailed in the use-case and supplementary specifications.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to define the high-level requirements of the
in terms of the needs of the users.
Scope
This Vision Document applies to the Collegiate Sports Paging System, which
will be developed by Context Integration. This system will allow subscribers to
be notified of events relating to collegiate sports events or teams to which
they subscribe, and will enable them to view the content they have subscribed
to.
Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations
See Glossary document.
References
None.
Positioning
Business Opportunity
WebNewsOnLine currently provides news via the World Wide Web as well as in
print. It currently holds a very strong position in the Collegiate Sports
category, and is looking for ways to expand its revenue base. In the words of
Maria Scirpo, CEO:

We will leverage WebNewsOnLine's strength in local and collegiate sports
coverage by offering a subscription paging service. Subscribers, for a fee of
$15/year, can pick college divisions, teams or even individual athletes that
they wish to track. For instance, a subscriber could track the NCAA Pac Ten
basketball teams (e.g., Cal, Stanford, UCLA, etc). Every time a story was
produced about this division, the subscriber would receive an alpha-numeric
page.
After receiving the page, the subscriber can, at their leisure, access the
web site. There, on a customized home page, besides the standard stories and
links, would be url's corresponding to each alpha-numeric page received by the
subscriber. Behind these url's will be stories, audio and video relating to
the page.
This service will be promoted at college campuses and via various alumni
association magazines.
Benefits envisioned from this approach include:

It will play to WebNewsOnLine's strengths in covering collegiate sports
(i.e., already has most of this content available)
A subscription of $15/year means that only 200,000 subscribers will be needed to net $3m/year in revenues.
This goal was thought to be very achievable.
An entirely new source of advertisers will be willing to pay for ad space
associated with this service. For instance, it is thought that local car
dealerships, restaurants, boutiques, etc., will be willing to pay to have
the eyes of this very affluent and targeted set of users. For instance,
several Napa vineyards have already expressed interest in buying space for
subscribers to the Pac Ten.

Problem Statement



The problem of
Keeping current on collegiate sports events


affects
Mobile business people


Impact:
They are unable to follow their alma mater
(or other collegiate sports in which they are interested) without spending
significant time searching for news in their specific interest area.


A successful solution
would
Notify them when news in their interest area
occurs, and provide them a place to get the news they have requested.


Product Position Statement



For
Mobile business people


Who
Want to follow specific collegiate sports
events or groups


The Collegiate
Sports Paging System
is a software product


That
Notifies subscribers when news related to their
interest area occurs and is available


Unlike
The current state of the art which requires
that they check online news on a regular basis to find news in their
interest area.


Our product
Notifies subscribers when news in their
interest area occurs, allowing them to check news only when there is content
to be read.


Stakeholder and User
Descriptions
Market Demographics
The target market for this system is comprised of a mobile, interested,
intellectual, upscale segment of society-but mobile is the key word, whether it
means people who have moved from Cincinnati to Atlanta, or people who are mobile
in terms of their lifestyles or their occupations.
Stakeholder Summary



Name
Represents
Role


Subscriber
End consumers of the content provided by
WebNewsOnLine.
Create profiles, receive pages, read custom
content, and subscribe using credit cards.


Advertiser
Firms who pay to advertise to target customers
on the web site.
Select target customer groups, provide
advertising content, receive reports of advertising viewing.


Editor
WebNewsOnLine's content provision channel.
Place content on web site, categorize content.


User Summary



Name
Description
Stakeholder


Subscriber
Selects categories for pager notification,
reads content on web site, reads targeted advertising on web site.
Self-represented.


Advertiser
Obtains advertising delivery information from
the system to follow-up or track hits.
Self-represented.


Editor
Places content onto the web site, identifies
categories in which the content belongs.
Self-represented


User environment
Individuals will receive pages via alphanumeric pagers or cellular phones
when an event occurs in there area of interest. At their leisure, they will
connect to the web site and view their content. Usage patterns are not
predictable at this point, though higher volumes are anticipated during
collegiate sports playoffs such as March Madness.
Users will be expected to have a device capable of receiving an alphanumeric
page or message, and are expected to have a browser-enabled device for viewing
content. If they have devices capable of viewing video or audio clips, this
content will also be available to the user.
Advertisers will be expected to have a browser-enabled device for checking
advertising usage.
Editors will require a browser-enabled device for categorizing content and/or
viewing system status.
Stakeholder Profiles
Subscriber



Description
Individual who pays to receive pages
and custom content related to specific collegiate sports categories.


Type
Primary user


Responsibilities
Primary consumer of the services and content
offered by .


Success Criteria
Ability to define a profile of news, and be
notified of breaking news in specified interest areas.


Involvement
Provides reviews of beta versions of software,
provides ongoing feedback after release.


Deliverables
 


Comments / Issues
None.


Advertiser



Description
Individual who provides targeted content for
viewing by specified market segment, and who checks viewing patterns of the
advertising content.


Type
Expert user.


Responsibilities
Review requirements and User Interface designs.


Success Criteria
Ability to specify target market segment to
view specific content, and to verify that the content has been viewed.


Involvement
Requirements Reviewer.


Deliverables
Usage/viewing reports.


Comments / Issues
None.


Editor



Description
Individual who provides content to the web site
and categorized it.


Type
Expert user.


Responsibilities
Needs to be able to quickly and easily post and
categorize content, and to verify content and categories on the web site.


Success Criteria
Ability to post content within 5 minutes of
content availability.


Involvement
Requirements Reviewer.


Deliverables
None.


Comments / Issues
Performance during peak usage periods may be an
issue.


User Profiles
See previous section
Key Stakeholder / User Needs



Need
Priority
Concerns
Current Solution
Proposed Solutions


Specify profile
High
Level of granularity
None (read all news to find items of interest)
Allow multiple levels of selection for paging


Receive pages when news occurs
High
Volume levels and response time
None
Use tiered architecture to allow scalability


Read news targeted to areas in profile
Medium
None
None (read all news)
Provide links on web page to specific targeted
news items


Target advertisements
High
Ability to segment market population
Select advertising channels to indirectly
target market segments
Map advertising content delivery to profile
attributes


Verify advertising delivery to gauge
effectiveness
Medium
None
None
Provide reports to advertisers on number of
views of advertising content


Alternatives and Competition
At this time, there is no direct competitor for this service. ESPNET
Sportzone provides targeted news but does not page subscribers when particular
news breaks.
Product Overview
Product Perspective
This product will leverage WebNewsOnLine's existing lead in collegiate sports
news, but will present a user interface via a separate system. Graphically, the
system may be viewed as follows:

Summary of Capabilities
Table 1 - Collegiate Sports Paging System Features



Customer Benefit
Supporting Features


Subscriber can specify which news they which to
receive
Profile capability within system


Subscriber can read only that news in which
they have interest
Customized dynamic web pages for each
subscriber, with links to stories on which they have been paged


Advertisers can target content
Advertising delivery based on subscriber
profiles


No new content required
Link to existing web-based sports content


Assumptions and Dependencies
Existing content is assumed to be available for viewing on the web site.
Integration of current content with the new web site is required in order for
collegiate sports information to be made available in a timely manner.
Cost and Pricing
Subscription rates are initially target at $15 per subscriber per year. With
only 200,000 subscribers this will generate $3M in revenues per year, which is
more than enough to cover incremental cost of the system. Advertisers will pay
additional fees (initially targeted at 5% higher than normal) for access to
defined target populations.
Licensing and Installation
N/A. All custom software is server-based and owned by WebNewsOnLine.
Product Features
These will be provided during the Elaboration phase of the project.
Constraints
The system must be available by March 2000.
The system must not cost more than $2M per year to operate.
The system must utilize existing sports content on WebNewsOnLine's web site.
Quality Ranges
None specified.
Precedence and Priority

The system must be available by March 2000.
The system must utilize existing sports content on WebNewsOnLine's web
site.
The system must not cost more than $2M per year to operate.

Other Product Requirements
Applicable Standards
The system must comply with existing web standards (HTML, Java, TCP/IP,
etc.).
System Requirements
None specified.
Performance Requirements
The system must send a page to a subscriber within 5 minutes of new content
being posted to the site.
The system must be able to handle 200,000 subscribers.
Environmental Requirements
None specified.
Documentation Requirements
User Manual
None required - the system must be sufficiently easy to use that a user
manual is not required.
Online help
Context-specific and general help will be available for all functions within
the system.
Installation Guides, Configuration, Read Me File
An installation manual will be provided. In addition, a formal Knowledge
Transfer plan will be developed to ensure that staff are capable of maintaining
the system moving forward.
Labeling and Packaging
Not applicable.

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1987 - 2003 Rational Software Corporation