Project Overview

You have been retained by Widget Sales Company, an international company with offices in 25 countries, to develop a website that will allow its employees to enter travel expenses incurred on a business trip and store that data for reporting purposes (see Widget Sales Company Project Overview [DOCX] for more information). It is estimated that, initially, only 100 employees in the United States will use the system, but within two years, all 2,500 employees worldwide will be using it. The site should have functions that ask for input and calculate the following:

• The total number of days spent on the trip.
• The time of departure on the first day of the trip and the time of arrival back home on the last day of the trip.
• The amount of any round-trip airfare.
• The amount of any car rentals.
• Miles driven, if a private vehicle was used. The vehicle allowance is $0.58 per mile.
• Parking fees. (The company allows up to $12 per day. Anything in excess of this must be paid by the employee.)
• Taxi fees. (The company allows up to $40 per day for each day a taxi was used. Anything in excess of this must be paid by the employee.)
• Conference or seminar registration fees.
• Hotel expenses. (The company allows up to $90 per night for lodging. Anything in excess of this amount must be paid by the employee.)
• The cost of each meal eaten. On the first day of the trip, breakfast is allowed as an expense if the time of departure is before 7 a.m. Lunch is allowed if the time of departure is before noon. Dinner is allowed if the time of departure is before 6 p.m. On the last day of the trip, breakfast is allowed if the time of arrival is after 8 a.m. Lunch is allowed if the time of arrival is after 1 p.m. Dinner is allowed if the time of arrival is after 7 p.m. The program should ask only for the costs of allowable meals. (The company allows up to $18 for breakfast, $12 for lunch, and $20 for dinner. Anything in excess of this must be paid by the employee.)

The program should perform the necessary calculations to determine the total amount spent by the business traveler in each category (mileage charges, parking, hotel, meals, etc.) as well as the maximum amount allowed in each category. It should then create a nicely formatted expense report that includes the amount spent and the amount allowed in each category, as well as the total amount spent and the total amount allowed for the entire trip. This report should be written to a file.

Phase 1 Instructions

In this phase, you will be analyzing the project from several different roles: Project Manager, Database Analyst, and Python Developer.

For each of these roles provide:

• A high-level overview of each role. This will be very general and describe what a project manager, database analyst, and developer are expected to perform in any project.
• What information each role will need in order to complete that portion of it. This will be specific to this particular project. Include the departments and (or) personnel with whom each role will need to interact so there is an overall plan concerning how to proceed.

If you are unfamiliar with any of the roles, you can research the Internet for more information.